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Private Beach!

Dave,

I just wanted to formally thank you for the great job you did finding my platinum wedding band. The ring was lost on 100 sq yds of beach for 6 weeks but thanks to your persistence you were able to find it in only an hour.

Losing that ring was a difficult experience due to it’s cost and intrinsic value but thanks to the professionalism you showed during our correspondence and the search process, I knew that I was in good hands. I’m attaching the photo that we took right after the ring was found.

Thanks again for your help.

Good luck in your future treasure hunts!

Troy Kelley

Little Silver, NJ

To Dave and Larry,

To lose my wedding band in the Ocean on the 10th street beach in Ocean City, N.J. was devastating. If it was in the sand on the beach, I would have held onto a shred of hope, but not in waist deep water during the height of the tourist season! The only people to ask “what to do?” were the lifeguards. They referred me to the South Jersey Metal Detecting Club. We had a laptop with us so we went back to the house and shot you guys an email. You replied instantly with some questions, and it gave me hope of retrieving my wedding band 2 weeks before our 10th Anniversary! A week or so went by and I figured it was time to be realistic. Then came the phone call from Larry! He had found my ring! Under water amidst the crowds of swimmers and boogie boarders, he found my ring! He mentioned it to the lifeguards and they remembered me and my family and told him he may know whose ring it is. I described it to him and I couldn’t believe it! Dave, you and Larry and the rest of your club that enjoy searching and reuniting people with such sentimental objects such as wedding bands are beyond a shadow of a doubt some of the classiest guys I have ever had the privilege to know. Thank you for all that you have done! Thank you from my wife as well. Meeting you guys on that same beach was quite poetic and a real pleasure! I will NEVER forget what you guys have done for me! You’re going on the Christmas card list, but I’ll bury yours on the beach somewhere around Thanksgiving and give you another “heads up”!! Just kidding, ha-ha! Thanks again for everything Guys!!

Sincerely,

Jeffrey W. Richardson

Audubon, PA

My parents took my 2 kids away to Canada for a long weekend. It just so happened to be my weekend off, so me & the Mrs. headed for Ocean City NJ. We found a nice place to stay Fri & Sat nite, 1 block from the beach. So we headed down early Fri morning. Stopped at Atlantic City on the way down to catch the Titanic Exhibit. Wow some really nice jewelry there. Sure wish I could find something like that.

The life guards leave OC beaches at 5pm on Fridays, so guess who was on the beach at 501pm. I took my XLT because low tide was earlier in the day, so I decided just to do the dry sand for now. No sooner did I step on the sand and turn on my XLT, I was approached by a crying 12 y/o girl. She asked me if I had found anything today. I explained that I just got here, and asked here what she lost. She explained that she lost a silver chain and a charm of St. Mary. I asked her if she had an idea of where it might be. She said yes. She had taken it off and put it on her towel, so she wouldn’t lose it in the water. Well she forgot that she did this and when it was time to leave she lifted her towel and shook all the sand of it. Oooopppppps.

I followed her to the spot. Searching in the sand were her mom, dad, sister and friends. I started to work a grid pattern. Boy the people who visit NJ beaches are SLOBS!! I found a ton of trash and 12 cents. We started to draw a crowd. After about 30 minutes the family thought I would never find it. They were going to leave the beach. I told the dad to give me the address of the place they were staying and leave a phone number. I told them I was only going to be there for 2 nights, they were leaving the next day. He did so, but I could see it in all their faces, they thought they would never see me or the necklace again. He offered me $5 for searching. I declined.

After they left I enlarged the search area. About 10 minutes after they left, guess what I found!!! If St. Mary wasn’t attached, I would have never found this chain. It was so thin!! Well I ran over to my wife and showed her. We left the beach, got changed and went to the boardwalk to make the phone call to meet up with the family. Darn, no-one home just and answering machine. I left my pager number.

The Mrs. & me were starving, so we decided to head to Mack’s & Manco Pizza on the boardwalk. Just as we were entering the building, I was approached by a man. He wanted to thank me for searching for the chain, it was the dad. I could only recognize him by his shirt. I said, we just called & left a message, as I pulled out the chain from my wallet. Well the girl was ready to cry again. Everybody was happy. They couldn’t believe I found it. We traded names, and phone numbers. I told them I might do a small article for one of the hobby magazines. We took a few pictures. The chain was from the girls 1st Holy Communion. She won’t be wearing it to the beach again!! Boy never had such a good feeling. This was my 1st returned item!!!

Yard Work!

Hi Dave,

I wanted to send a note to thank you again for coming out to find my wedding ring.  It is a horrible feeling loosing something that means so much to you.  On the other hand it was an incredibly joyous moment when you found my ring.  It was definitely a priceless moment!  If I ever lose my ring again or know of someone who does I will know who to call.  Take care and keep up the great work!

Thank You,

Joe Piotti

A Night At The Ball Game

Dave,

You must be an angel.  An angel with a mean metal detector, that is.  I lost my wedding ring at a local spring baseball game.  We searched several times and could not find it.  My husband told me don’t worry about it so much, but I was devastated.  During a frantic internet search, I found the Metal Detecting Man website and shot you an e-mail.  We met at the baseball field where I’d lost the ring.  My heart dropped when I saw you walk in to the parking lot from the field in less than an hour.  I thought, well, that’s it, he thinks it’s hopeless.  I said, “No luck, eh?  That’s OK, I am really grateful that you’re doing this.”   I just hoped whoever found the ring was using it for good purposes (paying bills, etc.) or it was helping to keep a very lucky bunch of baby robins warm and safe this summer.

“Well, there was a lot of junk on that field,” you said, as you opened your hand to reveal my wedding ring.

And that, my friends, is when I hugged a total stranger several times and cried for joy.

