Katie’s Beautiful Wedding Band Found in the Middle of the Ocean City, Maryland USPS Parking Lot!
Katie Beaming with Happiness as the Young Bride Displays the Once « Missing in Action » Platinum Diamond and Blue Sapphire Wedding Band!
BRIAN RUDOLPH, LOST ITEM RECOVERY SPECIALIST (LAND, WATER, SAND, SNOW, LEAVES, HOUSES & VEHICLES) WILL FIND YOUR LOST KEEPSAKE! CALL ASAP (301) 466-8644!
Rings that end up lost after an argument or fight between couples are not uncommon scenarios. As a professional ring finder, I experience these situations quite often. Just as I was getting in the car from a very early morning successful search and recovery of a lost men’s platinum wedding band in Vienna, Virginia, I received a call from a young lady named Katie who was distraught about the loss of her platinum wedding band made with baguette diamonds and round blue sapphires. She was calling me near the beach in Ocean City, Maryland.
The first question that I generally ask my clients is this: Was there any stress experienced between you and someone else that may have been the cause for losing the ring? I follow it up with: Was it thrown due to anger and anxiety? I like to ask these questions up front because this way I can get to the heart of the story, and I don’t put my clients in the position of possibly being tempted to be dishonest with me because of feeling embarrassed by what ensued prior to the request for help. 100% of the time when there is a “ring throw” involved, my clients feel so much better that I ask these questions up front because then they realize that they are not alone and that this is more common than they previously thought. Because I addressed these questions with Katie, she felt very comfortable to come clean with the truth and she in turn shared that her missing wedding band was a result of a ring throw.
Here is what happened the night before I received Katie’s cry for help. Katie and her husband Chris took a weekend trip to Ocean City, Maryland to celebrate their anniversary. On the second night of fun, they left their hotel and walked a few blocks down Route 1 (Coastal Hwy) to dine and party the night away. Some time after midnight, the two began walking back to their hotel from the very popular Ocean City bar and restaurant called The Big Pecker. During their short stroll towards the hotel, the couple ended up in an argument which got pretty heated. The initial celebration over there blissful years of marriage ended up in a distressful argument which got carried over to a post office parking lot (very close to The Big Pecker).
At some point, just like many other instances that I could share with my readers, Katie took off her rings and in anger she threw them at Chris who was standing about 25 feet away from his wife. Like I said, this type of situation is not unusual and all of us ring finders who are on the elite metal detectorist directory called THE RING FINDERS have all experienced searching for rings that were lost as a result of a fight or heated argument. Even some of my readers can personally identify with this exact scenario that these two were dealing with.
Luckily, Chris was able to find the diamond engagement ring after the couple set aside their differences to begin searching for the rings. For over two hours Kristie and Chris looked with desperation for the wedding band. However, by four in the morning, it still remained missing in action! At some point they finally gave up and returned back to their hotel room.
A few hours later, Katie woke up and returned to the dreaded parking lot where the rings were lost and she continued her search for her beloved platinum wedding band with baguette diamonds and blue sapphires. After another hour or so of scouring the concrete and sections of grass that separated the parking lot, Katie looked online to get some help and that’s when she found the elite international metal detectorist directory called THE RING FINDERS. She then did a location search and found that I, Brian Rudolph, provides metal detecting services in Ocean City, Maryland. It was at that point that she got on the phone and called me for help.
As I drove the three hours to the East Coast shoreline, I was extremely excited to help Katie in recovering this lost ring that meant so very much to her. Every precious keepsake has a story and every happy story should never have an ending. I wanted to bring a smile back to the young lady’s face and to her beloved husband Chris, as well. I didn’t mind the long travel to the beach because I was on a mission to restore some happiness for the couple. I believe I arrived at the United States Postal Service parking lot on Coastal Highway in Ocean City, Maryland just a little bit before noon time.
