#MaineMetalDectorRental Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost Platinum Engagement Ring Lost in The Backyard Grass, Found With A Metal Detector in Portland, Maine

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

๐Ÿšจ ๐‹๐Ž๐’๐“ ๐ˆ๐ ๐€ ๐…๐‹๐€๐’๐‡: ๐–๐ก๐ž๐ง ๐š ๐’๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐†๐š๐ฆ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐๐š๐œ๐ค๐ฒ๐š๐ซ๐ ๐…๐ž๐ญ๐œ๐ก ๐“๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง๐ฌ ๐ˆ๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐š ๐‡๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐›๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ค๐ข๐ง๐  ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฆ๐š๐ซ๐ž… ๐Ÿพ๐Ÿ’

๐Ÿ’ ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐œ๐š๐ฆ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐Š๐ข๐ฅ๐ž๐ฒ, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ˆ ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ก๐ž๐š๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐ก๐ž๐ž๐ซ ๐ก๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐›๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ค ๐ข๐ง ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐ฏ๐จ๐ข๐œ๐ž ๐›๐ž๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ก๐ž ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ก๐ž๐ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž.

She had just lost a ๐๐ฅ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐„๐ง๐ ๐š๐ ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐‘๐ข๐ง๐ .

But as anyone in this line of work knows, itโ€™s never just about the metal or the diamond.

This wasnโ€™t a ring you could simply replace with an insurance check. This was her ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ง๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ’๐ฌ ๐ž๐ง๐ ๐š๐ ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ , passed down to Kiley a few years ago after her grandmother had passed away.

It was a tangible, priceless connection to a woman she loved deeplyโ€”a piece of family history woven into precious metal, now lost somewhere out there.

When Kiley called, she wasn’t just looking for a piece of jewelry. She was looking for a miracle. โœจ

๐Ÿพ ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐๐š๐œ๐ค๐ฒ๐š๐ซ๐ ๐ƒ๐ข๐ฌ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐š๐ง๐œ๐ž

The details came rushing out as she explained what happened. It was a regular afternoonโ€”๐ฌ๐ก๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง๐ž๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฆ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค and took her dog out into the ๐›๐š๐œ๐ค๐ฒ๐š๐ซ๐ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐š ๐ ๐š๐ฆ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ญ๐œ๐ก.

Itโ€™s a routine so many of us do without a second thought. Kiley would throw the ball, and her dog would happily chase it down and bring it back.

But on one specific throw, time seemed to slow down.

As she released the ball, she felt that irreplaceable ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฉ ๐ซ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ซ, flying invisibly into the thick backyard grass.

Panic instantly set in. โฑ๏ธ

She spent hours on her hands and knees, desperately searching through every blade of grass, but the backyard refused to give it up. That’s when she realized she needed backup and reached out to The Ring Finders of Maine.

๐Ÿ“ ๐‘๐š๐œ๐ž ๐€๐ ๐š๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ ๐“๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ฅ๐š๐ง๐

We agreed to meet at her home in Portland,Maineย  the very following evening, right when Kiley returned home from work once again.

Even though the ring was contained within her own backyard, we knew we wanted to find it ASAP and get it safely back on her finger. When it comes to family heirlooms like this, time is always of the essence.

The next day, ๐‚๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ๐ฅ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ˆ headed into Portland,Maine. It was late afternoon, and Kiley had just arrived home from work when we pulled up.

She immediately took us out back, and we went over the previous eveningโ€™s events. Kiley explained that she had stayed pretty stationary while throwing the ball to her dog. She took us to the exact spot she had been standing and reenacted the motion and direction of the throw.

Unfortunately, Kiley only felt the ring coming offโ€”she had no idea how far it had traveled.

I reassured her based on my experience: when someone throws a ball, a loose ring almost always flies off during the follow-through. With the arm moving in a downward trajectory and gravity working its magic, the ring usually ends up within 5 to 10 feet right in front of them. ๐Ÿงญ

โšก ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐’๐ž๐š๐ซ๐œ๐ก ๐๐ž๐ ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ

I fired up the ๐Œ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ฅ๐š๐› ๐Œ๐š๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐œ๐จ๐ซ๐ž. My plan was to start a precise grid search just in front of where Kiley had been standing, working my way toward the fence and swinging back and forth toward the garage.

If it wasn’t there, I’d expand to the sides and behind her.

It was time to find Kileyโ€™s sentimental engagement ring.

I set the detector down in the area to begin. I didn’t even have a chance to start swinging it yet.

๐Ÿ’ฅ ๐๐„๐„๐! ๐Ÿ’ฅ

Right there, I received the exact tone I had been hoping forโ€”a loud, repeatable low tone and a low conductive Target Identification (TID) reading of 07.

My heart skipped a beat. While a man’s larger platinum ring would register much higher on the detector, an ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ• ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐š๐›๐ฌ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ฐ๐ž๐ž๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐จ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐š ๐๐ž๐ฅ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐š๐ง’๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ .

In less than 5 to 6 seconds, before the grid search could even truly begin, my very first target was exactly what we were praying for.

๐€๐‘๐„ ๐˜๐Ž๐” ๐Š๐ˆ๐ƒ๐ƒ๐ˆ๐๐† ๐Œ๐„?! ๐Ÿคฏ

I pulled out my pinpointer, but before I could even press the button, I looked down. The ring wasn’t sitting out in the openโ€”it was completely buried in the turf, but I caught just a tiny, unmistakable sliver of the setting and the diamond.

That was all it took. I knew instantly it was exactly what I was looking for.

๐‰๐”๐’๐“ ๐‚๐‘๐€๐™๐˜!!! ๐Ÿฅณ

๐Ÿ˜ญ ๐‡๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฒ ๐“๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฌ & ๐’๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ

I turned around, looked at Kiley, and let her know that her ring had already been found.

Stunned, she looked at me and gasped, “๐€๐ซ๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ?!”

She immediately rushed over. At first, she couldn’t spot the ring camouflaged in the thick blades of grass, so I carefully pointed it out.

The moment her eyes locked onto it, ๐ก๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฌ ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ž๐, shimmering just like the diamond itself. I picked up the ring and handed it back to her. ๐Ÿ’ง๐Ÿ’Ž

Instantly, you could see the crushing weight of the last 24 hours leave her body. The stress vanished, and a massive, radiant smile broke out across her face.

Her grandmotherโ€™s engagement ring was finally back where it belongsโ€”safely on Kiley’s finger.

Seeing Kiley just beaming, full of life, and sharing relief-filled laughter with us is exactly why we do this. There is truly no better feeling in the world than restoring these irreplaceable pieces of family history and watching the owners slide them back on.

Another ring back on the finger! We have the best job in the world, and I absolutely love my job.

๐‘๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ, ๐ข๐Ÿ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ, ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฌ. โค๏ธ

๐Ÿ ๐‹๐Ž๐’๐“ ๐‰๐„๐–๐„๐‹๐‘๐˜ ๐ƒ๐”๐‘๐ˆ๐๐† ๐˜๐€๐‘๐ƒ ๐–๐Ž๐‘๐Š? ๐‘๐„๐€๐ƒ ๐“๐‡๐ˆ๐’! ๐Ÿ‚

Yard work, playing fetch, and seasonal cleanup are prime times for rings, bracelets, and watches to go flying into the brush. If you suddenly notice your jewelry is missing, time is of the essence, but what you do next matters most to ensure a successful recovery!

๐Ÿ›‘ ๐‚๐‘๐ˆ๐“๐ˆ๐‚๐€๐‹ ๐’๐“๐„๐: ๐’๐“๐Ž๐ ๐€๐๐ƒ ๐ƒ๐Ž ๐๐Ž๐“ ๐ƒ๐ˆ๐’๐“๐”๐‘๐ ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐€๐‘๐„๐€! ๐Ÿ›‘

* โŒ ๐ƒ๐จ ๐๐Ž๐“ ๐ซ๐š๐ค๐ž ๐จ๐ซ ๐›๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ž๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ: Raking can easily pull a ring away from its drop point or bury it much deeper under the soil.

* โŒ๐ƒ๐จ ๐๐Ž๐“ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐›๐ซ๐š๐ง๐œ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ ๐จ๐ซ ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฉ ๐›๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ก: Moving yard debris by hand can easily kick up a ring or accidentally push it into dense undergrowth.

* ๐Ÿ“ ๐Œ๐š๐ซ๐ค ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐จ๐ญ: Try to identify exactly where you were standing when it happened, mark it with a lawn chair or stick, and leave the area untouched.

๐“๐ก๐ž ๐‘๐ข๐ง๐  ๐…๐ข๐ง๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Œ๐š๐ข๐ง๐ž provide professional, high-end metal detecting search services to recover your lost valuables quickly and safely without turning your lawn upside down.

๐Ÿ“ž ๐‚๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ž๐๐ข๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐›๐ž๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐ข๐ , ๐ซ๐š๐ค๐ž, ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐š๐ง๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ! We are here to bring your memories back home.

