Newlywed Mishap, Lost Wedding Ring Found in Atlantic City Returned
I received a missed call from a London exchange. I thought why is someone from England calling me? Must be telemarketers. It was followed by a frantic email. Alice & her husband were in Atlantic City on Monday. Alice left her rings at home, but Eric wore his. He did take off his ring when he wanted to go into the water. Alice put it on her finger. After a few hours in the heat they left the beach. That is when she noticed the Eric’s ring was gone.
I missed her call because I was in a lake metal detecting. I responded to her email as soon as I saw it & she called me right back. She explained where they were on the beach. Where they walked to. She told me that they saw someone detecting on the beach the night before and had him search the area that they had their blanket. No luck. She felt so bad that she lost it, she started searching on the internet and found me.
I made the trip to the shore. I noticed that a fellow recovery expert Ed Cropski stated he was going to do a recovery later in the day. I sent him a message and my hunch was right, Alice had called him also. Ed wanted me to keep him informed on my progress.
I got to the beach around 2 pm. It was fairly crowded. I started detecting the from the path to the beach toward the water, I traveled in a north and south grid pattern. One of my 1st finds was a 1cc syringe. I secured it and put it in a soda can then crushed the can. I continued on.
Near a shed that rented chairs and umbrellas was a pair of obviously homeless people that set up camp. Alice said that her & Eric were in that area the day before, shaking their towels before leaving the beach, but didn’t mention any homeless residence, but I wasn’t going to get close to them fearing that I might get slashed.
Did I say that the search area was next to a beach bar? 4 hours later and 150-200 bottle caps later I decided to give up for the day. The heat was getting to me and a finished all of the water that I brought.
Ed went down after dark and searched. He saw my grid pattern that I left in the sand & he expanded it. The same homeless people were still camped out. Ed searched for 3 hours with no luck.
I got up early the next day to try again. When I arrived the beach, on the far side of the beach bar was roped off for a Good Morning America Broadcast for Above & Beyond segment later in the day. Bonus was that the police removed all of the homeless people from the area.
I went to the area that I couldn’t get to the day before. With in 15 minutes I had a 14k gold wedding band in my hand. I sent Alice an email and she called me almost immediately. I told her that I found the rind and she started to cry. I should note that they have only been married for 5 months.
We made arrangements to meet up over the weekend to get Eric his ring band. Alice said they had a story to tell my wife & I.
We met at a local Starbucks. The look on Alice’s & Eric’s face when I showed them the ring was priceless. I love this hobby!! Alice proceeds to tell us that the story of the lost ring has gone national. Eric’s mom is a host on QVC. She posted to her Facebook page the story of the lost rind and this guy who was trying to find it. The page has close to 12,000 likes and close to 1000 comments. (Story posted on FaceBook)
Here is a note from Alice & Eric:
Dear Dave,
Thank you so much for your amazing skill in finding Eric’s wedding ring. We are newlyweds and were so upset we lost it so soon. But we consoled ourselves on the day. I as Eric’s wife did not want to give up as I had felt so bad, so God blessed my hope through you. You were the answer to our prayer and we fell our covenant is even stronger now.
