Treasure Hunting 'Scavengers' Reunite Woman With Engagement Ring She Lost In Ocean At Rockaway Beach
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Imagine losing your engagement ring in the ocean. Chances are you'd never see it again.
But this story has a very different ending for a Queens woman thanks to hope and a group of treasure hunters.
Pure joy was caught on camera as the "Scavengers" reunited Gina Bopp with her engagement ring.
Bopp was enjoying time at Rockaway Beach with friends Monday.
"Her son got caught in a wave, so I went to go grab him, and I felt my ring sliding off my finger," she told CBS2's Vanessa Murdock.
She searched the surf and shore for eight hours with no luck.
"I went on Amazon and bought a fake one because I thought there's no way I'm going to get another one," Bopp said.
She reached to Merrill Kazanjian, of Metal Detecting NYC. He helped her search Tuesday morning.
"It was an opporutnity to reconnect somebody with a moment in their lives," he said.
Still, no ring.
So Kazanjian called in the Scavengers, his friends who all share a love for treasure hunting, and asked them to come to Beach 122nd for ring recovery.
Louis DeFeo was an hour away when he got the call.
"I was at work, but um, you know, these are the type of moments you want to help out," he said.
Tracy Behling, one of the first to arrive on scene, says her metal detector was a Christmas present.
"Here we are six months later, I found a ring," she said.
After just 40 minutes of searching, it was Behling who found the ring just feet from the water's edge. It was buried a foot and half deep.
"That is by far the coolest thing I ever found," she said.
They called Bopp with the great news.
"'Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?' I feel like I have some good angels and you guys now are them, too, on earth," Bopp said.
Bopp adds if you ever lose something, don't lose hope. You just have to reach out to the right people.
The Scavengers only asked Bopp for $40 to cover tolls and gas, but Bopp and her husband felt moved to give them more.
