Lost Wedding Ring in the surf, Bradley Beach NJ, recovered by Edward Trapper, NJ Ring Finder
On day one of the vacation, what is the number one priority for most at the Jersey Shore ? You guessed it, head to the beach. And thats exactly what Eric and his family did. What almost ended in tragedy, ended up being a memory that will last forever. Eric was playing with his daughter down where the waves push up onto the beach, when things took a turn for the worst. His absolutely stunning wedding ring slipped off his finger and into the water, and within seconds disappeared out of sight. they searched for what seemed like hours, without any luck. Thats when Eric figured he better call for some help, knowing it may be his last chance of ever seeing his wedding ring again. He gave me all the details, and I agreed to be on location ASAP, as the tide was going to turn, and start coming in. Eric also marked the exact location with google maps on his cell phone, which is a huge benefit, especially when he was not able to meet me on the beach. I quickly searched down the slope to about knee deep without any signs of his ring. The water was ice cold, so rather than using my wetsuit, I ran back to the truck and threw on my waders. I knew it wasn’t that deep, as Erik assured me he was holding his daughters hand when the ring slipped off. I made a few more passes going just a bit deeper. Eric showed up just about then, and we confirmed the mark was right on the spot he was sitting all day long. Just a few more passes and the ring was in my scoop. Nothing better than turning tragedy, into memories.
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What would 4 young men do after their Stockton State College track meet, that’s right, go to the beach to have some fun and cool down in the pristine Jersey Shore Ocean waters. Just prior to going into the water, Brendan removed his cherished cross and chain, and clasped it around the loop on his hat for safe keeping. After they got out of the water, it was placed back around his neck, and just a few moments later, his friend noticed the cross was missing. Luckily his friend Jackson had told his mom Brenda, who was very familiar with NJ Ring Finder stories, from some of the local pages. Brendan, Jackson, and Luke had searched for quite a while without any luck, and that’s when the call came in to me for HELP. I arrived on the Lavallette beach just a short while later, got all the details and searched the entire spot without any luck. After they assured me it must be right there, I turned my metal detectors sensitivity almost as high as it would go, and on the first pass I received a very faint but steady signal, which was in fact, Brendan’s beautiful cross. Another happy ending to a fantastic beach day.
June is a great time of year, weather is warming up, school is getting out for the summer, the beach scene is almost in full swing, graduations, prom, etc. That’s when Hailey had a horrible mishap. She was at the Jersey Shore for the weekend after the prom, enjoying the beach life, when her phone totally disappeared somehow, in the soft sugar sand of Seaside Park NJ. She reached out to me 
On my way home from work I received a text from Habib. He was very anxious to see if I would be able to find his wife’s beautiful diamond earing she accidentally lost at a large family party the day before. He sent me some pics and I was relieved to see the size, due to the fact many diamond earrings are extremely hard to locate. We agreed on a mutual time to meet later in the day, and for him to bring the other earing so I would be able to scan it with my metal detector, which helps tremendously, knowing exactly what tone to listen for. With that information I am able to block out most of the other tones I will receive in a backyard setting. Once on location I met with a gentleman who showed me the entire party setup, and the main areas Saba, Habib’s wife had spent most of the time that day. I decided to begin the search, as Habib was going to be about another 15 minutes due to some heavy traffic. I had quickly covered an area where the tables were set up, especially where Saba was sitting. The yard area was quite huge, and there were many food stations, and activities going on throughout the day. Once Habib arrived I listened to the other earring, and was quite pleased with the solid low tone it gave off. With that information I was able to move quite a bit faster, due to the fact that not may signals of that type would be present. I of course would check anything fairly close. I had changed direction after the first location was done, simply due to the fact the foot traffic would be moving in the direction I was working. I made one pass, and just after I turned to make another one, BINGO, my metal detector emitted a tone that I was almost certain was Saba’s missing earing. After moving the grass around a bit, there it was pressed down even with the dirt, just out of human sight. Luckily there was no damage to the earing. I looked around to find Habib, and he had walked way over to the neighbors house, where there was valet parking, and another possible area the earring could have been hiding. When I showed Saba’s earing to him, he was it total shock, as this recovery could be labeled “a needle in a haystack” Once again all parties involved knew the tiny details to narrow down this vast search area, to just the areas where his wife had spent most of the day.
