Rogue Strong Wave Results In Lost Wedding Rings And Found Later With Determined Effort
Diane messaged me that she was frolicking near their North Topsail beach rental when a large wave came and knocked her over. As her hands plunged into the sandy bottom, her loose wedding rings slipped off. She didn’t realize they were gone until she returned to the beach house. I started my search in the rolling waves just before low tide after asking a few questions. Sadly, the rings remained unfound on this initial try. Diane attempted to show me a photo taken by someone in her group right after her fall, but the glare and my poor vision made it impossible to see on her phone. I requested the photos be sent to me, and upon reviewing them on my laptop, I understood I had been searching too far out; the tides suggested she must have been nearer to the dry sand.
On my second attempt, I spent over two hours conducting a North-South and East-West grid search in the wet sand around low tide. My arms ached from the effort as I expanded the search zone. At last, a bit beyond my previous search area, I discovered the beautiful ring hidden under the wet sand, a spot that would have been submerged most of the time. I called Diane over, and her relief was palpable, especially since they were set to leave the next day and had begun packing.
Ally reached out to me, as a last-chance effort, in trying to get her precious engagement ring back, that unfortunately was dropped in the bay, on a nice Jersey Shore summer afternoon. She was very concerned there was no hope, as it had already been in the water for close to a week. I asked why she waited so long to call me, and her reply was « another local ring finder looked and had no luck ». I usually wont make it a practice to follow up behind another ring finder, but Ally hadn’t heard any more from him about his follow-up search, and was desperate at this point. After quite a long conversation, I decided Ally really needed me, and agreed to do the recovery. She sent me all the pertinent information, and I assured her I would go at the first possible brake in the, wind, and weather. The tides would also have to coincide with the search day. Our first conversation was 11 PM the day before, when I told her I would check in with her next morning. The following morning at 5 AM, as I was getting ready for work, I looked the weather over real good, and guess what, » today is the day ». I text Ally and told her I was going for it today before low tide, she was thrilled with the timely updates, which she was not used to. I suited up with all my gear, and proceeded with the 1/3 mile walk in the water, just to get to the location it was lost. Once I was set up, I started to do a tight grid search, clearing over 20 signals, all of which had potential, to ensure her ring wasn’t missed by an overpowering signal. It really seemed like to many targets for an area that was supposedly searched, just 6 days prior, even though this is a huge boaters party area. And no they were not recent drops, as they were all down at least 4″ plus. I was super confident of my location, so I kept plugging along and after about 45 minutes my Metal Detector screamed out a low consistent tone, that almost immediately had Ally’s ring written all over it. While clearing the sand from my scoop, I could feel the tink, tink, tink of her ring, but at first glance, I didn’t see it hiding under the shells. But I knew that tink was NOT a shell, and gave the scoop a little wiggle, and there it was, WOW, was this a heart testing moment, seeing the diamonds sparkling back at me. My gut was right, I was in the right spot, and NJ Ring Finder just made someone’s last chance hopes a true reality. !!!!
