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When Mike Wood from Matakana realised he’d lost his gold and diamond wedding ring last month, he had no idea where or when it had gone missing, and resigned himself to never seeing it again.
“We’d been to quite a few different places over the days preceding – Goat Island, Omaha Beach, the cement works – and it was only a few days later I realised it was missing,” he said. “My wife was convinced it was at Goat Island, as we’d been snorkelling there and putting on masks and flippers.”
Mike and wife Sharee went back to the beach, turned their house and car upside down and submitted an online report to NZ Police. They also posted the loss on half a dozen local social media pages, but assumed it was gone for ever – which Mike said was a real blow after 34 years of marriage.
Nearly two weeks later, North Rodney Blue Light was running a paddleboarding session for intermediate students from Mahurangi College at the old cement works in Warkworth. Just after pushing off from the bank, one of the girls, Lila Thackray, told tutor Kristal Gould she could see a ring in the water.
“I asked if she thought she could reach it, so she went under the water and managed to bring it out,” Kristal said.
Since it was obviously quite valuable, they decided to hand the ring into Warkworth Police Station and thought no more about it.
Meanwhile, Mike was still grieving his loss and, when he was in Warkworth a week or so after that, thought he’d call into the police station in person, just in case.
“The lady asked if I’d been to the cement works – which I hadn’t mentioned in my report – and when I said I had, she showed me my ring. I couldn’t believe it!” he said. “It really was a miracle.”
Mike wanted to show his appreciation, so Kristal arranged for them all to meet on March 8, where Mike and Sharee expressed their heartfelt appreciation for what Lila had done and, to her obvious delight, said they were paying for her ticket to the annual Blue Light Fun Day at Rainbows End in September.
“You made my year, thank you,” Mike said. “Your honesty is commendable. We could have bought a new ring, but it would never have meant as much as this one.”
Lila revealed the ring had been inches from disappearing into the depths of the cement works pool.
“It was about a metre down, just on the ledge,” she said. “It looked like quite a precious ring.”
Mike and Sharee said they would be looking at having the ring resized to make sure it didn’t slip off in any water again.
Watch house officer at Warkworth Police Station Celia Sowman said afterwards that Mike’s response at being reunited with his wedding ring was overwhelming.
“There is no greater reward than seeing people reunited with their lost property,” she said, adding her own praise to Lila for handing the ring in to the station.
