I received a call from Greg and Jamie right before lunch time on Sunday, July 12th, 2020. They explained that Jamie had lost her white gold wedding ring while swimming in Lake Mitchell on the 4th of July. Jamie’s ring is normally a snug fit, but after swimming for a few hours making the ring slightly loose, her ring slid off and into the water after getting snagged in the back of their boat’s wooden platform while she was climbing out of the water. Jamie watched in dismay as the ring fell and she tried her best to grab it before it sunk to the bottom, but to no avail. Greg borrowed a mask and searched the lake bottom, but was unable to come up with her ring. Jamie’s wedding ring was custom made by a friend and had huge sentimental value. I could tell just how much it meant to her as she was unable to talk about her ring without getting emotional. Greg ended up buying a Nokta Makro PulseDive Pinpointer and searched with SCUBA gear, but only found pull tabs and bottlecaps in the area that he was able to cover. During a Google search, Greg’s sister found the blog I wrote about the ring recovery I did a few months earlier for a ring lost in a lake in Tuskegee, Alabama.
There was a large storm passing through Huntsville when they called me, but it was supposed to pass to the east. Lake Mitchell is in Clanton, AL and about a 2.5 hour drive south of Huntsville, so the weather was clear down there. Greg and Jamie asked if I would be willing to do a search and I told them I’d be more than happy to! I could come out that Sunday or wait until the following weekend when I was off again from work. Jamie preferred that I come as soon as possible as the lake was a public area. I agreed and my husband, Lindell, and I gathered up our gear and were on our way within the hour. We met up with Greg and Jamie and were on the water by 2:30pm. The area the ring was lost was about a 10 minute boat ride from the marina. We made it out there and I had just got in the water with my detector when we realized the storm took a turn south and was upon us. We decided to take cover and wait out the storm. Lindell and I were finally able to get in the water and conduct a search around 4pm. We searched for about 3 hours, but only came up with the usual pull tabs, bottle caps, and fishing gear. Jamie decided to call it as it was getting late. She asked if I thought that her ring was gone forever. I told her that if her ring was there (which she saw it fall off), it could definitely be found. I just needed more time to complete a thorough grid search. If you miss it by an inch, then you miss it by a mile. We planned to do another search the following Saturday starting earlier in the day.
Lindell and I went back out to Lake Mitchell and met up with Jamie and Greg on Saturday, July 18th. The ring was lost in about 3 feet of water, but there was a possibility that the water level had changed. There was a permanent marker buoy there as our reference point. The search area was now around 3-5 feet of water. During the week I made marker buoys with dive weights to mark a 4 corner grid. We set-up the grid and I got in the water with my Equinox 800 and long handled XTREME Sand Scoop. I told Jamie not to be discouraged as the search may take a few hours to check all signals that came up in the white gold range.
Greg brought 2 SCUBA set-ups. Greg and Lindell planned to conduct SCUBA searches. I was unable to dive as I had a craniotomy to remove a benign meningioma about 7 weeks prior. Greg helped Lindell get set-up and Lindell got in the water with our brand new Excalibur 2 about 10 minutes after me. Lindell started on the opposite side from me (area we had not had time to search the week prior). Greg was just getting in the water when Lindell came up to me. Inconspicuously, Lindell showed me a ring. It was Jamie’s lost wedding ring!!! Lindell’s 4th target after 3 pull tabs was Jamie’s ring! Lindell said he was going to surprise Jamie. Lindell then went up and showed Greg. Jamie hadn’t noticed, because she was trying to keep busy by walking around in the water. We all remained calm. Lindell went up to Jamie and had her scan his hand with the Excalibur. She said his watch was setting off the detector, Lindell then opened up his hand and revealed her ring. Jamie stood in shock for a moment, because she thought the search would take a while. Once Jamie realized it was her ring, she was just overcome with emotion! What a great feeling!!! This is the best part of being a Ring Finder! The second best is finding the ring. Celebration hugs and high-fives followed. We took a few pictures and took a few moments to let it all sink in. Jamie’s ring is absolutely gorgeous!!! I had never seen a ring like this before! As always, I thanked the Lord for a safe and successful ring recovery!
Jamie and Greg are such a sweet and friendly couple! They brought sandwiches and offered to take us around the lake on their boat for the rest of the afternoon. We graciously accepted and had a blast! Lake Mitchell is absolutely beautiful! What a great day!!!
If you or someone you know has lost a ring, jewelry, or other metal item, please contact a member of The Ring Finders.
