On Thursday morning June 12th, I was searching, for a lost heirloom necklace, in Ocean Park, Maine. As I searched, my phone kept going off with both phone calls and text messages. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even see the screen of my phone, because the sun was so bright and I could not see anything but a blank screen, I decided I would get to a shady area and see what was going on, but not until I found this lost necklace. Once I found the necklace, approximately half hour later, I walked up to the gazebo area, of Ocean Park Beach, next to the library and across the street from the Ocean Park Soda Fountain. I was waiting for my wife, Cheryl, to return and pick me up. As I sat on the bench, I noticed two missed calls, voice mails, a text message and a Facebook Messenger notification. The following is from the dictation, from the voicemail
““Hi, my name is Lauren. We are on the beach and one of our friends lost her engagement ring. We just wanted to inquire more about your services. If you can give me a call back at 781-XXX-XXXX, that would be great thank you.…”
Lauren’s text message and Facebook Messenger were the same.
“Hi! My friend lost her engagement ring on Gooserocks Beach Kennebunkport. We were wondering if you may be able to help us?”
With three different forms of communication, I knew someone was frantic and in desperate need of my Emergency Metal Detecting Services.
I immediately called Lauren back and she told me that a group of friends had gone to the beach and after being there for just a short period of time, one of the women noticed she no longer had her engagement ring on. Lauren told me that some of the women went to the vehicle and searched the vehicle for the ring, while the remaining group of friends searched around the circle of chairs they had set up, on the beach. Neither search was successful so some of the group, went back to the house and searched for the ring there. Again, no ring was found. So they went back to the beach and that is when Lauren contacted me and left the messages. I told Lauren that I would be happy to help and I could be there in approximately 45 minutes or so. Lauren told me that the group of friends were on the beach, at the Proctor Avenue beach entrance. I told her that I knew exactly where that was and would be there shortly.
Once Cheryl and I arrived at Goose Rocks Beach, Maine, we entered the beach, at Proctor Ave and we were immediately waved to by a group of 8 women. One of the women walked towards us and introduced herself as Meaghan. Meaghan said it is her engagement ring that was lost but has no idea when or where it came off. She then went through the events of the morning and they were the same as what Lauren had conveyed, to me. Meaghan had her ring on at the house and then at the beach, it was gone. Meaghan thought the most likely scenario was that the ring was in or just outside of the circle of chairs, beach bags, etc., that she had carried down to and placed on the beach. If the ring was not in this area, it could be somewhere in the 75 feet or so of beach, from the access path, to where they had settled in for the day. It could also be out along the street, where they had parked and taken all the beach essentials, down onto the beach. There is a strip of sand along that area of street and I would need to search that also, if the ring wasn’t found, on the beach. It was then mentioned by someone in the group that Meaghan is getting married in September and this is her Bachelorette Get Away. Ok, Take a deep breath, no pressure to find this ring. I really wanted to find this ring quickly. I could see the extreme anxiety on Meaghan’s face and I want to turn that anxiety into a big smile.
I told the group that I would perform a grid search, just outside the chairs, where they all thought the ring most likely was and is the location where everything was placed, when they first arrived at the beach. I just needed to move the metal chairs back a little further, so they wouldn’t interfere with my metal detector and the women all moved their chairs back. I asked Meaghan what the metal is, that the engagement ring is made out of. Meaghan then told me it is White Gold band. I then took out a White Gold Engagement Ring and threw it into the sand. I do this for two reasons, 1) I will get my metal detector setup , to my liking, with the metal I am looking for. 2) It will show the client how the metal detector sounds, when the coil goes over the ring. I have found that my clients enjoy seeing this and after seeing me do this and in a way, comforts them. When I threw the ring, into the sand, I saw a few eyes get really big and a few gasps, from the group. They must have thought I was crazy. I then made a few adjustments to my detector and swung the coil over the sand. When the coil went over the setup gold ring, it went off nice and loud and I could hear the excitement, from the group. I now started my grid search and the area was not very large, taking just 5 minutes or so. I did not find the ring, nor anything else, for that matter. No trash or coins. When I didn’t find it, we talked about grid searching the 75 or so feet, up to the access path. Something told me to search deeper, in the circle of chairs first. This was so I would’t have to come back and search this area, if the ring wasn’t found, going up to the access path. I took a step deeper, into where the chairs were and started searching. As I was approaching the northern end of the area, the detector started sounding off. A nice loud low tone and a reading of 07-08 on the VDI screen. I could see the excitement and anticipation on the faces of the women in the group, when they heard the sound being emitted, by my detector. I told them I couldn’t guarantee this signal was the ring but that I really liked the sound of it. I then took my pinpointer out and located the target, in the sand.I reached into the sand and came up empty. I felt around and felt something solid, looked down and picked a ring up with a diamond on it. I had found Meaghan’s engagement ring and when I held the ring up, for all to see, all kinds of screaming, yelling and celebrating took place. Meaghan came over, got her ring and gave me a nice big hug. I could see her happy tears and others in the group were also misty eyed. Everyone was just so happy for her. What started out a a wonderful Bachelorette get away, turned into a nightmare and then back to a happy place, for the group of friends. Now with the mood much lighter, I could hear some comments being made, from the group. “Hey Meaghan, you going to tell your mother? “Meaghan, DON’T tell your fiancé!” All in good fun and the laughing continued, now that her engagement was back on her finger. Later in the evening, I received some more messages from Lauren, “thank you sooo much Dennis!!! “ Lauren also sent me some photos and a video, that the group had taken. Lauren even put the video out on TikTok and told me it already had 5,000 views. It is always a great feeling when the client reaches back out to me, later and still thanking me. It’s such a great feeling and blessing to be able to help people out, in their time of need.
Cheryl and I would like to wish Meaghan a wonderful wedding this September and a long prosperous life, with her husband to be.💍❤️🍾🥂
While at work I got a text from Katie asking for help in finding her grandfather’s ring lost in her backyard. Told her I’d come out after work to help. It seems her husband Homer was wearing the ring while gardening and it flew off his finger while tossing weeds he pulled. I turned on my detector and it was going crazy with interference from somewhere. I lowered the sensitivity to the lowest I could go but it really didnt help. After looking for awhile with no luck I was getting frustrated so I called my buddy Matty St Germain asking if he had any ideas that would help. He told me I had to turn the sensitivity back up to where I usually have it and deal with the interference and listen for carefully for signals. I did but still no luck in the area Homer thought the ring should be. I decided to detect outside the area and about 10 feet off to the side I got a good signal and looking down there was Katie’s grandfather’s ring in the tall grass. I turned off the detector and walked towards Katie saying the interference was to bad and the look of disappointment changed quickly to joy when I showed her the ring in my hand. A great feeling giving back something so special.
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