I am expert metal detectorist with the knowledge, skill, and experience to recover your lost items on land and underwater. Please text or call as soon as possible: (703)-598-1435
September 27th: Recovered an engagement ring lost in 20 feet of water.
Jack’s Waterfront Bar in Morehead City has a deck built over the water with a beautiful view. It was a great location for Ashley and Jon to become engaged with a gathering of family and friends. Jon had a ring specially made to match the wedding band which belonged to Ashley’s mother. They were posing for photographs on that Friday evening the one of a kind ring was dropped. It rolled between the boards and into the water! They hired a local salvage diver who searched with a metal detector, but he could not find the ring.
Jacks Waterfront Bar, Morehead City, NC
Google Map: Dot showing location of search in Morehead City
Enter the heroine of our story–Megan, a good friend of the couple, contacted the creator of The Ring Finders, Chris Turner. Chris put her in touch with the very successful Ring Finder in our region, Brian Rudolph. Brian is incredible at researching all the information needed for a big job like this. He even spoke with the salvage diver to get the details on the environmental conditions. Unfortunately Brian was unable to make the trip, so he referred Ashley and Jon to me. Brian contacted me and gave me the information he had about the conditions. I got a text from Ashley and we discussed the possibility of a search. As luck would have it, we were planning to leave the very next day for a family vacation to Nag’s Head, NC. Since we would be in NC, a twelve hour round trip would be cut in half.
My son Matthew gave up his first day of vacation to join me as my safety diver. We shared the driving and enjoyed the time together. Arriving at the site early Monday afternoon, we met Ashley, Jon, his dad Trevor, and Uncle Sonny. They showed us where the ring dropped, and then took a boat across to Sugarloaf Island to wait with their three large dogs. The floating dock in front of the bar became my gear staging location and made entering and exiting the water easier.
In the water
Search Area
Using Brian’s excellent information about the diving and bottom conditions, I had all the equipment needed for the search. The water was 75 degrees, it was high tide, and visibility was about four feet. I was well into my preliminary search with a pin-pointer detector, when just at the edge of my view, something large swam past. As it passed by in the murky water, I saw the tail and realized it was big sting ray. The graceful visitor certainly made me a little more aware of my surroundings…
The area under the bar’s dock had the usual discarded building materials mixed with shells, silt and other trash. Because the ring might be masked by other metal, I needed to carefully check all signals. I found screws, bits of aluminum, and coins. After about an hour I surfaced to change tanks and warm-up. While on the dock, a fisherman was getting ready to drop bait. After my encounter with the large ray, I didn’t hesitate to ask him to move farther down the waterfront. Thankfully he did. While on my second dive, I heard a lot of boat traffic noises as fishing charters returned from their offshore trips. Matthew had been following my search from above and suggested I concentrate a little farther west from our weighted drop line. I took his advice, and that is where I found Ashley’s ring. I surfaced and shouted with joy! It must have been pretty loud because the family heard me from the island and headed our way.
Ring!
Returning to the Dock
Back in Hand
This Says it All
While we were enjoying the elation of the find, Trevor mentioned it was good I was out of the water because of sharks. Matthew and I looked over at the nearby dock as fishermen where cleaning their catch and dumping the remains into the water. While we were driving back to Nags Head, Megan called to congratulate us on a successful recovery.
Matthew Jon Ashley and Rob
There were some things about this recovery that were serendipitous. First, Megan called Chris Turner, creator of The Ring Finders directory. Second, we were leaving for NC the day after Ashley called. Next, Brian’s details were spot on, and fourth the weather was beautiful. Fortunately, there was a floating dock (not shown on the satellite photo) and was a slack high tide. My son was available to be my safety diver, drive, and help with the heavy gear. Finally, my skills, experience, and equipment were crucial to locating the ring.
Several weeks later, Matthew sent me some pictures of large bull sharks caught at the same location of our search. Mentally, I know I’m not on the shark’s menu, but it was a lot easier to be brave before seeing those photographs!!
From Aug 2018 Topsail Online Gazette. About 9 feet long…that is Jack’s Bar in the Background!
Don’t give up. Many of my clients have bought, borrowed, or rented a metal detector and then called me. I have thousands of hours detecting on land and underwater. If you have tried using a detector without success, please call to see if I can help.
Rob Ellis: Metal Detector Expert… Call/text ASAP, (703)-598-1435
A couple of metal detecting buddies of mine called me up and asked if I wanted to join in on a search. While out hunting they were approached by a man whose son had lost a cross pendant with his wife’s ashes in it. I didn’t have my equipment with me but seeing that the site was just off my route home, I stopped to say “Hello” and see how it was going. What happened next was very unexpected. Watch the video to see the ending.
