Engagement ring lost in the sea is found six days later after mammoth treasure hunt effort

Luisa Meters was enjoying a family lunch break swim in Eastney near to the Coffee Cup on August 27 when as she was stood in the water she felt her engagement ring fall off. In panic, she got as many people as possible with goggles to search but had no luck.

She said: “I will never forget the emotion that I felt, looking down, the water wavy and cloudy thinking, has this just happened? We let the lifeguards know, and they said they'd spotted a metal detector nearby. My mum and I ran over. What a lovely person he was, with tides against us, later that evening I went and borrowed equipment from him.”

The search began at midnight, the first of low tide since the incident, with her brothers, uncle, dad, husband all searching with head torches but after two they had no luck and repeated their efforts the next morning at the next low tide – again without success.

Each day went by, more searching no luck but the Portsmouth woman was determined not to give up, and had feeling it would be found. After reading articles on lost rings, many experts said it would fall and bury in the sand where it fell off. This gave Luisa hope and beach walks with friends soon became metal detecting walks with many other people offering help after seeing her story shared on social media.

Then on September 1 things were to change after she again returned to the same spot she lost her ring after she mapped the tides and the height of the sea when she lost it.

Luisa said: “I walked onto the sea, estimating where I was, dropping a bucket to mark my place. We waited for the tide to go down. Another hour of detecting no luck, the tide is now at it's lowest. Hoped became to fade and just one last search on the edge of the water and in the water before we call it a day and the sea starts to raise again.

"And then suddenly a strong noise from the metal detector. BEEP! Was this the ring? We quickly went to dig up the shingle under the water, first dig, nope no luck, but still a strong noise, second dig, we pour the shingle on the to sea and suddenly I heard my dad say 'TaDa!!!' and the ring was found.

“There was a lot of screaming, running, jumping and family hugs and tears! We could not believe it! The ring has been found six days later, right near to where it fell off, buried underneath the shingle.”

She added that it was a day she and her family will never forget.