Yarmouth Tag | The Ring Finders

Belmont, Dennis Port, MA Lost Ring Found and Returned

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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September 11, 2025:
On August 18th Joey and his two little “ducklings” were frolicking around the waters edge when what so often happens, a wedding ring slipped off a finger into the shallow water of Nantucket Sound. Joey, the ducklings and other family members searched for the next two days before heir vacation time came to an end and they had to leave, abandoning their search and the ring in the sand. 3 weeks later Tana, Joey’s mother, came to the Cape for a visit. Over the next two weeks she, other family members and friends continued to search the area in hopes of reuniting the ring with its owner. That was not to be.

Joey’s mother, still had a few extra days before having to leave the Cape. During the time she and several of her friends brought up the subject of the missing ring and one friend offered up the information of TheRingFinders.com. As other suggestions had failed, Tana reached out to me for help.

I was a bit stressed out about my situation of buying and selling a house, and would have to fit in time for a recovery search. A look at the tide chart and I could fit a couple of hours in at 7AM the next morning. All was set until my Realtor and I finished up our afternoon commitments and I could make a search just before the evening tide. It was possible for Tana to meet me a the beach and I was on the way.

With my detector and scoop in hand, Tana and I walked to the area that the ring was lost at. The most likely area of the loss was pointed out to me: lifeguard chair, either side about 10 feet and straight down, into the water and out to no more than knee deep. An hour of searching and not one good signal, Then a solid signal from my detector that did not sound like a gold ring should but I had to dig it anyway. As I thought, it was not a ring but a toy truck. By this time I had widen the area I was searching. The sun had set and in the dark it was difficult to keep a tight grid pattern. It was time to call it quits until the morning’s tide.

Just before leaving the water’s edge I took one more look at the pictures Tana had shown me. There was one picture that showed nice flat sandy area with the two “ducklings” playing on it. I looked to the west into an area I had not searched yet and saw the exact same conditions, it was a bit further west than I had been told where the ring was lost. “One more pass” I told Tana, took two steps and got a signal. “Tana, your son’s ring is right there“… with nothing but wet sand for Tana to look at, I took one scoop of sand turned it over on the dryer sand. A after a couple of passing of Tana’s hand through the mound of sand, it came into view, yes, there was her son’s ring.

Pictures, information and a few metal detecting stories passed away a few more minutes before we parted with a promise to exchange the photos we had taken. One was for me to learn how to turn on my camera’s flash function. And another to have Joey leave his ring in a safe place in the

future when he visits the beach. Unfortunately it would still be a few days before the ring will be returned to Joey. I hope to meet Joey on his next trip to the shores of Cape Cod to get a photo of him with a smile and holding his ring.

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Permission to Help Find and Return a Ring on NSS, Cape Cod, MA

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August 12. 2025 A beautiful day a the beach was coming to its end and Matt had the urge to get a few more splashes in the rough waves before the sun set. But as it happens more than one can imagine he was hit by a wave and in that moment his wedding band slipped off his finger onto the wet sand. There was nothing Matt could do but watch it get swept away by the receding wave. The next morning he reached out to me for help. My first thought was that of it being on Federal Property, on which metal detecting is illegal. But, it may be possible to get special case by case permission to search one small area for a specific amount of time for a specific object. Or at times a Park Ranger may do the search themselves. The only other determining factor for me to go for the search would be the surf action, it can be so rough it could be life threatening.

All that being said, Matt wanted to get his ring back to his finger. He started the “Try to get the right person to give permission” which proved no easy task. First a phone call, no success. Second in-person visit to the NSS Visitor’s Center, again no success. Back to the phone, this time to a emergency number he found on the internet site. The dispatcher said she would have someone call him back. Success. Permission was granted for a “TheRingFinder” to search in the area he lost the ring during the one evenings low tide time and that the Rangers on duty would be informed of the situation. It was a go for me.

I had been on another such search about a month ago. I did not find the ring and was beat up by waves, that for a detectorist concentrating on the searching endeavor, could rip him off his feet. If it happened, his scoop could be ripped from his hands and lost into the surf. Likewise a detector may be lost. I know my limits, the dangers and to give up when the object is not worth tempting such dangers.

This search started with only short boots and a detector that had better trash rejecting tuning capabilities. That did not go well as I thought it might. But I had to go with the best equipment for the given search area. So, when I got to the water line with only two iffy targets, I went back to the car and got ready to detect in the water as far as I felt safe. That also did not go as I thought it would and as the sun was setting I was going call it a bust but I would make one last pass. In the surf wash of only 2 inches the only good signal hit my ears. One shallow scoop, a quick rinse and there it was, Matt’s wedding band. As I walked to Matt, I told him I though he was the luckiest son-of-a-mother and that’s a lot of sons to be luckier than. His reaction was such that I knew I was the lucky one to have retrieve and returned such a sentimental ring and return it. You now know why I enjoy my metal detecting hobby so much: Memory making emotions top the list.

