I received a Voicemail on Saturday Evening, August 23,
“ Hi, My name is Brendan. I am currently staying on the Saco River, in Brownfield, ME. We lost a wedding ring, in the river today, on or off the beach somewhere. We have done a lot of looking for it, but we weren’t able to find it. I was just inquiring about your availability, rates, all that jazz. We do have to be out of the Airbnb tomorrow, by 11. So it is somewhat of a time thing and I don’t know if you would come and metal detect, at a different time and mail it. Regardless, Please give me a call back. You can reach me at 617-***-****. Again, this is Brendan. Thank you, Take care.”
As soon as I saw his voicemail, I called him back, ,approximately a half hour, after his voicemail was left.. Brendan told me that he and a group of 8 or nine friends had rented a house, on the Saco River, in Brownfield Me. One of the guys, in the group was getting married soon and this was the bachelor weekend. Earlier in the day, a member of the group had lost his wedding ring, while they were all swimming, in the river. They had a very good idea of where it was.and though it would only be in knee to waist deep. But, the sandy area they were swimming, quickly drops off, to much deeper water. I told Brendan that I could certainly search,, up to 5 feet deep but anything deeper than that, I would’t be able to get to. I also told him that I could search, the next day but I was already booked, in Greenwood, Maine and couldn’t guarantee I could get to Brownfield, by 11:00am. If I did arrive, in Brownfield and the group had already checked out, I would need permission, from the owner, of the Maine Airbnb property. I do not go on other peoples property, without permission. We left it at that someone in the group would try contacting the owner, securing permission, for me to access their property and search for the lost wedding ring.
The next morning, Gary and I left at 6:00am, for the nearly 2 hour drive, to Greenwood Maine.and search for a lost gold signet ring. As we were arriving at the camp, in Greenwood, I received a text message, from Brendan
“We are still waiting to hear back from the air bnb host. So unlikely that today will work. If anything changes or they allow access later in the week I’ll be sure to check with your availability.” I replied “Ok, Thanks”
As luck would have it, Gary was able to locate the gold signet ring, in just about 10 minutes. We left Greenwood around 9:00am. As we were driving back home, I received another text, from Brendan, at approximately 9:45am.
“Heads up Dennis. I gave your number to the guy whose ring was lost. Turns out our checkout is 2:00pm he wants to give you a call to check availability”
Before I could reply, I received a call from Jonathon. Jonathon was the one, that had lost his wedding ring, in the river. Jonathon told me if I could make it to Brownfield, by 2:00pm, he would stay behind, and guide me to the location, where the ring was lost. It wasn’t an easy place to find, as it involved driving to a spot, up the road, then walk down a path, in the woods, for approximately a 1/3 to a 1/2 mile, to the sandy beach area, along the river. It was now approaching 10:00am and I needed to see exactly how to get to Brownfield, from where Gary and I were, in the Gray, Maine area. I told Jonathon I would get right back to him and pulled over, on the side road, to look at the map. Once I got the information I was looking for, I called Jonathon back. I told him I could be there in 45 minutes to an hour. Gary and I then took a hard right and we were heading to Brownfield.
Once we arrived, we were met by Jonathon and his friend, Cory. They again mentioned the walk, on the path, through the woods and he and his friend offered to carry anything we needed. I told him we would be fine and then we drove back up the road and stopped at the trailhead. The walk through the woods was much easier than I thought. The path was actually quite large, from all the ATV traffic. After a 10-15 minute walk, down the wooded path, we arrived at the sandy beach area, on the Saco River. Jonathan then showed Gary and I the area that he thought the ring was lost in. The area was very sandy and should not be a problem. I told Gary that I would start out in the water, as far out as I could safely go. I would the grid search, parallel to the shore and work my way, towards shore. Gary would start, at the shore and work his way, towards me and the deeper water. I went out to where the sand ended and the drop off to deeper water started. Hopefully the ring didn’t get thrown out in the deep water. With Gary near the shore, I worked my way west, on my first grid pass. Absolutely no targets at all, just really soft sand. Gary also had no targets, as this area was extremely clean of trash. As I turned and headed east, still no targets. Then, approximately halfway into this grid pass, I received a very loud low tone. I immediately knew this was Jonathan’s wedding ring. Having used an Minelab Excalibur II, since 2006, you just know when you hear gold. I looked up onto the shore, where Jonathon and Cory were talking and Gary was still searching. I hesitated for a moment and wanted to have someone take a video of the recovery but decided not to. I just told everyone that I was pretty sure I had located the ring and that got their attention. I took one scoop of sand and shook it in the water, until the sand was gone. As I was shaking the scoop, we could all hear something clanging around, in the scoop. I was hoping it wasn’t a rock. I brought the scoop up and looked inside. There it was a gold wedding ring. I made a face of disappointment, as I reached into the scoop, so when I pulled the ring out, everyone would be surprised. I grabbed the ring and quickly pulled it out, held it high, for all to see and said, “Congratulations, I got it”. Jonathan and his friend just couldn’t believe it, giving each other high fives and saying something to the effect of this was epic and unbelievable. As I came to shore, I asked Jonathan how long he has been married and he replied, 2 years. I then told him, “Now you can stay married” and handed him his ring back. We were all laughing, smiling, making jokes and it just felt great to see the weight of a lost wedding ring, be lifted, from the shoulders of Jonathan. He kept thanking Gary and I for making the long trip out to Brownfield and recover his wedding ring. Gary and I thanked him for placing his trust, in us, to recover his ring. It’s not something we take lightly and we love helping others, get their sentimental rings back.
As Gary and I were driving back home, we were rehashing the day’s events. By the time we got home, we would have driven 216 miles, been gone for 7 hours, recovered 2 sentimental rings (in just 15-20 minutes of actual search time) and loved every moment of it. The smiles on Joe and Angela’s faces, in Greenwood and the smiles on Jonathan and Cory’s faces, in Brownfield were all we needed, for fuel. We were both riding high, on cloud nine. We love our
jobs.😃❤️🙏
