Recovery Of Lost Wedding Ring Restores Florida Couple's Hope In Humanity
VENICE BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A South Bay treasure hunter is being credited with finding a lost wedding ring that belongs to a Florida couple.
As Joanna Horowitz explains, her family was on vacation here in Southern California when they stopped for a day at Venice Beach.
It wasn't until that night she says when her husband realized his wedding ring was gone.
"There was really nothing I could do at the time and my only thought was, 'Well, I guess it's gone,' " Horowitz said via FaceTime.
They even called the Muscle Beach Gym for help.
Nothing.
So, they went back home to Florida.
"Once my husband mentioned that he still was really upset about losing the ring, it motivated me to keep on searching. So, I went on Craigslist and nobody had posted it but I saw Steve posting his services," she said.
Horowitz contacted Steve Smith, a hobby treasure finder based in the South Bay.
She then sent him pictures of where they had been at the beach when they stopped to put sunscreen on their kids.
"They said that her husband had taken the ring off in this particular spot," Smith said.
Smith set out to work on a grassy patch near the basketball courts and within about 15 minutes, he got a hit.
"When I'm able to hand it back to them and I see tears of joy and just hugs and everything else … I'm all for it," he said.
He then sent a picture of the ring to Horowitz. It's now on its way back to the couple.
"It represented not only like, you know, our love and our marriage, but it also represented hard work and I had a lot of pride in that ring so, yeah, it would be hard to replace," she said.
Horowitz knows she took a chance but Smith, who is retired, said he and his network of ring finders do it not for business, but as a labor of love.
"I gave him no money up front. I didn't even speak to him, I just texted him. Steve went out on his own … to help a total stranger out," she said. "It just made me realize that there are still good people out in the world."
