Cape Cod Tag | The Ring Finders

Belmont, Dennis Port, MA Lost Ring Found and Returned

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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September 11, 2025:
On August 18th Joey and his two little “ducklings” were frolicking around the waters edge when what so often happens, a wedding ring slipped off a finger into the shallow water of Nantucket Sound. Joey, the ducklings and other family members searched for the next two days before heir vacation time came to an end and they had to leave, abandoning their search and the ring in the sand. 3 weeks later Tana, Joey’s mother, came to the Cape for a visit. Over the next two weeks she, other family members and friends continued to search the area in hopes of reuniting the ring with its owner. That was not to be.

Joey’s mother, still had a few extra days before having to leave the Cape. During the time she and several of her friends brought up the subject of the missing ring and one friend offered up the information of TheRingFinders.com. As other suggestions had failed, Tana reached out to me for help.

I was a bit stressed out about my situation of buying and selling a house, and would have to fit in time for a recovery search. A look at the tide chart and I could fit a couple of hours in at 7AM the next morning. All was set until my Realtor and I finished up our afternoon commitments and I could make a search just before the evening tide. It was possible for Tana to meet me a the beach and I was on the way.

With my detector and scoop in hand, Tana and I walked to the area that the ring was lost at. The most likely area of the loss was pointed out to me: lifeguard chair, either side about 10 feet and straight down, into the water and out to no more than knee deep. An hour of searching and not one good signal, Then a solid signal from my detector that did not sound like a gold ring should but I had to dig it anyway. As I thought, it was not a ring but a toy truck. By this time I had widen the area I was searching. The sun had set and in the dark it was difficult to keep a tight grid pattern. It was time to call it quits until the morning’s tide.

Just before leaving the water’s edge I took one more look at the pictures Tana had shown me. There was one picture that showed nice flat sandy area with the two “ducklings” playing on it. I looked to the west into an area I had not searched yet and saw the exact same conditions, it was a bit further west than I had been told where the ring was lost. “One more pass” I told Tana, took two steps and got a signal. “Tana, your son’s ring is right there“… with nothing but wet sand for Tana to look at, I took one scoop of sand turned it over on the dryer sand. A after a couple of passing of Tana’s hand through the mound of sand, it came into view, yes, there was her son’s ring.

Pictures, information and a few metal detecting stories passed away a few more minutes before we parted with a promise to exchange the photos we had taken. One was for me to learn how to turn on my camera’s flash function. And another to have Joey leave his ring in a safe place in the

future when he visits the beach. Unfortunately it would still be a few days before the ring will be returned to Joey. I hope to meet Joey on his next trip to the shores of Cape Cod to get a photo of him with a smile and holding his ring.

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Dennis, MA Lost Ring in Sand Found and Returned by Richard Browne

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July 29, 2025 Debbie and her husband were out house hunting. My home was on the market and the Open House sign attracted them. While touring the home they noticed my metal detector and struck up a conversation with my realtor about my water detecting prowess. Little did they know the knowledge of my hobby would be beneficial to them within a few days when Debbie saw her wedding band slip from her finger into the beach sand as she was applying sunscreen lotion.

The smart idea of marking the area with shells and a few small rocks after hand searching the sand would be of help in locating the area the next day. A better marker media would have been anything metal i.e. coins or soda cans. Debbie had paced of the distance from a wooden structure to the point of loss. At home they called Tom, my realtor, for my contact information. Jack had to leave a voice message which Tom later played back to me over the phone. I took the information and called Jack. I had to leave a message on Jack’s phone as he did not answer. A bit later Debbie called me and we set up a 6:30AM meeting on the beach.

I arrived a bit early just as the beach sweeper went by, grooming the beach for the holiday weekend crowd. With my new VX9 detector, on its first search, in one hand and my scoop in the other, I looked for the land marks but they had been swept away. I took what information I had, started to pace off 35 feet but that would have put me in the water, somethings never go well. I had been on the beach for less than five minutes when Debbie and her girlfriend showed up. After a bit of an introduction and pointing to the area, Debbie started to pace off the 35 feet. I watched as she paced the 35 feet by putting the heal of one foot to toes of the other, repeating it 35 times. I followed, detecting the sand as I went. About five feet (60”) from where Debbie’s 35 “feet” ended and even closer to my last drag mark in the sand I had my second signal of the morning. A quick scoop and my searching was finished.

