Gold Engagement And Wedding Rings Lost Swimming At Moody Beach, Wells, Maine, Found With A Metal Detector
🌊 Lost at Moody Beach! 💍
I received the following text on Sunday, June 28, at 5:36 PM:
“Hi Dennis! My name is Jillian, and I lost my engagement and wedding rings today at Moody Beach.
I believe they may have come off while I was swimming earlier this afternoon.
I heard from many people you were the guy to reach out to. I’m sorry for the Sunday evening text! These are pictures of the rings:”
⏱️ Race Against the Tide
To speed the process up, I immediately called Jillian back.
Jillian told me that she had been enjoying the last day of her trip at a friend’s beach house along with her husband, father, and a few others.
While in the water swimming and throwing a football around, she noticed her gold engagement and wedding rings were no longer on her finger.
🌊 The Search: Jillian, her family, and friends went back out as the tide was receding.
⏳ Time spent: They searched for two to three hours.
🔍 Equipment: Someone even searched with a metal detector, but all to no avail.
Jillian and her husband then had to return home to New Hampshire for work the next morning.
With the tide now coming in, I told Jillian I could be at Moody Beach at 5:00 AM for the 5:41 AM low tide.
Since Jillian had been in the water at mid-tide, arriving prior to the morning’s low tide would give Gary Hill and me plenty of time to search the area.
I sent Jillian an aerial view of the beach, and once she verified our target area, we were ready to go.
🌅 A Beautiful Sunrise & Double Signals
Gary and I arrived at Moody Beach the next morning and were greeted by a beautiful sunrise.
We decided to search north to south, moving vertically toward the water.
My Strategy: I started in the wet sand near where I thought the waterline would have been the prior day.
Gary’s Strategy: Gary started up near the seawall.
We both worked our way toward the water, with Gary covering the sections I skipped.
This way, we could cover the entire search area in three or four hours, but hopefully, we would find them in less time.
As we started searching, we weren’t finding many targets at all—it was a very clean beach.
I was finding an occasional pull tab and small pieces of aluminum.
Gary found a few coins but no treasure, except the treasure of the sunrise.
It was a very quiet search with very little digging until around the 40-minute mark.
Suddenly, I received a very strong low tone giving me two separate readings.Signal 1: 17
Signal 2: 29
This definitely got my attention. Two targets, both in the gold range, and two missing rings!
What are the chances of these being the lost engagement and wedding rings?
🎯 Found! Double Gold!
I thought they were very good, so I yelled over to Gary,
“I think I got them!”
I waited for Gary to arrive before I dug the targets. I threw the scoop full of sand up onto the hard-packed wet sand and let Gary use his pinpointer to probe it.
🥇 Ring #1: Once he located the target, Gary pulled out the engagement ring. YES!!!
Now to find the wedding ring. I swung my detector over the hole and found the second target was just outside of it
.🥈 Ring #2: Gary used the pinpointer to locate the target, put his fingers into the sand, and pulled out Jillian’s wedding ring.
Gary and I high-fived each other, smiling and laughing at our good fortune.
It was now 5:39 AM. I took a photo of the rings and texted it to Jillian, simply saying, “Got them.”Less than a minute later, I got Jillian’s reply:
“OMG, you’re incredible!!” 🙌
❤️ A Huge Relief for a Growing Family
I then asked her if there was someone at the house we could give the rings to.
Jillian replied, “I’ll have my Dad come out! I’ll call him right now,” and she then sent another text:
“He’s coming out. Thank you SO much! We even metal detected that side, you are incredible.”
Her excitement made Gary and me very happy. Soon after, we saw her father, Jim, making his way onto the beach.
Jim was also incredibly happy and excited, telling us he truly thought the rings wouldn’t be found.
Jim also told us that Jillian had been devastated and he was especially worried because she is expecting her first child in November! 🍼👶
WOW!!! We were so glad we got down here and found them just 15 hours after they were lost.
Jillian could now stop worrying and put all her energy into her pregnancy.
💌 A Few Days Later…
Jillian sent me another text a few days later saying:
“Good morning! I can’t say enough how much I appreciated your efforts and have been telling the story to everyone I know. Thank you so much again.”
😊Gary and I are still on cloud nine with this recovery.
Unfortunately, Gary and I were not able to meet Jillian ourselves to return the rings.
Jillian tells me she is now were her rings once again, after receiving them from her father.
Knowing we were able to help Jillian in her time of need and relieve her worry is a huge reward for us.
We have the best job in the world, and we love what we do!
🧲🏖️Remember: “If it matters to you, it matters to us.”
📞 Lost Something Valuable? Call or Text Dennis!
If you or someone you know ever loses a ring, keys, or valuable items on the beach, in the grass, or even in the water—please don’t wait!
Time is critical, especially with shifting sands and tides.
Call or text Dennis right away at (207) 423-3027
The sooner a search begins, the higher the chance of a successful recovery!
📈🔍Remember: “If it matters to you, it matters to us.” 🤝❤️
