Ring lost in the lagoon, Little Egg Harbor NJ, recovered by Edward Trapper, NJ Ring Finder
I was at work when I received a call from George inquiring about possibly recovering his family heirloom ring from his lagoon. We went over the details of when and how the ring was lost, and knowing the area quite well, decided it would be best if I swung by prior to committing to do the recovery. A few days later I met George at his house and after going over exactly what he did when the ring flew off into the lagoon, we decided with the 5′ tide swing this had to be done at low tide. The following week worked perfect with our schedules. My first attempt didn’t work out so well, it was blazing hot, the greenhead flies were eating us alive, and the mud on the bottom was black and bottomless. After about 2 hours I threw in the towel but assured him I would be returning for another attempt. I believe at that point George had given up hope of ever seeing his ring again. Over the next week or so our schedules didn’t work with the tide, so he agreed for me to swing by when conditions were right, whether he was home or not. WELL, after some adjustments to my recovery approach, and taking my assistant wife LEE, and good luck charm, the ring was in my scoop within 15 min. I knew this would mean the world to him, so I decided to do a surprise return, and set the whole thing up with his wife and son. I arrived just as they were getting back from fishing, put the ring in my scoop, and headed down the driveway where we met. We all talked a bit, I asked how they did fishing, then told him I did really well, and put my scoop out. He was kinda puzzled, and I said look in the bottom, and when he did, he could not believe his eyes. Then we let him in on the whole plan. I have the video of the return, just need to edit it, stay tuned. That moment right there is what makes doing recoveries so rewarding.
