New York City
Lost a ring in New York City?
City beaches on the Atlantic and on Long Island Sound, park lawns in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the Hudson at Nyack and the Meadowlands marshes.
Car keys go down without a sound: out of a beach bag at Rockaway, off a towel at Orchard Beach, out of a pocket on a park lawn. Keys are heavy and stay close to where they fell, so the patch you can point to matters more than the size of the beach.
Ring Seekers is a ring finder service for New York City. It works with experienced local metal detectorists to search for a ring, wedding band, watch or phone lost in New York City, in Nyack further up the Hudson in New York state, or across the line in Mahwah and the New Jersey Meadowlands. The search is done by an experienced local detectorist. Tell us what happened and where. We choose an experienced detectorist who knows the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
This page is for keys and a key fob, and just as much for a lost ring, a wedding band, an earring off a picnic blanket, an Oura ring, a watch or a phone.
How a search works from Brooklyn to Mahwah
Stop walking over the area. Push a marker into the ground where you were and photograph the view from it. On Coney Island use the boardwalk street name, at Rockaway the Beach street number, at Orchard Beach the section number, and on a park lawn a bench or a path sign.
Then send that marked map, your photos, the time and what you were doing. The small details are what a detectorist works from: whether the rakes have been through since, whether the grass has been mown, how deep you were standing. Ask at the beach or park office before you leave, because keys and jewelry are often handed in.
Places we cover in New York City
- Brooklyn, Coney Island Beach and the Riegelmann Boardwalk
- Brooklyn, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach Park
- Brooklyn, Prospect Park and the Long Meadow
- The Bronx, Orchard Beach on Long Island Sound
- The Bronx, Pelham Bay Park and other Bronx parks
- Queens, Rockaway Beach from Beach 9th to Beach 149th Street
- Queens, Jacob Riis Park beach and boardwalk
- Manhattan, Central Park lawns such as Sheep Meadow
- Nyack, Memorial Park and the marina on the Hudson River
- Upper Nyack, Nyack Beach State Park riverside path
- Rockland County parks and private gardens
- Mahwah, Darlington County Park swimming lake
- Mahwah, Ramapo Valley County Reservation
- New Jersey Meadowlands, DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst
- New Jersey Meadowlands, Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus
- New Jersey Meadowlands, River Barge Park in Carlstadt
- New Jersey Meadowlands, MetLife Stadium
Beaches, parks and riverfronts where things go missing
Coney Island and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
The Riegelmann Boardwalk runs 2.7 miles (4.3 km) from West 37th Street to Brighton 15th Street, with rock jetties about 600 feet (183 m) apart and the Steeplechase Pier at West 17th. Both beaches are raked most nights, which makes a summer loss here the hardest case in the city. Give us the boardwalk street you came down by.
Rockaway Beach, Queens
Seven miles (11 km) of open Atlantic beach and boardwalk from Beach 9th to Beach 149th Street, held by rock jetties and topped up with Army Corps sand. Rings and wedding bands come off in the water here more than on the sand, often in June when the sea is cool and fingers shrink. Keys and a phone go the other way, out of a bag on dry sand. West of Beach 149th Street, Jacob Riis Park has its own beach and boardwalk in front of the Art Deco bathhouse, with lifeguards from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day.
Orchard Beach, the Bronx
A 1.1 mile (1.8 km) crescent on Long Island Sound, divided into 13 numbered sections. With no ocean surf, a ring lost while wading usually stays near where it went in.
Central Park and Prospect Park lawns
Rings, earrings and keys come off on picnic blankets on Sheep Meadow or the Long Meadow in Brooklyn. A stud or a band settles into the thatch near the surface, out of sight but within reach of a coil, so the patch you sat on turns a huge lawn into a small job.
Nyack riverfront, Rockland County
Memorial Park is the Village of Nyack's park on the Hudson River, beside the village marina with 43 slips, a launch ramp and kayak storage racks. Just north, Nyack Beach State Park has a flat riverside path under the Palisades cliffs. Anything dropped into the river itself is a job for a diver, not a detector.
Darlington County Park and the Ramapo Valley, Mahwah
Darlington County Park in Mahwah has a swimming lake with sand around it, the kind of ground where keys, a watch or a ring come off in the towelling and changing. Ramapo Valley County Reservation nearby has the Ramapo River and Scarlet Oak Pond, trail edges and picnic ground rather than open sand.
