Massachusetts man with metal detector gives his time to help locate lost wedding ring
SCITUATE - A man with a metal detector is being called a hero by a woman who lost her wedding ring on Humarock Beach in Scituate.
A lost ring and a desperate search
"We were shaking our hands off because his hands were dirty with sand, and I noticed my ring was gone, and my heart just sank," said Courtney DeFusco.
DeFusco's husband, Stephen, searched for hours while she was at work as a nurse at Mass General. Even their son, Jackson, looked where they spent time at the beach.
"We found pennies... Not the ring," Jackson said.
Courtney DeFusco worried that the rolling waves would sweep the ring out to sea.
"I went to the corner store to get a water, and the lady, luckily in our wonderful community here in Humarock and Marshfield, they mentioned Richard," Stephen DeFusco.
New hope to find the ring
"The area was about the size of a football field. That's not narrowing it down; that's a big search," Bonanno said.
It was an exhausting couple of hours as Bonanno combed the beach with his shovel dragging in the sand to mark his search. He was just about to give up when he got a nudge.
"My shoulder hurt; my arm hurt, and I said I have to stop," Bonanno said. "I walked all the way back to the dune and I said let me go back for just two more passes and I started where I began. I just made one pass, didn't find it, and halfway on the second pass, I heard the metal detector go off."
"My mouth dropped, jaw opened up completely, like, I can't believe it just happened right here. I have my wife's ring in my hand after 12 hours of looking," Stephen DeFusco said.
'Divine intervention'
"You can't deny that this was divine intervention," Courtney DeFusco said.
"Just the challenge of trying to find it, but when you actually pull it out of the sand, it's amazing," said Bonanno. He and his metal detector have helped about a dozen people find their lost jewelry over the years. He's retired and spends his free time donating bicycles to children through his Rolling Wave Foundation.
"To learn what he does is just incredible. This man is like a modern-day saint!" Courtney DeFusco said. Now, her ring is at the shop getting resized.