Lost wedding band found in lake after one month and several search attempts in Mount Gretna, PA

  • from Reading (Pennsylvania, United States)

This is a story of overcoming trials and not giving up to find a lost wedding ring. I received an email from Tim a “desperate husband” stating he lost his ring in a lake while playing with his daughter. Our first obstacle we had to overcome was our limited time to search.  The lake was private and we were only allowed to search for one hour before they opened to the public. The manager was gracious enough to come in early for us, but needed us out before they opened to the public. After about 10 minutes of searching, my Garrett ATPro began taking on water and shut down. We continued to search with pin pointers, but with no luck.  As I had to send back my detector to Garrett, this approximate two week delay allowed more people to walk and swim in the search area. Garrett’s excellent service department found that a seal had went bad and was allowing water to enter.

Once I received my new detector, we made arrangements to search again. We searched the area hard for 1 hour and 15min, again with no luck. Did I mention that the water was about 4 1/2 feet deep and very cloudy, which caused even more difficulty in searching. Because of our work schedules and having to wait on the manager to allow us to search, we had only one more day to search, as the lake was about to close for the season after Labor Day. We arrived on Friday morning for our one our search. We found lots of coins but no ring. As the manager came over to tell us we had 10 more minutes to search, I  got a great hit around 65. We dug a few times but came up with only a penny.  As we were about to walk out of the water defeated, knowing we needed to leave and that we would not be able to search again, I got an excellent hit around 58 and 2-4 inches deep. Tim swam under, felt the vibration with the pin pointer and dug up a lot of sand. Nothing. I told him I still had the signal under my coil and he went under one more time. As he came out of the water he screamed that he had the ring in the sand scoop. We were both so excited and just could not be any happier.

This was by far my most difficult search due to the limited time we were allowed to search and ruining my first detector to water damage. I was determined to find Tim’s ring as he had photos of himself and his daughter in the water, which gave us an exact area to search. Plus he personally designed the ring so it was even more sentimental to him.  So never give up searching and always call a professional from The Ringfinders to help you search for your lost jewelry.

3 Comments »

3 Replies to “Lost wedding band found in lake after one month and several search attempts in Mount Gretna, PA”

  1. Tara Dietz says:

    As Tim’s wife, I could not be more elated, stunned, gracious, and just absolutely blown away at this. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping Tim find his ring. This truly feels like a miracle, but I know dedication played a large part in finding the ring. I still can’t believe it! A story for our grand kids, and a testament of our commitment to each other… Not to mention the wonderful helpers and angels in the world like Tracy! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

  2. Timothy Dietz says:

    Always Keep Faith.

    I am forever Thankful for Tracy Santee and his hard work. I can’t say enough good things about Tracy. He is a great professional guy. I felt like he was as invested in finding my ring as I was. He was willing to get wet and dirty. What impressed me the most is he was willing to meet me multiple times to search. If you lost something Tracy is the man to find it. Throughout this whole thing my wife and I kept Faith that we would find it. With Tracy’s help we did.

    My story is about faith, determination, and a trusty helper named Tracy. I lost my wedding ring in a lake at nearby Mt. Gretna, while playing with my daughter. It was a fantastic day until I felt an odd feeling on my ring finger. It was my ring sliding off. I pulled my hand out of the water and to my dismay I was missing my wedding ring. I yelled to my wife for help. We searched with the help of a nice couple and a few life guards but to no avail that day.

    I didn’t know what to do. But I knew I needed to get my wedding ring back. I did a Google search and found ring finders. I contacted Tracy and he was more than willing to help me. I arranged a time where Mt. Gretna lake would let us in to search. I had just purchased a small cheap underwater detector to help search. Tracy met me and my father at the lake to search. I told Tracy what happened and about where I lost my ring. He told me his plan of attack which sounded great. He started his systematic search, while I tried my best at using my small handheld detector. In a few minutes he gets a hit right about where I lost my ring. I dive down to scoop. Nothing… But Tracy still has it on his detector. I dive down again. Lots of sand but no metal. Then his detector turns off and won’t turn back on. He says this is odd, I’ve never had this problem before. He quickly learns water somehow got into it. So my dad had the great idea of taping my hand held detector to hockey stick. So we could search the bottom but not have to go underwater. Tracy being the expert that he is, I let him use the hockey stick metal detector. We were able to find a few soda tabs and coins, but no ring. And it was time for us to get out of the lake before it opened to the public.

    Tracy had to send his detector off to Texas to get fixed. When he got it back, we got in contact and set up a time to search again. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help because of work. But Tracy met my Dad at the lake to look again. This time Tracy brought his son to assist and dive for objects. My dad said they covered quite a bit of area and went pretty deep into the water on their search, but nothing.

    The lake I lost it in closes Labor for the year and no one is allowed in until they open again. That date was getting close. I emailed Tracy asking if he would be willing to search one more time. I was very thankful he said he would. So I arranged it that I could help him search. We were finding lots of change and metal junk but no ring. The lake owner comes down and says you have 10 minutes left. Just after that Tracy gets a really good hit. I dive down and located it with a pin pointer. Then get a greater big scoop of sand. I’m shaking the sand out and I think I see a sparkle. I tell myself don’t get to excited. I shake out some more sand. There my ring is sparkling back at me. I picked it up, put it on, and yelled “I got it!!!!!” This happened as the owner was coming to tell us our time was up. We found it in the last second.

    Thank You Tracy!!!!

  3. Pat says:

    So happy for you! I believe in miracles, and I truly believe God has perfect timing, and uses people like Tracy to help with those miracles.

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