Lost Ring Lake Recovered SCUBA Diving: Mountain Top, Pennsylvania
Ring Lost in Pennsylvania Lake Recovered SCUBA Diving
Lost July 15th, 2019; Sara and Alberto called to ask if I could find a lost ring. Sara was swimming with her daughter in their community lake. The daughter reached for Sara and accidently pulled the ring off Sara’s finger in about 10 feet of water. As the photo shows, the ring is intertwined bands. One of the bands is covered with diamonds. Sara’s ring matches Alberto’s ring, and the set has great sentimental value for the couple. They live outside my normal area, about 5 hours away. I offered to search, telling them my fee would include reimbursement for travel and overnight accommodations.
Sara and Alberto were hesitant so we discussed researching potential local options. I also suggested they call RingFinder SCUBA divers who were closer. Following my advice, Sara and Alberto found a local diver with a metal detector from a nearby dive shop. The diver agreed to search the area, removing submerged wooden boards from the bottom. Though he used a metal detector, he was not able to find the ring.
Next, they tried a SCUBA certified RingFinder team from another state. Unfortunately, they seemed uncomfortable with the conditions, unfamiliar with normal search patterns, and were also unable to locate the ring. Sara called again asking me to take the job.
July 30th, 2019 My Divemaster (Mrs.E), and I drove up and stayed in Wilkes-Barre. The next morning I searched for two hours. I had not anticipated how cold the water in the spring fed lake would be. Just below the surface the water temperature was in the mid-50s. The bottom had a layer of fine silt which, once disturbed, quickly decreased visibility (which was poor to begin with). I found numerous small bits of aluminum cans and bits of other trash. After 30 minutes, my perception narrowed and my efficiency decreased due to the cold. I didn’t find the ring. But, now that I was familiar with the conditions I knew I could adjust for the cold and improve my search pattern. I asked Alberto if I could return and conduct another search for no fee and he said agreed.
August 12th, 2019 Mrs.E and I made the trip again. This time I used a thicker dive suit (7mil). Because the weather had turned colder and the water was colder, visibility was better and I could recover targets more effectively. One of the finds was a set of lifeguard keys used to open the gate to the lake and facility. I used a PVC grid I’d constructed but surfaced after an hour with no luck. My wife and I discussed our interpretations of the potential location of the ring, and she suggested searching closer to the dock. Within 30 minutes I heard a clear target. I gently waved my hand to move the silt and uncovered another piece of aluminum. Sitting next to it was Sara’s ring!
Getting to the Lake
Beautiful Site
Gear Staged
Easier to Get Dressed in the Water
Descending
Some Typical Trash
Saved From the Lake
Smile!
Jennifer and her family were on vacation in St. Augustine Beach, Florida when the unthinkable happened! Read what Jennifer wrote: “Hi Mike. Again I cannot thank you enough for finding my hubby’s ring! We appreciate your quick response to what was a terrible way to start a vacation! I will admit that I was very skeptical when theringfinders.com web site was recommended to me but you accomplished what I thought would surely be an impossible task. I know that everyone values their wedding rings but his is extra special! Not only did we inherit our wedding ring set from my parents, it also survived my husband’s near fatal car accident 14 months ago. This was our first vacation and his first time back to the ocean since then. We appreciate your prayers for him! And I want you to know that after we met in person and talked, I knew that the Lord had sent the help I had asked for, He sent us you!!
Miguel was enjoying a warm spring day on his family’s dock with some friends and as they were getting ready to head up to the house, he asked one of his friends to toss him his shirt. Earlier, Miguel had laid his shirt across the back of a lawn chair and also had removed his gold chain and cross and placed it on top of his shirt. (This chain was very special to him as it was a gift from his mom 12 years ago and he has worn it ever since!) As his friend grabbed the shirt the chain slipped off and fell directly thru a crack between the deck boards of the dock. Miguel did not actually see the chain fall but he was able to hear the sound of his chain and cross as it fell into the dark waters below the dock. Stunned, he could not believe what had just happened! He mustered the courage to get into the cold water and made his way under the dock. There were lots of underwater plants growing up from the muddy bottom making it very difficult for Miguel as he tried to feel with his hands and his feet. Numerous shells, sticks and leaves mixed into the silty bottom was a very discouraging place to have lost his precious chain and cross. He searched for a while and soon realized the futility plus he was getting very chilled so he climbed out and tried to think of what to do next. This led him to do a search online for “How to find a gold chain underwater” and thankfully “theringfinders.com” website came up. He clicked on one of my recovery stories and decided to give me a call.
Last Friday Amanda called me from San Antonio, Texas with a very special request. She explained that her mother Liz, who lives in Port Orange, Florida had just lost a very expensive diamond earring! Two days earlier Mrs Liz had an invitation to eat lunch at a friends house and before heading out the door she decided to wear her beautiful earrings that were a gift to her from her husband Tom, 14 years ago. They had a wonderful time visiting their friend and after a delicious meal Mr. Tom and Mrs. Liz headed for home. Immediately after arriving home Mrs. Liz went to her bedroom to remove her special diamond earrings and to her dismay one of them was missing. And the search began! They looked everywhere and could not find it. And she decided to call her daughter Amanda in San Antonio for some advice. Amanda went right to work searching for some help for her distraught mother and after typing “Metal Detector Rental Orlando” into her phone she found theringfinders and one of my search and recovery stories. The call was made and the next day I met Amanda’s parents. Mr. Tom and Mrs. Liz said they had the other earring in a small plastic bag so I could get a reading with my metal detector, but unfortunately the bag got misplaced or thrown out that morning and we had a frantic 30 minute search—emptying garbage bags and crawling all over the house. Thankfully Mr. Tom finally found it in the thrown out newspaper bin!! Before heading to the neighbors house I searched the car, the garage and basically the whole house with my flashlight and then we headed to the friends house.
While out searching the rough surf for a large gold necklace, I was getting tired and thirsty and decided to take a short break. As I sat there relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean, a man approached me and explained his dilemma. Two weeks earlier, Teddy had been walking on the beach and towards the end of his walk he noticed a bunch of garbage in an area of the soft sand and decided he would do the noble thing and pick up the trash and deposit it where it belonged…..in the garbage can! Earlier in his walk, he had been fiddling with his ring and for some “unknown” reason he slipped the ring onto his pinkie finger, where it was a tad loose.
In November of 2017, Jerry was visiting his brother and wife in the Ormond Beach, Florida area and was in a bit of a hurry as he packed up his car to head north for the long drive home. And in his hurry he forgot that he had set his phone on the top of the car! Here is Jerry’s account. “My phone survived a brief thrill ride on top of my car before sliding off onto the shoulder of the road, where it survived a couple of cold and lonely nights before you, Mike, came to the rescue. I tried to hire someone from Craigslist for an “Odd Job” but nobody was interested. The day before I contacted Mike, I asked a local police officer to go out where the signal was still pinging and have a look around. It’s a work phone and they probably wouldn’t have charged me for it but I had some video on there of my daughters last Tae Kwon Do belt test that I didn’t want to lose. Glad I thought of metal detectors and glad I discovered you (and theringfinders.com)! Thanks again! Jerry O.”
Elizabeth wrote “My husband and I were snorkeling in a crystal clear spring, when my husband decided to swim down deep to check out a small cave looking space. While he was coming back up to get air, he pushed off a rock and his wedding ring slipped right off his finger. Panic mode took full force! After several hours of searching for the ring, we thought the ring was gone forever. And by the time you swam to the bottom (at least 15 feet) you had only seconds to search due to the limited air. The ring meant allot to us and it was very hard to accept the fact that it was gone.
