Connecticut
Went for a swim in Long Island Sound or a Connecticut lake and lost a ring
State park beaches on the Sound, Squantz Pond and Candlewood Lake
Hammonasset, Rocky Neck, Silver Sands and Sherwood Island are state park beaches on Long Island Sound. Inland, people swim at Squantz Pond and in Candlewood Lake beside it. When a ring comes off during a swim you may not feel it go, and if your hands were cold it may have been looser than usual. For a lost wedding ring, the search starts from three things you can still work out today: where you walked in, how deep you were and what time it was.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Connecticut with a metal detectorist who can search there. Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
The same goes for engagement rings, Oura rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, chains, Apple Watches, key fobs, metal-framed glasses and hearing aids.
Where you walked in, how deep you were and what the clock said
In Long Island Sound the water's edge is never in the same place for long, so the time matters as much as the spot. Note when you went in and when you came out, so a detectorist can look up the tide for that hour. Next, stand where you walked in and photograph the shore from the water's edge: the boardwalk or the Meigs Point jetty at Hammonasset, the bathhouse on the East Beach or West Beach side at Sherwood Island. Drop a pin and note the depth: knee, waist or chest.
Send all of that on WhatsApp with a picture of the lost ring, or of whatever else it was. We look for someone who already does metal detecting in Connecticut and can get to your beach or lake.
Areas and towns we cover in Connecticut
- Connecticut shore and Westerly
- Hammonasset Beach State Park, Madison
- Rocky Neck State Park, East Lyme
- Silver Sands State Park, Milford
- Sherwood Island State Park, Westport
- Milford Point and Sheffield Island
- Old Saybrook
- New London
- Mystic
- New Haven
- Squantz Pond State Park, New Fairfield
- Candlewood Lake
- Danbury
- New Milford
- Hartford and Bushnell Park
- Elizabeth Park
- Lake Compounce
Connecticut beaches on the Sound, Candlewood Lake and the Hartford parks
From the mouth of the Connecticut River to Westerly
At Old Saybrook the Connecticut River runs out into Long Island Sound. Ocean Beach Park in New London has half a mile of sandy beach. Mystic is a village shared by Groton and Stonington, with the Mystic River between the two halves. Over the state line, Misquamicut State Beach and Watch Hill belong to Westerly, Rhode Island. Each beach is covered on the page for the Connecticut shore and Westerly.
Hammonasset and its two miles of sand
Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison has a two mile sandy beach with a boardwalk, and a jetty at Meigs Point. The park campground has 558 grassy sites, so we ask whether the item went missing on the sand, in the water or back at the tent.
Western state park beaches at Silver Sands and Sherwood Island
Silver Sands State Park in Milford has over half a mile of shoreline and a boardwalk three quarters of a mile long. A sandbar leads out to Charles Island and is covered when the tide comes in. Sherwood Island State Park in Westport has a mile long beach. East Beach is on one side of the park and West Beach on the other, each with its own bathhouse, so we ask first which of the two you swam from. The Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge has two units with sand nearby: Milford Point, at the mouth of the Housatonic, and Sheffield Island off Norwalk, reached by summer ferry.
A public beach at Squantz Pond on a mostly private lakeshore
Squantz Pond State Park in New Fairfield lies beside Squantz Pond, a natural lake off Candlewood Lake, and has a beach and a swim area. Candlewood Lake itself has about 75 miles of shoreline, and nearly all of it is private. For a ring, a phone or keys lost there, tell us whether it went from a dock, a boat or a beach.
Bushnell Park in Hartford and other places away from the water
Bushnell Park in the middle of Hartford has a carousel and a performance pavilion among its lawns. A lost ring or an earring on a lawn is searched in marked strips, as on a beach. A loss at Elizabeth Park, or at Lake Compounce, the amusement park, starts with the same questions: where you sat, where you walked and when you last had the item.
Who you deal with and what the detectorist is given
Bartek answers and stays with it
Your WhatsApp message reaches Bartek, who runs Ring Seekers. He looks for the detectorist himself and keeps you posted until there is a result, whichever way it goes.
