Received message from Mr. Ashe asking if I could assist him in Catawba area of Lake Norman. I advised I was at work but could meet him afterwards and I was almost an hour away. We made arrangements and I will let todays news story pick it up from here :)…
CATAWBA, N.C. — A Catawba man has been reunited with his wedding ring weeks after losing it while swatting at a swarm of yellow jackets in his backyard. He was helped by the metal detecting skills of a Forsyth County ring finder.
It all started in early August when David Ashe was doing some landscaping in preparation for a pool to be constructed in his backyard.
« Had the weed whacker, and I kind of went over a yellow jacket nest, » Ashe said. As the insects swarmed, Ashe tried to fend them off.
« I was swatting hard, and my ring shot off, and at that point I just ran, » he said.
Ashe escaped with more than 100 stings, and his wedding ring missing. He knew it was lost somewhere in the wooded ravine behind his home.
« My ring is very, very sentimental and precious to me because my wife picked it out and engraved it, » Ashe said.
Married since 2012, Ashe says his wife means the world to him. He said being without the ring felt strange.
« It feels naked because in the 12 years I’ve had this, I wear this every day, like it’s just every single day, » he said. « And my wife was reassuring me. She’s like, ‘You know, it doesn’t mean we’re not married, just means you don’t have your ring.’ But for me, it felt like something was missing. Something was just not right. »
Weeks passed before Ashe could return to the area to search for the ring, as he first had to deal with the yellow jackets. Heavy rain further complicated the search.
« It fills with water and kind of pushes,” he said, referring to the ravine where the ring was lost. “And at that point I thought for sure that’s what was happening. It was just going to keep pushing out on out into Lake Norman.”
Ashe purchased a metal detector to aid in his search, but the low-cost device didn’t yield any results. He said he was constantly picking up on the beeps and pops of other metal items.
That’s when he searched online and found out about a group called The Ring Finders. On the group’s website, he discovered Brad Trogdon, a Forsyth County resident with a simple description of his beloved hobby. « Obsessively metal detect if you ask my wife, » Trogdon said.
Trogdon discovered his passion for metal detecting during a beach trip two years ago.
“I refer to a metal detector like a foreign language; you can hear them speaking, you don’t comprehend it until you’ve studied awhile,” he said. “And that’s how I understand what I’m hearing in the beeps and the pops and whatnot.”
Now, he uses that skill to help people recover lost valuables, using higher-end metal detectors and an unrelenting attitude.
« I have a bad habit of not wanting to give up, » Trogdon said.
The two searched the woods behind Ashe’s house for hours, even continuing after dark. Ashe assumed his ring had flown in a certain direction, but searching that area proved fruitless. Then, Trogdon turned to a different section.
« It was late. It was very hot. I was soaking wet, and I said, I’m going to give it one more go because I hadn’t searched that area but once,” Trogdon said. “And when I did, the second search is when we came across it. »
Finally, Trogdon’s metal detector emitted the distinct beeping sound they had been waiting for.
« With a flashlight shining on it, that ring glowed back at me,” Trogdon said. “And that’s when I grinned real big, and I asked him, I’m like, ‘You didn’t say it had diamonds in it!’ »
The white gold wedding ring with a line of diamonds embedded in it was found tucked into a rotten tree stump just feet from Ashe’s house.
« I put it on my hand, and it just felt like everything was just back to where it was, where it should be, » Ashe said.
Ashe has since added an adjuster to his ring to prevent it from flying off again, but if it ever does, Trogdon and his metal detector are ready to help.
Learn more about Brad Trogdon’s ring-finding work by clicking here.
Lead in to news story: WXII 12 – Lead In
Full news story: WXII 12 – NBC News
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