This story started 42 years ago, when a Gold Wedding Ring was lost.
I purchased and have been living, in my current home since 1993 or 31+ years ago. The home, in Saco, Maine was built in 1893 and as you can imagine, there are lots of metal objects, in the ground. This is especially true because the previous two owners, of my home, were both plumbers. When I took up Metal Detecting 25 years ago, I quickly found out, just how much plumbing metal and other pieces of metal were there. I had been hoping to find lots of old coins and other cool stuff, on the property. Reality set in when I started detecting around the property. I can’t tell you how many pieces of small, cut, pieces of copper piping, I have found over the years. I have also found lots of solder, vintage bottles caps, from the 1950 and 60’s and various other pieces of metal. It’s always been a tough property to Metal Detect on, because of all the metal, in the ground. As the years passed, and I would remove the different metals, from the ground, the older coins, did appear, along with the modern day clad and yes, a few cool items. As I upgraded my Metal Detecting equipment, I would always take it out on the property and test it out, to learn the machine.
Fast forward to August , 2024. I had recently purchased a new Minelab Manticore Metal detector and wanted to start learning all the features, on the machine. One of the features I was most interested in was “Target Separation “. Target separation on the Manticore is supposed to show you, on the VDI screen, both Ferrous and Non Ferrous targets . The good targets (Non Ferrous) would show up along a center line and the not so good targets (Ferrous) would show above and or below the center line. Even though other machines have target separation the Manticore was using the latest technology, so that us detectorists could better see, what is actually under the coil and make better decisions, as to dig the item or not and also see a good target, within all the bad targets. In the past, the Ferrous targets may have “masked” the Non Ferrous targets and we wouldn’t even know there was a Non Ferrous item, among the Ferrous items, unless you dug the ferrous targets . As I started swinging the Manticore, I was receiving many, many targets. The VDI screen would show me all the targets, most above or below the center line and occasionally, right on the center line. I was digging every thing so I could understand what the item was, in relation to where it was on the screen. As it turns out, the Manticore was being extremely accurate. If a target was on the center line, it would turn out to be a non ferrous item, such as a coin. The targets above and below the center line, turned out to be ferrous, usually a nail or something. But what I really loved was that I could now see that there was a Non Ferrous item, mixed in with the ferrous items. This was very exciting for me.
So, on September 1st, 2024, I took the Manticore out into the yard, once again. I was getting more and more comfortable but had a 1/2 hour to kill, so let’s go learn the machine, even more. I was detecting on my side lawn, where I had detected 100 times, over the years. I have found Barber Dimes and Quarters, Mercury Dimes, Washington Silver Quarters and Roosevelt Silver Dimes, in this yard, along with Buffalo Nickels and a countless number of Wheat Pennies. I know there are more there, maybe deeper or being masked by a more dominant Ferrous item. After about 10 minutes of detecting, I received a mixed signal, showing many ferrous items and one non ferrous item, a perfectly round circle, on the center line. I grabbed my digging trowel and cut a plug, in the grass and removed it. I didn’t see anything and used my pinpointer, to locate the target. I removed a little more dirt and I could see, what looked like the outline of a gold ring. I brushed some more dirt off the target and, YES, it was a gold ring. I took it out of the soil and yelled to my wife, Cheryl, who was sitting on the porch. Cheryl came out and couldn’t believe I had found a gold ring, right in our own yard. We could see that there was an inscription on the inside the ring, that contained both letters and numbers. As Cheryl started cleaning the dirt, out of the inside the ring, the inscription read, “W.D.C. 8-15-81”. As soon as I saw this, I told Cheryl that “I know who this ring belongs to. It has to belong to Bill C*******”. There’s no way, it could be anyone else’s.
Now remember the two previous owners that I had mentioned. Well, the first of the plumbers raised his family here and his children went to the same Saco schools as I had, growing up, including our high school, Thornton Academy. As a matter of fact Bill, graduated just a year after me. I graduated in 1974 and Bill in 1975. We played Saco Little League together and over the years had even been in his house a few times. So I immediately think the W.D.C. is Bill and after graduating from Thornton Academy , he was married a little over 6 years later, in 1981. It all made sense. I just knew it had to be Bill’s.
