Gold Wedding Band Lost In The Old Orchard Beach Maine Sand, Found With A Metal Detector

I had just returned home from a successful Recovery and Return, in the Town of Ogunquit and Cheryl and I had a slew of errands to do, including grocery shopping. Once I showered, we were out the door, headed to Kennebunkport Maine. While we were out and about and almost done with our errands, I had a text message come in at 10:40am.. It was now 12:09 and I don’t know how I missed this message, from 1 1/2 hours earlier . Anyways, this was what the message said,

“Hi Dennis! My name is Duke and my wife thinks she lost her wedding ring at Old Orchard Beach near the end of Pearl Ave. Is there anything you can do to help us?”

I immediately called Duke back. He told me that the previous evening, he, his wife (Francesca) and others had gone down to the beach, at Pearl Ave, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. They had gone down there to watch the weekly fireworks , put on by Palace Playland Amusement Park. The fireworks were scheduled for 9:45pm and Duke and Francesca had arrived early. While waiting for the fireworks to start, Francesca and Duke started horsing around, chasing each other, on the beach. While playfully running around, Francesca noticed her wedding ring was missing. The area they had been running around, wasn’t very large, maybe 20’ X 75’. Not knowing exactly where the ring came off, they and others started searching the sand but the ring was not located. The next morning, Friday July 11th, they returned to Pearl Ave and started searching again, looking and sifting through the sand. The ring was still not located. A beach goer had noticed what was going on and they were told about the missing ring. The beach goer knew about The Ring Finders of Maine’s Emergency Metal Detecting Services and told them they should contact me. That is when Duke, reached out to me.
After hearing the story, my first reaction was to ask Duke if the Beach Cleaning Machine had cleaned that section of beach, this morning. Duke replied that he hadn’t seen the beach cleaner and the sand was still full of footprints, from the previous evening. Hearing that was a huge relief. If the beach cleaner had gone through the area, the ring would have been scooped up with all the other trash and be long gone by now. I told Duke that I could certainly help search for the ring but I was in Kennebunkport and I would be back in the Old Orchard Beach Maine area around 2:00pm. Duke told me they would be there until I arrived and continue searching for the ring.
Once I arrived, just prior to 2:00pm, parking was at a premium. I couldn’t find parking, on Pearl St., so I went one street south of Pearl, on Union St. and found a spot to park, as someone was leaving. We entered the beach, on Union Avenue and headed north towards Pearl. As Cheryl and I were walking on the beach, I saw a couple, by themselves, with a metal detector, in the area of Pearl Ave.. As I approached, the person saw me and introduced himself. It was Duke and Francesca and Duke had gone to Walmart and purchased a metal detector. He had done this prior to contacting me. The young married couple had only found a few screws. They showed me the area they thought the ring would be in and where they had run around, the night before. Like I mentioned, it really wasn’t a large section and I estimated the entire area would only take me about 20 minutes. I explained to Francesca a Duke that I would perform a grid search, starting near the dune grass and working my way towards the water. I then had Duke throw his Gold Wedding Ring, into the sand. I would show Francesca and Duke how the metal detector works and the sound that the gold ring would make. I scanned my coil over the now disappeared ring and a nice loud low tone, emitted from the metal detector. This made the couple feel much better, knowing my detector would find the ring, once the coil went over it. I started my first grid line, up 75’ and turned around and headed back towards my starting point. Nothing on the first line, other tan 2 dimes and 2 pennies, along with a few pieces of foil. My second pass was not successful and neither was my 3 pass. On my 4th pass on the grid line, I received a loud low tone and I just knew this had to be the ring. Ringing up as an 18 on my VDI Screen was definitely in thee gold range but the tone, to me was unmistakable as gold. I removed my pinpointer and located the target, in the sand. I saw a beautiful shiny gold ring. I picked the ring up, turned towards everyone watching me and asked Francesca “Did you say the wedding ring is 14K Gold?’ She replied “Yes, it’s Gold”. I then held the ring up for everyone to see and said, “I found your ring”. Francesca hurriedly made her way towards me with a BIG smile. Cheers and clapping broke out from everyone in the area. A fantastic feeling of euphoria came over me. It had only taken me, maybe 5 to 7 minutes to find the ring. People shouted out congratulations and came over to shake my hand, along with a big hug from Francesca. Just a great feeling to be able to help others , in their time of need. The best feeling in the world and now I have recovered and returned two rings today.. I had found and returned a wedding ring in Ogunquit Beach, early this morning. Now I am heading to Kinney Shores, Maine, in Saco, Maine. That’s right. While still in Kennebunkport, Maine , Duke wasn’t the only person who contacted me. I would now be driving the 1 mile or so, to Kinney Shores to find a wedding ring, with diamonds, that had been lost on July 4th, a full week earlier. Will I make it 3 for 3 in ring searches for the day? Stay tuned, for more❤️🙏