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Craigville, MA Beach Club Gives Up Lost Ring to Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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August 10, 2025 It started two days ago while Brian and his friends were frolicking in waist deep water when King Neptune admired and help Brian’s wedding band slip off his finger. All the searching was unable to find the well hidden ring for two days. Eleanor the local Metal Detector dealer would not rent the men a water detector as she well knows one is not the easiest instrument to get the desired results. She strongly suggested that Brian call a member of TheRingFinders. Brian did but I was already out searching for an-other’s ring. When I got back to my phone I called and made arrangements to meet up at 6:30AM the next morning.

I was ready to go and waited the next fine minutes for Brian and his friends to show me just were the ring had been lost. It is always most helpful to be shown in person by the person who lost the object just where the item had been lost. My searching lasted about two hours going north to south and back then a pattern of east to west and back. With nothing of interest found I started searching in diagonal patterns. Again nothing. Now the tide was coming in and I still had not found the ring. OK. I would have to come back at the next low tide.

I did not make the evening low tide as I was called about a lost necklace with a fireman’s cross medallion. I thought I could make both recovery sites, but I did not. Additionally the owner of the Beach Club had mentioned just before we left after the early morning search that they expected the beach to be very crowded in the afternoon. I knew the ring was not going anywhere so I would go in the morning when I would not have to search around a crowd of bathers.

5:30AM and I was ready to go. I went to the dry sand and did a very cursory scan in the area the guys had been sitting two days ago. The plan I had in mind was to go to the buoy in a straight line from the the sandy beach. All was going as planned until, less than a minute, my detector gave me a signal I would not refuse to dig. In the scoop I brushed away a couple handful of shells and then I saw the glitter of gold. My search was over when I saw the T/B engraved on the inside of the band.

This is another reason I never take some of the information given to me as a golden rule, after all one’s memory of loosing a ring is not always clear. Back at the car I called Brian and within 7 minutes he was wearing his wedding band again, now with a smile on his face.

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Yarmouth, MA Lost Gold Necklace Returned by Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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August 9, 2025 After an early morning search for a lost ring that I did not find, I received a call for help in finding a lost necklace with a fireman’s cross hanging on it. I had been a Captain in a Deep Creek, VA volunteer fire department back in the early 1970s. How could I refuse except it was only two hours before low tide and I thinking I may not be able to get out to where the necklace was lost. What the heck, I went.

I met Matt on the now crowded beach. He pointed out the area, the area he thought was the most likely to be where he lost his necklace. As the tide was coming in rapidly, I started at the deepest section and work into the shallower area. After retrieving a few iffy signals that were pull tabs and a fishing sinker. Then I heard a signal I was waiting for, I took one careful scoop, not wanting to harm the necklace, raised it to the surface and saw gold hanging onto the open edge of the scoop. It was about high tide and time to give up until the tide went out. Matt thought I was giving up for the day. He did not know I had the chain and fireman’s cross in the scoop.

Matt came to the water’s edge, not looking very happy until I let him look into the scoop and retrieve his necklace. Great thanks and praises arose from those watching what was going on. By the time I found the necklace most nearby bathers knew of Matt’s loss and why the guy in the water was just walking back and forth. Needless to say that Matt was most thankful for the return of his necklace and charm that had been given to him by his wife 10 years ago.

The real mystery is: how did the necklace come off of Matt’s neck? The clasp was still hooked, It had to have been pulled off, over his head. Perhaps by his son while riding on Matt’s shoulder. It really does not matter. What does, is the happy ending that made for smiles all around.

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Yarmouth, MA via Alaska to Find a Hearing Aid by Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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August 5, 2025: Yesterday afternoon my home phone rang and the number showed up on my TV. 907 is an Alaska area code, I had to find out about the caller and answered the call. As the call started about a loss and need for help, I was ready to pack and head for Alaska. I had been in Alaska back in the 1980’s and enjoyed every day there. The call went on about Kenneth’s mother, Virginia, loosing a hearing aid while doing some yard work. Though I was not lucky enough to have to go to search in Alaska, but rather in my town of Yarmouth, MA.

So far this year I have a 100% success rate for finding lost hearing aids – two of them. For now, after the phone call I would call Virginia in the morning and arrange to search for the hearing aid that would spend the evening in the garden. OK, all set 9:30am and the search will begin. Virginia, a bit older than I am but really sharp and very interesting to talk with from her life in Alaska working on the pipe line, sky diving with her grandson on his 16th birthday wish of her grandson, getting caught overnight between two avalanches, and to a more mundane life style of being a volunteer librarian who has now has lost two hearing aids. Virginia found the first in a evening’s rainstorm just outside her car and not inside the library where she thought it had been lost. Good news, it still worked and she had not stepped on it.

