Little Egg Harbor NJ, Heirloom Ring lost in Lagoon, recovered by Edward Trapper, NJ Ring Finder
Kyle initially contacted another local ring finder about his wife’s rings, which had been dropped into a lagoon a day or two earlier. Since he wasn’t in the area, the call was referred to me. After speaking with Kyle, he explained that his wife had taken off her rings while in the water, right by the ladder, and as she was handing them up, they slipped out of her hand and sank into the lagoon.
Once I learned the location, I knew this recovery would be particularly challenging. The mud in that area of New Jersey is black, soft, and essentially bottomless. It’s critical to take proper precautions, as working in those conditions can be dangerous.
When I arrived, I got straight to work, carefully scanning the area with my metal detector to identify promising signals before digging into the thick, black, pudding-like mud. After about 30 minutes of searching, I successfully recovered one of the rings. I continued looking for another hour but couldn’t find the others.
Fortunately, the ring I found was the family heirloom—the one they were most eager to get back. The black mud can be incredibly tricky, as items tend to sink quickly, and I suspect that’s what happened to the remaining rings. Nonetheless, they were relieved to have recovered the most sentimental piece.
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Caitlin called In reference to locating her necklace, that was lost on the beach. She told me she had left to go home, but knew the exact location where it could be. She explained that she took the necklace off, and placed them inside her hat, which she then placed on her blanket for safe keeping. When she was getting ready to leave for the day, she had forgotten about the necklace, and placed the hat on her head and started walking up the dune path to head home. It was very windy that day and at one point the hat had blown off her head. After retrieving the hat, she continued over the walkway. When she got to the top, she realized she had placed her necklace in the hat and it was gone. She went back to take a look he wasn’t able to find anything. I was able to go the following morning, and after about 20 minutes I was able to locate the necklace. Unfortunately, the cross was nowhere to be found. My guess is the cross never came out of the hat and was lost in a different location.