24 July 2025. Dave lost his wedding ring while in the water at a local private beach when they were visiting with their friend Bill. Dave and his wife Liz were married only last August and needless to say, their spirits were crushed with the loss. But having no idea where the ring might have escaped from Dave’s finger, they were resigned to never seeing it again.
A week and a half later, Bill happened to be contemplating the event and he decided to make a query using ChatGPT about how to find a lost ring in Falmouth waters. Up came my name, associated with the RingFinders, as the lead search person in this area. He gave me a call and I told him I’d meet him at his home, not far from the beach, in about 15 minutes. When I arrived we walked down to the beach and went through the particulars of where the ring might have been lost. We were somewhat hindered because Bill had only limited information, which suggested that the ring was lost within 15-20 feet of a jetty. I did a search pattern that covered that area and then expanded to a larger area. I did find three rings but none of them were Dave’s, so I decided to wait until I had further information directly from Dave. I wrote him an email later in the day asking about particulars. Unfortunately my internet provider had not delivered his reply of that evening by the time I went out the next day and expanded my search to an even larger area. Again the search was fruitless, but Dave and I did connect later in the day and it became apparent that the ring could have been lost much farther from shore, in a zone reaching as far as the outer edge of a large sand bar. Dave noted that he’d lost weight and that his ring had become loose and could have dropped anywhere along their route.
So, I was now much more hopeful and headed out the next day for a third try, trekking farther into the briny foam kicked up by a blustery southwest wind. I had some concern because Dave and Liz felt that they had always been in water at least knee-deep going across the bar, whereas the bar was very shallow and even exposed when I was searching, even though the tidal conditions during my search were identical to those at the time of the ring loss, now two weeks earlier. I feared that during that interval, sand might have built up on the bar and covered the ring to a depth beyond the range where a metal detector could pick up a signal.
I began my grid pattern at the outer edge of my prior searches, working shore-parallel swaths back and forth and moving seaward toward the top of the bar. An hour went by, with only a pair of aluminum pop tops to show for it. I was now at the top of the bar in only a few inches of water, when BAM, there was signal I wanted to hear – a little distorted and odd, but the right frequency, strong and saying ‘DIG ME’. One scoop later, some swishing to remove sand, and Dave’s beautiful band from only 8 or 10″ deep in the bar was gleaming in my scoop. I stood kind of dumbfounded for a few moments, then let out a whoop and raised my arms in victory! I checked inside the band, and the expected engraving and wedding date were there. There was no doubt that this was the baby I’d been searching for. What a great feeling to know that I was going to be able to return such a precious artifact to Dave after he and Liz had lost all hope. I’m still puzzled about the apparent discrepancy in water depth but relieved that the ring had not become deeply buried. The sand was very consolidated, which undoubtedly helped to keep it from sinking out of detector range.
Back home, I gave Dave a call and as expected was greeted with combined expressions of disbelief and overwhelming joy. We arranged for Dave and Liz to come to my home today to pick up his ring. I also let Bill know and he too was amazed. In the meantime Dave called again just to make sure it was the right ring – yes, it was confirmed via the engraving. They had already made arrangements to get a new ring made and of course didn’t want to make a misguided cancellation.
We had the anticipated reunion of Dave and his ring this morning. It was so nice to meet both Dave and Liz, a very nice young couple. After an interesting visit and my best wishes for their upcoming first anniversary, they departed for the upcoming nuptials of a friend in Connecticut. All around it was a great week!
Dave and Liz – a happy couple!
Dave’s wedding band
