I received a call from Max, who was pretty upset after losing his wedding band of many years while cleaning his boat. He explained that he was standing on the dock washing the boat when the hose became snagged on something behind him. As he gave the hose a hard pull across his chest with his left hand, the snag suddenly released. Because his hands were wet and soapy, his grip slipped and his hand flew outward to the side. At that exact moment, his wedding ring launched right off his finger and disappeared into the lagoon.

Max was certain the ring had only flown a few feet from the boat and carefully explained exactly where he had been standing and the motion that caused it to come off. Although he couldn’t make it back down to the house, he drew me a very detailed map of the area and showed me precisely where everything happened.

This was going to be a difficult recovery. The lagoon was deep, the bottom terrain was uneven, and the dark black water had absolutely zero visibility. Recoveries like this require careful underwater grid searches and a lot of patience.

On day one, I spent over three hours underwater methodically searching the mapped-out area, but unfortunately the search came up empty. I called Max afterward and showed him exactly where I had searched. He was shocked the ring hadn’t turned up because everyone believed it had to be close to the boat.

We agreed to give it another shot the following day. As we mapped out the next section, I had a strong feeling the ring may have traveled much farther than anyone expected. We started right where the previous search ended and slowly worked our way farther toward the middle of the lagoon.

Nearly two hours into the second search, right at the edge of the new grid, I heard a very promising signal through the headphones. Buried deep in the black mud was Max’s wedding band!

The ring ended up being far farther from the boat than anyone would have imagined — likely close to 20 feet away from where it came off his finger. This is probably the furthest distance I’ve ever recovered a ring from the actual point where it was lost.

After getting everything cleaned up, rinsed off, and loading my gear back into the truck, I decided to have a little fun with Max before giving away the result. I called him and told him we had found a few things on the bottom and that I had sent some pictures over. First came the photos of soda cans, pull tabs, beer bottle caps, and other debris from the lagoon floor. Then in the final picture was his wedding ring sitting safely in my hand.

I had him on speakerphone and could hear the absolute joy and disbelief in his voice the moment he saw it. Max admitted most people would have completely given up after the first search because nobody would ever expect the ring to travel that far.

Another incredible recovery completed!

— Edward Trapper
NJ Ring Finder
609-713-3926
NJ Ring Finder