Wedding Band Lost 16 Years Ago Found and Returned. Chatham, MA

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)

16 years ago a young sea-goer’s wedding band was pulled off his finger while trying to secure a friend’s boat to a buoy. Searching the surrounding seaweed covered area was unsuccessful in locating the ring. It was to remain hidden for the next 16 years.

While detecting, enjoying my hobby, and avoiding the Corvid-19 virus I found a wedding band with the initials of T.L.F. and a date of 1989 inscribed on the inside of the band. As usual, as I have never been able to find the owner of a wedding band with that information, I was about to put the ring into my pouch for safe keeping when I noticed a name on a large mooring buoy about four feet from me. The name began with an “F”. Could there be a connection between the “F” in the ring and the “F” on the buoy? I had to do some web searching when I got home.

I searched Zillow for street names in the area, the town assessor’s online data base, and other personal information locators for a family name beginning with an “F” and contact information. The search first lead me to a disconnected phone number, several distant possibilities, and a Trust Fund name and finally to a Financial Group, its name was Odyssey. The name was exciting enough, I had to contact them. Of course the financial specialist, Kim, could not give me any information, other than she knew the family. Do to the privacy laws Kim could only promise me she would inquire of someone in the family that may be able to help and have them contact me. A call came back from Kim with bad news…no one with the initials of T.L.F. was know to the contacted family members. Well I tried. But…wait…

About an hour later I received another call, this time it was from Trish. Yes…Trish had some information, but the owner’s initials were not T.L.F. as they were not the owner’s initials, they were an abbreviation for True Love Forever. The owner, Brian, was and still is a close friend of Trish. An arrangement was made for the return of a long missing wedding band. The return sequence of leading to a wedding band’s return was a first for me, all thanks to a coincidence, hunch and the internet.

5 Comments »

5 Replies to “Wedding Band Lost 16 Years Ago Found and Returned. Chatham, MA”

  1. Steven Ray says:

    I applaud your persistence with trying to locate the owner!

  2. Gregg larabel says:

    I love the perseverance that the Ring Finders have. I’m proud to be a member of this group.

  3. Chris Turner says:

    Fantastic return Richard! We all know how hard it is to find the owner of a found ring, when that person has given up on ever finding it…Way to go! Hope they send a picture of their smile for the book.

  4. Rob Ellis says:

    Hey Richard, it wasn’t just “coincidence, hunch and the internet”, it was also your tenacity. Way to go!
    And thanks for the lesson on what T.L.F. means in a ring:)

  5. Griff (member in France) says:

    Great job!! This gives me hope that some day I will be able to return a lost ring with such little information. Keep healthy and keep going!

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