ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH, Fla. — You may have recently lost one of the big three valuables: phone, wallet, or keys. But what if it was your wedding ring?
Joseph Cook looked no further than the beach to answer that question.
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“I just couldn’t believe they were both there. I was just shocked,” Cook, who found both of a local couple’s lost wedding rings with his metal detector, said.
Cook had heard about the couple losing the rings over the weekend and woke up at 3:30 a.m. Monday to search for treasure never meant to be buried: two wedding bands in the sand.
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After only a few hours of searching, he found them both a few yards apart.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe I found them,’” Cook said, “They were literally one inch apart. I was like, the chances of that happening are just one in a million. It’s just a crazy thing.”
Cook goes by the name “Joe Digger” on social media and frequently posts videos of his findings, like the one you can watch above showing his discovery of the couple’s wedding rings.
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This is the second time since 2023 that Action News Jax has spoken with Cook about finding a lost wedding ring on the beach.
He took a picture with the couple after finding them online and meeting up with them by the St. Augustine pier to return the rings.
“It’s the best feeling in the world. She started crying, you know, they were both excited. They still couldn’t believe it when I pulled them out of a little bag, you know, faces lit up with pure shock to get both back,” Cook said.
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Cook tells Action News Jax he’s gone hunting for lost rings thousands of times in the last few years.
He said he never sells any of the rings he finds, but posts them online, hoping to return them to their owner. Seeing the reactions of those who get to reunite with what they lost is the reason Cook says he keeps metal detecting.
“Well you’ve got to think, the ocean is a vast place. You lose something in there, you don’t think you’re ever getting it back. You think it’s just completely gone forever, and just seeing the shock on their faces, you know, when you pull it out and they’re able to have it back, that’s my favorite part,” Cook said.
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