I received a text message on Sunday afternoon (August 31^st, 2025) from Roger stating he had lost his gold and titanium wedding band a few weeks ago while wringing out a rag at his vacation home in Crane Hill, Alabama.  Both Roger and his wife, Dawn had their wedding bands custom made about 6-7 years ago while on a trip to Switzerland.  I told Roger that I’d be more than happy to help.  I was having family over for dinner, but told him I could come out the next morning on Labor Day.  Finding lost items is definitely not work to me (lol) and was the perfect way to celebrate the holiday!

I met Roger and his family around 9 am the next morning.  He showed me where he was standing and where he saw his ring drop.  He said it looked like it landed in the small patch of grass on top of the large rocks.  Roger was standing on the second story balcony and it was a long drop to the bottom.  The house was on a decent incline (picture below), so the ring could have easily rolled down the hill, which lead to their boat dock at Smith Lake.  I grabbed my Minelab Equinox 900 with the 15-inch coil and started my search.

I searched for over an hour, covering every spot by the drop zone and down the hill.  Roger’s daughter suggested that I expand my search further to the left side, because it had rained a lot over the last few weeks and she thought it may have washed down between two trees.  I covered that area all the way to the steps leading to the dock, but still no ring.  I went to the bottom of the hill by the woods and dock to make a final pass since I had searched just about everywhere possible.  As I was walking through, I suddenly eyeballed Roger’s ring sitting against the small wooden rail right before the drop off to the dock and lake!  Wow, what a miracle!!  It had rolled all the way down the hill and stopped just before the dock (picture below).  If the ring continued to roll, it may have went over the dock and into the lake!  You just never know how far rings will travel.  It was also one of the heaviest rings I have found, which could’ve caused the long roll plus the long drop from the second story balcony.  I immediately thanked God for the last-minute save!

I took some pictures and headed up the stairs to knock on the door.  Dawn and her daughter greeted me.  Dawn asked if I was going to call it.  With a disappointed face I said, “yes, going to call it and head home.”  Then I gave a big smile and said, “because Roger’s ring has been found!!”  They both said, “are you kidding!?”  I said, “not kidding, we got it!”  Then I showed them a picture.  They were so happy and said I had to say the same thing to Roger, lol, who was outside in the front.  I could tell that Roger was slightly disappointed when I said I was going to head home.  But then I smiled and told him the good news!  Smiles all around 😊 Roger gave me a couple of big hugs and thanked me profusely.

I had left Roger’s ring right where I had found it to show them where it ended up.  Roger, Dawn, and I went down to retrieve it.  Everyone was so happy and couldn’t believe it had rolled that far.  This was definitely the perfect way to spend Labor Day!