Katie was waiting for me and after we introduced ourselves to one another, we immediately got to work with reviewing the area where she was standing when she threw the two rings. She took me over to the far right corner of the front side of the post office building. She faced the parking lot on a particular angle and then she used her right hand to demonstrate how she threw the rings into the lot towards Chris. I asked her questions such as: 1. How fast do you think you threw the rings? 2. How much did you have to drink prior to reaching that spot where you ended up arguing? 3. How much do you remember of the account that took place? 4. I asked her where Chris ended up finding the engagement ring so I could determine the particular angle as to where the other ring may have ended up. 5. I also inquired about how much traffic was coming into the parking lot earlier that morning (just in case a tire could have picked up the wedding band and carried it off from the parking lot onto Coastal Highway). She said there were only a few cars here and there that were coming in to drop off mail that Sunday morning. Once I finished with all of the fact-finding, I returned to my vehicle where I retrieved my metal detector and other gear to help me with this search.
My first goal was to examine the concrete and see if I could visually spot the missing band. With rings that look silver in color, it is quite difficult to eyeball a platinum or white gold band due to how it blends in with most concrete parking lots and streets. You have to carefully look and then focus in again just to make sure that you didn’t miss anything. I wanted to secure most of the parking lot area just in case a car might run over it or carry it down the street if it had not already been taken away. The piece of jewelry was certainly vulnerable to moving vehicles if it wasn’t hidden in the grass. I did not swing the detector over those areas at the time, but I did carefully look over the concrete just to see if I could possibly locate the ring lying on the cement. Unfortunately, I came away with no positive results. I did in fact find a penny that Katie and I both missed seeing it at first after we were looking in the same area at two separate time periods. I used it as a sign of encouragement to her with the fact that your eyes can play tricks on you. Therefore, we cannot trust what we are initially seeing and we needed to keep looking over and over again even if we came up empty handed at first.
During the first hour, I metal detected a strip of grass that was like a divider between one part of the parking lot and the other section of the property. I wanted to make sure that the wedding band did not bounce off of the concrete and ended up in that section of grass that separated the lot. There was quite a bit of metal to study as my detector kept beeping here, there and just about everywhere! After a good 25 minutes or so, I concluded that the ring did not end up in that small section where there was some grass, weeds, and bushes.
Next, I searched a grassy section with a few bushes that were located to the right of where Katie threw the rings (if one is facing the building). This area was situated between the right side of the parking lot and to the left of the adjacent property next to the Postal Service building. My thought was that it was possible that the ring could have ricocheted off of the concrete and bounced over to the grassy section off to the side of the lot. I have found rings that ended up behind where the client threw the ring(s), as well as landing dramatically to the left or to the right of where the client was standing. Therefore, I don’t discount any possibilities when it comes to searching for missing rings!
I may have spent over an hour on that far right side of the post office building searching for the missing keepsake. At some point, Katie left to go get some lunch and offered me something to eat and drink. I took her up on the drink and while she was gone I kept searching that whole area next to the edge of the concrete parking lot. Sadly, I was not able to locate the ring anywhere in that vicinity. When Katie returned, I gave her an update as to all of the places where I had detected prior to her leaving.
Earlier on, one could see Katie’s hopeful spirit shine through her being and she was extremely positive and encouraged about the possibility of finding the ring. However, as time marched on, I could tell that Katie began to get concerned and full of doubt that she would ever see her beloved wedding band again. I encouraged the young bride over and over again that we were not going to give up and that we would keep looking until we covered every square inch of that property! I also told her that it sometimes takes hours upon hours to find a missing item and that we still had plenty of real estate to search and re-search.
About two and half hours into my detecting time, I was just about to wrap up the last section of the right side of the parking lot where the ring could have fallen under a bush or a small tree. There were so many little pieces of garbage that I needed to remove first before I could make certain that the ring was not being masked by miscellaneous metal. It was at that point that Katie asked me what she could do to help in the search efforts. I specifically encouraged her to keep looking with me and to return to the middle of the parking lot where we were visually searching (not with a detector) earlier that afternoon. Again, I told her that the mind and the eyes sometimes don’t work in tandem with each other and it was quite possible that the ring just wasn’t spotted by either one of us when we looked over the parking lot initially. I also mentioned that my next strategy would be for me to use my 15 inch coil at the end of my detector and grid search every inch of that middle section of the parking lot. I wanted to make certain that we did not miss searching any of that concrete.