“Lets go back to the car so I can get more information.” Looking puzzled, I had to tell Debbie to look into my scoop. Yes the ring was the second target and the ring was in my scoop. All in less than a minute! Debbie and her friend Lynn were told I was good at finding a lost ring, but this morning I was great. But Debbie had one more up on me when she said she had a cup of coffee for me in the car. I often mentioned my thirst for coffee but no one had ever had a cup ready for me.

At the car we talked and the recent happenings just continued to amaze us. Jack and I are both retired sailors and worked with submarines during our tours of duty. This year is Debbie and Jacks 30th anniversary. She had lived on Cape Cod and I live here now. I could not convince her that she and Jack should buy my house, it was meant to be – not. If the house was smaller – maybe. At least all is well and Debbie has her ring back for the upcoming anniversary. What a wonderful way to have at the start of another day on Vacation Land.

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Wellfleet, MA Richard Browne Makes Short Work of Finding a Lost Ring.

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August 19, 2025 Richard, a Horticulturist at heart, was doing what he loved to do. That was helping a friend out by doing some gardening, pruning and clean-up when what could happen, did happen his wedding band slipped from his finger. He had no memory of it coming off, it was just gone, somewhere in the yard.
Telling his wife was a bit stressful when done they returned to the property, with hopes of finding the ring. Not finding the ring, they turned to the internet to find someone that could help. That is when I got involved via a text message that read “Maybe you have availability this week? I answered by a phone call and set up a time for the next afternoon.
I am glad I had set it up for the afternoon as another call for help came to me to find a ring lost in a local swimming beach. I asked another Ring Finder to go along…two could find the ring twice as fast. Sure enough Leighton found the water ring in less than 5 minutes. All said and done we were off to search for Richard’s ring at 2:30.

We pulled into the driveway right at 2:30, what timing! Introductions and then a walk thru the area that should be holding the band that matched his wife’s band, but one with a bigger and with a looser fit. As always a Ring Finder is always alert to his surroundings. About 30 feet from my car and our detecting gear a bit of glitter caught my eye. UNBELIEVABLE! It was the ring. This was my first find without even taking my equipment out of the car.

Now it was up to Tobe to take the ring home and have it resized so Richard could wear it with a bit of confidence that he would not loose it again. This return will be in the memory of several people for a long time. I wish all searches were this easy. No, not really, if they were, my hobby would lose my interest in very little time. But on the other hand, it would be quicker outcome for those that had made the loss. In the end, it matters not who or when a lost object is found, but that it is returned to the rightful owner.

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Permission to Help Find and Return a Ring on NSS, Cape Cod, MA

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August 12. 2025 A beautiful day a the beach was coming to its end and Matt had the urge to get a few more splashes in the rough waves before the sun set. But as it happens more than one can imagine he was hit by a wave and in that moment his wedding band slipped off his finger onto the wet sand. There was nothing Matt could do but watch it get swept away by the receding wave. The next morning he reached out to me for help. My first thought was that of it being on Federal Property, on which metal detecting is illegal. But, it may be possible to get special case by case permission to search one small area for a specific amount of time for a specific object. Or at times a Park Ranger may do the search themselves. The only other determining factor for me to go for the search would be the surf action, it can be so rough it could be life threatening.

All that being said, Matt wanted to get his ring back to his finger. He started the “Try to get the right person to give permission” which proved no easy task. First a phone call, no success. Second in-person visit to the NSS Visitor’s Center, again no success. Back to the phone, this time to a emergency number he found on the internet site. The dispatcher said she would have someone call him back. Success. Permission was granted for a “TheRingFinder” to search in the area he lost the ring during the one evenings low tide time and that the Rangers on duty would be informed of the situation. It was a go for me.

