ENCINITAS, Calif. — A local woman has been reunited with her lost engagement ring thanks to a pair of professional ring finders.

On Sunday, Stacie Ozuna was shocked when she realized her engagement ring had fallen into the sand at Beacon’s Beach as she was applying sunblock. The ring with a 1.5 carat diamond was valued at $13,000.

Her fiance, Scott Drechsel, jumped into action, renting a metal detector and scouring the beach for four hours. When night fell, there was  still no sign of the ring, so they returned home and went online to search for help. That’s where they found ‘Ring Finders‘ John Hughes and Curtis Cox .

On Monday, Drechsel returned to the beach with his fiance and searched for the ring once again. After coming up empty handed,  he called Hughes, who arrived at the beach five minutes later.  Hughes spent a few hours scouring the beach with a thousand-dollar metal detector. Hughes had no luck, so he returned later that afternoon with his partner, Cox.

The fruitless search continued until just as the sun was setting, when Hughes stopped his search and told Drechsel he had had luck in the past by putting his gear down and letting Cox continue the search by himself.  Within 15 seconds of that comment, Cox heard a ping on his metal detector, dug into the sand, sifted through his device and found the engagement ring.

The Ring Finders said Ozuna was hysterical, crying tears of joy. They decided not to charge the couple for their service, saying, “You can’t put a price tag on something that sentimental.”

The happy couple said they are planning to wed in this August.

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