Most Recent Discovery Category | Page 20 of 388 | The Ring Finders

September 1, 2024

“Chris I Love You Susan” was engraved in a wedding band that took a slip from Chris’s finger as his daughter looked on. Chris visualized were the loss took place and that there were 51 steps to the stairs leading off the beach. During the next few hours Chris made many unsuccessful dives to retrieve the ring from its watery resting place. A visual search also took place. Susan then took charge, acquired my number and called for help.

The next morning at 7AM the search began and lasted about 2 hours before the tide had come in and prevented further searching. I would return for the afternoon tide. Which I did. I paced off the 51 steps, took visual reference points into account and began a search. First I gridded over the sand that was under water in the morning. Nothing to dig, I moved into the water. Low tide, with between 1 and 2 foot waves along with some seaweed made detecting a bit tough. The second signal I had was over the small drop-off at the bottom of the beach’s slope. With everything moving as it was I had to take a third scoop before I caught the object in the scoop. I love to see the glitter of gold among the shells and sand. Without emptying the scoop I left the surf and counted 68 steps to the stairs. On the walk I pulled the ring out, verified the inscription, and dumped the shells.

Next feat was to climb the 98 steps to the top of the dune and my car. I cleaned the scoop, put the ring back into it, changed the boots I was wearing to sandals for safer driving and drove off toward Chris’s vacation home. I turned the last corner and there Chris was, walking back to the beach to see if I was there. I told him the surf was now too rough and it would be worthless to climb down to the beach and back up. But I would appreciate him looking in my scoop. A bit perplexed, he did and could not believe that it was HIS ring from Susan.

At the house, a cappuccino, many friendly licks from his dog, and lots of wonderful stories were related. I just love how I get to know people by just going a bit out of my way to help them. It is also great knowing that there is at least one more reason for having wonderful memories of a vacation on Cape Cod.

August 31, 2024

On my way home from some hobby detecting; not looking for anything specific, just enjoying the afternoon sun and sea swells, and waiting for another call for help in locating a lost object. I was less than a mile from home when my wait was over. A neighbor, Barbara, was calling to request that I respond to a woman in distress over a missing marriage ring set of 36 years this month. Sure, I am on my way was my answer as I pass the road to my home. Next I called home to tell my wife I would be a bit longer, put dinner on hold, I had to go and find 2 rings.

Within twenty minutes I was ready to start the search. While being escorted to the area on the beach where the rings were lost I was told that another detectorist had found the engagement ring but had no success in locating the wedding band. Maura had removed her wedding band and engagement ring at the beach to apply sunscreen. She put the two rings in the cup holder of her chair, but forgot to put them on afterwards. A few hours later she folded up her chair and left the beach. Back at the house she realized she didn’t have her rings and knew instantly what happened. Returning to the beach and sifting through sand with hands. There were also many interested people all wanting to help. Unfortunately the only help to find the wedding band came from the call to my phone. One woman helping – Barbara told Maura about a world wide group TheRingFinders, that she had a connection, and then called Richard 1 of some 600 TheRingFinders.

It took me about a dozen swings of my coil before I located the wedding band. My advantage over the other detectorist was in the quality of the detector being used and some 40 years experience with detectors. I passed a few detecting tips on to the new detectorist, Thank Yous were passed among all the helpers and I left for the waiting dinner.