June 27th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Adrian was fishing at Mosman Bay Wharf as he watched his wedding ring slip off his finger and into the harbour. Unfortunately at the time of Adrian’s phone call, I was moving house and had my scuba gear packed away in boxes. I mentioned to Adrian I would probably not be able to help until the following week, but I could tell by the desperation in Adrian’s voice he wanted someone in the water searching for the ring ASAP. After many phone calls to dive shops, Adrian called me back mentioning he was not able to find anyone willing to help him. Feeling sorry for Adrian, I put my move on hold and found the boxes my scuba gear we’re packed in. I met Adrian at Mosman Wharf the following afternoon. The unfortunate thing for me was the location the ring was lost, being right where the Sydney Ferry’s come in to pickup passengers. Not only is this dangerous, but I believe it is also illegal to dive in such a spot. But since the ring dropped so close to the wall, I decided to jump in anyway and give it my best. The water was a lot deeper than I expected, and as always in the harbour, visibility was no so good. The area where the ring had dropped had a very difficult ground surface. It was on a very steep angle, and consisted of jagged rock. It was almost impossible to detect the bottom of this location with any efficiency. Most of the time I was searching by sight, but unfortunately after an hour of searching, my air levels we’re low and it was time to come back up. Adrian was disappointed I did not recover his wedding ring, but at the same time realised it was a long shot.

January 7th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Tuesday was a busy day for me, with 6 missing rings needing to be reunited with their owners. First job for the day was Brett’s wedding ring (previous entry), which turned out successful. Not long after recovering Brett’s wedding ring I received a phone call from Adis. Adis lost his wedding ring at Whale Beach, about an hour north of Sydney. As I was driving to Whale Beach, I received another phone call from Jasmine. Jasmine had also lost her wedding ring, and she too was at Whale Beach. When I arrived at Whale Beach, I met up with Adis as he explained to me what happened to his wedding ring. Adis put the ring on his towel as he applied suncream. When his kids came out of the water, his wife lifted the towel not realising Adis had left the ring on it. I figured this would be an easy job, but after searching the area many times over with 2 different metal detectors I could not find the lost wedding ring. Even Adis used one of my metal detectors as I searched with the other. I said to Adis I needed to go and help Jasmine who was patiently waiting for me to search for her lost wedding ring. At this point I was approached by another lady who asked if I could help find her wedding ring too. 3 lost wedding rings at the same time, this was getting weird. Anyway, Jasmine had not moved from the area she had been sitting all day. Her wedding and engagement ring we’re in a zipped pocket in her bag, with keys and wallet. Jasmine reached into the bag to give her sister her wallet. It seems that the wallet must have folded and grabbed the two rings. Jasmine found the engagement ring in the sand next to her towel, but the wedding ring was no where to be seen. I searched the area Jasmine had been sitting. No wedding ring to be found. We worked out the path Jasmine’s sister had taken to the car. It was a long walk, and it would take me a few hours to grid the entire area. I mentioned to Jasmine I would search the area, and give her a call if I manage to find the ring. Jasmine was surprisingly calm, saying it is not the end of the world. Adis on the other hand was very desperate…so I went back to his area and continued expanding the search perimeter. In the mean time, the other lady who lost her ring mentioned she found hers, and not to worry about helping her now. I spent the rest of the afternoon searching for both Adis’s and Jasmine’s wedding rings without any success. The following night I went back with Tony from Jewellery Rescue, and we basically grid searched the entire half of the beach to no avail. If anyone does happen to pickup a wedding ring at Whale Beach, please contact me so I can put you in touch with Adis and Jasmine. Adis’s wedding ring is white gold, with G&G engraved inside, while Jasmine’s wedding ring has Jasmine and her husbands name engraved inside the ring. My day would not end yet…

August 19th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

I got a call from Andrew earlier on in the week. Andrew had been swimming in the water close to the rock pool at Freshwater Beach, Harbord. When he arrived home from his swim, he noticed his platinum wedding ring was no longer on his finger. This horrible feeling had him head back to the spot he was swimming earlier that day. After searching the area to no avail, he decided to give me a call. As it turned out, Andrew was flying out to Japan that night to see his wife. He had not yet told her that the ring had been lost. Over the phone, Andrew described the area to me where the ring may have dropped. The following morning I noticed a message on my phone, Andrew’s flight to Japan had been cancelled due to maintenance problems. So I drove out to Freshwater Beach and met up with Andrew who showed me where he had been swimming. After searching the rocky area and water for 2 hours, I gave up on the search. I figured the ring could have been washed anywhere, and was planning to come back with my friend Tony another day. Later on that day, I received a call from Andrew. He said he was planning on going back to the rocks, but this time with a ring tied to some fishing line. He wanted to try and replicate what could have happened to his wedding ring. When he was searching through the box, he surprisingly found his platinum wedding ring! Turns out Andrew briefly went through this same box after he got back from his swim. This was great news. Andrew could now fly to Japan to see his wife, with the wedding ring now on his finger

February 28th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Everyone likes a story with a happy ending, so I thought I should share this story, even though I was unable to help out this particular occasion. This is a story of Jono, who lost his wedding ring on his honeymoon in waist deep water at Lennox Head. Unfortunately, Lennox Head is a 10 hour drive from here, so obviously it was out of my area. Unable to find anyone with a metal detecting service in Lennox Head, Jono decided to hire a metal detector and search for himself. Below is a copy of his email..

Hi Brad, We are on the last night of our honeymoon and I realise I didn’t get back to you about the missing ring.  I took the metal detector down to the water but had a lot of trouble getting a stable reading.  I think the water and depth changes on the sea floor created problems.  It was difficult to tell what was a real signal and as I presumed the ring was deep I expected it may not give off a strong signal.  I was out there with my wife digging around and the tide had started coming back in, lapping above our knees which made it very difficult to keep searching.  Eventually I thought that it had got to the point where  I would have to give it away and as I turned for one last sweep I saw a glint of what looked to be gold on the edge of the reef.  I reached into the water and felt the shape, it was a ring, I pulled it out of the water and immediately new it was THE ring.  My wife and I couldn’t believe it, we had found it after four days of searching.  We really were overjoyed and relieved.

Nice work on finding your wedding ring on your honeymoon Jono! I can only imagine how relieved you and your new wife are