Florida resident, Alex Furlong, was enjoying a swim in a privately-owned pond in Waldo, Wisconsin, when his wedding ring was lost. Married only two and half weeks, Alex and his bride, Anna Rose, had taken care to remove their wedding rings from their hands before entering the water. They set their love tokens on the end of a paddleboard resting on the shore.
While returning to the beach, Alex noticed a monstrous blackfly sitting in the middle of the board. To save Anna Rose from being bitten, he lunged at the fly wth the paddle in hand, but the impact sent the rings catapulting up into the air! Amazingly, Anna’s rings landed back on the paddleboard, but Alex’s 14k band bounded down the board and dissappeared into the murky pond. Despite their best search efforts, the devastated couple could not locate it.
The Furlong’s found me on the Ring Finder’s online directory of metal-detecting specialists. I received a phone call from Alex later that same afternoon. I was searching for another ring at the time and so arranged to meet Alex on location at 5:00 a.m. the next morning. The Waldo pond was near Sheboygan, just over an hour’s drive from my home in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Upon arrival, Alex led the way in the early-morning haze to the spot where the ring had disappeared. A buoy in the water marked the location.
Using my XP Deus 2 underwater detector and an Extreme titanium water scoop, I began sweeping the bottom of the pond. Not far from shore, I heard a clear signal in my headset; it emanated from a metallic target deep in the mud. The conductivity numbers were consistent with a yellow-gold ring. I extracted a large scoop of mud and sand from the area and checked it again with my detector. The target area was now quiet. This meant the metal object now had to be in my scoop. After shaking the scoop’s contents out in the water, a small handful of pebbles remained. Another shake revealed the glimmer of gold —a man’s wedding ring! 
Carefully extracting the ring, I confirmed it indeed belonged to Alex! Alex told me earlier, two ancient Greek words were inscribed inside the band, ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους. I recognized these words of Jesus from my biblical-Greek studies. Translated into English, they read, “love one another.”
The early-morning sunlight made the smile on Alex’s face all the more radiant, a smile that tells the rest of the story!
Alex, may the story of your ring continue for many, many years to come as you and Anna Rose faithfully “love one another.”
If you or someone you know has a lost a ring, recent or long ago, on land or in the water, give me a call. I would be honored to add your smile to the growing list of people who, like the Furlongs, are so glad they did.
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