 

Sterling Silver Necklace And Pendant Of Fatherโ€™s Fingerprint Lost In Sebago Lake, Maine, Found In The Water With A Metal Detector

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

โœจ LOST AT THE BOTTOM OF SEBAGO LAKE: A PIECE OF A FATHERโ€™S MEMORY โœจ

On August 9th, my phone started blowing up. Tag after tag, notification after notification. The Ring Finders of Maine community was rallying, and they were pointing me directly toward a heartbreaking post on the “I Boat on Sebago Lake, Maine” Facebook group.

A woman named Gretchen had posted a plea that instantly brought a lump to my throat:

“This might be a long shot but if anyone is at the Sandbar today and happens to find a necklace that looks exactly like this, please send me or Jacob Burns a message, he lost it yesterday we think around 5:00pm and it is very special to him. Thanks in advance! Apologies for the blurry photo but it should say dad on one side and has a thumbprint on the other.”

The post included a few blurry photos, but the gravity of what was lost was crystal clear. It was a heavy sterling silver chain and pendant. On one side, a deeply etched fingerprint. On the other side, the word “DAD” followed by his birth and death dates.

WOW. ๐Ÿ’”

๐ŸŒŠ AN IRREPLACEABLE LOSS

My heart sank. Jake and Gretchen have been dating for a few years now, and as his girlfriend, she knew exactly how much that piece meant to him. Jake’s father had passed away less than a year ago.

This wasn’t just a piece of jewelry. This wasn’t something insurance could replace. This was a priceless, irreplaceable piece of his dadโ€”and right now, it was sitting somewhere at the bottom of the vast, shifting sands of the Sebago Lake Sandbar.

Thankfully, the amazing people of Facebook knew exactly what to do. The comments section exploded with people urging Gretchen to call in the reinforcements:

  • “The ring finders of Maine! They are amazing at finding all the special lost things.”
  • “I love to watch their adventures. Jacob Burns reach out to them, theyโ€™re your best shot.”

Gretchen and Jake did exactly that. When they reached out to me, they explained that while they knew the general area where theyโ€™d been hanging out on The Sandbar, Jake hadn’t realized the necklace was gone until much later. They had already gone back and tried searching on their own, but their efforts proved futile. By now, the heavy sterling silver pendant was most likely swallowed up by the sand in waist-deep water.

With thousands of weekend boaters, shifting currents, and the endless sand of Sebago, the odds were heavily against us. But looking at the photo of that thumbprint, I knew we had to gear up and give this family everything we had.

๐Ÿ›‘ THE CURVEBALLS BEGIN

Planning this recovery was about to throw us a few major curveballs.

Jake’s first thought was that Gary and I could simply wade across the lake from the Sebago Lake State Park shore to reach the sandbar. Right away, my alarm bells went off. As a rule, it is highly advised NOT to attempt to reach the sandbar from the state park. The water levels change rapidly, and the area is full of dangerous drop-offs and hidden troughs.

Our safety is always paramount. Picture two “old guys” carrying heavy, expensive detecting equipment through deep, unpredictable water without knowing where the bottom drops outโ€”there was absolutely no way I was going to let us attempt that.

Jake then offered a backup plan: he had a boat and could take us over himself. But with his intense work schedule, he only had a few specific days available, and it would have to be a 6:00 AM launch.

An early morning start was critical. If you know the Sebago Lake Sandbar, you know it gets incredibly busy fast, with boats lined up down the entire area. Trying to swing detectors around anchored boats and crowds of swimmers is nearly impossible. More importantly, the sandbar is massive. If Jake couldn’t be right there with us to point out the exact grid where they had been standing, we would be looking for a needle in a water-covered haystack.

Once we finally locked in a date to search, all we needed was a little cooperation from above. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. Our first attempt was completely rained out, forcing us to push the mission back a full week until Jakeโ€™s next day off.

By the time the big day finally arrived, that precious sterling silver pendant and necklace had been missing at the bottom of the lake for over two weeks. Two weeks of shifting waves, churning sand, and endless boat traffic.

๐Ÿ›ฅ๏ธ THE 6:00 AM LAUNCH

Gary and I met up with Jake and Gretchen promptly at 6:00 AM. The lake was completely calm as Jake navigated us out of Jordan Bay. We cut through the cool morning air, passing between Frye Island and the towering heights of Fryes Leap, heading straight across Sebago Lake toward the state park and the massive sandbar just to the west.

The boat ride took about 15 to 20 minutes, and the moment Jake threw the anchor into the shallow water, Gary and I were in the zone. In less than 5 minutes, we had our gear ready and stepped down into the water.

There wasn’t much sun that morningโ€”just a few stray rays cutting through a cloudy, heavy, and overcast sky. The boats hadn’t arrived yet, and the water was quiet, but the gray light made it hard to see anything beneath the surface.

Having never been out to the sandbar before, I was secretly incredibly concerned about what lay beneath the sand. Knowing the insane amount of boats and beverages consumed out there, I was preparing for the absolute worst. A massive carpet of trashโ€”bottle caps and aluminum pull tabsโ€”would completely slow us down. Metal detectors read those items similarly to jewelry, meaning we would have to stop and dig every single piece of junk to make sure we didn’t accidentally sweep right over the sterling silver necklace.

Jake didn’t just sit on the boat and watch; he jumped right into the water with us. He thought we should head east, parallel to the shore, keeping in the waist-deep water.

To battle the clock and the threat of hidden trash, Gary and I decided to perform a synchronized “snowplow” grid search. I took the lead in front, and Gary locked in right behind me and slightly to my left. By overlapping our detector swings in this tight formation, we were able to clear a massive 10-foot-wide path with every single step we took forward.

๐Ÿ•ต๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ THE SEARCH IS ON

We set out with Jake leading the way, guiding us along their path from two weeks ago. As we swept, our detectors would beep, and we’d scoopโ€”digging a coin here and there, and the occasional pull tab or bottle cap. But after about a half hour of grid searching, Gary and I stopped and looked at each other in total shock.

We couldn’t believe just how little trash we were actually digging! We were so incredibly surprised and happy to see how beautifully clean the lake bed was. It turns out the boaters out here are incredibly responsible, respecting the waters and not polluting the lake with trash. A BIG SHOUT OUT TO THE BOATERS!!! ๐Ÿ™Œ

Right around this time, Jake suddenly redirected us. He had been standing in the water studying photos on his phone from the exact day he lost the pendant, trying to line up landmarks. Realizing we were a little too far in toward the shore, he had us adjust and move further out toward the open water.

With our original snowplow grid broken by the move, I formulated a new plan on the fly. I told Gary I would head out deeper and slightly closer to the boat, while he could stay closer to where we were. We would grid this brand-new area from opposite sides, cutting a path through the sand and meeting each other somewhere right in the middle.

The Sandbar was not giving up many targets. We waded into our new positions under the overcast sky, lowered our coils back into the water, and kept swinging.

๐Ÿšจ THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

We had been in the water searching for close to an hour when the quiet morning air suddenly shattered. Across the gray water, I heard Gary and Jake getting incredibly animated.

Then Gary yelled the words we had all been praying for across the open water: HE HAD FOUND BOTH THE NECKLACE AND THE PENDANT! ๐ŸŽ‰

Even from 60 feet away, the smile on Jakeโ€™s face was absolutely unforgettable. It split across his face, bright and clear under the cloudy sky. OUTSTANDING!!!

I quickly waded my way over to them, and the sheer joy and exuberance radiating from Jakeโ€™s entire body was unmistakable. He was yelling across the water to Gretchen on the boat, his voice booming with pure relief and happiness, telling her that he had his father’s pendant once again.

What followed was a blur of celebratory handshakes, triumphant high fives, and a wave of pure emotion that I will never forget. Jake loved his father so deeply and wanted this pendant back so badly. It wasn’t just metalโ€”it was a literal, physical piece of his father. Two long weeks of worrying, a rained-out search, and a massive body of water couldn’t keep them apart.

Once we finally made it back on shore, the celebration didn’t stop. Gary and I were showered with an endless stream of “thank you so much,” heartfelt handshakes, and massive hugs from both Jake and Gretchen.

โค๏ธ WHY WE DO THIS

Standing there on the shore, watching the relief wash over them, it hits you right in the chest. There is something profoundly sacred about a father and son’s love for each otherโ€”a bond so powerful that it transcends even death.

That connection is exactly why Gary and I do this. Our passion isn’t just about finding lost pieces of metal; itโ€™s about bringing irreplaceable memories back to the surface.

You see, objects can be replaced by insurance, but this item is different. This piece is the memories. It’s the tangible reminder of a father’s hand, a dad’s guidance, and a lifetime of love. Now, those precious memories are exactly where they belongโ€”resting safely in the sterling silver thumbprint that Jake wears around his neck, held close to his heart forever. โค๏ธ

Gary and I truly have the best job in the world, and we love every single second of what we do. It’s moments like this that remind us of our promise to all of you: If it matters to you, it matters to us.

