Wedding Ring lost on the Beach, Surf City NJ, LBI, recovered by Edward Trapper, NJ Ring Finder
It was a beautiful afternoon at the Jersey Shore when Bill and Barb decided to spend the day on the beach in Surf City LBI. They were in town for a wedding and decided to soak up some rays when things went wrong. Barb had placed her wedding ring in the side pouch of their beach bag, and a little while later Bill needed a napkin for his hands. Not aware of the rings presence, he pulled out a napkin, and the ring obviously came out with it. He knew about my NJ Ring Finder service on LBI, and quickly reached out to see if I could assist in recovering the ring. Obviously I shot right down to his Surf City location ASAP, and after getting the details, within minutes their precious ring was in my scoop.
Its a beautiful afternoon in one of New Jerseys finest beach towns, Seaside Park. The oceans were calm, winds light and variable, which made for a perfect day of shell collecting. Dylan and his daughter set out to do just that. Unfortunately all the absolutely beautiful shells they had gathered together, just couldn’t make up for what had just happened. They were down at the very bottom of the tide line, by the drop off, picking up just one last shell, when Dylan decided to rinse off his hands and call it a day. At that very moment he watched his ring slip off his finger, and drop into the sand, just as a wave was rolling in. Even thought the ocean was as calm as we will experience here, Dylan had absolutely no luck over the next two days locating his beautiful wedding ring. When he called me and told me it had already been two days, and that it was just about dead low tide where his ring slipped off, I didn’t have a good feeling about the recovery, at that moment. What he did have in his favor was the fact that it had been dead calm, and was going to continue that way for the next few days. I told Dylan I would be on the beach for the next low tide which was day 3 of his ring being lost on the bottom of the ocean. I was out at 4 AM scouring every inch of the location he had marked with his phone in google maps, with not even one signal. Unfortunately I had prior obligations the next 2 days and would not be able to return until the following morning low tide. It was 5 AM or so, and here I am wondering around in the ocean again, but this time in about thigh deep water my machine sounds off a perfect low tone that you can tell almost in an instant was Dylan’s ring. I missed it in the first scoop, then BINGO !!!! I had his ring after 6 full days in the ocean. Believe me friends, this situation almost never exists in the state of NJ, but luckily for him it did that week. I messaged him asking for a detailed description, because all we had mentioned was white gold in our other conversations. I was pretty positive this was his ring, and the pictures confirmed that. I texted him pics and he was in total shock. We agreed to meet a few hours later for the monumental return.
I was at a family picnic when I received a call from Anthony, stating that he had just lost his beautiful cross on the beach, somewhere in the area they were sitting. It was early afternoon and I told him I would be able to swing by soon, and to secure the area so nobody else came and setup their beach things in the exact same spot. Anthony assured me that was not a problem because they were there for the entire day, plus the fact he was very anxious to get his cross back where it belonged around his neck. We spoke about the events leading up to the mishap, that’s when he told me about the big creator he and his friends had dug that day in the sand where they were sitting. He said they had all been digging around looking for the cross for quite a while, but were positive it must be there somewhere, because he had spent the best part of the morning there, digging. It was then I asked them to please stop digging otherwise the cross may get buried to deep for my machine to pick it up. When I arrived I could see the creator from the dune walkover, and it was pretty big. Sure enough, it was close to 4′ deep, and roughly 6′ in circumference. I hopped in, scanned the entire bottom and the walls, without even a squeak of a sound from my metal detector. Next, I scanned the piles of sand they had pulled out of the hole with no luck either. I asked them to pull the piles down lower, to an average of no more than 10″ higher than the regular beach level. Once again, no luck anywhere, so only one more place to look was the bottom, after they pulled about 10″ of sand out. Now, with all the sand moving, I assured that the cross was positively NOT in, or anywhere around the crater. So, back to the drawing board, where he mentioned they were tossing a football on the tide line earlier, and that his friend did tackle him there. I told him I really wish he mentioned that earlier, as the tide had been rising very quickly. Once he showed me the area, the cross was in my scoop within 2 minutes. If Anthony told me that one detail of the day, my search would have started there, and all the sand moving could have been eliminated. Lost of detective work is needed to rescue items from their hiding places.
Trish called and said she was at the beach with her son Shawn, his ring slipped off his finger in shoulder deep water. It was a large med school ring that I figured wouldn’t travel to far due to its size. She gave me all the details and that she also spoke to the lifeguards, and they were going to keep an eye open for it. Luckily we have had very light breezes, and a pretty calm surf for New Jersey. We arranged to meet at the next low tide, and that’s where I started, right at the waters edge. After one pass I went right into the trough, it wasn’t easy working there with the waves breaking, and the strong moon current pulling. I only worked a small area because the life guards had pointed to the spot they were standing when the ring slipped off. I got a nice strong signal and prayed it wasn’t a penny, knowing the ring was quite large, and would signal the same. With a few small shakes to clear the sand I felt klunk, klunk, and was almost certain it was the ring, YES!!!!!!! it was. This ring is extremely special, Shawn’s dad had given it to him for his Med School graduation, and unfortunately he passed last year. 
