Lost and found diamond ring at Eels Lake Ontario
Today’s excursion took me to Eels lake near Apsley, just south of Bancroft. Received a call from Shayne last week about his girlfriend Lisa loosing her diamond ring while vacationing at a campground. While on the floating dock, Shayne threw Lisa into the water and then both watched in horror as the ring flew off her finger and into the lake. The issues were; the floating dock moves quite a bit from its anchor point pending on wind direction, dense weed bed and about one foot of silt under the weed bed (typical for lake conditions in the area). The good news is that it was in only ten feet of water and they both saw the ring go in. After a two hour search, constantly ripping weeds off my detector coil, I finally heard that sweet gold tone, amongst other metal signals. After coming up about four feet from the bottom, due to zero visibility due to silty conditions, I saw and confirmed that I had the right ring. Lisa was so happy to be reunited with her grandmother’s ring, whom has passed since she’d given it to her. Another happy ending. Life is good.
On day one of the vacation, what is the number one priority for most at the Jersey Shore ? You guessed it, head to the beach. And thats exactly what Eric and his family did. What almost ended in tragedy, ended up being a memory that will last forever. Eric was playing with his daughter down where the waves push up onto the beach, when things took a turn for the worst. His absolutely stunning wedding ring slipped off his finger and into the water, and within seconds disappeared out of sight. they searched for what seemed like hours, without any luck. Thats when Eric figured he better call for some help, knowing it may be his last chance of ever seeing his wedding ring again. He gave me all the details, and I agreed to be on location ASAP, as the tide was going to turn, and start coming in. Eric also marked the exact location with google maps on his cell phone, which is a huge benefit, especially when he was not able to meet me on the beach. I quickly searched down the slope to about knee deep without any signs of his ring. The water was ice cold, so rather than using my wetsuit, I ran back to the truck and threw on my waders. I knew it wasn’t that deep, as Erik assured me he was holding his daughters hand when the ring slipped off. I made a few more passes going just a bit deeper. Eric showed up just about then, and we confirmed the mark was right on the spot he was sitting all day long. Just a few more passes and the ring was in my scoop. Nothing better than turning tragedy, into memories.
The night prior to Carries phone call, her son and some friends were over in Seaside Height NJ, on a small but well-known beach they call Sunset Beach. The were messing around like all teenage kids do, when his chain broke and his cherished cross went missing. It was pretty dark that night, but that did not deter their search efforts. Unfortunately they came up empty handed. They returned the following morning and again had no luck. The cross and location were posted on one of the local Facebook pages, where Carrie grabbed my number and called to set up the recovery. She gave me exact details of where the chain had broken, and within minutes, the cross was in my scoop. I immediately called Carrie, and we agreed to meet down the road in about 15 minutes. Another fantastic recovery of a cherished keepsake in the books.
It was another fantastic day in New Jersey so Denise and her family decided to pack up and head to the beach. Denise’s nephew loves the beach, especially flying kites when the wind is just right. Prior to flying the kite, she removed her necklace and engagement ring. Denise slipped the necklace through her ring and secured the clasp, then placed them both in her top pocket for safe keeping. They both had ran all over the soft white sand, almost covering the entire block, well about 2/3 of it anyhow. It was later on when she looked in the pocket and , OH NO, both were missing. Everyone searched the area for quite some time when they decided a metal detector was needed. They headed down to the local store and purchased one, figuring the necklace would soon be located. Well, unfortunately that did not work, so they decided to call in a professional. Once I arrived and got all the details, I covered the entire area where they were flying the kite, figuring that was the most likely area they would have fallen out of her top pocket. With nothing to show for my effort, we decided the next most traveled area was the top of the tide line, and down a bit to the low tide mark. After a few passes, I asked them to move back a little, and sure enough, very close to the chairs, was the spot my metal detector sniffed out the ring and necklace. Everyone was totally amazed, and the best I can figure, either the necklace never made it into her top pocket, or coincidently it fell out right in the area they had set up the chairs and stuff. Regardless another happy ending !!!!