Ring set recovered in Oconto County Lake
My fellow Ring Finder friend, Jeff Wettstein received a voicemail on Tuesday, August 22nd, about 9:45 PM
from Judy sharing that her mother lost her wedding ring in the water by her lake home in Oconto County.
He called her that evening to learn the specifics like how was lost, where it was lost, asking
“Are you sure she lost the ring in the lake?…etc. Judy’s mother is 95 years young and still swims in the
lake with a pool noodle and does have some memory loss. Jeff learned that Judy’s brother from Virginia
was visiting and had been with their mother during the time she was swimming. He also learned the ring
was lost the last week of July…about 3 weeks before Jeff received the call to see if he would be willing to
do the recovery. Jeff was sent a picture of the ring. It turned out to be a two-ring set, wedding and engagement, soldered together, worn since 1955, which made it even more imperative to be found.
Jeff carefully searched the shallow area first for about 5 hours covering all he could before the water was over his head. He found all the usual suspects of junk, a few coins, and a mood ring. Jeff received more details from Judy’s brother on the path where “Mom” swam. He mentioned to Judy that he would come back another day and would dive for it.
Jeff then reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to participate in diving for the ring since it was not in shallow water. Jeff has a hookah pump and 60-foot hoses, so we don’t need SCUBA tanks, though we are both certified divers. The regulators and buoyancy compensator (bc) vests are the same as SCUBA, as well as the masks and weights. One person must stay “up top” to make sure the compressor is operating and the air hose is guarded from curious boaters and jet skiers.
The water was between 8 and 10 feet deep, and I was submerged at least two hours. I liked it down there, but was searching blind because the silt billowed up. It was all by feel and sound. I followed the white grid pvc pipe with one hand and pressed a metal detecting coil into the lake bed with the other, waving it back and forth. There weren’t many signals, but you have be thorough. After a few false alarms, a nail and a few cans, I heard a signal near the raft and started feeling for it in the silt with my fingers. The signal kept sinking through the pudding, then slowed it’s decent
Re-united!
The beautiful recovered ring set!
The dive team, mom, and daughter.
when it hit thicker layers of mud. I lost it twice, then it stabilized about 18 inches deep in some cold clay. I started grabbing for it and waving handfuls of clay over my coil, hoping the signal wouldn’t sink too deep to recover. Finally, my fist beeped, so I knew something was in there, and it felt like a ring set. I finned to the surface to examine the object in the sun, and there it was! Jeff presented it to the family. Everyone was smiling, so our day was made!
Alena called and left a message that she lost her necklace in the sand on LBI, and wondered if I would be able to help find it. After going over some of the details we arranged to meet on the dune walkover. While walking down to the spot she refreshed my memory on a few details and I began to search in the area she had marked out earlier. That spot came up empty so we moved south and did and area right next to the original spot, and no luck there either. Another friend had just arrived and was point to the sand, showing her she buggy wheels heading north just a few feet from her original location. With that said I made 2 paths and found the necklace about 5” down in the soft sugar sand. The key to successful recoveries is getting back to the correct location many hours or even days later. 
https://njringfinder.com
I was on the beach in LBI doing a recovery for a lady that had lost a ring the night before, when Anthony came walking over. He asked if I was able to help him. He lost his necklace in the sand just a few hours earlier. I told him I would be over as soon as I was finished, and asked if he could mark out the area prior to me getting there. When I got there he explained exactly what had happened, so I began looking in the area he had placed his beach cart and tackle box. Not long after, I got a nice sharp tone that I suspected would be his necklace, and sure enough it was, not far away from where he had set up for a day of fishing. Needless to say Anthony was totally relieve to have it back in his possession.