Before I would start that next phase mentioned above, I wanted to first finish my detecting along the edge of the concrete before laying down the grid lines in the middle of the lot. Again, I encouraged Katie to keep scanning with her eyes all along the center area of the parking lot. She respectfully agreed, but I could tell she had a lot of doubt that a “re-look” was not going to do any good since we both had already covered that section with our two sets of eyes. I remember saying to her, “Katie, we have prayed together and all kinds of miracles have taken place during my searches. You can walk right over there and look straight down and God can allow your eyes to adjust and focus in on the very spot where the ring has been lying the entire time – just like the penny we found earlier!” She smiled and thanked me for the testimonials and encouragement that I was giving her regarding not giving up and to start searching visually again in the middle of the parking lot.
No more than a couple of minutes after Katie walked over to the middle of the parking lot did I hear her scream and yell over to me, “Brian, Brian, you’re never going to believe it!” I turned my head over towards Katie and she pointed down at something that was resting on the parking lot pavement! Her face lit up like a Christmas tree and I immediately rushed over to see if she in fact had found her precious keepsake! I just knew it had to be the ring! Sure enough, as I looked down towards Katie’s feet, my eyes beheld the most beautiful platinum ring full of diamonds and blue sapphires! Katie did exactly what I encouraged her to do when she discovered the band! The moment that her eyes literally pointed straight down to the concrete, it was if the ring had magically appeared out of thin air! She couldn’t believe it! The very miracle that we prayed for and that I encouraged her to hope for literally, translated into a true reality of amazement for both of us! We both were just blown away by what Katie had just discovered! She thanked me over and over again for encouraging her to not give up and to refocus and trust my words. We also thanked God above for guiding Katie to the very spot where the ring was found! The stunned young lady repeated to me what I had shared with her earlier regarding how the mind and eyes have to be in one accord in order for one to visually spot the missing item! Katie excitedly said, “It really is true! You were right about what you explained to me! Thank you Brian! Thank you so much!” Even as Katie picked up the ring, she was still in disbelief! I was so happy to witness the moment that the wedding band was safely slipped back onto Katie’s finger, as well as viewing the precious tears of joy that ran down both of her cheeks!
It turned out that cars had been driving over the ring all morning long as they were coming in to drop off mail and those that parked in order to pick up P.O. Box deliveries! Miraculously, no car tires touched the beautiful keepsake! There was no damage on the piece of jewelry and Katie was completely dumbfounded by the fact that neither she, Chris or myself did not see the ring the whole time! Though I was confident that we would have eventually found the band with the metal detector shortly after completing the area that I had been working on, I was humbly reminded by this search and recovery example that I should have started with metal detecting over the concrete parking lot before doing a visual search! I could have saved myself plenty of time by simply grid searching the lot first before going to the other areas that I examined following the visual scan. That recovery project became a very important learning experience for me in dealing with similar searches in the months ahead.
Katie was so overjoyed that she gave me a holy hug and thanked me profusely! Soon, she would share the great news with Chris who had been packing up their things back at the hotel! The relieved young lady was finally reunited with the piece of precious metal and stones that were once placed on her finger on that very special day when she and Chris finally “tied the knot”! When the love of Katie’s life arrived at the parking lot, the couple was reunited in spirit and joy as the nightmare was finally over for the two of them! Happiness and peace was restored to the couple and one could easily see the love that was emitted from their countenances!
I was so happy to be a part of this search and recovery effort and Katie wholeheartedly believed that had I not traveled the three hours to the beach to help with the search, she felt that she and Chris would have left Ocean City without the ring. We all gave thanks to the Lord when Chris arrived and the three of us gave glory to the One who led Katie to the very spot where the ring was recovered!
I love the stories that I end up being a part of and I am so proud to be a member of THE RING FINDERS! Every member of this very special international metal detectorist directory love helping countless people become reunited with their lost treasures! It means so very much to those whom we serve every day! Just like with Katie’s platinum wedding band, her world turned wonderful again by having her jewel back on her finger and having Chris’ hand back within her own grasp once again!
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Before my second tank, I met and spoke with the marina service manager, Vincent. He told me there were a couple of boat gas caps right off the fueling dock. I did a quick exploration around the dock area and picked up some fishing rods, sunglasses, two gas caps, and a large watch. After the dive, I showed the staff my finds and gave Vincent the gas caps to be reused if at all possible. It wasn’t until I got home and washed the layer of muck off the watch that I discovered a Samsung smartwatch.
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