Lost Ring Under a Boat Dock in Brigatine NJ, Found by Dave Milsted
Saturday evening, I received a call from Dino. He explained that his daughter lost her wedding ring in Brigatine Bay. She was distraught and depressed. His heart is hurting for her. I asked the usual questions: Does she have an idea where? What was she doing? What is the ring made of? His answers were under a boat dock, sitting in a chair, putting on sunscreen.
He said his daughter Nadine would be calling me. A short time later, Nadine did call. I had a few more questions for her. How deep is the water at high tide and low tide? She said at low tide, waist to chest deep. She had taken off her ring to put on sunscreen, securing the ring in the side pocket of the chair. When she went to put the ring back on, she found the pocket had a hole in it. No ring was to be found. The dock, made of wooden boards, has significant gaps between the boards. They didn’t hear the ring hit the boards or plop into the water. I told her I would be down the next morning before low tide.
Not knowing what the hunt was going to require, I packed chest waders, a wetsuit, 3 detectors, my long-handled scoop, and a 6-foot pole to determine how deep the water was. I met Nadine and her family at the location. They showed me the area and what she did. I had asked her the night before to mark the spot where her chair was, and there was an “X” marks the spot on the deck. I placed my bag of goodies on the X. I climbed down the ladder with my pole to measure the water. It was about 2.5 feet deep. Luck was on my side; I had dreams of the water being up to my neck.
My choice of weapons was chest waders, my long-handled scoop, and my Nokita Legend detector. I got dressed and entered the water. Less than 1 minute in, I got my 1st signal, I scooped up the sand, and there was Nadine’s ring. It took me longer to put on my waders than it did to find her ring.
I pulled it out of the scoop and showed it to her husband. He was in shock. He couldn’t believe that I found it, let alone in under a minute. Then Nadine saw it, and her mother screamed. The looks on their faces were priceless. Her mom says she works at a local restaurant, and she is going to tell everyone what I do and how professional I was. I gave them a refrigerator magnet to keep my information handy!
I Love My Hobby!!
