12 August 2015.  Nickey was enjoying a day at the beach with her children, but she was devastated when she realized that her beautiful custom-made engagement & wedding ring was missing from her hand.  Fellow beach goers helped her search for it with no result.  Beach sand, whether dry, wet, or under water can hide a ring in an instant, and when the place of loss is not certain a tactile recovery or recovery by sieving becomes a nearly impossible task.

Fortunately beach staff knew about the Ring Finders and gave Nickey contact information.  She called Rick Browne, my friend and fellow Ring Finder in Yarmouth.  He was not able to come to Falmouth but referred her to me.  I was able to meet her at the beach within about 15 minutes.

Nickey outlined the area where she had been, in and out of the water.  The loss had been about 2 hours previously, fortunately at mid-tide on an outgoing tide.  She had been playing and tossing a ball in the water with her children, so that seemed to be the likely place the ring was lost, although it could also be in nearshore wet sand or in dry sand where they had been sitting.  I started the search in the water near the center of the likely area, doing swaths from the shoreline out across a trough and across a sand bar about 150′ offshore, then back in.

As my swaths approached the south edge of the area Nickey said she felt that she and her children had been playing farther north so I returned to the center and moved in that direction.  One swath out and then halfway back, on the sand bar, pure Magic!  As I scooped a nice crisp signal in calf-deep water I saw her beautiful ring slip over the tip of the scoop — it was only an inch or two into the sand — but with a quick second push I had it.  The sand quickly flowed through the holes in the scoop and I was left staring at nothing but a gorgeous diamond ring set, resting safely and sedately at the bottom.

I left the ring set in the scoop and headed in to shore.  As Nickey looked questioningly at me I held out the scoop.  She looked inside.  Well, words cannot begin to describe all the mixed emotions and tears that flooded forth, but it can safely be said that the encapsulated joy of those moments will never be forgotten.  Nickey called her husband Mike with the good news, and those who had helped in the earlier search joined in the celebration.  I was pleased to be able to meet Mike, who arrived from work a short time later.

What a great day!

 

 

 

2 August 2025.  Sean’s white and yellow gold wedding band went flying from his finger as he was tossing a ball in belly-deep water at the beach.  He tried diving with goggles to search but it proved fruitless.  This is usually the case, as a heavy gold ring will sink quickly into soft sand, especially if the sand is disturbed by feet or waves.  Luckily, Sean’s wife Caitlin tried a Google search for ‘Falmouth ring finder’ and when my name came up she gave me a call.  The timing was great as our houseful of company had departed less than a half hour before, so I was able to get to the beach within about 15 minutes.  As would be expected the parking lot was full because it was a sunny hot Saturday, so I had to wait 10 or 15 minutes before a spot (fortunately) opened up.

Meeting up with Caitlin and Sean, I got the specifics of when, where, and how the ring was lost, then I headed into the water for the search, doing a grid pattern over the likely area that Sean had described.  Nothing turned up in the initial search area but some trash and a few coins.  In the meantime Sean and Caitlin had to depart to attend a wedding but I double checked with him about particulars before they left and then I expanded the search area.  Eventually the wind, waves, and rising tide made it difficult to maintain a stable search so I finally gave up after a couple of hours, with the intention of returning the next day.

I arrived on day 2 about an hour ahead of low tide when the water level was about the same as when Sean’s ring was lost.  Taking his clue that he had been in belly-deep water I began gridding in that range of depth to the east of the previous search.  This paid off in about 45 minutes when I dug a sweet ring signal and had Sean’s band in my scoop.  Needless to say I felt a lot better than when I had to abandon the search the previous day!

A call to Sean confirmed the identity of his ring and was greeted with expressions of joy, disbelief and astonishment.  Sharing in the experience of such commingled emotions is one of the things I love most about being able to return such a precious item to its owner.

Sean and Caitlin live off-Cape so I mailed the ring to him.  He responded with a great picture of them in front of the Bunker Hill Monument.  In this case, Victory!