Wedding ring lost in ocean, Seaside Park NJ, Recovered by Edward Trapper, NJ Ring Finder
Its a beautiful afternoon in one of New Jerseys finest beach towns, Seaside Park. The oceans were calm, winds light and variable, which made for a perfect day of shell collecting. Dylan and his daughter set out to do just that. Unfortunately all the absolutely beautiful shells they had gathered together, just couldn’t make up for what had just happened. They were down at the very bottom of the tide line, by the drop off, picking up just one last shell, when Dylan decided to rinse off his hands and call it a day. At that very moment he watched his ring slip off his finger, and drop into the sand, just as a wave was rolling in. Even thought the ocean was as calm as we will experience here, Dylan had absolutely no luck over the next two days locating his beautiful wedding ring. When he called me and told me it had already been two days, and that it was just about dead low tide where his ring slipped off, I didn’t have a good feeling about the recovery, at that moment. What he did have in his favor was the fact that it had been dead calm, and was going to continue that way for the next few days. I told Dylan I would be on the beach for the next low tide which was day 3 of his ring being lost on the bottom of the ocean. I was out at 4 AM scouring every inch of the location he had marked with his phone in google maps, with not even one signal. Unfortunately I had prior obligations the next 2 days and would not be able to return until the following morning low tide. It was 5 AM or so, and here I am wondering around in the ocean again, but this time in about thigh deep water my machine sounds off a perfect low tone that you can tell almost in an instant was Dylan’s ring. I missed it in the first scoop, then BINGO !!!! I had his ring after 6 full days in the ocean. Believe me friends, this situation almost never exists in the state of NJ, but luckily for him it did that week. I messaged him asking for a detailed description, because all we had mentioned was white gold in our other conversations. I was pretty positive this was his ring, and the pictures confirmed that. I texted him pics and he was in total shock. We agreed to meet a few hours later for the monumental return.
I was at a family picnic when I received a call from Anthony, stating that he had just lost his beautiful cross on the beach, somewhere in the area they were sitting. It was early afternoon and I told him I would be able to swing by soon, and to secure the area so nobody else came and setup their beach things in the exact same spot. Anthony assured me that was not a problem because they were there for the entire day, plus the fact he was very anxious to get his cross back where it belonged around his neck. We spoke about the events leading up to the mishap, that’s when he told me about the big creator he and his friends had dug that day in the sand where they were sitting. He said they had all been digging around looking for the cross for quite a while, but were positive it must be there somewhere, because he had spent the best part of the morning there, digging. It was then I asked them to please stop digging otherwise the cross may get buried to deep for my machine to pick it up. When I arrived I could see the creator from the dune walkover, and it was pretty big. Sure enough, it was close to 4′ deep, and roughly 6′ in circumference. I hopped in, scanned the entire bottom and the walls, without even a squeak of a sound from my metal detector. Next, I scanned the piles of sand they had pulled out of the hole with no luck either. I asked them to pull the piles down lower, to an average of no more than 10″ higher than the regular beach level. Once again, no luck anywhere, so only one more place to look was the bottom, after they pulled about 10″ of sand out. Now, with all the sand moving, I assured that the cross was positively NOT in, or anywhere around the crater. So, back to the drawing board, where he mentioned they were tossing a football on the tide line earlier, and that his friend did tackle him there. I told him I really wish he mentioned that earlier, as the tide had been rising very quickly. Once he showed me the area, the cross was in my scoop within 2 minutes. If Anthony told me that one detail of the day, my search would have started there, and all the sand moving could have been eliminated. Lost of detective work is needed to rescue items from their hiding places.
If you didn’t have a chance to read the original story, Jennifer had lost 2 ring in the water where they dock their boat. I recovered the one ring (wedding band) on the first trip, but the beautiful family heirloom diamond ring was hiding on the muddy bottom, in a location that my metal detector had not yet covered. It was getting late so I packed it in for the day and promised I would return after vacation in a few weeks. It was a safe location, otherwise I would have never postponed looking for the second ring. We made arrangements as I usually do prior to showing up, and quickly got to work upon my arrival. I decided to use my other machine with the 6′ coil, as the target location is a much more concentrated location. The reason for that was because marina locations tend to be very trashy, due to the fact that once an item is dropped into the water, its usually forgotten about. The larger coil I had used on the first recovery attempt was picking up to many signals at one time, therefore the beautiful filigree diamond ring was getting overpowered by other metallic items on the bottom. WELL, that was obviously a good idea because I had Jennifer’s ring in my scoop in under 5 minutes.
I received a call from a gentleman who was inquiring about my ring finding service. He was basically gathering information for his son, Nick. He explained that Nick was off loading some hay bales, when one of the strings grabbed his wedding ring and flung it out into the cow pasture. We discussed how my services work, which he felt was extremely reasonable. His one main concern was that they had been looking for the ring about 1 week already, with a pretty decent metal detector, and had absolutely no luck finding it. He was wondering if the same thing would happen when I came in to try and locate the ring. I had explained that unless you are extremely experienced in recovering lost items, it could be very challenging, especially in a cow pasture with about a week of rain. Talk about smelly and muddy to say the least. He was going to talk it over with his son, and assured me I would most likely get a phone call in the next day or so. This was a private location so there was no rush. As figured, Nick sent me a text asking if I wanted to give it a shot, to which I replied, absolutely! Nick’s one concern was being he had no luck, what do I think the odds of me finding the ring were. I assured Nick that if he was 100% positive his ring came off in the manner that was explained the night before, I was just about that positive I would be able to recover his ring. We made arrangements to meet after work that day. Once I arrived I put on my boots and out to the location we went. Again, as I do with every, I went over and over again exactly what, where, and how the ring flew off. After about 25 minutes covering every inch in multiple directions, all I had was a pouch full of trash. Actually, I was starting to think his ring may have not came off where he said. We took a few steps back to survey the location, and the only thing possible was the hay trailer was about 10’ or so closer to the road side of the field. I worked one or two paths from the already covered spot, and my machine let out the sweet sound of success!!!! I bent over and pushed the slop around until my pin pointer held a steady sound, and just as I figured, there was Nicks ring. I so so love when my clients are positive they know when their items fly off. Thank you agin Nick, it was a pleasure.
