Wellfleet, MA Long Pond Ring Lost, Found and Returned
June 27, 2024
It has been one of those months for me. And I just had to add these few words to a successful search and return of Mike’s wedding band. His story will follow.
Not all of a RingFinders’ search ends in a story for the Book of Smiles. Some have a reason why. Here are a few recent reasons why I have been unsuccessful in my searches. Lost ring was found elsewhere. I.e. under the man’s bed, in the trash can by the sink, on the fireplace mantle or another places a metal detector just could not have been used to locate the ring. Someone else has found the ring by “eyeballing” it before I began a search. In three cases the rings have been returned. One last possibility is that I just was not given the correct area to search or just did not cover the one square inch that the lost ring was in. One endeavor that has helped me in the past is the reviewing of photos to see if the ring or other object was indeed in the area I was to search, or narrow down the area. In one call the ring had not been on the person’s hand for two days. End of search. The hardest part of being a RingFinder is having to tell a person that I did not find the ring, but I can tell them were the ring is not located.
Now, I had been out on two such searches were I did not find either of the lost item and when I got home, Mike’s message was on my answering machine. Ah, another lost ring in the sand, or maybe in the water upto knee deep. OK, I was on my way and would get to the beach after the parking fee was required. There was a parking space right in front of the area to be searched and it was my luck that the beach goers were packing up which meant I would not have to ask anyone to move for a few minutes while I detected over the area. It took me about ten minutes to cover the area, retrieve a nickle, a pull tab and then the ring.
Now…That is how all of a RingFinder’s searches should be!
I called Mike, sent a picture for confirmation that I had indeed found his ring. It was, a return date was set and I promised I would keep his ring safe until I would personally return it to him. Mike also mentioned he had made a report at the local police station. So on my way out of town, I stopped at the police station and added the found and reuturn information to the report Mike had made. I also thanked the dispatcher for passing on the information about TheRingFinders, something some town officials can not do for legal reasons.
Its a beautiful afternoon in one of New Jerseys finest beach towns, Seaside Park. The oceans were calm, winds light and variable, which made for a perfect day of shell collecting. Dylan and his daughter set out to do just that. Unfortunately all the absolutely beautiful shells they had gathered together, just couldn’t make up for what had just happened. They were down at the very bottom of the tide line, by the drop off, picking up just one last shell, when Dylan decided to rinse off his hands and call it a day. At that very moment he watched his ring slip off his finger, and drop into the sand, just as a wave was rolling in. Even thought the ocean was as calm as we will experience here, Dylan had absolutely no luck over the next two days locating his beautiful wedding ring. When he called me and told me it had already been two days, and that it was just about dead low tide where his ring slipped off, I didn’t have a good feeling about the recovery, at that moment. What he did have in his favor was the fact that it had been dead calm, and was going to continue that way for the next few days. I told Dylan I would be on the beach for the next low tide which was day 3 of his ring being lost on the bottom of the ocean. I was out at 4 AM scouring every inch of the location he had marked with his phone in google maps, with not even one signal. Unfortunately I had prior obligations the next 2 days and would not be able to return until the following morning low tide. It was 5 AM or so, and here I am wondering around in the ocean again, but this time in about thigh deep water my machine sounds off a perfect low tone that you can tell almost in an instant was Dylan’s ring. I missed it in the first scoop, then BINGO !!!! I had his ring after 6 full days in the ocean. Believe me friends, this situation almost never exists in the state of NJ, but luckily for him it did that week. I messaged him asking for a detailed description, because all we had mentioned was white gold in our other conversations. I was pretty positive this was his ring, and the pictures confirmed that. I texted him pics and he was in total shock. We agreed to meet a few hours later for the monumental return.
What a wonderful weekend it was going to be, fantastic weather, great company, car is all unloaded, and just sitting on the outside on the deck, having a cold drink, enjoying the ocean breeze, when a voice from inside hollers, “we have a problem” !!!! Linda went inside to see what I might be, and it was most peoples nightmare, a clogged toilet. One would think this is an easy fix, but unfortunately it was not. After 2 days of trying to plunge the clog, it was now backing up in the downstairs laundry slop sink. A local plumber on LBI come out to assess the situation, unfortunately without locating the outside cleanout he was not able to finish the job. She called the guy he recommended who handles much lager jobs, and would be equipped with a 200′ snake. Once again, without the location of the outside cleanout he was not able to do anything either. That’s where I come into play. After 2 days, Linda called me wondering if I was able to locate a sewer cleanout. My concern was, if it was all plastic my equipment would not be helpful. After a short conversation, I headed out to try and help. After looking the entire plumbing situation over, I received many possible signals, in the area the cleanout should be. After quite a bit of digging, the cleanout was located, and now Linda could have the plumber return to snake out the entire line. This was a “stinky” situation to start of the weekend, but ended up on a positive note.
