Platinum Wedding Ring Lost In The Drakes Island, Wells Beach, Maine Surf, Found With A Metal Detector
Cheryl and I arrived home, from a successful recovery and return, in Eliot, Maineat approximately 11:00am. At just prior to 1:00pm, I received a call from Megan. Megan told me that earlier that morning, at around 9:30am, her husband Craig had been throwing a football around, with their son. They were in the water, on Drakes Island, Maine, in Wells, Maine, when on one of Craig’s throws, he saw his Platinum Wedding Ring come flying off and land in the surf. After searching for the ring, in the water, they gave up. Megan told me that they were on vacation at Drake’s Island and live in Connecticut. She had placed a Facebook post about the lost ring and asked that anyone who found it, to please contact her. Once the post went live, Megan said that many of the comments said to contact The Ring Finders of Maine. Megan and Craig had never heard of me, so they investigated my Facebook Page and saw all the successful recoveries. That is when they decided to call me and give it a shot.
I told Megan that I could go down, asap but was a little concerned about the correct area to search. I texted her a photo, of Drake’s Island Beach and broke the beach up into 4 sections. I asked her which section the ring was lost in. She replied section 3. I told her I was on my way and if someone could meet me there to pinpoint the location. She told me they weren’t there at the moment, but Craig would meet me there, as soon as as he could get there. Perfect!!! Once I arrived at 1:40pm, I took a few photos and texted them the location I was at. At this point, Craig called me and told me It looked good and that he was just to the left, of the Lifeguard stand and his son was to the right of the stand, while throwing the football. He thinks the ring would be to the right of the stand and may be in the rocks, but more likely just outside the rocks, going towards the water. Craig also told me that he was on his way to Drakes Island but was coming from Freeport, Maine, where he was visiting family. There was also an accident on the Maine Turnpike, slowing traffic down and he didn’t expect to arrive at Drake’s Island, for at least a half hour. No problem. I would start the grid search a little further out from where he thinks the ring would be. I would grid horizontally,to the water and shore, work towards the shore. The length of the search was approximately 75’ long as I worked the grid line, I was only finding mostly trash targets. After approximately a half hour of searching, I turned to start a new grid line, towards the north. After a few steps, I received the low tone that I was looking for and the VDI screen was reading, 17-18. Definitely in the Platinum range, as my own Platinum Ring will come in at a 19-20. I took one scoop of sand and threw it up on the hard packed. I then used my pinpointer to locate the target, by scraping the sand away, until I saw a silver colored ring. I cleaned the ring off and saw “Plat” on the inside of the band. Definitely Platinum, but I saw an inscription on the inside of the band also. No one had mentioned an inscription. I then sent a photo to Craig, of the ring on top of my sand scoop
“Think I have it. What is the inscription?”
Craig replied, “Looks right. The inscription is 05-10-08”
I replied, “Congratulations. That is it. Plat 5-10-08”
Craig replied with a thumbs up 👍 and told me he was still 10 minutes out and he would meet me at the house. I walked back up to his vacation rental and waited a few minutes for Craig to arrive. Once I showed him the ring, he was amazed I had found it and so fast. He was also very happy, smiling and thankful as he shook my hand. Thankfully I was able to locate the ring, as not all rings, lost in the ocean are recovered. A few things in his favor were that he lost it closer to high tide, than low tide. When you lose a ring, in the water at low tide, those are difficult recoveries. You now have less time to search, because the water will be coming back in, covering the area, in deeper water. Craig also gave perfect directions as to where he thought his ring would be and he nailed it on the head. I have had multiple searches, where I was given the wrong location to search. Those don’t usually end well. But, this did end well and I was so happy, to have been able to help Craig recover his lost wedding ring. There is no better feeling, than to return a lost item, unless you return two lost items, in the same day, which I just did. Two smiles 😁😁, on the same day is an incredible day and I won’t forget it, any time soon. ❤️🙏
