Lost Rings At Umina Beach Central Coast
February 13th, 2009 by Brad Lovell
I received a desperate phone call from Maxine, who lost 2 gold rings off her finger at the same time. To make matters worse, the rings we’re handed down to her by her grandmother who had passed away 6 months earlier. And to make matters worse again still, it was her passed Grandmother’s birthday the day she lost her rings! But it doesn’t stop there…Maxine’s Rings fell into a channel which lead to the ocean. Not long after the rings we’re lost, heavy rain started which caused the flowing water in the channel to increase its flow speed….cutting out a larger area in the sand. So what began as a one meter wide channel when Maxine lost the ring, had turned into a 15-20 meter wide channel by the time I arrived. This made it difficult for Maxine to remember exactly where she dropped the rings as everything had changed. The odds we’re against us, but I was determined to find Maxine’s rings…even if I found one, it would be still something for Maxine and her mother to hold onto. There was only a couple of hours of daylight left, so there was no time to waist. I began my usual grid search…and after about 1.5 hours of searching, the rain hammered down. This was not great for moral, but I was not going to give up. And thankfully I didn’t…in the middle of the pouring rain, I received a nice signal from the Excalibur. After two deep scoops, I had whatever was causing the signal. I drained the sand from the scoop in the flowing water…and there it was, Maxine’s beautiful gold diamond ring. Whilst Maxine and her mother we’re making phone calls and jumping for joy, I was looking for the second ring. I knew it had to be close! About 5 minutes later, another nice signal sounded from the Excalibur. I had found Maxine’s second ring. Maxine’s mother was understandably very emotional…they we’re both relieved to have the Rings back in their possession. A quick thank you to Maxine and her mum for such a generous reward. This photo snapped with my iPhone does not really show the full beauty of Maxine’s rings. Hopefully Maxine will send in a better photo for us to admire.
Edit: Thanks for the photos Maxine, now we can all appreciate the true beauty of your Grandma’s Rings 
- Posted in Lost Rings, Recovered
February 15th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Thankyou so much Brad for your speedy assistance and for travelling so far to help me!!
Sorry you got drenched from the rain but I know for sure that without your help I never would have got these sentimental rings back. The beach here changes very quickly and I was afraid that the tide would come in and cover the rings with crashing waves and even more sand. Under the conditions, I was totally shocked that you recovered either ring. . . let alone both!!
I can’t thank you enough!! I’m sure that if the afterlife exists, my Nan would be smiling down on you and thanking you as well
You are amazing!!!!
February 17th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Dear Brad this is Maxine’s mum Marea.
I had only given the rings to Maxine exactly 2months ago and I asked her not to wear them on her little finger as many people lose rings this way. Maxine now wears them on her ring finger where they are more secure.
I still can’t believe that you retrieved the rings under such horrendous conditions in the last half hour. If we had to wait until the following day they would have been buried too deep for anyone to find when the high tide filled in the channel. Also the channel is never in the same spot from day to day so a lot more guess work would have been needed to locate the spot where Maxine thought that she lost the rings.
And yes Maxine there is an afterlife and I believe that Mum guided you to position and helped Brad find her rings. In your heart you didn’t believe that you were to have the rings, but now there can be no doubt at all as they found their way back to you where I know that Mum would be happy for them to remain.
Thanks again Brad and when you have a partically difficult retrieval in the future maybe you can ask Fay to help you again.