Another priceless memory recovered by The Ring Finders of Maine. Never lose hope! ๐Ÿ™ ๐Ÿ” โœจ

๐ŸŽฌ WATCH THE CELEBRATION!

Want to see the exact moment the magic happened? ๐ŸŽฅ We released the video Reel last night right here on The Ring Finders of Maine Facebook page!Head over to our Reels tab to check it out and see the pure joy and celebration in the waters of Sebago Lake just after the recovery. You won’t want to miss it!

๐Ÿšจ LOST SOMETHING IRREPLACEABLE? WE CAN HELP! ๐Ÿšจ

Have you lost a wedding ring, a sentimental heirloom, or a priceless memorial piece in the water, the sand, or the snow? Don’t wait, and don’t give up hope! Shifting sands and moving waters can hide items quickly, but our heavy-duty metal detecting equipment and decades of experience can find what you thought was gone forever.

Call Dennis at The Ring Finders of Maine today:

๐Ÿ“ž 207-423-3027

  • Let’s get your memories back where they belong!

Titanium Wedding Ring Lost In The Ocean Water, At Short Sands Beach, York, Maine. Found With A Metal Detector

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL RECOVERY IN YORK, MAINE! ๐Ÿ’๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿ™Œ

Just at 1:29 PM today, I received a text from Brian with a message that every married person dreads. Around 1:00 PM, he had lost his wedding ring in the water at Short Sands Beach in York, Maine.

Brian had been out in the ocean playing volleyball with his children when the ring slipped off. Fortunately, he was able to provide incredibly precise details about exactly where he was. His text read:

“Hi Dennis, my name is Brian W*******. I lost my wedding ring today in the water at Short Sands Beach in York. It was around 1pm, high tide was 12:30. I was only waste deep at the time, about 30ish yards from the rocks on the left side, the Union Bluff Hotel side. Is it at all possible you might be in the area?”

๐Ÿ•’ The Quick Reply & Setup

I immediately replied: “Hi, I am at a Dr appointment, with my mother. We should be finished very soon and I can come as soon as she is done. Do you see or feel it coming off?”

Brian quickly texted back: “I was standing in one spot hitting a volleyball. I didnโ€™t see it come off but it definitely did while playing. I know the tide goes out pretty far.”

I let Brian know that my mother would soon be done with her appointment and I would be on my way to meet up with him. Once I brought my mother safely home, Cheryl and I geared up and headed straight to York, Maine.

๐Ÿ–๏ธ Formulating the Strategy

We arrived at Short Sands Beach around 3:15 PM and contacted Brian to get his location. We walked down past Fun-O-Rama to meet him, and he immediately took us down to the area where the volleyball game had taken place.

With low tide still three hours away, it was time to formulate a strategy. Brian told me the lost band was a Titanium Wedding Ring. He knew exactly where he had been standing to play volleyball, but as any ring finder knows, a ring can fly off a finger in absolutely any direction when you strike a ball.

Because the beach was far too busy to navigate the crowds on the dry sand, my game plan focused exclusively on the wet sand. I decided to grid search north to south, parallel with the shoreline and the receding water. I told Brian I would start about 20 feet closer to the shore and sweep an approximately 60-to-75-foot width of the wet beach. This would ensure I covered everything straight through his playing zone and all the way down to the low tide line.

๐Ÿ” Ok, Letโ€™s Go Find a Wedding Ring!

Fired up and ready, I flipped on the metal detector, dialed in the settings for the wet salt sand, and took my first sweeps.

Almost immediately, a challenge popped up. The wet sand was still packed with people, beach chairs, and gear. Since I couldn’t sweep right under active beachgoers, I had to pivot my technique. Whenever I ran into a crowded spot I couldn’t access, I dug a couple of distinct holes in the sand right next to it. This was my marker systemโ€”a visual reminder of exactly where I needed to double back and search later as the crowds packed up for the day.

Slowly, I worked my way down toward the surf. My detector was singing, but it was just the usual beach junkโ€”pull tabs, foil, and the occasional coin. After nearly two hours of relentless swinging, I hit the low tide line. I doubled back to sweep every single area I had previously marked with my holes. Still nothing.

๐Ÿ›‘ Facing a Football Field of Sand

Brian and I huddled up to rethink our plan. There was no way that titanium ring had rolled all the way down to the low tide mark on its own. Since he never felt it slip off, I suggested a new theory: the ring might be sitting much higher up on the wet beach, or even in the dry sand around his family’s original setup.

I estimated it would take me another hour to grind out the space between my starting line and their beach blankets.

Expanding the grid meant I was now staring down a search area the size of a literal football field. It was a massive amount of ground to cover alone, and I knew that if the ring didnโ€™t turn up here, we would have to completely reassess the situation.

๐Ÿšจ The Best Tone of the Day

By now, it was just after 5:00 PM. The beach was finally starting to clear out as I worked my grid back up towards the dunes.

Suddenly, about 30 feet higher up from my original starting point, my machine let out a beautiful, crisp low tone. It was easily the best-sounding target of the entire day.

Could this be it?

I looked over at Brian and told him the signal was incredibly promising, but I didn’t want to guarantee anything until it was out of the ground. I scooped deep into the heavy, hard-packed sand and flipped it over.

There, nestled perfectly in the clump of sand inside my scoop, a silver band caught the light. I just knew it had to be his!

Brian hurried over, took one look into the scoop, and instantly verified it was his missing titanium wedding ring!

The beach immediately erupted! High fives and hugs were exchanged, and a nearby group of beachgoers who had been silently pulling for us the entire afternoon broke out into wild cheering and clapping. Brian was absolutely ecstatic, smiling from ear to ear with his ring back where it belonged.

(๐ŸŽฌ If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure to check out the Reel we posted last night to see Brian’s live reaction, the beach crowd cheering, and all the high fives!)

โค๏ธ Why We Never Give Up

That exact rush of emotion is precisely why I refuse to give up on a hunt. I knew the ring had to be out there somewhere. When you hit the two-hour mark with empty pockets, you just have to dig deep and push onward until every single avenue has been explored.

The ring was sitting perfectly within that original 75-foot width we mapped outโ€”it was just sitting a lot higher up the beach than Brian ever realized. Was it thrown that way when his hand struck the volleyball? Was he standing a bit further up than he remembered? Did the incoming tide push it landward? We will never know. But that unpredictability is exactly why expanding your grid is so vital. You can never truly predict where a flying ring will land!

By the time we pulled it up, Brian’s wife and kids had already headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. After another celebratory handshake, Brian took off in a hurry to go surprise his family with the incredible news. Dinner was definitely going to taste a whole lot better tonight with that ring back on his finger.

I love my jobโ€”it truly is the best job in the world.

Remember, if it matters to you, it matters to us! ๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿ’โค๏ธ

 

Gold Engagement Ring Lost In The Sand, Found In Ogunquit, Maine With A Metal Detector

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

๐ŸŒˆ ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐๐Ž๐“ ๐Ž๐… ๐†๐Ž๐‹๐ƒ ๐€๐“ ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐„๐๐ƒ ๐Ž๐… ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐‘๐€๐ˆ๐๐๐Ž๐– ๐ˆ๐’ ๐‘๐„๐€๐‹! ๐Ÿ’โœจ

I received a call from a distraught Cara, and her voice carried the kind of panic every married couple dreads. ๐Ÿ˜ฐ

Cara and her husband of 7 years, Bruce, had been enjoying a beautiful day on the main beach in Ogunquit, Maine: Beautiful Place by the Sea , setting up right in front of the Norseman Resort. ๐Ÿ–๏ธ๐ŸŒŠ

As the afternoon progressed, the blue skies began to bruise. It appeared a heavy storm was rolling in from the west. โ›ˆ๏ธ

Deciding to beat the weather, they quickly packed up all their beach gear and headed back to their room. ๐ŸŽ’๐Ÿšถโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšถโ€โ™€๏ธ

But once inside, Cara’s heart completely sank. ๐Ÿ’”

She suddenly remembered taking off her precious engagement ring earlier in the day to apply lotion. For “safekeeping,” she had tucked the ring into the cup holder of her beach chair.

As any of my regular followers knowโ€”the cup holder is far from safe! ๐Ÿ›‘

Folding up those chairs launches anything inside straight into the shifting sands. ๐Ÿช‘๐Ÿ’ฅ๐Ÿ“ฟ

Cara and Bruce rushed back down to the beach, frantically scanning and digging through the sand where they had been sitting. But a manual grid search in loose sand usually produces nothing but panic and frayed nerves. โณ๐Ÿ•ต๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Thatโ€™s when they called me. ๐Ÿ“ž

Cara asked if I could come down immediately. With the weather forecast looking nastyโ€”and lightning and heavy thunder threatening to roll throughโ€”I knew time was running out. โšก๐Ÿ™

I jumped right into the Ring Finder Mobile ๐Ÿš™๐Ÿ’จ and headed south toward Ogunquit Beach , fighting the notorious Maine summer traffic and praying the storm would hold off just long enough for me to get a coil over that ring!

