Centerville, MA Beach Holds a Ring for 3 Days, Found and returned by Richard Browne
July 8, 2025 I was having my second cup of coffee, catching up on the news and weather – thunder storms in the afternoon when a text came in for help with a lost wedding ring. I read the following: “I’m Mattie and I lost my wedding band at the beach. I found your profile on ring finders and was hoping maybe you could help. … I know it’s been a few days of shifting sands and beach goers, but I was curious if you might be available to check it out. … I’m at peace if the ring ends up being a beach treasure in the end: it was a family ring but my mother and her parents were huge beach lovers and in way it would be poetic. … it was a ring my Yia Yia (grandma) gave to my mom, who gave to me when I was about to get married and we used for our ceremony! I’ve worn it since. It was loose on my finger in the water so I asked my older daughter to bring it back to the chairs we had while I stayed with my younger daughter (safety first!) but unfortunately she dropped it in the way. I saw how heartbroken she was and I just knew that the right thing in the moment was to not stress and move on.”
What could I do but assure Mattie that I would go and search the area. I would also reach out to other detectorists that I know frequent the area in case I did not find the ring myself. Once on the beach and in the area, I could not guess why that one area was void of towel and sun umbrellas. There was one person with a metal detecting scoop, but no detector in sight. At the end of my first pass I stopped and talked with the gentleman with the scoop. A local that regularly detects the area. I told him what I was looking for and he assured me he had not found much of anything over the past three days. Oh well, back to detecting … a coin spill of 45 cents … well no one gets it all. Another two steps and another target was beneath my coil, a quick scoop and it was in my scoop. Boy will Mattie be happy was my thought as I saw what had to be her ring, and it was. No one had found the ring in its three days in the sand. It was truly a lucky day for Mattie and a happy ending to the story for her older daughter.
As the family had returned to New York, I would mail the ring the next day and wait for a picture for the Book of Smiles. Yes, I just love my hobby for making happen endings to stories just like this one.









ld me she took off her ring to put lotion on and thought it would be safe in her floppy hat.She placed the ring in her hat and the ring must of flew out when s
he flipped her hat on. I checked behind where her chair was but no luck, we moved the chair and I went to the front area and I got a good signal and I scooped up her ring. She was so happy to get her ring back Another great ending for a happy day at the beach.