Lost Rings In Deptford NJ, Found By Dave Milsted

Miranda was referred to me after posting on Facebook that she lost her rings. She contacted me 2 days ago and our calendars synced up for an early Saturday morning search. Miranda explained that she had placed her engagement ring & wedding band in her back pocket. She forgot that they were there, and started playing with her 3-year-old son in the backyard.
The yard is a good size. She was in many spots, around the shed, sitting on the deck, and around the fort. The fort was the last stop on our tour, so that is where I began my search.
Miranda went to move her car as I got started because she was also around her SUV in the driveway. I started to search and 3 swings in, I found both rings. They were buried deep in the grass. Less than 1 minute of searching. They couldn’t be seen without separating the blades of grass. I really thought this was going to be a very long search. I took a few pictures before she returned.
When she came back like 3 minutes later I asked a few more questions. She was looking around the yard, as I was holding up her rings. It took a minute for her to notice them. The look on her face was priceless! She went from being depressed to being ecstatic. She couldn’t believe I had found them so fast!
I love my hobby!
Dave Milsted The Metal Detecting Man




Well it goes without saying that you never know what kind of events may lead up to a ring getting lost. This story is no exception. On May 8th I was contacted by the best man of a wedding party. He explained that during the couples ceremony, at a bayside resort, he had accidentally dropped the brides ring onto the deck and it slipped thru the cracks and into the bay! At the time he had called I was headed out to dinner with my family for Mother’s Day and it was just about high tide. After receiving some pictures and descriptions of the area I knew this could be very challenging as the search area was located under a deck / pier that extended over the bulkhead and into the bay. I figured it would be best to wait until dead low tide as the area was in about 12-15’ of water at the moment. Around 12:30am I headed over with a friend whom was lending a hand and met up with the remaining members and guests of the wedding party. Luckily the staff at “The Reeds” in Stone Harbor NJ were awesome at helping to pinpoint the area and provide a floating dock to work from, kind of like Tom Sawyers raft, lol. They even went so far as to remove some of the mahogany decking in an attempt to locate the ring. Obviously the wedding party was devastated over this accident and all reasonable attempts were made to find the dropped ring. You could feel the obvious tension surrounding the events that unfolded and this just drove the determination to a positive outcome further! After making our way down to the dock we boarded the floating dock and paddled under the deck / pier to the approximate area. After checking for about 15-20 minutes I was able to recover the brand new never worn rose gold and diamond band!! Much to my and everyone’s relief! The ring was under some of the structural members in about 2’ of water amongst some horseshoe crabs. The bride, groom, best man and remaining members of the wedding party were ecstatic!! Another happy couple! Congratulations and here’s to a lifetime of happiness!!













