Late Tuesday night, the 23rd of July, I received a voicemail and text from Ilona who had recently lost her gold and platinum wedding ring in Chippewa Lake while working on her boat lift. I didn’t receive the messages until the next morning, and I promptly texted her back. I told her I wasn’t sure I’d be able to assist, as my water search equipment had been damaged during another water hunt earlier this year. I referred her to The Ring Finder’s website but said if she couldn’t find anyone else to let me know and I’d see what I could do. She called me a few minutes later and said she had tried another Ring Finder, but they no longer do water searches and she was desperate to find her ring, as she was leaving the next day for a short camping trip (with limited cell service) followed by a month-long vacation and really wanted her ring back before she left! So, I told her we’d make a few protective modifications to our equipment and give it a go.
As she was leaving that evening, we made arrangements to meet her brother at the lake on Thursday around 3:30pm. When we arrived at the lake, Peter took us out on the pier and pointed out where Ilona’s boat lift was and where she was working when she lost the ring.
We headed out to the boat lift around 3:45. The water was between hip and waist deep by the time we got to the spot. There were lots of speed boats on the lake, which took the water levels even higher at times. Because of the depth we couldn’t use our detectors, so we relied on our pinpointers. We started around the area she had been working and fanned out from there. After about forty-five minutes to an hour, I found a ring! I had not seen a picture of Ilona’s ring, so I didn’t know if it was her ring or not. I waded back to shore and showed the ring to Peter. He also wasn’t sure if it was her ring, so while he texted her, we placed the ring in our find’s bucket and returned to the water to keep searching. About an hour or so later Peter hollered out from the shore and asked to see the ring. I came back to shore and we compared the ring to the picture she had just sent and, sure enough, that was her ring! How exciting! We dried off and took some pictures while Peter called Ilona. I could hear the excitement in Ilona’s voice and that’s what it’s all about! As Peter would be joining her on her trip the following day, she made sure he was going to bring the ring to her. After chatting a bit more with Ilona and Peter, we hopped in the car and headed home. Two days later I received a text with a picture of Ilona, happily wearing her ring! It never gets old making people smile! 
