A Miracle at the Beach: Strangers Team Up To Find Lost Ring

Mike and Claire Piliero always look forward to the day after Labor Day. It marks a time when they can return to their familiar September routine of spending time at their favorite local beaches, without having to fight the crowds and noise that are part of beach-going life on the East End in July and August.

Once Labor Day weekend is over, they take advantage of the fact that summer residents have headed back west, and children have returned to school, and they often spend weekday mornings at Meschutt Beach in Hampton Bays, reveling in the peace and quiet of the bay.

The serenity they experienced on September 5 was shattered the next day, however, when Piliero woke up to realize he was missing his wedding band — the same wedding band that he’d had on his finger since May 18, 1968, the day 55 years ago that he married Claire.

Although the chances of finding a small object like a wedding ring a full day later at the same beach where it was lost are slim, to say the least, Piliero said he did not hesitate to head back to Meschutt and look for it.

With a jovial laugh, he referenced — and sang — the well-known Frank Sinatra song “High Hopes,” from the 1959 movie “A Hole in the Head,” when trying to illustrate his determination to find the wedding ring.

That determination paid off, thanks to the kindheartedness of several strangers who also happened to be at the beach that day.

While searching around in the sand fruitlessly for the ring on the morning of September 6, the Pilieros spotted two men with metal detectors, Fred Krupowicz and Peter Zegler, and asked them if they’d help locate the ring.

Piliero said he had “a good hunch” that he’d lost his ring while in the water. So Krupowicz put his waterproof metal detector to work, scanning an area of the bay roughly 150 feet out, where Piliero said he had spent time in the water the day before.

After two and a half hours, the miracle they were hoping for came through — Krupowicz received a signal on his metal detector, scooped out the portion of sand that had pinged the device, and poured it through a floating sand sifter.

As the sand trickled through, a single gold wedding band matching the description of Piliero’s ring sat in the sifter.

Piliero called the moment and all the attendant emotions a “great big picture of love,” sharing that he was grateful not only for Krupowicz and Zegler for tirelessly devoting nearly three hours of their day to finding the ring, but also for the other beachgoers who had conversed with them during the search, and offered words of encouragement and support, saying they hoped they’d find the rings. Some of them said they’d offer a prayer to St. Anthony, the Catholic patron saint of lost items.

“The people were all inspiring,” Piliero said. “It was a situation of love shared among all the beachgoers.”

For Krupowicz, the payoff for several hours of painstaking work in the water was written all over Piliero’s face when he told him he’d found the ring.

“The thrill of finding that ring was more rewarding than if I had found another piece of jewelry on my own,” he said, adding that he knew exactly how Piliero had felt, as he had lost his own wedding band back in 1975 while on his honeymoon in Bermuda. “I know the feeling of what it’s like to lose something like that.”

Krupowicz, who described himself as someone with a strong faith, said that he believed the fact that he was there that day — despite not having gone metal detecting at Meschutt for two years — was more than a coincidence.

“I thank God, and I do believe that God put me right on top of that spot,” he said.

Piliero embraced Krupowicz with a big hug, one that nearly knocked the wind out of him, he said with a laugh.

Earlier this week, the Pilieros were still exuberant about the miraculous recovery of the ring, with Piliero sharing an account of the incident he had written in the days following.

“I proudly showed my once lost ring off to everyone in sight,” he wrote. “Smiles were everywhere. The joy was uncontrollable.

“I hugged Fred like the St. Anthony he had just become to me,” the written account continued. “The waterbound congregation of kindhearted people celebrated joyously with a most grateful Claire and me in this very memorable special moment.”

There was also the thrill of a new human connection and friendship that was born out of the situation.

Krupowicz invited the Pilieros to attend service at his church, Hamptons Christian Fellowship, in Sag Harbor on Sunday, and they accepted.