Custom Made Wedding Ring Recovered at Honeymoon Island

Item recovered on July 4th, 2023

I began metal detecting around the time of the pandemic as a way to get out of the house for some exercise. I wasn’t a ring finder – I didn’t even know there was such a thing!

After getting through the learning curve – finding lots of trash, to identifying coins, then targeting jewelry and really learning my machine, I stumbled upon a post on Craigslist at the beginning of June, 2023. A post that another metal detectorist made on behalf of the gentleman, Jacques, who had lost his ring.

I felt this would be a good challenge – like a scavenger hunt with a metal detector and a chance to test my skill! I reached out to the person who made the post, who shared additional details with me and I was off on the hunt.

Jacques was an older gent who lost his ring in the water at Honeymoon Island on day 1 of his vacation. He spent the rest of his time trying to find his lost custom-made wedding ring, even renting a metal detector himself. He had seen another person metal detecting there the day the ring was lost and others had tried to find it, with no luck. Hope seemed to be running out that the ring was either found by someone or claimed by the sea forever.

I searched for this ring on 3 separate occasions, twice in June and finally found it on July 4th, 2023. It was a perfect day for metal detecting – beautiful weather and calm water. Jacques’ ring was the very first target I hit that day, but I didn’t recognize it as the one due to the photo that was provided and the condition of the ring from being in the water for over a month.

After I got home and cleaned up the ring, I consulted with some local friends – people with much more experience than I had and we determined it indeed was the ring Jacques had lost!

What came next would drastically change my metal detecting « hobby » to one of helping people recover lost items as a ring finder: the phone call to Jacques to let him know his ring had been found.

Words cannot described how happy Jacques was to hear the news after giving up hope his ring was lost forever! I had the ring packaged and overnighted to Jacques and he confirmed receiving it the next day.

I joined the ring finders group a few months later and truly enjoy helping reunite people with their lost items! I hope to be able to continue doing this as long as I am able.