All of you have probably returned a find, helped find keys or a ring but in our case this was a very special return. If you have never tried to make a return I suggest you try it sometime and enjoy the feeling it brings you. It was a day like any other metal detecting day when my friend Keith and I decided Miami was our destination for the day. We spent the day at a beach in Miami finding lots of targets working the dry sand, wet sand and the water. I decided to go south and Keith decided to go north. After a few hours of detecting I received a call from Keith telling me that he was with a man speaking a foreign language and that I should come and try and talk to him. Well as it turned out I was lucky and could speak Spanish and was able to communicate with an elderly man speaking Portuguese from Brazil. Victor was here in Florida on vacation with his wife of 33 years from Brazil. Victor told me that he had lost his ring the day before and asked Keith and I for help in finding it. Victor was visibly shaken and had tears in his eyes while describing the lost wedding band ring. Well, we looked for the ring for several hours with no luck. We took his number in Brazil and promised to find and return the ring even if it meant sending it to Brazil. Fast forwarding in time 10 days Keith and I decide to hit the same beach again with an effort to find the lost ring. What made the ring special was that it had been on Victor’s finger for 33 years but the best part of the story was yet to come. Call it divine intervention, luck probably not or a guardian angel maybe but Keith and I were about to have the best experience of a great return. We both had made many returns but this one was very special. Our plan was to leave at 5 am and drive south 2 hours to our beach in Miami. As luck would have it on that day Keith’s car broke down causing me to drive and delaying our trip. Finally, underway at 530 am we headed south on interstate 95 where we were delayed another hour by slow traffic and accident. Finally arriving at our destination, we started to look for the lost ring. As luck would have it the beach had been covered by seaweed overnight which caused the clean-up crews to come out with tractors and rakes to clean the beach. The tractor pulling the rake made its first pass and Keith made his first pass with his Minelab Excalibur. On the 3rd target Keith screamed he found the ring. Imagine our excitement finding the ring after 10 days passing. If we had not been delayed chances are the ring would have been covered again by the tractors ploughing and cleaning the beach. Well now it was my turn to contact Victor. Unfortunately, Victor had given me his phone number in the evening. Well as luck would have it Victor was still here in Orlando and made contact with me at 1 am asking me for a photo. I sent him a picture and he confirmed the ring was his. Now the best part of the story and why good deeds are always beautiful. When Victor arrived from Orlando to my house and saw the ring with his wife they both started to cry. It turned out the ring had been worn by his mother and father for 50 years of marriage making the ring 83 years old and part of something beautiful for those 83 years. Imagine how happy Keith and I were to learn the real story of the ring. Victor and his wife cried with joy which brought tears to our eyes and made this return a once in a life time return not only of joy but a true tale of love and devotion.
Garry - Florida, USA