I hadn’t seen Bill in many years, so I started contacting some of his classmates, to see if they had his phone number. Once I got his number, I called Bill. After a little chit chat, I asked Bill if he had ever lost a ring. I didn’t tell him anything about a location and Bill immediately answers that he had lost his wedding ring, at his mother’s house, years and years ago. I told Bill, “Well, I just found your ring, metal detecting, in the yard”. Bill just couldn’t believe it and let out a joyful laugh. We then agreed that the next time, Bill was in Saco, he would come over and I would return his ring.
A few weeks later, Bill texted me and we made plans to meet up at his boyhood home, the next day, September 22, 2024 and I would return his wedding ring, to him. I also plan to show him the exact spot , I had found his ring, 42 years after he had lost it
So this afternoon Bill stopped by and I was extremely happy to return his ring. When I asked Bill the story of him losing his wedding ring, he told me the following. Bill had graduated college and had been teaching school, in the Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Bill had gotten married, in the Virgin Islands in 1981, while teaching school there and had also purchased his Gold Wedding Ring there. Bill and his wife, then moved back to Maine and back into his childhood home, with his mother, until they could get their own place. One day, Bill had gotten on the pull up bar, in the garage , as he had done, many times over the years. Bill normally would remove his ring and place it on top of the pull up bar, so he wouldn’t damage it, while doing his pull ups. This time however, he thinks he placed it in his shirt pocket and forgot about it. The ring then, somehow, ended up on the lawn. It was so long ago that Bill isn’t certain how it ended up out there, on the lawn, after he had gotten off the pull up bar. Forty two years later, Bill is holding his wedding ring, on the exact spot I found it. Full circle. It was great to see Bill and catch up. I am just so happy to be helping people, like Bill get reunited with their lost items. Sometimes it just takes a little longer to find the lost item.
Ally reached out to me, as a last-chance effort, in trying to get her precious engagement ring back, that unfortunately was dropped in the bay, on a nice Jersey Shore summer afternoon. She was very concerned there was no hope, as it had already been in the water for close to a week. I asked why she waited so long to call me, and her reply was « another local ring finder looked and had no luck ». I usually wont make it a practice to follow up behind another ring finder, but Ally hadn’t heard any more from him about his follow-up search, and was desperate at this point. After quite a long conversation, I decided Ally really needed me, and agreed to do the recovery. She sent me all the pertinent information, and I assured her I would go at the first possible brake in the, wind, and weather. The tides would also have to coincide with the search day. Our first conversation was 11 PM the day before, when I told her I would check in with her next morning. The following morning at 5 AM, as I was getting ready for work, I looked the weather over real good, and guess what, » today is the day ». I text Ally and told her I was going for it today before low tide, she was thrilled with the timely updates, which she was not used to. I suited up with all my gear, and proceeded with the 1/3 mile walk in the water, just to get to the location it was lost. Once I was set up, I started to do a tight grid search, clearing over 20 signals, all of which had potential, to ensure her ring wasn’t missed by an overpowering signal. It really seemed like to many targets for an area that was supposedly searched, just 6 days prior, even though this is a huge boaters party area. And no they were not recent drops, as they were all down at least 4″ plus. I was super confident of my location, so I kept plugging along and after about 45 minutes my Metal Detector screamed out a low consistent tone, that almost immediately had Ally’s ring written all over it. While clearing the sand from my scoop, I could feel the tink, tink, tink of her ring, but at first glance, I didn’t see it hiding under the shells. But I knew that tink was NOT a shell, and gave the scoop a little wiggle, and there it was, WOW, was this a heart testing moment, seeing the diamonds sparkling back at me. My gut was right, I was in the right spot, and NJ Ring Finder just made someone’s last chance hopes a true reality. !!!!