Once I arrived at the Norseman, I was promptly met by Cara and Bruce. With the sky growing darker by the minute and the wind picking up, we walked down to the area where they had been set up for the day. This was the spot where the chair had been picked upโ€”and hopefully, where the ring had slipped out. ๐Ÿ‘ฃโ˜๏ธ

As I geared up, my concern was twofold:

1๏ธโƒฃ ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐–๐š๐ฅ๐ค-๐Ž๐ฎ๐ญ ๐‘๐ข๐ฌ๐ค: If the ring didn’t drop right where they sat, but instead fell out of the cup holder while they were carrying the chair away, there was a good chance it hit the hard-packed sand. Out there on the open path, anyone walking by could have easily spotted it, picked it up, and walked off with it. ๐Ÿ‘€๐Ÿšถโ€โ™‚๏ธ

2๏ธโƒฃ ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐‚๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง: I was also highly concerned about other metal detectorists. As I walked onto the beach, I could actually see two of them detecting not very far away. ๐Ÿ•ต๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐ŸŒพ Had they already swung their coils through Cara’s grid?

Cara and Bruce showed me the exact area they had been in. You could clearly see the disturbed sand where they had been frantically searching earlier. Interestingly, a family of beachgoers was still there, sitting right next to the spot where Cara and Bruce had been set up next to them all afternoon. ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ‘งโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ๐Ÿ–๏ธ

With Cara and Bruce’s guidance, I established my grid line perimeters. To be absolutely safe and cover all bases, I extended the perimeters to search an extra 10 feet out on all sides. ๐Ÿ“๐Ÿ“

I fired up the detector and went to work. I completed a thorough North-to-South grid search over the entire area. Nothing. โŒ

Refusing to give up, I turned 90 degrees and began searching the same exact area again, this time meticulously swinging East-to-West. Still, the detector remained dead silent. ๐Ÿ”‡

The ring was not being found, and I could feel the nervous tension rising from the couple. Honestly, with the dark storm clouds looming closer, I was getting pretty nervous myself. ๐Ÿ˜ฐโ›ˆ๏ธ

Since the primary blanket area was clear, it was time for Plan B. ๐Ÿ“‹ I asked Cara and Bruce to recreate their exact exit. I wanted them to walk the same precise route they had used when they packed up and left the beach earlier in the afternoon. ๐Ÿ‘ฃ

I would follow directly behind them, grid searching the path step by step. We headed out of the original blanket area where they had spent the afternoon, moving right toward the hard-packed sand and, further out, toward the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean . ๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿš

With the clouds getting darker by the second, I started feeling a few drops of rain on my face. ๐ŸŒง๏ธ

I was praying hard that the downpour would hold off just a little bit longer. Once we reached the hard sand, we took a right turn, walking parallel to the Norseman Resort โ€”half on the hard-packed wet sand, half on the dry sand. ๐Ÿšถโ€โ™‚๏ธ

About 20 to 25 feet after making that right turn, my machine suddenly gave a sign of life! ๐ŸŽ‰

I received an extremely low tone reading a ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ“ on my Minelab Manticore. ๐Ÿฆพ

In the world of metal detecting, a low number like that usually screams foil or trash. But a seasoned detectorist knows that thin gold rings can masquerade as low conductive targets. I absolutely needed to check it. ๐Ÿง

The target was buried right there in the dry sand, perfectly nestled on the cusp where it meets the hard-packed wet sand. ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ–๏ธ

I grabbed my handheld pinpointer and located the exact target under the sand. I started carefully brushing away the grains andโ€”๐๐€๐๐†!!! ๐Ÿ’ฅ๐Ÿ’ฅ๐Ÿ’ฅ

An engagement ring was staring me right in the face! We had found it! ๐Ÿ’โœจ๐Ÿ†

Cara instantly burst into happy tears ๐Ÿ˜ญโค๏ธ and threw her arms around me in a huge hug. Bruceโ€™s worried look vanished, replaced by a beaming, giant smile, and I was grinning right along with them. ๐Ÿ˜

Through her happy tears, Cara told me that she had been wearing her beautiful engagement ring for over 7 years, and she just couldn’t fathom the thought of losing it forever. ๐Ÿฅน๐Ÿ’

Well, Cara, you no longer have to worry about that! ๐ŸŽ‰๐Ÿ™Œ

But as we were celebrating, the moment had to cut short. ๐ŸŒง๏ธ

The sky opened up, and the rain started pouring down. We all quickly made a break for the parking lot and our cars. Looking back to the north, the sky was already starting to clear from the fast-moving storm, and a beautiful rainbow stretched across the horizon. ๐ŸŒˆโœจ

Would Cara’s engagement ring count as the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow? I definitely think it does! Now, I just had to make it into the truck to get out of the downpour. ๐Ÿš™๐ŸŒง๏ธ

So, another happy client and another ring back on the finger where it belongs. ๐Ÿ’โค๏ธ

I truly have the best job in the worldโ€”I love what I do! ๐Ÿฆพโš“

Remember, if it matters to you, it matters to us. ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ๐ŸŒŠ

๐Ÿ‚๐Ÿ ๐…๐€๐‹๐‹ ๐‚๐‹๐„๐€๐-๐”๐ ๐ˆ๐’ ๐‡๐„๐‘๐„… ๐ƒ๐ˆ๐ƒ ๐€ ๐‘๐ˆ๐๐† ๐’๐‹๐ˆ๐ ๐Ž๐…๐…๐Ÿ‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Beach season may have wrapped up in Maine, but a whole new ring-hunting season has just begun! ๐ŸŒฌ๏ธ As the temperatures drop, fingers shrink, and jewelry becomes incredibly easy to lose during autumn chores. ๐Ÿชต๐Ÿงค

Did your wedding band or heirloom ring slip off while you were:

* ๐Ÿ‚ ๐‘๐š๐ค๐ข๐ง๐  ๐จ๐ซ ๐›๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ ๐ข๐š๐ง๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฅ๐ž๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ?

* ๐Ÿชต ๐’๐ญ๐š๐œ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐  ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ž๐ฐ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐š๐ก๐ž๐š๐?

* ๐Ÿก ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ ๐š๐ซ๐๐ž๐ง๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐›๐ž๐ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐œ๐ฅ๐ž๐š๐ง๐ข๐ง๐  ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐œ๐ก ๐›๐ž๐๐ฌ?

* ๐Ÿงค ๐“๐š๐ค๐ข๐ง๐  ๐จ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐œ๐ค ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ?ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย 

Finding a ring in a massive pile of leaves or dense compost by hand is nearly impossibleโ€”but The Ring Finders of Maine have the specialized, high-tech metal detecting equipment to pinpoint it in minutes! ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿฆพ

Before you accidentally bag up your jewelry with the yard waste, give me a call. ๐Ÿ่ข‹

๐Ÿ“ฑ ๐‚๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ž๐ฑ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐š๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ•-๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‘-๐Ÿ‘๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ•, ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐œ๐ก ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฐ๐š๐ฒ! ๐Ÿ’ฌโœจ

 

Handmade Sterling Silver Dartmouth College Ring Lost At Goose Rocks Beach, Kennebunkport, Maine, Found In The Sand With A Metal Detector

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

FROM A DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CLASSROOM TO THE SANDS OF GOOSE ROCKS BEACH: THE JOURNEY OF A HANDMADE RING! ๐ŸŸข

๐Ÿ’While attending Dartmouth College, Rhys took a jewelry-making class and spent hours hand-crafting a heavy, chunky sterling silver ring, detailed with a circle of vibrant green gemstones. From campus, the ring traveled home with him to California, and finally, to Maine for a family vacation at Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport Maine.

Two days ago, Rhys was relaxing on his beach blanket when he started fidgeting with his ring. Suddenly… it vanished into the sand. ๐Ÿ–๏ธโŒ

Immediately, Rhys and several helpful beachgoers jumped into action, frantically searching the area. But after hours of brushing through the sand, the ring remained elusive.

That night, Rhys cooked up a brand-new strategy. The next morning, he returned to the exact spot armed with an essential kitchen tool: a colander! ๐Ÿ Rhys spent a full, exhausting day scooping up heavy beach sand and sifting it out, hoping his handmade masterpiece would appear. Total result? Still missing.

By the next morning, Rhys was right back at it. His pile of sifted sand was getting massive, but by Day 2, the ring was still gone. Being from California, Rhys and his family had no idea a service like ours existed. Thankfully, a friend heard about his predicament and told Rhys he needed to drop the kitchen strainer and call me immediately! ๐Ÿ“ž๐Ÿ’ฅ

When Rhys reached out, I was actually down in York Beach, Maine finishing up a search at Short Sands Beach. I let him know I’d be on my way just as soon as I wrapped things up. True to my word, within an hour of his call, I was heading north to Kennebunkport Maine! ๐Ÿš—๐Ÿ’จ

Once I arrived at Goose Rocks Beach, parking was a nightmare as usual. But the beach gods were smiling, and I managed to snag a spot just a short walk from where Rhys and his missing ring were. Gear in hand, I made my way onto the sand where I was met by Rhys and his father, Brad.

