Ocean City officer, Delaware man find Pa. woman's lost wedding band in the sand

Megan Walls had been in Ocean City for only a few short hours when a small, yet intensely personal tragedy struck. 

The Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, resident's four-day beach vacation began when she checked into her hotel around 3 p.m. Friday, June 2, with her husband, Rodney, her 7-year-old son, Gunnar, her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

A mere four hours later, while playing football on the beach with Gunnar, her diamond wedding band slipped off her finger and disappeared into the sand.

“I immediately freaked out,” said Walls, who will soon celebrate her six-year wedding anniversary with her husband, who she’d been dating since she was 13 years old.

“I dropped to my hands and knees trying to find it, and every second that went by was making me more and more panicked,” she said.

PHOTOS: Raven's Roost 2017 Ocean City Parade

READ MORE: Ocean City townhouse featured on HGTV

Walls said she realized she was creating something of a spectacle when, within a few minutes, nearly 40 people — a large church group that was visiting the beach that day — was on the ground trying to help her find it.

“It felt so ridiculous at first, but there was no way I could turn down the help,” she said.

To her dismay, the ring was nowhere to be found.

The evening ended slowly for her, and as the hours ticked by on Saturday without the ring’s return, Walls began to lose all hope of it ever being found.

“Every time I looked out at the beach I was thinking about it being pushed further and further into the sand,” she said. “It was making me nauseous to think about.”

She had finally resigned herself when unexpectedly on Saturday evening, the buried treasure — thought lost forever — found its way back to her.

“I got a call from my mother, telling me to hurry back to the hotel lobby,” she said. “And there was Officer Eade standing there, holding my ring.”

Sgt. Dennis Eade of the Ocean City Police Department had seen Walls’ frantic search the day before, it turns out, and the next day he saw an opportunity to uncover the missing ring.

According to a post on the department’s Facebook page, Eade observed Barry Betts, of Milton, Delaware, a “44-year treasure hunting veteran,” combing the beach with a metal detector near the Fourth Street location where Walls had lost her wedding band the prior evening.

“On only his second pass,” the post continued, “Betts heard a tone from his device, made a scoop of the sand and, amazingly enough, recovered the lost ring.”

Walls was overjoyed.

“I was totally not expecting it,” she said. “I’d actually already called my jeweler late Friday evening to see what it would take to get a perfect match remade to replace it.”

The errant piece of jewelry back on her finger where it belonged, the Walls family continued their four-day vacation with relief and gratitude.

“I couldn’t be more thankful to the officer and the gentleman that found it for me,” Walls said. “It was so unexpected and kind of them.”

This will be updated.