Express & Star

Until fish do us part: Lost ring recovered from lake by metal detectors

When Andy Freeman lost his wedding ring while on a fishing expedition, he didn’t expect to see it again.

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Metal detectorists Sid Perry, left, and Phil Frag, right, with a relieved Andy Freeman

The 33-year-old, who works in Rugeley, lost his precious band while he was fishing at Wade Lake in Hill Ridware, flicking it off his finger while casting bait.

But now he has been reunited with his £500 platinum ring after calling in the help of a group of metal detectorists who spent hours searching in the water for the item of jewellery.

Andy lost the ring only two days before he was due to mark his six-month anniversary with wife Kate.

He spent a total of two weeks apart from his treasured item.

And given he accidentally tossed it away while standing in the middle of the lake, it seemed unlikely that he would ever get it back.

He said: “I wandered out into the middle of this lake and I was basically throwing bait in and baiting up for a fishing session.

“I didn’t realise at the time I had lost the ring until I was on my way home and as soon as I realised I thought the only time I could’ve lost it was throwing bait.

“I was driving home and I looked at my hand and my heart sank and I realised this must have been when I was throwing the bait in.

“I had a very good idea of where it was.

'Over the moon'

“The lake itself is quite shallow but it’s very weedy and full of silt so I kind of thought I would never see it again.

“So I’m absolutely over the moon.

“The wife is obviously very happy, too – I’m out of the dog house now.”

The ring was lost on June 19, two days before the couple were due to celebrate their six-month wedding anniversary, leaving Andy desperately searching for ways to get it back.

“I kind of ran through all the things I could think about doing,” he said.

“I thought about snorkelling, but I basically thought without a metal detector there would be no chance.”

Andy knows his way around lakes and marshes, he works for ARM Reedbeds on Coalton Road in Rugeley, which constructs wetland areas for waste water, so he was well aware of just how difficult it would be to recover the lost keepsake.

As a result, he said the telephone call to his wife was a “tricky” one to make.

“I didn’t know how to break it to her, but I sort of just said it when I released it had gone,” she said.

“I rang her up and said I’m on my way home and I told her about it.

“She wasn’t very happy and later on when I got home I got the real thing.

“I mean how do you break that news? I thought it was completely gone.”

The platinum band was found.

He contacted the Heart of England Metal Detecting group after the detectorists were found by his wife, and group members Sid Perry and Phil Frag came out to help with the search.

Phil and Sid spent five hours combing the area around where Andy thought he had lost the ring, but eventually the experts were able to find it beneath the water.

He said: “I showed them where I thought I had lost it. I layed it out and put a marker in the water and said ‘focus around this area’.

“They were just about to give up and they actually found it about a metre from the post that I had put in.

“I wasn’t there when they found it.

“They rang me up when I was in the office and they broke the news – they said ‘we have some good news and bad news’.

“Bad news was that the lock is full of weed and silt but the good news is they’ve found some swim feeders.

“And then they said ‘we’ve found your ring’ as well. I was blooming overjoyed.”

'Sentimental'

And since finding it, Andy, who lives in Stoke-on-Trent, said he was determined to keep the personally priceless item safe.

He said: “It’s the sentimental value of it.

“It was bought as part of a pair so I could’ve bought a new one but it wouldn’t have been part of the pair together.”

“I’ve got it on me at the moment – I think I’m going to superglue it on.”

Andy added: “I’ve been going to Wade Lake regularly and nothing like this has happened before – I don’t lose it every time I go.

“My wife Kate was over the moon with the find, really really happy with it.

“Initially she was quite upset by it and I was in the dog house, but we’re all fine now.”

He also praised the detectorists who found the ring.

“They did really well to find it,” Andy added.