A man with a metal detector saved the day after a husband’s wedding ring flew from his finger and disappeared on a beach.
Bryan Gaynor, 58, had just left his house in Martham on Saturday afternoon (July 11) when he got a phonecall from a friend asking for a favour.
A couple at the beach in Winterton - three and a half miles away - had lost one of their wedding rings and were desperate to find someone with a metal detector.
Jenny and Max Kitson-Cook, 30 and 46, from Norwich, were celebrating a birthday with family and friends.
Ms Kitson-Cook said: “I’ve got a four-month-old baby. I had asked my husband to shake the sand out of the buggie and as he did it his ring flew off.”
They had both recently been on Slimming World programs and had lost weight, she said, so the ring was loose.
Her husband scrambled in the sand and was quickly followed by the others in the group.
“All nine of us were looking for this ring but we just couldn’t find it,” Ms Kitson-Cook said.
At the nearby Dunes Cafe, where they had hoped to find a metal detector, Ms Kitson-Cook was advised instead to join Winterton’s Facebook page.
Posting a plea for help she wrote, “My husband has lost his wedding ring in the sand. Does anyone at all have a metal detector we could either borrow or use your expertise to help find it? I’m really sorry to ask but we’d really like have it back.”
A man who read the post contacted Mr Gaynor, who has been metal detecting for 35 years - on previous sweeps of beaches and fields he has found Roman coins.
Mr Gaynor said when he got to Winterton he went up and down the beach and about five minutes later his detector had picked up something.
He dug up the spot and there it was - the ring.
Meanwhile, locals and day-trippers had gathered to watch the drama and when Mr Gaynor lifted the ring “the whole beach cheered”, Ms Kitson-Cook said.
“I was so chuffed,” Mr Gaynor said. “There were tears in their eyes. I was so pleased I found the ring.”
Ms Kitson-Cook said she and her husband were “elated”.
“We asked him if we could do anything for him but he declined,” she added.
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