I had been on another such search about a month ago. I did not find the ring and was beat up by waves, that for a detectorist concentrating on the searching endeavor, could rip him off his feet. If it happened, his scoop could be ripped from his hands and lost into the surf. Likewise a detector may be lost. I know my limits, the dangers and to give up when the object is not worth tempting such dangers.

This search started with only short boots and a detector that had better trash rejecting tuning capabilities. That did not go well as I thought it might. But I had to go with the best equipment for the given search area. So, when I got to the water line with only two iffy targets, I went back to the car and got ready to detect in the water as far as I felt safe. That also did not go as I thought it would and as the sun was setting I was going call it a bust but I would make one last pass. In the surf wash of only 2 inches the only good signal hit my ears. One shallow scoop, a quick rinse and there it was, Matt’s wedding band. As I walked to Matt, I told him I though he was the luckiest son-of-a-mother and that’s a lot of sons to be luckier than. His reaction was such that I knew I was the lucky one to have retrieve and returned such a sentimental ring and return it. You now know why I enjoy my metal detecting hobby so much: Memory making emotions top the list.

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Eastham, MA Necklace “The Bean” Dug from the Sand and Returned by Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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A preface to my blog:

“The Tiffany Bean Necklace is more than just a piece of jewelry; it is a cultural symbol. Over the years, it has become synonymous with personal milestones—from graduations to anniversaries, and even as a gesture of self-love. The necklace represents a connection to significant life moments, encapsulating memories and emotions that are often cherished by its wearers.” Quoted from: wearfortune.com/blogs

July 20, 2025 As it happened to be the summer tourist season the main highway thought the Outer Cape on Cape Cod (route 6) is usually bumper to bumper unless you can travel late night or early morning. My luck the tide would be low and a early morning search possible. Parking would be another problem. My luck again was on my side. A vacationer was packing his vehicle at the end of his stay. He was all-in to let me park in “his” driveway while I went to search for the lost “Bean”.

Ready for the search, I preceded to the area described to me and then did a grid search. Not finding the necklace and wondering where to move my search area to. Luke shows up and told me the difference between what I counted as 2 wood posts was a bit short of what he had counted. OK another 50 feet down the beach and I saw some of the previous night’s search marks in the sand. I started to search swinging my detector in a precise pattern. About two minutes into the grid, Bingo, I heard a promising signal, took a shallow scoop and saw the necklace hanging from the end of my scoop.

The search was over, just as Luke’s sister (the Beans owner) was strolling down the beach toward our location as we were about to leave. Smiles and thank you along with me getting the relationship, to each other of those, that came to watch. I knew my trip home would also be easy as all the traffic build up would be in the other direction of travel this morning. Nothing but smiles and a good cup of coffee are a perfect beginning for any day.

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Craigville, MA Beach Club Gives Up Lost Ring to Richard Browne

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August 10, 2025 It started two days ago while Brian and his friends were frolicking in waist deep water when King Neptune admired and help Brian’s wedding band slip off his finger. All the searching was unable to find the well hidden ring for two days. Eleanor the local Metal Detector dealer would not rent the men a water detector as she well knows one is not the easiest instrument to get the desired results. She strongly suggested that Brian call a member of TheRingFinders. Brian did but I was already out searching for an-other’s ring. When I got back to my phone I called and made arrangements to meet up at 6:30AM the next morning.

I was ready to go and waited the next fine minutes for Brian and his friends to show me just were the ring had been lost. It is always most helpful to be shown in person by the person who lost the object just where the item had been lost. My searching lasted about two hours going north to south and back then a pattern of east to west and back. With nothing of interest found I started searching in diagonal patterns. Again nothing. Now the tide was coming in and I still had not found the ring. OK. I would have to come back at the next low tide.

I did not make the evening low tide as I was called about a lost necklace with a fireman’s cross medallion. I thought I could make both recovery sites, but I did not. Additionally the owner of the Beach Club had mentioned just before we left after the early morning search that they expected the beach to be very crowded in the afternoon. I knew the ring was not going anywhere so I would go in the morning when I would not have to search around a crowd of bathers.