Kerry called during the day and left a message wondering if I would be able to help find his lost wedding ring on the beach in Wildwood NJ. I called him right back to go over some of the details about how he lost his ring. Kerry explained he was on the beach with his family, playing with the dogs, and when he looked at his hand he noticed his wedding ring missing. He was very detail oriented, recalling every move leading up to the beach episode. After going over every detail of the day, he distinctly remembered having it on at dinner, and was almost positive it came off while playing with the dogs on the beach. Well, then he mentioned that he had searched the entire area with a metal detector and had no luck. They had also walked back and fourth the entire distance many times. If you know this beach it’s quite a vast area, kinda like walking to another zip code or two. I hope that brought things into perspective a bit. It was getting dark so they threw in the towel for the day, and returned the next morning with rakes to rake the entire area with hopes the ring would pop up. With no luck, it was time for them to pack up and head back home. I asked him to mark the exact location on his cell phone, with the GPS feature on Google Maps, and send it to me with a picture of his ring, and I would head right there after work. I parked right by the boardwalk, grabbed my gear and headed out to the beach. I opened the location he sent and somehow it was right where I was standing on the beach just beyond the boardwalk. I figured I would follow the dog tracks, but with the wind blowing about 30 knots they were getting covered by the drifting sand. Kerry had mentioned that he was straight out, and roughly 50′ from the high tide line, which was a good thing. Once I got close to the water I was able to see the area they had been raking earlier that morning, without that mark I highly doubt I would have been able to find the spot. Another huge thing in their favor was that the area was flat wet sand from from the prior high tide, and even though it had been raked quite a bit, didn’t blow flat, with the screaming south east wind. I turned on my machine, made one path around the perimeter, and on my return path Bingo!!! My machine gave off the sweet sound of success. A nice solid low tone, which I knew immediately was Kerry’s ring. Once back at my truck, I called his relatives phone hoping they were in town, but they were not. Then I called Kerry with the good news, and arranged to meet him at a later date to return his ring. another great recovery in the books.
I got a text one evening from my old boss, he was asking it if still do recoveries. He explained that he was on the beach and a guy was digging around in the sand looking for something. He couldn’t help but ask what he was doing, and he said looking for my wedding ring. With that he told them about my and exchanged my information. Alex called a few minutes later and we went over what happened. He had decided to jump into the ocean for a swim, but prior to doing so, placed his ring and other stuff he was holding into his pants pocket. I had to head right there due to the fact that beach is heavy detected, and the ring might not last overnight. We walked right out to the surf as the tide was coming on rather quickly. Alex had some things marking the area, and i quickly started searching down low on the hill. He was pretty sure his stuff was up higher but I just wanted to make sure before the water got too far up. I completely covered the area we thought the ring would be, without any sign of the ring. Alex and his wife Carlie were on vacation and has to leave, as some friends were up at the restaurant waiting for them. I wasn’t given up just yet, and continued to search the path they had taken back to the dune walkway. With the very deep/soft white powdery sand the Jersey beaches have, it was no to easy seeing right where they had walked. After walking half way back, I turned around and did another sweep back to the water with no luck again. Spreading out even further to the north I located his ring about 150’ from the high tide line. I quickly called him, hoping to catch them before they left the area, which I did. We met on the boardwalk where I handed his ring back, which made the end of his vacation fantastic.
Kate reached out to me wanting to know if it was possible to locate her engagement that slipped off her finger during the day somewhere at the beach. It was late in the evening, and after determining that it was close to high tide when it most likely came off, it would be best to wait until the early morning low tide. We arranged to meet early the next morning at the dune walkover. As we were heading to the location I had asked her to mark in google maps we talked about the main things she could remember leading up the the ring disappearing. Once we got to the spot, she showed me some pictures she had, before and after the ring went missing. Something didn’t look just right, but I figured I would check the area that was marked. After coming up empty handed I asked her to see the pics again, it was then I knew that was not quit the right location. I adjusted the location about 40′ to the north, and things looked just right, including the piles of seaweed that had pushed high up on the hill the prior day when the pics were taken. Kate confirmed after looking at the pics that this was absolutely the right location. Combined with the rough surf, was the fact that she was boogie boarding, and that is never a good thing when doing a recovery. Kate did remember one wave that knocked her down, where she lost the board, and that was luckily close to the beach in waist deep water. I decided to hit that area real quick, and while Kate was in about knee deep water looking, I got a signal that made my eyes open wide. With the waves crashing right where I was, I took extra time to zero in on the exact spot, and hoped to grab it on the first scoop. Sure enough I had it on the first try, BINGO, it was her absolutely stunning ring!!!!! Kate had no idea what had just taken place just a few feet behind her, as I scooted up the hill , past the waves to get a better look and clean it off. At that moment I decided to make a video to capture her response, which you will see I’m not very good at. (Will be posted soon) Her reaction was something that makes this profession SO SO rewarding that no words could ever explain.