Edward Duffey, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 4 of 6

I was visiting my Brother-in-law, George, and his wife Lori in DeLand, Florida.  When we were talking the first evening, George mentioned that he had lost his gold wedding ring.  I asked him how long he had been missing it and if he had an idea or where it was.

George led me out to the front yard and showed me an area in the yard where he thought he had lost it.   The ring, (which had also been his late father’s wedding ring), had been lost four years ago.  He was mowing at the time and said it could have hit the deck or even the mower blade which could have thrown it significantly.  They spent hours on several days looking for it.

I fired up the Equinox 800 and immediately got several suspected targets.  None panned out and it was getting late, so I said I’d try again in the morning.  The yard was full of metal, and it was a target-rich environment.   Target after target was ruled out until I decided to go back where I started.  Almost immediately I got a hit.  As I dug the target, I saw the gold of the ring shining.  Found!

Al and Daniel, brother’s from Detroit and Baltimore, where tossing a football on the beach.  It was a beautiful day in the Outer Banks.  Suddenly, with the last toss, Al felt his ring slip off.  They looked and looked but couldn’t find it.

The next day around 10:30, I got a call.  Daniel told me that his brother had lost his wedding ring on Duck Beach.  It was in the dry sand. above the water line.  I headed out and met them at the access.

The brothers set a perimeter of where they thought the ring had slipped off.  It was quite a large area.  I covered the area both North and South and then East and West but only found trivial metal items.  I told Al that I would start expanding the search.

As I started expanding to the south (out of the area of possibility) about 10 yards and after several passes I got a deep hit.  It was the ring.  The Minelab machine had done its job again and Al was elated!!

I received a text from Asit on Wednesday at around 9pm.  He wanted to inquire about my lost ring service.  I told him to give me a call and he did.  Asit explained that he had been boogie boarding with his daughter’s when he lost his platinum wedding ring.  He didn’t really remember when he lost it but by looking at pictures he assumed that it was around noon.

I explained that high tide yesterday was near the time he lost it and that a good time to look would have been the next low time at 5pm but that time was gone.  The next low tide that I could get there would be around 5 the next day.  I told him that I could come up around 3pm.

When I arrived I fired up the Eq 800 and did a grid search parallel with the water from the dry sand to the water and about a foot deep.  No targets…not even a pop bottle cap.  I decided to do a vertical grid from the dry sand to the water.  On about the 8th pass…BEEP.  A great signal but a 14.  I decided to dig it anyway!  Unknown to me, Asit’s wife Rachna had been filming the find!

Another happy family!

Finding the ring

I had just returned from doing some detecting on Kitty Hawk beach.  I hadn’t gotten out of the truck when I received a call from Monica.  She said that her sister-in-law had lost her wedding set on the beach.  They had found the wedding band but could not find the engagement ring.  I asked her to describe the situation and after she did I realized that I better go right away…a storm was closing in.

As I drove up through Southern Shores and Duck, it began  raining, very hard.  I was concerned that with the rain we might lose our advantage of finding the ring quickly or that we couldn’t get out on the beach due to lightning!

As I left the Duck area and started up through Corolla the storm subsided.  Laura met me at the beach house and led me to the beach where Monica and her husband Fred where waiting.  They had not moved from the spot.

As I fired up the Minelab Equinox 800, I told them that I would begin where the wedding band was found and spread out the search from there.  15 seconds later, I had a solid 11 on the machine and a very good signal.  I reached down with my hand and grabbed a fistful of sand.  Just then the clear sparkle of 5 diamonds appeared and Laura began shouting and jumping around.

Another happy family.

I received a call from Fred who said he had lost his ring on the beach.  I asked him if he was in the water?  He replied maybe on the edge.  I asked if he know approximately where he lost it and he said that he had a good idea.

Fred was in Southern Shores, which is only about 2 miles away.  I told him that I would be there ASAP.  I arrived and Fred led me to the area on the beach where they had a cabana set up with several chairs.  He walked off an area about 20ft square that ended near the water.

I fired up the equinox 800 and did a few sweeps in the area that he thought was most likely.  On the third sweep the Minelab machine rang up a very solid signal.  I thought I had gotten too close to the cabana pole.   The target was relatively deep so I did not think it was the ring.

I was wrong.  Congratulations Fred and Paula!