Lost Wedding Ring in the Gulf, Orange Beach-FOUND!!!
Doug and Kristen have been married for 27 years. They have raised a family together and been through good times and bad. One of the tough times is watching Doug battle cancer. Thank goodness he is currently stable and they were able to get away to Orange Beach for a vacation. One constant these 27 years has been Doug’s gold wedding band on his hand. That is until this week when he was throwing football with his son in the Gulf of Mexico and it went flying. They tried searching all around for the rest of the day and they even used a mask and snorkel since they knew roughly where it had landed. Unfortunately the ring had already buried deep in the sand and they were unable to find it. The next morning Kristen went online and luckily was able to find me through the Ringfinders and a referral or two from some very thoughtful people. Doug called and after just a few minutes I knew we had to find that ring! I made plans to come that afternoon since I already had work scheduled for the day but I assured them that the ring would still be there when I got there. When I got to their condo I spoke with the ladies in the front office and they were kind enough to give me a parking pass. I grabbed my gear and headed down to the beach and met Doug and Kristen and their family. Doug immediately walked me out in the water where he thought he had been standing the day before. It was just less than waist deep and he explained how the ring had come off when he went for a football. I asked him if it went deeper or shallower and as he re-enacted the scene I got him to point exactly where he thought it might be. Doug wished me luck as he walked back to his family to sit and watch and I turned on my machine and got the settings tweaked for the saltwater. I started my search and took one swing to the right, one swing to the left and a small step forward. As I was swinging the coil back to the right I immediately heard a beautiful gold tone. I took a really deep scoop since I didn’t want to nick it. They had searched for over a day and it was already about 5” deep. On the first try I looked in the scoop and there was the ring that had been with Doug through so many memories. I indicated that I had it and started walking in. Nobody really reacted and Kristen told me later that they thought I was joking that I had found it so quickly. 😃 When reality hit they all got so excited and justifiably a little shaken up. I’m so glad that I could be part of the continuation of your story. Doug and Kristen, I wish you health and happiness for many, many more years. God Bless!
I just returned to my vehicle after water testing my detector at Pensacola Beach when I received a call from Suzanne. She and her family were on vacation at Orange Beach Alabama, it was high tide and surf was about 1 to 2 foot. Her daughter in law lost her beautiful wedding ring in waist to chest deep water somewhere about 40 or 50 yards from shore in a area about maybe 40 yards wide and asked if I would find it! I said I would do my best and I would be there in an hour. It was a large area and the surf made it very difficult to make sure every square foot was hunted. I ended up setting my scoop on every step so I could reposition if moved off track by the surf. The family had made friends with just about everyone on the beach so there was a good audience. Everyone was wishing me luck on my hunt and some didn’t think it was possible to find a little ring buried in sand underwater! It took me maybe two and a half hour to search the area with no luck. I went back to the family and together we reaccessed the area to search. Suzanne waded to the area and distance off shore she thought was the spot making a vertical line and her son stood on shore at the spot he thought was right and set the horizontal line. Between the two spots I started a search grid and overlapped by about ten feet in either direction as I slowly moved closer to shore a foot at a time. Suzanne stayed close while I was searching and we talked a bit. Suddenly I got a signal and called to her “this sounds like a good signal” and carefully set my scoop to prevent damage or a scratch to the ring. She was there before I could raise the scoop anticipating the wayward ring, anxiously waiting the sand to drain from scoop and suddenly a glint of gold, then she had it in her hand. She raised her arms with ring in hand and announced her daughter in law’s ring was recovered!!! The family and their many friend cheered. Everyone in the family was smiling and relieved, emergency over, no more worries. I was happy I was able to make everything right again, made my day!
This young man recently acquired his high school graduation ring that he was proud to wear. Unfortunately at a gathering of his buddies graduation night he high fived a friend with a bit to much enthusiasm that resulted in the ring flying off his finger, bounced across a wooden deck, onto a wooden dock, and disappeared into about 5 foot of water. Because it was dark the exact path and ultimate location could only be determined by sound. The boys rummaged around on the sandy bottom feeling with their feet with no success. They called me the next day and I started a search early that afternoon. The bottom had quite a bit of trash metal mixed with the sand as you would expect near a boat dock. I’ve a very good totality waterproof detector and carefully, slowly searched the area in a grid pattern, after about an hour searching I located his ring on the edge of a neighbors dock slip. He and a his friend were very excited to get the ring and we exchanged high fives all around… but with a little less enthusiastic force. 😎