Wedding Rings Lost In The Water, Honeymoon Island State Park, Dunedin, Fl…Recovered and Returned!!!
Steve Thomas
Dunedin Ring Finder lostringdunedin.com
“It’s only lost until I find it!”
Lost a ring or other metal valuable at the beach or in a grassy or sandy area? Jewelry slip off of you while working outside, playing with the dog or swimming? Please contact me ASAP at (843) 995-4719 or @dunedinringfinder. I offer a FREE metal detecting service, reward optional but appreciated upon recovery!
Recently I noticed a post on a local Facebook page called Honeymoon Island Lost and Found that said someone named Olivia had lost her two wedding rings at Honeymoon Island State Park. I messaged Olivia and offered my metal detecting services to her and she responded to say that she would very much appreciate my help. Olivia told me that she was at the beach with some of her husband Anthony’s family the evening before and while in the water at about 6pm she felt her beautiful platinum diamond wedding ring and engraved titanium wedding band slip off of her finger. Apparently she had some lotion on her hands before she went into the water and the effect is to make your ring a size larger than what fits snugly fits your finger. Olivia and Anthony were married in May so she only had the rings a few months before they were lost and she feared that they were lost forever. I told Olivia that I had previously had some success recovering rings from the water and not to give up hope. Olivia sent me a photo of the rings and details regarding the loss area including the approximate location pinned on a Google map. I told her that I wanted to begin the search the next morning but Olivia said she could not meet me on location until after work that day. I said that I would begin about 11am using her map and other details because I did not want another metal detectorist to possibly search that area before I had a chance.
I arrived at the loss location about 11am and marked the pinned spot on the beach with my equipment bag. Olivia had told me the she was in knee to waist deep water only about 50 to 100 feet from the shore when the rings slid off. I began the water search with my detector by walking out a little deeper than I thought Olivia might have been and gridding parallel to the beach about 50 yards on either side of where I had laid my bag. Over the course of the next hour or so I moved gradually closer to shore, only targeting a couple of pull tabs and pennies. At that point, my detector moved over a promising target and as I was pinpointing the area to dig with my scoop, I detected another promising target a foot or two away. I scooped the first target from the bottom and when I shook the sand out, I saw the diamond ring at the bottom of the scoop! Of course at that point I had a pretty good idea what the second target was going to be and after a couple of scoop attempts I was also able to recover Olivia’s wedding band from the sandy bottom! Olivia certainly had provided great directions and it only took about an hour to recover both rings. I messaged Olivia when I got back to my car and told her that she had received the miracle she had asked for! About thirty minutes later Olivia messaged me and then called me and was obviously elated that she was getting her rings back. We arranged a time and place for a joyful return later that day.
Olivia and Anthony, thank you for trusting the Dunedin Ring Finder to find and return your precious rings. And thank you for the beautiful thank you note that included a generous recovery reward. God bless and Godspeed to you both. I love my calling!
While traveling back home from Arkansas over the weekend I had encountered a big mishap at our stop over outside of St Louis on Saturday night.
I notice a text from Christopher requesting some help in locating Sandra’s David Yurman bracelet she had somehow lost on the beach in LBI the day before. They were not exactly positive that it was lost on the beach, but figured it was the most likely place it could be. The day before Sandra and some friends were doing some whale watching from the beach, and getting some excellent drone footage of the whales at the same time. That made me just a little nervous, as the whales move rather quickly up and down the beach, and it was very possible Sandra did the same. We arranged to meet at the house and walked up to the beach, while we discussed exactly what area they had spent most of the day prior. I asked Christopher to walk in front of me to box out the spot, as I followed behind, dragging my sand scoop around the perimeter. It was just a short while later, right in front of a group of people, that actually follow NJ Ring Finder on Facebook, where my metal detector got a loud signal, consistent with the bangle bracelet. Sure enough, It was Sandra’s bracelet, safe in my sand scoop, after spending two days buried in the Jersey Shore sand. Another near tragedy turned into memories !!!!
It was a beautiful day at the Jersey Shore, so why not take your dog to the beach??? After all, they love the water just as much as humans. And thats exactly what Lucy did that morning after she woke up. It was quite a few hours later that Lucy had a horrible mishap that you would wish on nobody !!!! She was throwing her dogs toy straight out into the water, when he beautiful Carter Trinity Rings flew off he finger. At that point she went into panic mode as many do, and began franticly searching without any luck. After about an hour she reached out to me. After getting all the details we had to act quickly, as the tide was coming in fast, do to the full moon. Once I arrived, she showed me the spot she believed the rings flew off, and I quickly got to work. I went out deep to start, knowing it would be over my head shortly. Having no luck, I worked 50′ paths back in to about knee deep water. Knowing time was running out, I went back out to about waist deep water. The greenhead fly’s were really having their feast on my upper body, so patients were growing very short. Making short sweeps, from waist to knee deep water, to expand my search area, to see if possibly they flew off to the side a bit. After about 25′ more feet to the south, BINGO !!!!! I got a fantastic hit, which I prayed was not a sinker or military debris, as this particular is littered with. After shaking out all the fine particles from my scoop, there, in the corner under a few shells, were Lucy’s rings. With a sigh of relief, I slowly walked out of the water, telling Lucy I was getting eaten alive. She looked very disappointed, figuring I was giving up, I told her to take a look into my scoop. Its at that very moment that makes doing this so so rewarding ! The emotions really tell a story of their own.