I received a call from a gentleman who was inquiring about my ring finding service. He was basically gathering information for his son, Nick. He explained that Nick was off loading some hay bales, when one of the strings grabbed his wedding ring and flung it out into the cow pasture. We discussed how my services work, which he felt was extremely reasonable. His one main concern was that they had been looking for the ring about 1 week already, with a pretty decent metal detector, and had absolutely no luck finding it. He was wondering if the same thing would happen when I came in to try and locate the ring. I had explained that unless you are extremely experienced in recovering lost items, it could be very challenging, especially in a cow pasture with about a week of rain. Talk about smelly and muddy to say the least. He was going to talk it over with his son, and assured me I would most likely get a phone call in the next day or so. This was a private location so there was no rush. As figured, Nick sent me a text asking if I wanted to give it a shot, to which I replied, absolutely! Nick’s one concern was being he had no luck, what do I think the odds of me finding the ring were. I assured Nick that if he was 100% positive his ring came off in the manner that was explained the night before, I was just about that positive I would be able to recover his ring. We made arrangements to meet after work that day. Once I arrived I put on my boots and out to the location we went. Again, as I do with every, I went over and over again exactly what, where, and how the ring flew off. After about 25 minutes covering every inch in multiple directions, all I had was a pouch full of trash. Actually, I was starting to think his ring may have not came off where he said. We took a few steps back to survey the location, and the only thing possible was the hay trailer was about 10’ or so closer to the road side of the field. I worked one or two paths from the already covered spot, and my machine let out the sweet sound of success!!!! I bent over and pushed the slop around until my pin pointer held a steady sound, and just as I figured, there was Nicks ring. I so so love when my clients are positive they know when their items fly off. Thank you agin Nick, it was a pleasure.
Kate reached out to me wanting to know if it was possible to locate her engagement that slipped off her finger during the day somewhere at the beach. It was late in the evening, and after determining that it was close to high tide when it most likely came off, it would be best to wait until the early morning low tide. We arranged to meet early the next morning at the dune walkover. As we were heading to the location I had asked her to mark in google maps we talked about the main things she could remember leading up the the ring disappearing. Once we got to the spot, she showed me some pictures she had, before and after the ring went missing. Something didn’t look just right, but I figured I would check the area that was marked. After coming up empty handed I asked her to see the pics again, it was then I knew that was not quit the right location. I adjusted the location about 40′ to the north, and things looked just right, including the piles of seaweed that had pushed high up on the hill the prior day when the pics were taken. Kate confirmed after looking at the pics that this was absolutely the right location. Combined with the rough surf, was the fact that she was boogie boarding, and that is never a good thing when doing a recovery. Kate did remember one wave that knocked her down, where she lost the board, and that was luckily close to the beach in waist deep water. I decided to hit that area real quick, and while Kate was in about knee deep water looking, I got a signal that made my eyes open wide. With the waves crashing right where I was, I took extra time to zero in on the exact spot, and hoped to grab it on the first scoop. Sure enough I had it on the first try, BINGO, it was her absolutely stunning ring!!!!! Kate had no idea what had just taken place just a few feet behind her, as I scooted up the hill , past the waves to get a better look and clean it off. At that moment I decided to make a video to capture her response, which you will see I’m not very good at. (Will be posted soon) Her reaction was something that makes this profession SO SO rewarding that no words could ever explain.
I was at work when I received a call from George inquiring about possibly recovering his family heirloom ring from his lagoon. We went over the details of when and how the ring was lost, and knowing the area quite well, decided it would be best if I swung by prior to committing to do the recovery. A few days later I met George at his house and after going over exactly what he did when the ring flew off into the lagoon, we decided with the 5′ tide swing this had to be done at low tide. The following week worked perfect with our schedules. My first attempt didn’t work out so well, it was blazing hot, the greenhead flies were eating us alive, and the mud on the bottom was black and bottomless. After about 2 hours I threw in the towel but assured him I would be returning for another attempt. I believe at that point George had given up hope of ever seeing his ring again. Over the next week or so our schedules didn’t work with the tide, so he agreed for me to swing by when conditions were right, whether he was home or not. WELL, after some adjustments to my recovery approach, and taking my assistant wife LEE, and good luck charm, the ring was in my scoop within 15 min. I knew this would mean the world to him, so I decided to do a surprise return, and set the whole thing up with his wife and son. I arrived just as they were getting back from fishing, put the ring in my scoop, and headed down the driveway where we met. We all talked a bit, I asked how they did fishing, then told him I did really well, and put my scoop out. He was kinda puzzled, and I said look in the bottom, and when he did, he could not believe his eyes. Then we let him in on the whole plan. I have the video of the return, just need to edit it, stay tuned. That moment right there is what makes doing recoveries so rewarding.