They immediately took me to the location. I knew it had to be the correct spot because I saw the kitchen colander resting right next to a beach blanket. Rhys had smartly covered the suspected area with the blanket so no one would accidentally disturb the sand. Brilliant thinking! ๐Ÿง ๐Ÿ’ก

I set my boundary guidelines with Rhys, fired up the detector, and the search officially began. With a completely clear grid and no obstacles, it didn’t take long. In fact, within just 90 seconds, my machine screamed with a crisp, low-high tone. A possible silver ring?

As I ran my coil back over the area, I saw the undeniable outline of a ring in the sand. I reached down, plucked it out, and held it up!

๐ŸŽ‰ “WOW!!!” “OH MY GOD!!!” ๐ŸŽ‰

The beach erupted with cheering and clapping! Brad had his camera rolling to catch the whole thing. I heard Rhys say, “That went far!”

Amazingly, what two days of visual searching and kitchen colander sifting couldn’t locate, my metal detector found in under a minute and a half. The ring was actually hiding 8 to 10 feet away from where they thought they lost it! ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿคฏ

Did the ring get moved while they were searching? This is exactly why we tell clients not to disturb the area. When you think about it, if they had kept sifting, the ring could have easily ended up trapped directly under his giant pile of discarded sandโ€”buried way too deep for a detector to find.

After the hugs, handshakes, and goodbyes, I wished Rhys a great year at school. With a huge smile on his face and his custom ring securely back on his finger, he replied, “I will now.” ๐Ÿฅน๐ŸŸข

I have the best job in the world. I love my job! It’s always a great day when we can put “another ring back on the finger.”

Remember: “If it matters to you, it matters to us.” โค๏ธ๐Ÿ’

๐Ÿ“Œ LOST SOMETHING IRREPLACEABLE?

Don’t wait and don’t disturb the sandโ€”call us right away!

๐Ÿ“ž Call/Text: 207-423-3027๐Ÿš— Service Areas: Covering all of Maine and surrounding coastal areas.

Sterling Silver Navajo Wedding Ring Lost in The Water Of Crystal Lake, Found With A Metal Detector In Gray, Maine

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

COINCIDENCE, MEANT TO BE, OR NAVAJO SPIRIT? ๐Ÿ˜ฑ๐Ÿ’โœจย 

As Gary Hill and I were just finishing up with recovering Matt’s wedding ring from Tripp Lake in Poland, Maine, my phone rang.

The caller identified himself as Jack. He was visiting Maine on vacation all the way from Utah! ๐ŸŒฒโœˆ๏ธ

The previous day, Jack and his wife were enjoying a hot summer day floating around Crystal Lake in Gray, Maine, right in front of their rented lakeside house. Jack told me he had taken his wedding ring off and placed it safely in his pocket while floating around. He was worried that all the paddling around with his hands in the water would make it slip off.

But when he exited the lake, his worst nightmare came true: the wedding ring was no longer in his pocket. ๐Ÿ˜ฃ

Jack told me he had been wearing that ring for over 20 years. He was absolutely heartbroken and desperately hoping we could help.

I asked Jack what metal the ring was made of. He told me it was sterling silver with turquoiseโ€”a traditional Navajo-style wedding ring. Wow! Very cool, and incredibly unique for us to find here in Maine! I learned that these traditional Navajo rings are deeply popular in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and the Southwest in general. ๐ŸŒตโ˜€๏ธ

I smiled and told Jack that he was in major luck. Gary and I were literally just 7 to 8 miles away at Tripp Lake, and we could be at his rental in less than 10 minutes! ๐Ÿš™๐Ÿ’จ

Thatโ€™s when the story took a wild turn. ๐Ÿคฏ

Jack told me he wasn’t even at the lake houseโ€”he was currently down in Portsmouth, New Hampshire visiting his sister! He had been venting to her about losing his precious ring, and his sister looked at him and said, “You need to call The Ring Finders of Maine right now.”

As it turns out, his sister had just read a newspaper article about us and all the success weโ€™ve been having! ๐Ÿ“ฐ๐Ÿ™Œ

Think about the sheer luck of this: Jack is from Utah and had never heard of us. He loses a rare Southwestern ring in a Maine lake. He goes to New Hampshire to tell his sister, who just happens to have read an article about our recoveries. He calls us, and we are practically right down the street wrapping up another successful rescue!

Jack immediately called his wife at the lake house to let her know we were on the way. Gary and I threw our gear into The Ring Finder Mobile and took off. โšก๏ธ

THE SEARCH BEGINS… ๐Ÿ•ต๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ”

True to our word, Gary and I arrived just 10 minutes later at the lake house in Gray. We were met by Jack’s wife, Karen. She took us down to the water, where she and her friend were sitting and enjoying the afternoon, looking out over beautiful Crystal Lake.

Karen showed us the search area, and Gary and I had to smile. We had just left a massive 15,000โ€“18,000 square foot search area at Tripp Lake, and now we were looking at a tiny 30′ x 50′ zoneโ€”only about 1,500 square feet! ๐Ÿ“๐Ÿ™Œ

Karen explained that they were literally just floating around right in front of the house and hadn’t gone much past the dock. ๐Ÿชต

Alright then, letโ€™s get our gear and find this very sentimental Navajo wedding ring! ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ

We mapped out our battle plan: Gary’s Mission: Start grid-searching the shallow shore water and systematically work his way out deeper into the lake. ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย 

My Mission: Walk out as deep as I could safely search, then grid my way back in toward the shore and Gary. ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย 

With two detectors swinging and a perfect pincer movement, we were determined to find it. ๐Ÿคž๐ŸŒŠย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย 

With Gary starting at the shoreline near the dock, I headed out to the deeper water in front of it. We worked in perfect unison, heading north and then turning to head south.

As I got just past the dock, I was reaching my absolute depth limit. With every step, I was sinking down about six inches into the heavy muck. I wouldn’t be able to go much furtherโ€”safely, anyways. One or two more steps out into the dark, murky water, and that would have been it. ๐ŸŒŠ

At that exact point, my detector screamed. My very first signal. ๐Ÿ”Š

I scooped up a heavy load of muck and decaying vegetation, lifting it up to throw into my floating sifter. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Right there in the middle of the muck, I saw just a sliver of silver and blue.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ๐Ÿ˜ฒ๐Ÿ’ฅ

Not even three minutes into the hunt, on my absolute first target, I found Jack’s Navajo wedding ring! I yelled up to Karen on the shore, asking if the stones were blue turquoise. She yelled back, “YES!”

MEANT TO BE! ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ’™

Once I got up on shore, Karen and her friend were in absolute shock. They couldn’t believe we found it, and they definitely couldn’t believe we found it so fast! ๐Ÿคฏ

Gary and I left a very happy, appreciative, smiling Karenโ€”but not before we got our celebratory hugs! ๐Ÿค—โœจ

Unfortunately, I never was able to meet Jack in person, but I called him up right there from the shoreline to deliver the good news. He was completely speechless and in absolute shock! He thanked me from the bottom of his heart for saving a piece of history he thought was gone forever. ๐Ÿฅนโค๏ธ

Well, a little luck goes a long way, and everything about this search came together perfectly:

Jack’s sister just happening to read that newspaper article about our success.

Gary and I being a mere 10 minutes away.

Going from a massive search area to a tight 1,500 square foot spot.

And the biggest miracle of all: the ring was right at my depth limit. If it had been just one or two steps further out, I wouldn’t have been able to safely reach it! ๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿšซ

A NAVAJO BLESSING IN MAINE? ๐Ÿฆ…โœจ

As I held that beautiful ring, I couldn’t help but wonder. This ring spent over 20 years on Jackโ€™s finger, crafted in a tradition steeped in deep connection, intention, and meaning. Turquoise is known as a stone of protection and a bringer of good fortune.

To have it slip away in a dark Maine lake, only for a chain of unexplainable events to bring us right to it in under three minutes… you have to wonder if a higher energy was at work. It felt less like simple luck and more like a protective blessing guiding my scoop right to the exact spot.

WHAT A DAY! ๐Ÿš—๐Ÿ’จ๐Ÿ’จ

As Gary and I were driving home to Saco, Maine, we rehashed the wild timeline of our day.

We had left Saco at 5:45 AM and headed straight to Footbridge Beach , in Ogunquit, Maine: Beautiful Place by the Sea for an unsuccessful search (at least for that dayโ€”more on that story in the future!). From there, we headed to Tripp Lake in Poland, Maine, then over to Crystal Lake in Gray, Maine.

By the time we finally pulled back into Saco, it was 2:45 PM. What a day! 9 hours on the clock and 140 miles driven, but most importantly: two more wedding rings are back on their owners’ fingers. ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ๐Ÿ’

We love our job. We truly have the best job in the world!

