I received notice of a missing ring. Wes told me that he was in Cape May with his mom the other day. When they got home, 3 hours away, she noticed that her 5 year anniversary ring with 5 diamonds was gone. I told him I would look for it, but it would be in a day or two because of my work schedule. He said that would be great. He asked me what I thought the chances of finding the ring would be. I just responded saying that I would give it my best shot.

Before I could get to the beach, Wes sent me a picture from Google Maps. He marked up the map with the area they were sitting on the beach with approximate distances from objects. This would be a big help since I have never been to this beach before.

I left my house at 4am to catch the low tide. Almost hit a deer standing in the middle of Rt 55. I started to think that this wasn’t going to end well.

I got to the spot at 5:30. There was already someone there detecting the beach. He came right over to me and stated that I would only be finding trash. I asked why and he said that the beach was hunting every day by multiple people. I got a bad feeling. I was thinking to myself that this was going to be a wasted trip.

I searched anyway. I started finding tinfoil and bottle caps. Damn that guy was right, TRASH! I continued on. I found a quarter and a dime, giving me a sliver of hope. Next was a soda can that was buried. At least the sun was coming up and I have a great view of the light house.

After about 30 minutes I got a nice tone in my headphones. I scooped up the sand and BINGO! I had the ring. I looked around for the other guy so I could show him that it wasn’t all junk, but he was gone. I stayed an searched for about an hour finding more coins and a camera lens. No jewelry. I even found a geocache before returning home. It was still to early to give Wes a call.

After I got home I gave Wes a call. I started telling him about the other guy that was detecting and what he said. Then I told him I spent about 30 minutes on the beach & found the ring. He was so excited. He said his mom didn’t know that he contacted me. He said he had to hang up and he would call me back. He had to go tell his mom. He called back in 15 minutes. We made arrangements to meet 1 week later to return the ring.

My wife came along with me. We were meeting in King of Prussia PA. Wes & Karen were waiting for us. Wes is a lot younger than I thought. Once Karen saw the ring the tears started to flow and so did the hugs. She said she didn’t tell her husband that the ring was found, because she wanted to make sure that it was her ring. She also told us that today was their 23rd wedding anniversary. You just can’t make this stuff up. Wes informed us that he recently got a good metal detector to search for old coins. But it was to long of a drive to get back to the beach.

I loved returning lost items…

Below is Karen’s version of the story…
Who knew a fun time at Cape May N.J. beach would end in not being able to find your ring when you got home. The anxiety of not knowing if I would ever find it. And how to tell your husband you lost the ring he got you for your fifth anniversary. The best part is who knew your 17 year old son would take action. He posted on Craigslist a lost ring and a reward to who ever found it. The first response from add was Dave.

Like an angle from God he took action without any reservation, he talked to my son and off to Cape May to find my ring. Then out of the blue I received a phone call from my son while I was at work reporting to me the story of how he posted the add and how someone responded and found my ring. In disbelief I told my son to have the guy send him a picture of the ring. He did! There it was. My ring. Now how were we going to get it. This guy I didn’t know had my ring.

​My son talked to Dave and set it up to meet 45 min from our home and 45 min from Dave’s home. Again anxiety how could we meet with a stranger in the parking lot of Costco and get this ring. Maybe we would get to the parking lot and he would want 500 dollars for the ring. Then what would we do! Sunday morning came and off we went to try to get this ring.
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Entering the parking lot lots of ideas of how this would play out entered my mind. Then he called he was in the parking lot. Here we go! Butterflies fluttering while walking to his truck. Him and his wife got out of his truck and to my surprise there was my ring. He had not expectations on getting anything for finding it. When I saw the ring all I could do was cry and thank him!! After receiving the ring I told him how it was my 23rd anniversary. And what a great gift