5:30AM and I was ready to go. I went to the dry sand and did a very cursory scan in the area the guys had been sitting two days ago. The plan I had in mind was to go to the buoy in a straight line from the the sandy beach. All was going as planned until, less than a minute, my detector gave me a signal I would not refuse to dig. In the scoop I brushed away a couple handful of shells and then I saw the glitter of gold. My search was over when I saw the T/B engraved on the inside of the band.

This is another reason I never take some of the information given to me as a golden rule, after all one’s memory of loosing a ring is not always clear. Back at the car I called Brian and within 7 minutes he was wearing his wedding band again, now with a smile on his face.

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Yarmouth, MA Lost Gold Necklace Returned by Richard Browne

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August 9, 2025 After an early morning search for a lost ring that I did not find, I received a call for help in finding a lost necklace with a fireman’s cross hanging on it. I had been a Captain in a Deep Creek, VA volunteer fire department back in the early 1970s. How could I refuse except it was only two hours before low tide and I thinking I may not be able to get out to where the necklace was lost. What the heck, I went.

I met Matt on the now crowded beach. He pointed out the area, the area he thought was the most likely to be where he lost his necklace. As the tide was coming in rapidly, I started at the deepest section and work into the shallower area. After retrieving a few iffy signals that were pull tabs and a fishing sinker. Then I heard a signal I was waiting for, I took one careful scoop, not wanting to harm the necklace, raised it to the surface and saw gold hanging onto the open edge of the scoop. It was about high tide and time to give up until the tide went out. Matt thought I was giving up for the day. He did not know I had the chain and fireman’s cross in the scoop.

Matt came to the water’s edge, not looking very happy until I let him look into the scoop and retrieve his necklace. Great thanks and praises arose from those watching what was going on. By the time I found the necklace most nearby bathers knew of Matt’s loss and why the guy in the water was just walking back and forth. Needless to say that Matt was most thankful for the return of his necklace and charm that had been given to him by his wife 10 years ago.

The real mystery is: how did the necklace come off of Matt’s neck? The clasp was still hooked, It had to have been pulled off, over his head. Perhaps by his son while riding on Matt’s shoulder. It really does not matter. What does, is the happy ending that made for smiles all around.

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Yarmouth, MA via Alaska to Find a Hearing Aid by Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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August 5, 2025: Yesterday afternoon my home phone rang and the number showed up on my TV. 907 is an Alaska area code, I had to find out about the caller and answered the call. As the call started about a loss and need for help, I was ready to pack and head for Alaska. I had been in Alaska back in the 1980’s and enjoyed every day there. The call went on about Kenneth’s mother, Virginia, loosing a hearing aid while doing some yard work. Though I was not lucky enough to have to go to search in Alaska, but rather in my town of Yarmouth, MA.

So far this year I have a 100% success rate for finding lost hearing aids – two of them. For now, after the phone call I would call Virginia in the morning and arrange to search for the hearing aid that would spend the evening in the garden. OK, all set 9:30am and the search will begin. Virginia, a bit older than I am but really sharp and very interesting to talk with from her life in Alaska working on the pipe line, sky diving with her grandson on his 16th birthday wish of her grandson, getting caught overnight between two avalanches, and to a more mundane life style of being a volunteer librarian who has now has lost two hearing aids. Virginia found the first in a evening’s rainstorm just outside her car and not inside the library where she thought it had been lost. Good news, it still worked and she had not stepped on it.

Now it was my turn to search for a hearing aid after her best try the day before did not turn it up. I started the area search with a 7” coil on my detector, I should have put the 4” coil on at it would have got into areas that the 7” one would not fit into. Not to worry, my handheld pin-pointer could cover all the smaller areas I could not reach otherwise. I started searching the ground and moved upward onto one of the climbing plants. Maybe the hearing aid had been caught on a branch. No, back to the ground and after three other metal objects, I had a signal that turned out to be caused by the close proximity of a metal object, in this case the minuscule battery of a hearing aid.

