lost jewelry Tag | Page 10 of 83 | The Ring Finders

Labor Day ended on a depressing note for John, who lost his year-old wedding ring in chest-deep water a couple of hundred feet offshore.  I received a call from him in early evening, asking if I was ‘the ring finder’ and if I could search for his ring.  I of course said that I would, but it would have to be the next day as we were entertaining holiday guests.  We met at the beach near low tide the following day and I did a 2-hour search in the area where John felt that he’d lost the ring.  I called a halt as it was getting dark but I told John I’d be back the next day to expand the search area.  On reflection, he thought maybe he’d been somewhat farther south when the ring slipped from his finger, so I planned to work that area when I returned.  After about an hour of searching that area the next day, I got a sweet booming signal that cried out ‘RING’ and soon had John’s hefty wedding band in my scoop.  With a call to John, we agreed to meet at the beach the next morning, and I had the great pleasure of being able to give John his beautiful ring and share in the joy of its return.  Another great day for The Ring Finders!

John’s buttery gold ring.

Definitely a lead contender in the book of smiles.

John’s ring, back where it belongs.

As I was carrying my metal-detecting gear to search the beach for Rory’s husband’s wedding ring yesterday (my primary mission) I had a chance encounter with Brendan, who was just leaving.  He half-jokingly asked that if I found it, would I return the wedding ring that he’d lost there two weeks previously.  Well, here was another great opportunity to help someone overcome an unfortunate circumstance and to build on The Ring Finders story, so I asked him to walk with me to where he’d lost his ring and give me the details.  I gleaned all the necessary information, told Brendan that I’d look for his ring at first opportunity, and asked him to leave contact information on my phone so that I could reach him if I was successful.  It turned out that after he left, my primary search (for Rory’s husband’s ring) was successful within a short time, so after Rory and I celebrated that find and return, I continued on to the area of Brendan’s ring loss hoping that I could score a second success for the day.  Some might say that it was the doing of St. Anthony, but in any case Brendan’s ring slid under my detector coil and propelled itself into my scoop within about 45 minutes.  Yay!  It’s not often that a detecting day offers up a double!

I made call to Brendan to let him know I’d found his ring and we set up a reunion meeting for today at the beach, where I returned the ring.  Brendan’s smile in the picture tells the rest of the story.  I’m pleased as can be that our chance encounter led to a happy ending!

Brendan with his ring.

Rory’s post on Facebook alerted me to the fact that her husband had lost his wedding band at the beach two days prior.  I contacted her and we set up a time to meet just before low tide, similar to the situation when the ring was lost.  It was a beautiful afternoon when we arrived at the beach, and it didn’t take long to go through the details of the ring characteristics, circumstances of the loss, and location.  Rory had a very good description of where the ring was likely to be found, probably in knee-deep water, and I set to work on a search pattern.  It took only about twenty minutes before I had a rich booming signal that was certain to be a ring, and it took only a few moments to dig the target and pluck from my scoop a nice wedding band which was uniquely identifiable as the lost ring according to the inscription inside.  Rory’s surprise and joy when I walked up to her and held out the ring were enough to keep us both smiling for a month of Sundays!  Thank you, Rory, for the opportunity to search for and recover this precious item for you and your husband.

Rory with her husband’s ring.