Received an email at midnight, didn’t see it till the next morning after my 6-mile run. Mary informed me that her husband lost his wedding ring in the surf at Stone Harbor. They were only down for the day and are back home in Central NJ. I immediately responded to the email and called. Mary gave me more details but she said that someone was looking for the ring already. She told me who and I said if she needed me to call me back.
I called the other detectorist, and he informed me that he didn’t have any luck. I called Mary back and told her that I would give it a try. I asked her a ton of questions. When trying to find lost items you need to be a detective.
On the drive down I had a gut feeling that this wasn’t going to be successful. I got to the beach earlier than anticipated. The lifeguards were still on duty and would give me issues about being in the water not in the swim zone. I walked up to the access ramp and surveyed the area. Another overwhelming feeling that this wasn’t going to go well. There was a wedding on the beach 1 block south.
I went back to my vehicle to wait out the lifeguards. While waiting I talked to my mom and my mentor (Diane Toogood), asking for help from above. I also pulled up the Ring Finders site and looked at some recent successful recoveries, to get me in a better mental zone.
At 5 pm the lifeguards left the beach. I entered the water, no sounds. The other detectorist did a great job of cleaning out all of the other targets.
At 5:10 I get a great sounding tone, dig down. Rinse out the sand. Look in the scoop to find the ring that I was looking for, 10 minutes. I left the beach to get my phone. I took a few pictures and sent Mary one of them. Boy was I excited, full of energy. I thanked my mom & Dianne multiple times!!
She called me right back, sounding like she was choked up. She said that it looked like the ring, then told me the inscription that was inside. It matched. We made arrangement to me the following day. It was a GREAT ride home, I didn’t care how much traffic there was!!
I get more hugs from making recoveries. The ring is now back on her husband’s hand!
