Ring lost, found and returned in Newton, MA
My wife and I were just home from a mini getaway. When I received a call from Leighton, another Ring Finder asking me if I could help in a ring search as he was unable to do a search the next day. Definitely I can. Besides, it would be another day away from home with my wife, going places we had never been before.
I called Neil and was told the specifics and that he had also contacted Kent, another Ring Finder and friend of mine. A time for the search was set for the next morning. As a courtesy I called Kent, who also had work commitments on Saturday and would not be able to meet up for the morning search. It was on me with moral support from my wife on this search.
After a walk over the area and explanation that Neil also did some lake weed cutting to clear a launch area for his kayaks. By this time my wife had made friends with Ruby, Neil’s race track rescue Dalmatian. I put on my water gear, did a quick scan over the track between the house and dock area, Nothing, it was then into the water and just a few minutes later I heard a perfect signal, took a shallow scoop and there it was. Neil’s ring was in my scoop. I walked a few steps back to Neil so he could remove the ring from the scoop and put it back on his finger while repeatedly expressing his gratitude. Picture time followed.
I always try to put interest into the “ring shot” and this time was no different. Ruby showed interest in my gear and held still while posing with the ring on her forehead for a perfect photo.
Neil insisted in buying breakfast for my wife and me. We had watched the Phantom Gourmet the day before and had planned to stop at the pick of the show, which was Ronnie Waffles, on our way home. That was a sweet, happy ending to an anguishing day Neil had experienced. A perfect ending to an outstanding week.
Well it goes without saying that you never know what kind of events may lead up to a ring getting lost. This story is no exception. On May 8th I was contacted by the best man of a wedding party. He explained that during the couples ceremony, at a bayside resort, he had accidentally dropped the brides ring onto the deck and it slipped thru the cracks and into the bay! At the time he had called I was headed out to dinner with my family for Mother’s Day and it was just about high tide. After receiving some pictures and descriptions of the area I knew this could be very challenging as the search area was located under a deck / pier that extended over the bulkhead and into the bay. I figured it would be best to wait until dead low tide as the area was in about 12-15’ of water at the moment. Around 12:30am I headed over with a friend whom was lending a hand and met up with the remaining members and guests of the wedding party. Luckily the staff at “The Reeds” in Stone Harbor NJ were awesome at helping to pinpoint the area and provide a floating dock to work from, kind of like Tom Sawyers raft, lol. They even went so far as to remove some of the mahogany decking in an attempt to locate the ring. Obviously the wedding party was devastated over this accident and all reasonable attempts were made to find the dropped ring. You could feel the obvious tension surrounding the events that unfolded and this just drove the determination to a positive outcome further! After making our way down to the dock we boarded the floating dock and paddled under the deck / pier to the approximate area. After checking for about 15-20 minutes I was able to recover the brand new never worn rose gold and diamond band!! Much to my and everyone’s relief! The ring was under some of the structural members in about 2’ of water amongst some horseshoe crabs. The bride, groom, best man and remaining members of the wedding party were ecstatic!! Another happy couple! Congratulations and here’s to a lifetime of happiness!!