Because of your generosity to help a stranger on your day off, I am wearing my wedding ring again.  I think I will weld it to my finger.  Even if you hadn’t found it, the world is a better place with you in it.  I hope I can “pay it forward” to others in some way.  You asked for nothing, but I insisted you accept the meager contents of my wallet that day.  It is truly priceless what you’ve done.

I’m attaching a picture of the found wedding ring for your website.  Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Elizabeth
Burlington County, NJ

Back Yard Tanning

Dear Dave,

I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you helped me to find my wedding ring in my back yard. I never dreamed that after 3 and a half years, I would ever see it again. The fact that you came back all this way with your friend a second time and didn’t give up was wonderful and your persistence definitely paid off. I just want to thank you so much for helping me because without you, I know that I never would have found it. You have made me very happy and I will absolutely recommend you to anyone I know who ever loses jewelry. Thank you and your friend again so much!!

Kathy Moncelsi

On The Way To Cape May

Dear Dave,

Thank You so very very much ! 🙂 “You” are “The Man” !! Without your kindness and understanding, as well as, your thoughtfulness, caring and love of metal detecting that ring would have been history! 🙁 I wrote a little blurb in the Capemaytimes.com “forum” webpage section under vacation tips requesting any help finding that ring before I found you. That area of the beach was probably not very “used” since I left from my vacation. It is a bit away from the concession stands and such. No one to date has answered that “help” request. Maybe, someone nearby read it and went to hunt for the ring but came up empty. Luckily for us, you didn’t! When you told me you were going to search for the ring, I broke down and told my girlfriend (Beth) since she was still quite upset about it. It gave her hope and the knowledge that I wasn’t going to give up on finding it somehow. Besides, there’s no way I could really wait until Christmas to return it to her. I would have no problem driving to your house or somewhere nearby if you would feel more comfortable that way to pick up the ring. I don’t want to take any chances losing it once again (mailing it/etc.); besides, I want to thank you in person. After all, you went out of your way, spent time, money on gas etc. You are a lifesaver! I would “really” like to get it Saturday if at all possible. I work 2nd shift so I wouldn’t be able to be up, awake and ready to drive there until 11a.m. at the earliest. I look forward so much from hearing from you I hope I can sleep some tonight! I best go and leave a message for Beth ! Thank you again, Dave.

Sincerely,

Jack

Dear Dave,

Beth and I figured that the money was a fair days pay for a job “well done”; although, we wish we could have done more for you. We’re happy you’re pleased with it.

Although you didn’t see Beth cry when you returned her ring, she did on the way home. She is very thankful she has it back. Thanks again for all you did. There’s not many people in this world that would have taken the time nor the trip to search for a ring that a stranger from the Internet lost.

Most sincerely,

Jack

ps: although you were “The Man” for finding her ring ….”I” reaped the benefits! 😉

Wedding Party

July 30, 2010

I woke up to a desperate email. A couple in Cape May lost an expensive engagement ring. We sent a few emails back and forth. I couldn’t get there until 5:30pm. Joe manned the post not allowing anyone near the suspected spot where the ring could be.

He was there from 2am till 5:30pm. My son and I arrived around 5:30pm. 3 ladies, who were not related but heard the story, stated they have been praying to St. Anthony all day. They said St. Anthony will help us find the ring. They were asking me how good is my recovery rate. My answer was pretty good.

I did advise Joe that a lot of the time the lost object is nowhere near where you think it is. I said lets get started. He took me to the spot. I turned on my Minelab Explorer made a couple of swings and had the very nice low tone of platinum. I had the ring in my scoop in less than 30 seconds. And what a beautiful ring it was. Joe was amazed. He said he was ready to cry.

Joe phoned his fiancée and told her the news. She was at a wedding rehearsal dinner. She came running onto the beach. Joe placed the ring back on her finger. Hugs and pictures were in order.

Another happy couple.

Just as I was arriving home on Saturday evening, I received a call from Amanda who said she  had lost her wedding ring in a small grassy area next to public pool. She had removed the ring to apply lotion on her daughter and had placed the ring in her jeans pocket. Some time later, she noticed the ring missing and searched with many friends on their hands and knees but no success. I had plans that night with the wife and some friends but agreed to stop by the pool to see if it was going to be an easy recover. The area was small so I had high hopes. The good news was that she hadn’t left that grassy area with the jeans, the bad news was the ground there was literally carpet bombed with coins and other metallic junk! You could not swing the coil without getting at least 3 signals.

I did a complete grid but couldn’t get a surface signal in the gold range other than some pull tab ends and foil so we figured it must have been picked up by someone earlier. She thanked me for my efforts and I left to keep my evenings’ appointment. I was 98% sure that the ring was not in that area but that last 2% was bugging me. With that many targets and their signals overlapping, I figured there was still a chance that the ring was masked by them so I returned the next morning before the pool opened and the nice people running the place let me in to complete my search.

I figured I would remove everything that made a noise and if the ring was there, it would be found. After completing a 10X10 foot area and sweating buckets in the hot sun, I had found someone else’s ring, 31 quarters, 14 dimes, 6 nickels, and 28 pennies along with a dozen pull tabs and other assorted stuff but not the ring I was looking for. I had just started on the next 10X10 area and got another nice low tone that had already produced the nickels and pull tabs but this time I could see just a tiny glint of sparkle through the grass which I knew was going to be good. Yup, her ring had been stepped on and pushed most of the way into the sod but just a sliver was still exposed. I made my favorite type of phone call and met Amanda near by to return her ring. After having resigned herself to the thought that the ring was gone forever, my phone call made her the happiest woman in Poway. Here’s the ring (sorry about the blurry photo! Believe me, it’s beautiful) and Amanda and her daughter.