ย If it matters to you, it matters to us. ๐Ÿฆ…โค๏ธ

THE ULTIMATE THANK YOU โœ‰๏ธ๐Ÿ‘‡

The very next day, I received this incredible text from Jack that truly made the whole journey worth it:

“Hi Dennis, I canโ€™t thank you enough for finding my ring yesterday. That ring meant a lot to me and I couldโ€™ve bought a new one, but it wouldnโ€™t have been the same. You guys are incredible! The timing was unbelievable, because my sister saw the article in the paper just two days ago, and without that, we would never have known anything about you. Itโ€™s a miracle! Thank you so much, Jack H.”

๐Ÿ’ฅ LOST SOMETHING PRECIOUS? TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! ๐Ÿ’ฅ

Did you lose your wedding ring, keys, or family heirloom in the water, sand, or snow? Don’t wait! The sooner you call, the better the chances of recovery before things shift or sink deeper.

๐Ÿ“ž Call 207-423-3027 and ask for Dennis!

Let The Ring Finders of Maine bring your lost treasure home.

TITANIUM WEDDING RING LOST IN THE WATER, TRIPP LAKE, POLAND, MAINE, FOUND WITH A METAL DETECTOR

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

? ??? ?????? ?? ? ??,??? ?????? ???? ?????????? ????????! ?

On August 3rd, my phone started blowing up. Facebook notifications were pouring in, tag after tag, mentioning me on a local Poland, Maine community board post.

The Poland, Maine community was trying to connect me with a man named Matt. Matt had posted a heartfelt plea to the group: he had recently lost his titanium wedding ring at Tripp Lake Beach, and he was desperately hoping a Good Samaritan might spot it and let him know.

When Matt called me, the true scale of the mission became clear.

About two weeks earlier, Matt had been enjoying a beautiful, sunny day with family and friends at Tripp Lake Beach, taking advantage of the scorching summer heat by cooling off in the water. But fresh water has a way of shrinking fingers fast! ?

Matt had spent his day wading across the entire length of the public beachโ€”a stretch easily 300 feet long. Even worse, he had been swimming up to 50 or 60 feet out from the shoreline.

When you do the math, that meant the ring was resting somewhere inside a massive 15,000 to 18,000 square foot grid of dark lake water. By any measure, this was an incredibly massive underwater search area, and the clock had already been ticking for two weeks…

To make matters even more daunting, Matt dropped another bombshell: he had already tried searching the water with a borrowed metal detector. Not only that, but two other people had also brought their detectors down to the beach to scan the area.
All three attempts came up completely empty. ?

Honestly, looking at the sheer size of Tripp Lake Beach, it was no wonder. Dragging consumer gear through a massive underwater grid without a highly systematic search pattern is almost impossible.

When Matt asked if we could help, I took a hard look at the calendar. My schedule was completely packed. I was fully booked for recoveries on both August 4th and August 5th. But we don’t like giving up on a ring, especially when the community rallies to find us!

Our August 5th hunt was a critical, time-sensitive low-tide search down in Ogunquit, scheduled for very early in the morning. Gary Hill and I looked at the map and made a plan. The second we wrapped up the coastal ocean hunt in Ogunquit, Maine: Beautiful Place by the Sea t, we would pack up the Ring Finder Mobile and make the 1.5-hour drive inland to Poland, Maine . Two completely different bodies of water, two completely different environments, all in a single day. ??

Once Gary and I arrived at the lake and finally met Matt in person, he walked us right down to the water’s edge. I took one long look at the sheer, overwhelming size of that beach and a thought immediately popped into my head: “There is absolutely no way we are finding his ring today.”

The area was just too massive. Looking out at that water, I knew that anyone just walking around aimlessly hadโ€”as Matt accurately put it in his original Facebook postโ€”a total “one-in-a-billion shot.” In my mind, I was already calculating the logistics. I figured Gary and I were going to need at least 4 or 5 full days of a highly disciplined, hyper-systematic grid search to clear this place safely.

But we didn’t drive 1.5 hours to stand on the shore and doubt ourselves. It was time to get to work! โš”๏ธ

I turned to Matt and laid out the battle plan. We would use a prominent, large rock breaking the surface of the water as our deep outer boundary, as Matt confirmed he hadnโ€™t gone out past that depth.

To keep our grid lines perfectly straight and ensure we didn’t miss a single inch of the lakebed, we utilized the rocks along the shoreline as our landmark anchors. Gary would start right where we were at the north end of the beach, working his way from the edge of the water out to the deep boundary and back, systematically grid-searching his way south toward a specific rock landmark on the shore.

Meanwhile, I walked further down the beach to that exact same shore rockโ€”the one Gary would eventually stop at. That was my starting point. From there, I would work my grid lines from the shoreline out, systematically heading further south toward another visual lockup landmark on the beach.

As for Matt, he walked even further down the beach past my zone to start his own search, heading south to tackle the far end of the grid.

We dropped our coils into the water, tuned out the world, and began swinging… ??

Gary and I found the entire beach absolutely beautiful. The water was remarkably warm for an inland Maine lake, and as we got our rhythm down, we noticed something highly unusual: the targets were incredibly few and far between.

It was a very, very clean beach. Because we werenโ€™t stopping to dig up the usual heavy layer of buried pull-tabs, bottle caps, and shredded aluminum foil, our search progress was moving significantly faster than I had originally anticipated. Since we weren’t digging many targets, we were moving right along, slicing through those 15,000 square feet with smooth, uninterrupted swings.

A fascinating thought crossed my mind as I looked over at Gary:
??? ???? ??? ?โ„Ž? ??โ„Ž?? ????? ???????????? ???????? ??????? ?โ„Ž? ????โ„Ž ?? ??????? ???????? ?

When inexperienced hunters or people with borrowed, basic machines go looking for a lost item, they usually dig up every single faint beep or scratchy iron signal they can find in a desperate attempt to find the ring. By doing that, they often inadvertently do the heavy lifting for usโ€”stripping away all the shallow metallic “trash” and clearing the path.

Because they had unknowingly cleaned out the background noise, our advanced, high-discrimination machines could scan the lakebed completely unhindered. If that titanium wedding band was down there, there was no longer any junk left to hide it. It was going to scream the second our coils passed over it.

As we proceeded south along the lakebed, almost an hour had passed. The quiet hum of the machines was hypnotic, and I was already mentally mapping out the next major sections for Gary and me to search on the following days, fully expecting this to be a multi-day operation.

Then, out of nowhere…
????!!! ?

My headphones lit up with the absolute best-sounding target of the entire day so far on the Minelab Excalibur II. It was a beautiful, solid tone that broke the lake’s silence.

I stopped dead in my tracks and yelled over to Gary, “This is a really good sounding target!”

I positioned my scoop and dug down into the lakebed. My first scoop came upโ€”nothing but empty sand. The target was still in the hole.

I lined up the coil again, pushed the scoop down deeper into the sand, and lifted. As the second scoop broke the surface of the water, the lake sand began to rapidly sift through the drainage holes. All of a sudden, right there in the bottom of the scoop, I saw the ring! ??

Gary was now walking over to me and he reached into my scoop and grabbed the ring. We both looked at it, completely stunned that the “one-in-a-billion shot” had just paid off in under an hour!

I turned toward the southern end of the beach and yelled down as loud as I could: “????! ???????????????!” ?

The distance between us was so immense that my voice had to travel clear across the water. Matt froze in his tracks. He was so far down the beach that his response barely carried back to usโ€”just a very faint, disbelieving… “???’?? ??????? ??.” ?

As Matt hurriedly waded back through the water toward us, Gary and I were just beaming. We couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces. We just couldn’t believe our good fortune. Better to be lucky than good, as the old saying goes, and we certainly got lucky by being in the exact right spot at the exact right time today.

The moment Matt reached us, pure relief washed over his entire face. You could visually see the heavy stress of being without his wedding ring completely leave his body. He could finally breathe and relax again.

But even in that moment of relief, Matt wasnโ€™t thinking about himself. His thoughts went straight to his wife.

As the three of us began walking out of the water together, I turned to him and said, “?’? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? ?? ????.”

Matt looked at the ring, then back at us, and replied: “??? ???? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??.” โค๏ธ

?? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ? ?????? ???? ?????, ??? ??? ???? ?????????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ???? ????? ???????? ??? ?? ??? ????! ?? ?? ??????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?? ??? ?????.

Just as the three of us stepped foot onto dry land, my phone started ringing. It was another panicked call about a lost ringโ€”this time dropped into Crystal Lake in Gray, Maine , which was only about 7 miles down the road and directly on our way home!
I hung up, looked at my partner, and smiled: “Gary, pack up the Ring Finder Mobile… another lost ring awaits!” ??

Moments like this remind us why we do what we do. We truly have the best job in the world, and we love every single second of it!