What the searcher has in hand before leaving home
Before setting out, the detectorist has your pin, your shore photos, the time and the depth.
Slim chances are said out loud
A lost ring in water no deeper than your waist, off a sandy beach and at a point you can mark, is a fair search. One lost from a moving boat out on Candlewood Lake, with no mark to go back to, is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
The Sound has a tide and the lake has a changing level
For the Sound the detectorist picks a low tide. The lakes have no tide, so the questions there are about depth and the month.
You know the costs while you are still deciding
We explain the costs before any search is booked.
A bigger tide the further west you swim, and a lake that drops in winter
The tide is small at New London and much bigger at Bridgeport
At New London the mean tidal range is about 2.6 feet (0.8 metres) in NOAA's station figures. At Bridgeport, further west along the same shore, it is about 6.7 feet (2 metres). The western beaches, such as Sherwood Island and Silver Sands, see the bigger range, and there a place that was waist deep when you swam may be ankle deep or dry some hours later. Rocky Neck is towards the New London end.
Rocky Neck is sand without stones and Eastern Point has rock
Rocky Neck has a gently sloping beach of white sand, free of stones, while Eastern Point Beach in Groton has rocks and a breakwater. Waves and tidal current may shift a small item a little or cover it with sand, so the mark on the shore and the time both count.
Candlewood Lake is lowered every winter
The level of Candlewood Lake, along with that of Squantz Pond, is brought down each winter and raised again for the summer. A spot where you stood knee deep in August can be out of the water altogether in the cold months.
Give us the month as well as the place
Long Island Sound is at its warmest in late summer and cold through winter and spring. A search in the water in October is planned differently from one in July, so give us the month.
If the tide has come in, the water is deep or the park is big
My ring slipped off while I was swimming at Hammonasset and the tide has come in since. Does that ruin it?
No. The tide coming in does not change where you were standing, only the hour a search can happen. Write down when you were in the water and how deep you were, so a detectorist can look up that tide and choose a low one. A photo from the water's edge, looking back at the boardwalk, fixes the line along the beach.
My engagement ring came off in the swim area at Squantz Pond. Does a lake search work the same way as one at the beach?
Mostly, with one difference. Squantz Pond has no tide to plan around. What does change is the level, because Candlewood Lake, Squantz Pond included, is lowered every winter. Give us the date, where in the swim area you were and how far up your body the water came.
We swam at both beaches at Sherwood Island and my husband's Oura ring was gone by evening. Is that too vague to search?
Not if there are photos from the day. Scroll through them. The last one with the ring on his hand and the first one without it give you a side of the park and a time. After that we need where the towels were and where he walked in.
My ring came off on the dry sand at Rocky Neck, not in the water. Should I just rent a detector?
That is worth a try. Dry sand or a lawn, a fresh loss and a patch you can point to: this is the one situation where a search for metal detector rental near me can pay off. For wet sand, the water, a large area or something small such as an earring, a detectorist makes more sense.
My Apple Watch came off when I jumped from our boat in a cove on Candlewood Lake, in water over my head. Can anything be done in water that deep?
Yes, though not by wading. A search on foot stops at about chest depth, so water over your head is work for a detectorist who also dives, and that is who we look for. Tell us where the boat was anchored: a pin dropped at the time, a photo with the shore behind you, or the dock you were level with.
The clasp on my necklace broke somewhere in Bushnell Park in Hartford, between the carousel and the pavilion. How would anyone find a thin gold chain in a park that big?
By shrinking the park first. You only used a small part of it, so mark on a map where you sat and the way you walked between the carousel and the pavilion.
My son's class ring came off at Silver Sands at low tide, near the sandbar to Charles Island. That sand is under water now. What can we do?
Write down the time you were out there while you still remember it. The sandbar is covered when the tide comes in and uncovered again as it goes out, so the sand you stood on will be back in the open. A search for a lost ring there is planned around low tide.
Connecticut
Tell us where in Connecticut you were swimming
Ring Seekers works as a metal detector service for the Sound beaches and the Connecticut lakes. Send the beach or lake, the hour you swam, how deep you stood and one photo of the shore on WhatsApp.