Virginia was nearby and was over whelmed by my success. The hearing aid survived the night in the garden and now ready to help Virginia hear her granddaughter’s speech more clearly. It was the granddaughter’s questioning of her grandmother “Why do you always ask me to repeat myself?” that prompted Virginia’s son, Kenneth, to arrange a hearing test that ultimately lead to Virginia’s use of hearing aids, especially when with her granddaughter. Little devices that can really help the quality of life of everyone around as well as the wearer of the hearing aids can remedy the need to request someone to repeat themselves. I also wear them and can relate. Going back I can remember my grandmother’s hearing aid, a little box that hung on her chest, had a wire going to her ear and made horrible squeals. No matter, GRANDMOTHERS are the best!

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Harwich, MA Ring in the Sand, Found and returned by Richard

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August 3, 2025 I was arriving at a beach for a search for a lost handmade ring for a woman named Amanda. As I pulled into the parking space I was aware of a woman looking a bit lost sitting in a depression in the beach’s dry sand. I was sure that had to be Amanda. As we started a conservation it was evident that the person was not Amanda. She told me that her name was Busra and she had been helping Amanda, who was around the corner of the sand dune. But why are you so sad for Amanda, I can find her ring. No, I thought that I could see how far her ring would sink into the sand if I dropped mine. And she had an hour or so ago. By now Amanda had shown up and was ready to have me search for her ring.

I took about 30 seconds before leaving Busra to scoop her ring from its sandy resting place and give it back to Busra. Then it was off to look for two, not one more ring. See Amanda’s blog on how that went.

As for Busra, she followed us around to the other side of the dune to watch me searching there. During the minute or so and for some time before I showed up at the beach the two women became close friends and I think their friendship will last a long time because of the entire ordeal of having lost a ring, helping each other find their ring(s) together and how they helped each other. I on the other hand am just grateful to three wonderful women: Elise, Amanda’s mother for passing the information about TheRingFinders.com onto her daughter, Amanda for contacting me and to Busra for making such a memory happen.

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Harwich, MA Rings in the Sand, Found and returned by Richard Browne

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August 3, 2025 Amanda’s mother was there when she needed help. She knew of TheRingFinders and specifically me and that I could and would help. A call came from Amanda and from our conversation I knew I had to help and respond fast to her situation. She was on the beach with a lost ring, one her goldsmith faience’ had made for her. My luck was with me as the loss had taken place on the dry sand section of a close by beach. A quick check of my van for all the equipment that would be best for this recovery was in order. On such a beautiful summer evening, my wife joined me in the trip to the beach.

Now here is were things get interesting. I pulled into a parking space and thought I saw Amanda, sitting in a large depression in the sand. I walked over and introduced myself, but to my surprise it was not Amanda it was Busra and she had been helping Amanda look for the lost ring. Come to find out Busra had lost her engagement ring in the process. (see my blog on what happened next).

As Busra and I were talking Amanda came from around a dune and we were off to find the ring I was called to locate. Amanda explained what had transpired since the she lost her TWO rings, not one. Both were handmade for her. We arrived at the area which some 30 people had helped in the search. One helper even went home and brought back a rake and raked the entire area that the rings may be in.

I started on one edge of the boxed area that had been raked. Pass one, nothing. ¾ along the second pass the first signal I got I knew I had a ring. But after the first scoop, I thought I missed the target and took a second scoop. I looking into the scoop and called Amanda over to retrieve her rings. She only took the bright gold ring from the scoop and with great enthusiasm showed the ring to the other on the beach. She than asked I could find her second ring. I pointed into my scoop, she came back, looked into the scoop and with tears in her eyes took the second silver ring out and put it on her finger.

A few tears and many hugs followed by pictures being taken. If you have not already read Bursa’s story, you will see that she has joined in with Amanda’s celebration of having her rings returned. I believe there will be a long friendship because of the losses and returns that occurred on the beach this evening.

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