Lost Wedding Band Reunited With Owner, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Four years ago, Matt approached me while I was metal detecting offshore on a local beach. He’d just lost his wedding band in the water and asked if I’d mind looking for it. I was glad to help, and after he showed me the area where it was lost I searched for several hours but was unable to find the ring. When it came time to leave I looked for Matt but he had left. All I had was his first name and information he’d given me about the words that were engraved inside his ring.
Fast forward a year. Detecting in the same area, just for fun and relaxation, I found the ring. There was no doubt about it — the engraving was exactly as Matt had described it. But what could I do to track him down? I tried posting notices at the beach and on Craig’s List without success, then finally gave up, set the ring aside, and forgot about it.
I’m not a social media enthusiast but recently became aware of a social group for our town on Facebook, and I thought it would be worthwhile to try a post there. Within half an hour after posting “Matt I found your wedding ring” with some appropriate details I had a call from Matt, who correctly identified the ring! I arranged to meet Matt and his family at the beach and the ring was soon back on his finger where it belonged. Matt said that getting his ring back after so long ‘made the summer for him and his family’. The feeling was truly mutual. I’m really pleased, and frankly somewhat amazed, that this finally worked out to be a successful return!
Tess lost her absolutely beautiful wedding and engagement rings while vacationing at the beach. She and friends searched the beach for hours, sifting the sand with no success and it was getting dark. She called me at 9:30 that evening asking if I could help. After discussing details of when and where, it was the best guess than it was lost either on the sandy beach or in the water. I said I would help and I would be there at daylight. Tess met me just as the sun was up enough to see and reviewed the area to search. It was a fairly large area. I decided to search the beach first before lots of people showed up and before the umbrellas went up. The search took about 2 hours. When looking for a gold ring, depending on the metallurgy it could mimic just about any other commonly found metals. Because of that fact I had to dig every signal. I did lots of digging on that beach and did not find her ring. Next step was to search in the water. Fortunately there was not that many signals in the water. I think I dug about 10 targets before coming upon a weird signal, the target data kept jumping around suggesting a soda can but the signals could have been a gold too, so I started digging. Digging has to be done with care to avoid and damage to precious property. It took me three gentle scoops before the target was in my scoop. The entire time I was saying to myself this is a soda can, I know it’s a soda can, but knew I had to dig everything. To my amazement Tess’s cherished ring was there safe and sound. I learn something new just about every time I do a ring recovery, her ring was really three rings probably with different metallurgy!
