A New York woman’s missing wedding ring was returned by a Good Samaritan who tirelessly searched for it on the beach and drove hundreds of miles to get it back to its rightful owner.
Kelsey Battease was visiting her family at Massachusetts’ Hampton Beach when her beloved wedding ring was lost in the tide, WLKY reported.
“My heart dropped. My stomach started to hurt. I was just like, ‘I lost my ring.’ I couldn’t believe it,” she told the outlet.
She made a desperate Facebook post on August 10 with photos of the ring and the coordinates of where she lost it:
“It’s a long shot if there ever was one… but if anyone finds this ring along the shore of Hampton beach, right across the street from the mini golf… I’m so heartbroken right now,” Battease wrote.
Her mother also posted a plea online, which caught the attention of detection enthusiast Arthur Fleming.
“I see the post. The mother said, ‘My daughter has lost her wedding ring; can somebody help?’” Fleming told the outlet.
So, he took it upon himself to drive to the beach and search.
“While I was in the water, I did find a pair of sunglasses, a quarter, a penny, so it’s not like I wasn’t finding anything,” he recounted.
After a day of looking without any luck, Fleming’s metal detector beeped on his way back to his car.
“So, as soon as I saw it, I go, ‘That’s the ring.’ I had seen a picture, so I knew that was it,” he recalled.
The good deeds did not stop there — Fleming drove all the way to Cambridge, New York, to deliver the ring to Battease in person.
“I am just speechless at how selfless and kind Arthur is! I wish there were more people like him! God is good!” the relieved woman wrote in a follow-up post, along with a selfie of her and the Good Samaritan:
“It’s a thrill when you see the smile — when you see the smile and all that, it’s a thrill,” Fleming told WLKY.