The New Jersey Meadowlands
The public parks here are mostly wetland trails. DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst has 3.5 miles of paths and a half-mile boardwalk loop, Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus a one-mile trail, and River Barge Park in Carlstadt a boat ramp and fishing dock on the Hackensack River. A phone, watch or pair of sunglasses dropped over a rail lands in soft marsh.
What Ring Seekers does for a loss around New York City
One person on WhatsApp
You message us with where and when, and the same person stays your contact throughout.
Your map and photos go to the detectorist
We pass on your marked map, your photos, the time and the tide state.
Sand, lawn and marsh are three different jobs
On ocean sand the coil swings in lines and the wet sand is worked near low water. On a park lawn the search is slow and close, because small things sit in the thatch.
We say plainly when the odds are poor
A ring lost at Coney Island in July, after nights of raking, is a harder case than keys dropped on a towel this morning. You hear how it looks before anything is arranged.
Costs explained before anything is booked
We set the costs out first, so you decide with the odds and the cost in front of you.
Sand, tide and ground around New York City
Sand and water
The ocean beaches are fine replenished sand. A ring on dry sand usually sits within the top 15 to 25 cm (6 to 10 inches), but at the water line it sinks faster. Rockaway has rip currents beside the jetties.
Tides from the Battery to Nyack
There are two high tides a day. NOAA gives a mean range of 4.5 feet (1.4 metres) at The Battery and 4.7 feet at Sandy Hook, the reference station for Rockaway Inlet. Up the Hudson at Tarrytown, across from Nyack, the range is about 3 feet (1 metre).
Night raking on the city beaches
Crews rake Coney Island and Brighton Beach most nights from around 9:30 pm. The rakes work the top 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) and lift jewelry along with the rubbish, which is why a loss on those two beaches is worth reporting to the beach staff the same evening.
Park lawns, marsh and river bank
A mown lawn holds a ring or a stud in the thatch near the surface. Marsh under a Meadowlands boardwalk is soft and deep, and the Hudson bank at Nyack shelves into water only a diver can work.
Want a first idea of your chances? Try the lost ring recovery calculator.
From a Bronx beach section to a Brooklyn park lawn
I dropped my car keys in the sand at Orchard Beach. Can they be found?
Usually, once you can name the section. Orchard Beach is a 1.1 mile (1.8 km) crescent on Long Island Sound, split into 13 numbered sections, and with no ocean surf a set of keys stays close to where it went down. Keys and a fob are a big lump of metal, the easiest kind of signal to pick out of sand. Send us the section number, what your towels were beside, and the time.
My wedding band came off in the surf at Rockaway. Is it gone?
Not necessarily. Rings are heavy for their size and settle into the sand rather than travel along the beach. Rockaway runs seven miles (11 km) between rock jetties, so the Beach street number is the landmark that counts. Send us that number, the time, and whether the tide was rising or falling.
An earring came off on a picnic blanket in Prospect Park. Where do we start?
With the blanket, not the park. On the Long Meadow a small stud drops into the thatch at the base of the grass, where the eye goes straight past it and a detector does not. Mark the patch you sat on, photograph it against a path sign or the tree line, and tell the park staff too, in case someone has handed it in.
I lost my ring at Coney Island in July. Does the night raking finish it?
It makes it harder, not hopeless. Crews rake the sand most nights from around 9:30 pm, and the rakes work the top 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) and lift jewelry with the rubbish, so ask the beach staff whether anything came in that night. Then send us the boardwalk street you came down by and the time.
My phone went over a boardwalk rail at DeKorte Park. Worth a try?
It depends what is under the rail. DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst has a half mile boardwalk loop across wetland, and a phone, a watch or a pair of sunglasses that goes over the side lands in soft marsh. Marsh like that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first. Photograph the exact stretch of rail before you leave, because one bay looks like the next.
I lost a ring at Nyack Memorial Park by the Hudson. Can it be searched?
The lawn and the paths, yes. Memorial Park is the Village of Nyack's park on the river, beside the marina with its 43 slips, a launch ramp and kayak storage racks, so tell us whether you were on the grass, by the racks or out on the dock. Anything that went into the river itself is a diver's job rather than a detectorist's.
We fly home tomorrow. Does that end it?
No. A detectorist works from your marked map, your photos and your account of the day, and all of that travels with you. The same person stays on WhatsApp with you, and you hear how the search went wherever you are by then.
New York City
Tell us the beach street number or the park you were in
Three states, one WhatsApp thread, and the same person from start to finish.
Name the spot, say what time it happened and send one photo of the ground, whether that is a section at Orchard Beach, a lawn in Prospect Park or a lakeside in Mahwah. You get back an honest read on the case before anything is arranged.