Platinum Engagement and Wedding Ring, Lost In Gorham, Maine Backyard, Found With A Metal Detector
Return and Recovery #47
On Saturday, July 13th, I had just returned from Bridgton, Maine, after recovering a ring, in the water. As I was writing the story about that recovery and return, I saw a text message, come in, at 2:26pm. It read
“Hi Dennis, my name is Kelly. I’m located in Gorham, ME. I lost my wedding ring in my backyard last night. Been searching for hours with no luck. What would your schedule look like for a search”?
I immediately called Kelly and told her I was available right now. Kelly went on to tell me that she and her family were out on the back patio and at one point, she was tossing a ball back and forth, with one of her children. Later, she realized her ring was missing. They searched the grass area, where they were tossing the ball, on their hands and knees. No luck. Then, this morning, they rented a metal detector and searched the area. Again, no luck. Kelly also told me that her ring is actually her Engagement Ring and her Wedding Ring and she had them joined together, by a jeweler, to make this just one ring.
Cheryl and I got my equipment loaded back up and headed to Kelly’s home. We arrived at 3:30pm and Kelly was there waiting for us. She took us out back and showed us the backyard and where she was standing, while throwing the ball. We all agreed that this was the most likely scenario, to losing the ring, but not the only scenario. I decided to start searching , appropriately mid yard and perform a grid search, down to the tall overgrown area, near the woods. I would then turn around, and head back towards the house. I would repeat this grid search, until I found the ring or eliminated that half of the yard. I would then try the other half of the yard. If I didn’t find it there, I would then move further from the house, into the overgrown area and then the wooded area.
I started my first sweep of the area and the only target I received was something in the ground, most likely a sprinkler head, for their irritation system. Once I got to the overgrown area, I turned around and headed back towards the house. Still nothing. I took a 1/2 step to my right and headed back towards the overgrown area and woods. I took about 2 steps towards those areas and I received a nice loud low tone and a reading of 12-07 on my VDI screen. I looked into the fairly tall grass but couldn’t see anything. I turned to Kelly and told her, “I am pretty sure this will be your ring”. I bent over, started moving the grass around and saw a bright shiny ring. I had Kelly come over and told her the ring is right there. She still couldn’t see it, because the ring had gotten, all the way down, to the dirt and was totally covered by the tall grass. I reached down, picked it up and you could just see and feel the relief, come over Kelly’s face. She was extremely thankful and continued to thank us, up until we left. Kelly did tell us that the ring, is loose on her finger and she will be addressing that issue, very soon.
Total search time was approximately 5 minutes and it was now close to 4:00pm. My second recovery and return of the day and I was ready to get home, cool off and relax. It’s been a long day, but very fruitful one and I am so fortunate, to be able to help all these people.
Its a beautiful afternoon in one of New Jerseys finest beach towns, Seaside Park. The oceans were calm, winds light and variable, which made for a perfect day of shell collecting. Dylan and his daughter set out to do just that. Unfortunately all the absolutely beautiful shells they had gathered together, just couldn’t make up for what had just happened. They were down at the very bottom of the tide line, by the drop off, picking up just one last shell, when Dylan decided to rinse off his hands and call it a day. At that very moment he watched his ring slip off his finger, and drop into the sand, just as a wave was rolling in. Even thought the ocean was as calm as we will experience here, Dylan had absolutely no luck over the next two days locating his beautiful wedding ring. When he called me and told me it had already been two days, and that it was just about dead low tide where his ring slipped off, I didn’t have a good feeling about the recovery, at that moment. What he did have in his favor was the fact that it had been dead calm, and was going to continue that way for the next few days. I told Dylan I would be on the beach for the next low tide which was day 3 of his ring being lost on the bottom of the ocean. I was out at 4 AM scouring every inch of the location he had marked with his phone in google maps, with not even one signal. Unfortunately I had prior obligations the next 2 days and would not be able to return until the following morning low tide. It was 5 AM or so, and here I am wondering around in the ocean again, but this time in about thigh deep water my machine sounds off a perfect low tone that you can tell almost in an instant was Dylan’s ring. I missed it in the first scoop, then BINGO !!!! I had his ring after 6 full days in the ocean. Believe me friends, this situation almost never exists in the state of NJ, but luckily for him it did that week. I messaged him asking for a detailed description, because all we had mentioned was white gold in our other conversations. I was pretty positive this was his ring, and the pictures confirmed that. I texted him pics and he was in total shock. We agreed to meet a few hours later for the monumental return.