Now it was my turn to search for a hearing aid after her best try the day before did not turn it up. I started the area search with a 7” coil on my detector, I should have put the 4” coil on at it would have got into areas that the 7” one would not fit into. Not to worry, my handheld pin-pointer could cover all the smaller areas I could not reach otherwise. I started searching the ground and moved upward onto one of the climbing plants. Maybe the hearing aid had been caught on a branch. No, back to the ground and after three other metal objects, I had a signal that turned out to be caused by the close proximity of a metal object, in this case the minuscule battery of a hearing aid.

Virginia was nearby and was over whelmed by my success. The hearing aid survived the night in the garden and now ready to help Virginia hear her granddaughter’s speech more clearly. It was the granddaughter’s questioning of her grandmother “Why do you always ask me to repeat myself?” that prompted Virginia’s son, Kenneth, to arrange a hearing test that ultimately lead to Virginia’s use of hearing aids, especially when with her granddaughter. Little devices that can really help the quality of life of everyone around as well as the wearer of the hearing aids can remedy the need to request someone to repeat themselves. I also wear them and can relate. Going back I can remember my grandmother’s hearing aid, a little box that hung on her chest, had a wire going to her ear and made horrible squeals. No matter, GRANDMOTHERS are the best!

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Harwich, MA Rings in the Sand, Found and returned by Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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August 3, 2025 Amanda’s mother was there when she needed help. She knew of TheRingFinders and specifically me and that I could and would help. A call came from Amanda and from our conversation I knew I had to help and respond fast to her situation. She was on the beach with a lost ring, one her goldsmith faience’ had made for her. My luck was with me as the loss had taken place on the dry sand section of a close by beach. A quick check of my van for all the equipment that would be best for this recovery was in order. On such a beautiful summer evening, my wife joined me in the trip to the beach.

Now here is were things get interesting. I pulled into a parking space and thought I saw Amanda, sitting in a large depression in the sand. I walked over and introduced myself, but to my surprise it was not Amanda it was Busra and she had been helping Amanda look for the lost ring. Come to find out Busra had lost her engagement ring in the process. (see my blog on what happened next).

As Busra and I were talking Amanda came from around a dune and we were off to find the ring I was called to locate. Amanda explained what had transpired since the she lost her TWO rings, not one. Both were handmade for her. We arrived at the area which some 30 people had helped in the search. One helper even went home and brought back a rake and raked the entire area that the rings may be in.

I started on one edge of the boxed area that had been raked. Pass one, nothing. ¾ along the second pass the first signal I got I knew I had a ring. But after the first scoop, I thought I missed the target and took a second scoop. I looking into the scoop and called Amanda over to retrieve her rings. She only took the bright gold ring from the scoop and with great enthusiasm showed the ring to the other on the beach. She than asked I could find her second ring. I pointed into my scoop, she came back, looked into the scoop and with tears in her eyes took the second silver ring out and put it on her finger.

A few tears and many hugs followed by pictures being taken. If you have not already read Bursa’s story, you will see that she has joined in with Amanda’s celebration of having her rings returned. I believe there will be a long friendship because of the losses and returns that occurred on the beach this evening.

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Falmouth, MA Lost Wedding Band Takes a Long Way Home by Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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July 23, 2025: Cyndy reported a ring was lost at Megansett Beach in North Falmouth. Her son-in-law had lost it along the water line about at high tide. Cyndy said “I could meet you any time on Friday.”
It was high tide when he lost it and he was in chest deep water at the time. The tide goes out far enough that at low tide it is only a few inches of water deep if that. It was inland of where the seaweed begins and between the rock jetty that runs perpendicular to the pier. I was happy with all the location information.

The story to this point:
As several people that loose a ring on the beach do, they borrowed a metal detector. Many of which can not handle the salty environment of a salt water beach, let alone to be waterproof so as not to destroy the electronics. And of course is the lack of experience in tuning and using a detector. Five hours of searching the search was called off and a call to TheRingFinders.com, and I received the call just as I was leaving my home with two other metal detectorists to search for another man’s wedding band. Plus there was one more ring lost at the far end of Cape Cod that I had on my list to go and find. Anyway it was not until the next morning’s low tide that I made my way to Buzzards Bay to meet up with Cyndy.

Friday morning and I was almost at the beach and a text came to me; “I’m here standing by the pier I have a black flowered dress on and I’ve saved you a place to park.” Sweet words this time of year with everyone wanting a parking space.