โš ๏ธ LOST SOMETHING PRECIOUS IN THE SAND OR WATER? โš ๏ธ
Time is absolutely of the essence! Shifting tides, moving sand, lake currents, and crowded beaches mean the longer you wait, the harder it gets to find. Don’t waste critical hours trying to locate a DIY metal detector rentalโ€”call the professionals immediately!
? CALL OR TEXT US ASAP: 207-423-3027
We service beaches, lakes, yards, and parks all across Maine. Share this post to spread the wordโ€”you never know whose wedding ring you might help save next! ??

????????: ?? ?? ??????? ?? ???, ?? ??????? ?? ??.


.

GOLD STUD EARRING LOST IN THE SCARBOROUGH MAINE GRASS, FOUND WITH A METAL DETECTOR

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

???? ?????????? ????????: Handcrafted Treasure Saved! ?โœจ

The Ring Finders of Maine With Recovery and Return # 252

On July 15th, I got a heartbreaking call from Emily, a local real estate agent. ?โ€?
The night before, she was playing volleyball at Memorial Park in Scarborough, Maine. ?

? Side note: This park is so nostalgic for meโ€”itโ€™s the site of the old Portland Twin Drive-In Theatre! ??

During a big play at the net, Emily jumped high and brushed against the mesh. ?

In a split second, her custom earring slipped out and vanished into the thick grass. ?

Emily and her friends searched on their hands and knees but found absolutely nothing. ?

This wasnโ€™t just any jewelry. Emily used to be a professional jeweler. ?๏ธ

She had designed and handcrafted this specific gold earring herself. ?

She left the park completely devastated. ?

? ??? ???? ???????? ??? ? ???????????โ€™? ?????????:

Most people think metal detectors find jewelry instantly. ?

But tiny stud earrings are the ultimate test of skill and gear. ?๏ธ

They contain an incredibly minute amount of precious metal. ?

When they fall into thick grass, they rarely lay flat. ?

Standard detecting programs look for round, dense targets like coins or thick wedding bands. ??

A vertical, microscopic gold post has an electromagnetic footprint that is almost non-existent. ?

Standard factory programs will simply ignore it or filter it out as ground noise. ?

To give us a fighting chance, I swapped to my agile 8″ coil. ?

I booted up the Minelab Manticore’s specialized “Gold Field” program. ?

This mode is engineered to sniff out tiny, low-conductive gold that other detectors miss. โœจ

โšก ??? ?????? & ??? ?????? ??????:

Emily met me at the park at 1:30 PM, right after I got back from York. ?

She had smartly marked the exact net post hole with a small tree branch. ?

I started a tight, overlapping grid search on her side of the net. ?

Nothing but faint iron mineralization from the soil. ?

I crossed over to the opposing team’s side of the net and kept swinging. ?๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ

After 5 to 6 minutes of methodical scanning… BANG! โšก

A sharp, beautifully repeatable audio signal broke through my headphones. ?

Having had two complete and total knee replacements, dropping down to the ground wasn’t happening. ??

Instead, I carefully bent over and used my handheld pinpointer to narrow down the grass blades. ?๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ?

As I slowly parted the turf with my fingers, there it wasโ€”gleaming bright yellow in the dirt! โœจ?

Emily spotted it at the exact same millisecond. ?๏ธโญ

(If you haven’t seen her reaction yet, go watch the video Reel I posted last night!) ??

She started jumping up and down with her hands in the air, celebrating wildly! ??

? “WOW, thank you so much!” she shouted. ??

Seeing that pure joy and relief is exactly why I do this. โค๏ธ

Honestly, I have the best job in the world, and I love my job! ??

Welcome home, earring! ??

??????-???-????? ?? ??? ?????????? ??????!?๏ธ

Funny enough, volleyball courts have been my specialty this season!

This actually marks my third volleyball court recovery of the year. ?

The first two were rings lost in the deep sand during intense beach volleyball games. ?๏ธ?

But switching from soft beach sand to thick park grass is a whole different ballgameโ€”and it feels great to keep the streak alive! ?๏ธโžก๏ธ?

????? ????????? ????????? ???’? ???? ?? ????!?โœจ

At the end of the day, our motto is simple:

? “?? ?? ??????? ?? ???, ?? ??????? ?? ??.”?

Whether itโ€™s a sentimental ring lost on the beach ?๏ธ, a family heirloom dropped in the backyard ?, or a tiny earring lost in a local park ?, time is of the essence. โฑ๏ธ

If you or someone you know has lost a metal item in the southern Maine area, don’t wait. ?

Send me a direct message right here on Facebook, and letโ€™s get your treasure back where it belongs! โœ‰๏ธ?

Tungsten Wedding Ring Lost In The Saco, Maine Surf, Found With A Metal Detector

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

? ???? ?? ??? ????????: ? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ????!

On August 4th at 6:26 PM, my phone rang. It was Jeremy, and he was in a complete panic. ?

Earlier that afternoon, Jeremy was enjoying a picture-perfect summer day at Kinney Shores right here in Saco, Maine. He was soaking up the sun and decided to cool off with a swim in the warm Atlantic Ocean… OK, letโ€™s be real, maybe not that warm. ?

While out braving the freezing Atlantic waters (is that better? ?), the unthinkable happened. Jeremy felt his Tungsten wedding ring slip right off his finger, sinking instantly into the shifting sands of the ocean floor.
Panic set in. He immediately began frantically searching the bottom, but the crashing waves made visibility absolutely zero. ?โŒ

But then, Jeremy did something brilliant. He kept his wits about him. He ????? dead in his tracks right where the ring dropped. He looked straight back toward the beach and locked his eyes onto a specific house sitting on the shoreline. A visual marker. It was a legendary decision that would change everything. ?

Jeremy kept fighting the elements to find it, but between the pounding surf and a rapidly incoming high tide, the ocean won round one. He was forced to abandon the search and make the long, heavy-hearted drive back home to New Hampshire for work the next morning. ??

Once he got home, Jeremy refused to give up hope. He frantically searched the internet for a solution and discovered ??? ???? ??????? ?? ????? and our ????????? ????? ????????? ????????.
Recognizing this was a race against time and shifting ocean currents, he immediately placed that fateful call to me. ?โœจ

With Jeremy still on the phone anxiously waiting, I instantly pulled up the local Saco tide chart. ?โฑ๏ธ

The clock was ticking. High tide had peaked about 2.5 hours ago. Low tide was just over 3.5 hours away. That meant one thing: ??? ???? ??? ????? ???. ??

Jeremy had dropped the ring right at the mid-tide cycle. With the water receding by the minute, that tungsten wedding band would soon be exposed on wet sand instead of buried deep under breaking waves. It was the perfect window of opportunity.
I told Jeremy: ” ?โ€™? โ„Ž?????? ??????โ„Ž? ???? ?? ?????? ?โ„Ž???? ???โ„Ž? ???. ?’? ????? ?? ?????? ?โ„Ž? ???? ???.” ??

The game plan? Use Jeremy’s incredible foresight. I was going to execute a flawless, tight grid search covering the entire width of that shoreline house he had locked his eyes on when the ring fell off. ?๏ธ?

I quickly loaded my gear into The Ring Finder Mobile and made the quick 10-minute drive down to Kinney Shores. Finding a parking spot right next to the beach access path during a busy Maine summer is usually a miracle in itself, but Lady Luck was on our side and I managed to snag a spot immediately! ??
Stepping onto the beach, I checked the time: ?:?? ??.โฑ๏ธ

Looking out at the water, I calculated that if the ring wasnโ€™t already sitting under the newly exposed sand, it would be very shortly. Thanks to technology, Jeremy had texted me a photo of the exact shoreline house he had locked his eyes on. I spotted it instantly, set up my north and south grid search boundaries, and got to work.
The metal detector started humming. At first, I dug up the usual beach suspects: a few pieces of trash, a heavy fishing sinker, and a couple of stray coins. ??

The search area wasn’t huge, but I was moving fast and soon found myself standing right at the wet, crashing waterline. I had been swinging my detector for ?? ??????? ???????? without a single sign of tungsten. โณ?

I reached a critical crossroads. Do I turn around, head back to where I started, and search higher up toward the dry shore? Or do I keep pushing the limit? With the tide still actively going out and exposing fresh sand by the second, I made a gut-call decision: ???? ??? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ?????????. ??

As I headed south on that extra pass, I was closing in on my southern boundary when suddenlyโ€”????!??

A ????, perfectly repeatable mid-tone target completely filled my headphones. I looked down at my screen. The target identification number was locking in right in the low 50s. ?

The ultimate suspense: Was it just another lead fishing sinker… or was it a tungsten ring?
I dug my scoop deep into the wet sand, lifted it up, and threw the contents onto the surface. As the wet sand parted, there it was, sitting right on top. A beautiful, unmistakable tungsten wedding ring catching the fading daylight. ???????!!! ??

I had found Jeremy’s wedding ring in just ?? ??????? of searching! โฑ๏ธ?

