Craigville Beach, Cape Cod, MA Lost Ring Found and Returned
July 27th, 2022
After a four-hour search for a lost ring, we returned to Leighton’s truck. We listened to a voice message about a lost wedding band. As the loss was on the opposite tide side of Cape Cod, we were on our way, hoping for a better search result; it was not yet time to call it a day. Leighton and I have teamed up for a few reasons: 1) companionship while traveling, 2) it increases the chances to find a lost item, and 3) we can cover twice the area in the time it would take one of us to search it alone.
We met up with Doug. After some fancy parking and a short synopsis of the previous day’s happening Doug led us to the area where he had lost his wedding band while teaching his 3-year-old daughter the thrill of the summertime beach. Feelings of a great beach day got a bit more intense when Doug lost his balance and braced himself with his left hand on the sandy bottom of Nantucket Sound. His daughter stayed high and dry, more than Doug could say about his wedding band. It had slipped from his ring finger and was to stay submerged for a day.
Several searchers using snorkels and goggles were unsuccessful in locating the ring just after it was “lost”. As usual our searching started with a grid search around the area Doug was standing at when he felt the ring slip from his finger. A crisscross search failed in locating the hiding ring. About 40 minutes into the search, I started a diagonal search pattern going well beyond the center of our previous search area. I am glad, as is Doug, that I went some 35 feet closer to the shoreline where I heard an all too familiar tone in my ears. About 10 inches down into the moving sand the wayward ring was in my scoop. It stayed there until Doug came to look into the scoop and identify the ring. Yes, it was his.
After a walk and talk going back to the parking lot, a few pictures, and many Thank You gestures from Doug he was on his way home. Wearing his wedding band and a smile from ear to ear he was anxious to get home and tell his wife the ring had been found and returned to his finger. I may be wrong but I think I heard Doug mention something about letting his wife wait a bit longer for the news so he could show and tell about the find in person.
Leighton and I both felt much better than about 2 hours before. Earlier we had not given up on searching for the other ring we were searching for. We just needed to rethink our search technique, change our detectors and their coil size and return another day to continue the search…We Never Give Up Hope!
It was quite some time ago when Brittnee’s mom asked if I could find her daughter’s lost class ring. It was very sentimental to her as it had been bought for her by her now deceased grandmother. The only problem was that she gave me a very large search area on the beach – everywhere from up by the dunes playing volleyball to swimming all the way out to some sea wall rocks. I went and searched with no luck. Because it’s a beach where I detect frequently, I looked again. And again. And again ! It took me 18 months to get that smile, but persistence pays off !!
Night before last I got a call from Lacey asking if I could come find her sister Nichole’s lost James Avery charm bracelet in the sand at the beach. She had placed it in her chair cup holder, but apparently forgot and dumped it out when picking it up to put it away. It was very sentimental to her, as she told me she had been adding charms to it for several years. It was rather late and I was 45 minutes away so I promised I would come early the next morning. I arrived and was relieved to see that they were renting a vacation house directly on a small private beach. They had marked off a square where they thought it might be so I set off carefully gridding the area with my Equinox 800. Within minutes, I got a signal that was much deeper than I expected a fresh drop to be and definitely not as loud as I would have thought. First scoop – nothing. Second scoop – nothing. Third scoop – and there was her shiny silver bracelet sparkling in the dry sand. Nichole happily placed it back on her wrist and gave me a hug. I (as always !) turned down her offered reward and asked only for a picture of her smiling – the best reward ever !