Boots on, detector and scoop in hand, my rings left with my wife and it is off to find a white gold wedding band. The band was lost as Zack was doing hand stands. Cyndy was watching and had the presence of mind to note the exact location on the beach where the ring slipped off her son-in-law’s finger.

Back to the hunt:
I was shown the rocks, seashells that looked a lot like the ring, and the seaweed which was to the outer most point the handstands were made. About eight swings later and an iffy signal was heard as the coil passed over the bottom of the beach’s slope. It took two shallow digs after not seeing the ring until I tilted it to eject some of the shells. As I did, one shell was hiding the ring and both Cyndy and I saw the ring heading back into the water. A third scoop and with much more caution I captured the ring and gave it to Cyndy. Lots of Thanks, a picture of the ring and a promise to have Zack send me a picture of Smiles when he received it half way across America.
And he did.

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Yarmouth, MA: One Year to Find and Return a Ring by Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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July 18, 2025 It was on July 27, 2024 that I received a text requesting help finding a lost ring.

“Good morning! My son lost his wedding ban in the water on Smugglers Beach in South Yarmouth this past Sat. He was about waist high when he believes it must have slipped off. Is this something that could be found? It is a gold band and I think it was around 2pm that he lost the ring. Thank you! Jennifer (mother)“

As luck (good or bad) had it I agreed to help and arranged for myself and two other detectorists, Leighton and Jim) to go and search the next low tide. Well the water was quite rough and after a couple of hours in the water without results the search shifted to the dry sand again without good results. This could only mean one of two things. One, we did not pass our detectors’ coil over the ring or it was not there, unlikely in this case.

I went back to the area when the water calmed down on several occasions, never giving up hope it was still somewhere and could be found. It happened 51 weeks later when I was in the water chin deep when my detector alerted me of a metal object below its coil. One scoop and you bet, it was the ring sitting all alone at the bottom of my scoop. After a ¼ mile hike back to the parking area, putting on dry shoes I was on my way home to contact the owner.

A search of my records one had the original E-mail from Jennifer. I called her to verify that the ring was her son’s. “YES, I be right over, I live about a mile away” and she was. I handed over the ring with a promise to get a photo of her son with the ring for the Book of Smiles.

It was a really great day for Matt not only did he get his long lost wedding band back but a new addition to his family. It seems Matt was at the hospital waiting on the the arrival of his first son Arthur, aka Arty when I called his mother about finding the ring. Arty was named after his Mom’s Dad who passed when she was 2. And now his happy parents have the wedding band back and a lesson about never giving up to pass onto Arty. What a great way to have a wonderful day! Congratulations!

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Falmouth, MA Wedding Band Lost and Returned by Richard Browne

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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July 4, 2025 Right after finding an engagement ring and returning it I was on my way to Mike and the group that had given up looking for Mike’s ring in the sand.

A few questions, precise answers and I was searching after moving a few beach chairs. Their metal legs caused false signals to my detector. However I worked as close to them as I could. I was told it was only 45 seconds before I had the wedding band in my scoop and ready for Mike to remove it. Of course no one really expected to see it recovered so fast. He removed the ring from the scoop and replaced it on his finger expressing the thrill with many thank-yous and a few hugs. A couple of photos and I was off to the gate keepers tent then to my waiting wife who had stayed in our car. At the beach and back at the tent and then car, no one could believe that two “lost” rings had been found in such a short time. I guess it could only happen in Vacation Land on Cape Cod with the help of a member from TheRingFinders.com.

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Falmouth, MA 4th of July Engagement Ring Lost, Returned

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July 4, 2025 The 4th of July is usually a day of family, food, frolic and fun in the sun on a sandy beach of Cape Cod. The 4th started off that way but soon would see frowns and nervous feelings for Erin as her engagement ring slipped into the sand not to be seen for a few hours. Searching by hand, and a digging tool or two before a desperate trip to the closest store that had a metal detector and back. Unfortunately the detector did not provide the results was hoped for.

The next thought was to search the web for help. There to results lead Erin’s group to Brian, another member of “TheRingFinders” who was to tell Erin’s husband that they would be the 4th on the list for help. Brian suggested that the try calling Rick Browne. The call came and within 45 minutes I was at the beach and met up with who I thought was Charlie but no, it was another man with a request to help find a “lost” ring. He would be number 2 on my list when Charlie spoke up and led me to the bay side of the peninsula and the area Erin had “lost” her ring.

I was shown where the ring slipped away and the holes dug while looking for it. Within 15 steps I had one signal which was from a pull tab, the next signal was the ring. I should have known it was going to be one of those days as I had left my cellphone in my car. I would have to rely on Erin, and her sister-in-law to text me the photos and information I needed to write this blog. I bid the party good bye and a reason to enjoy the rest of the day and return to making memories of the 4th. I was off to the next lost ring that was on the opposite side of the peninsula.

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