And honestly? It was all because of Jeremy’s lightning-fast thinking. By freezing in his tracks and locking his eyes onto that exact house on the shore, he gave me the perfect map. ? (?? ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ??????, ???? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? ???? ????? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ???? ?????! ??)

I pulled out my phone to record that video for him. Panning the camera over to the ring glistening in the sand, I said: “?โ€™?? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ????. ?โ€™? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ?????. ?โ€™? ???????? ????? ???? ??????? ? ???? ????? ??! ???????????????!” ??

I pressed send on the video and waited. Literally ??? ?????? ?????, my phone lit up. It was Jeremy! ??

He was absolutely over the moon, overflowing with pure happiness and thanking me for the lightning-fast response to his plea for help. But more than anything, he was completely stunned. He couldn’t believe the ring had been found so incredibly fast! ?โœจ

With the sun setting over Saco, we coordinated the big return. As it turned out, Gary Hill and I already had an early 6:30 AM search planned for the next morning down at Footbridge Beach in Ogunquit, Maine, to look for a lost engagement and wedding ring set. ??

We hatched a perfect plan. Jeremy wanted his precious wedding ring back so badly that he agreed to drive up from New Hampshire extra early the next morning. He was willing to make a 2-hour round trip before his shift rather than endure the agonizing wait until after work! ??

The next morning, Gary and I had been swinging our detectors for about half an hour when Jeremy arrived, walking right out onto the sand to meet us. After plenty of celebratory handshakes and a full rehash of the wild search from the night before, Jeremy walked off Footbridge Beach one incredibly happy, smiling man. He felt whole once again. ?โค๏ธ

Now, Gary and I had a couple of other rings to find on that beach, and it wouldn’t be easy… but that is a full story for a few weeks from now! ?

We truly have the best job in the world, and we absolutely love what we do.
????? ?????????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ???????!?
If you or someone you know loses a ring, heirloom, phone, or keys on the beach, ?? ??? ????! Shifting sands and incoming tides can bury or move your items permanently within minutes. ?โณ

???? ?? ?? ??????????? ?? ??? ???? ? ????:
1๏ธโƒฃ ???? ???? & ??????: Stop moving so you don’t step on it or push it deeper.
2๏ธโƒฃ ??? ? ????????: Look straight toward the shore and lock onto a house, a unique tree, a lifeguard chair, or a path.
3๏ธโƒฃ ???? ? ????? / ???? ? ??? ???: Take a quick picture of your surroundings or drop a pin on your smartphone maps application immediately.
4๏ธโƒฃ ???? ?? ??????????? ?? ???-???-????! ??
The sooner you call ??? ???? ??????? ?? ?????, the higher your chances of a happy ending just like Jeremy’s! ?

“????????, ?? ?? ??????? ?? ???, ?? ??????? ?? ??.” โค๏ธ

Sterling Silver Wedding Ring Lost In The Sand, Found With A Metal Detector, At Goochโ€™s Beach, Kennebunk, Maine

  • from Old Orchard Beach (Maine, United States)

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The call to action can arrive at any moment, and on Tuesday, July 21st, late in the morning, a text message popped up on my phone from a client named Kate. The message read: “Hello, I lost a ring this morning on Goochโ€™s beach. Would you be able to look for it? I believe it is in front of this house in the sand.” Along with the message was a photo of a beach house with its address right there on the Kennebunk coast. ??

I immediately called Kate back to get the crucial details. She explained that she had been out enjoying the morning surf. Before hitting the waves, she took off her precious Sterling Silver Wedding Ring and tucked it safely inside her shirt pocket. Once she was finished surfing, she gathered up her beach gear, packed up, and headed homeโ€”completely forgetting the ring was still loose in her pocket. It wasn’t until she arrived home that reality hit, and she realized the ring was gone. ??โ€โ™€๏ธ

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I told Kate I would absolutely go search for it, but when it comes to shifting beach sand, a little bit of strategy goes a long way. To pinpoint the location as accurately as possible, I pulled up a Google Earth aerial view of the house and the beach area directly in front of it. ?๏ธ?

Using the image, I drew two specific boxes directly in the sand:
* ? A Red Square positioned closer to the high tide line.
* โฌ› A Black Square positioned up higher, near the seawall.

I sent the marked-up photo back to Kate and asked which color zone matched where she had been sitting. Kate replied: “Red. I am fairly sure it is in the sand but there is a chance it could be on the sidewalk.” ??โ€โ™€๏ธ

With a clear target area locked in, I told Kate that Cheryl and I were on our way. We immediately loaded up the metal detecting gear and hit the road, heading straight for Gooch’s Beach in Kennebunk, just across the river from Kennebunkport. ??

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Once Cheryl and I arrived at Gooch’s Beach, we didn’t take any chances. We started with a thorough visual search up and down the sidewalk and the street area, just in case it had dropped on the pavement. No luck. ?๏ธ?๏ธ

Next, it was time to hit the sand. I stepped down onto the beach and established my search boundaries, working from a flagpole just south of the distinctive yellow beach house over to some surfboards sitting on the beach just to the north. I snapped a few photos of the setup and messaged them to Kate to confirm. She looked at the pictures and told me the ring should be parallel to those surfboards, lying somewhere in the sand.

Knowing the layout, I estimated I could sweep the entire designated area in about 15 minutes. I fired up the metal detector and equipped my largest coil, the M15, to cover the ground as quickly and efficiently as possible. I locked into a tight, systematic grid search across the “red square” zone. I covered every single inch of itโ€”but the detector remained completely silent. No ring. โŒ?๏ธ

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Even though it was technically outside of Kate’s suspected drop zone, I decided to extend my search right up to the massive seawall. Now, in the metal detecting world, there is a funny truth: a detectoristโ€™s biggest enemy is actually metal! When you are searching for non-ferrous targets like silver or gold, an extremely large ferrous metal object can completely mask out the smaller target, making it completely invisible to the machine unless you proceed with extreme caution. ?๏ธโšก

Because this seawall is constructed entirely of metal, I knew my massive M15 coil wouldn’t be able to get very close without overloading. I gave it a shot anyway, creeping as close to the barrier as the large coil would allow. Ten minutes later, I still had absolutely nothing.

I decided it was time to call Kate back to narrow down her exact path. I asked her: “Which set of stairs did you use to exit the beach? The ones to the south or the north of the yellow house?” I figured I would just grid search her footprints right up the steps.
I was literally STUNNED by her reply.

Kate calmly told me she hadn’t used any stairs at all. Instead, she had pulled herself up and vaulted straight over the seawall directly in front of the yellow house! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ?

That seawall stands between 4.5 to 5 feet tall! I chuckled and told Kate, “Well, it must be nice to be young and agile! There is absolutely no way I would have even attempted that jump!” ?โ€โ™€๏ธ?

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That one piece of new information changed absolutely everything. I realized the ring didn’t drop while she was walking to an exitโ€”it likely launched out of her shirt pocket the exact second she leaped over that wall.

I had already searched near the wall with my large M15 coil, but I knew I could get significantly closer to that heavy metal barrier if I switched to my smallest setup. I had Cheryl run back to the vehicle to grab my small M8 elliptical coil. We swapped them out on the fly. To navigate the electrical interference from the wall, I would need to use a very short, highly disciplined, and deliberate swing. ?๏ธ?
I restarted the search right at the base of the wall, keeping my swings under tight control. Within just five minutes, the machine let out a beautiful, unmistakably loud high toneโ€”exactly what I had been praying to hear! ?โœจ
The target was resting a mere foot and a half to two feet away from the massive metal wall. I pulled out my pinpointer, locked onto the exact signal location, and used my fingers to carefully brush away the loose sand.
Magically, a gleaming Sterling Silver Wedding Ring appeared out of the grains! UNREAL! I had found it! ??

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Cheryl and I were absolutely ecstatic, and we immediately caught the whole recovery on video from above to send to Kate. When her phone rang with the clip, she called us back instantly, completely over the moon with joy! It all made sense nowโ€”when Kate cleared that 5-foot wall in a single bound, the momentum sent the ring flying right out of her shirt pocket. ?โ€โ™€๏ธ?
As luck would have it, Kate lives in Saco, the exact same town Cheryl and I call home. We made quick arrangements to meet up and safely return the family heirloom as soon as we got back into town. ??

As I walked off Gooch’s Beachโ€”using the actual stairs and definitely not trying to play Superman like Kateโ€”I was smiling from ear to ear. If I hadn’t asked that one crucial question about the stairs, or if I hadn’t brought my full arsenal of specialized coils, that ring might still be buried out there today. The stars were definitely aligned! ?โœจ

We met up with Kate back in Saco, and seeing her face light up with excitement as her wedding ring went back where it belonged was the perfect end to the day. As hugs and smiles were exchanged, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself thinking, “How on earth did she jump over that wall?”
I truly have the absolute best job in the world. I love my job! โค๏ธ?

“????????, ?? ?? ??????? ?? ???, ?? ??????? ?? ??!” ?

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