Mass. Man Spends Days Searching Sea for Stranger's Missing Wedding Ring — and He Finds It!
francesca teal Francesca Teal and her husband Austin
A Massachusetts woman has been reunited with her precious wedding ring thanks to the determination of a man she met on social media, who searched the ocean for days.
Francesca Teal, 29, of Groveland, was tossing a football around with her husband Austin at North Beach in Hampton, New Hampshire on Aug. 6 when the ring slipped off her finger and into the waist-deep water below, according to The Boston Globe.
"In that moment, my heart dropped," she told the newspaper.
Despite their best efforts, Teal and her husband were unable to locate the beloved jewelry.
Made of white gold and diamonds, the ring first belonged to her great-grandmother, who soldered her engagement ring and wedding band together.
So, Teal took her story to a Hampton Beach Facebook group in hopes that her message would reach "anyone who might have a metal detector" and "frequently" visits North Beach.
"The post was shared thousands of times," Teal told the Globe. "It was just wild."
For more on this story, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.
Enter Lou Asci, a metal detecting enthusiast.
francesca teal Francesa Teal's ring
The 60-year-old Marshfield man was one of many who responded to Teal's message and offered to help her search.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
After studying the tides, Asci hit the water, per the Globe's report. The South Shore man's first search was unsuccessful, so he returned a few days later to give it another try — only to see the same results.
But Asci wasn't prepared to give up on the cause. "I don't take failure all too well," he told the newspaper.
On Aug. 14, he gave it "one last shot." And the third time was the charm.
During his third search, Asci "decided to go out deeper" than where he believed the ring was located. And sure enough, the ring was there, buried in 4 inches of sand.
RELATED: 33-Year-Old Man Celebrating Second Wedding Anniversary Wins $100K Lottery
Hoping to have accomplished his mission, Asci reached out to Teal with a photo of the jewelry, according to text messages obtained by the Globe.
"Please tell me this is the ring so I can finally get off this beach," Asci wrote. Indeed, it was.
"I didn't want to give up on it," Asci explained. "This was something very important to her."
Teal shared a special thank you message in a post on the Hampton Beach Residents & Friends Facebook group, and lauded Asci's persistence in the search for her family heirloom.
RELATED: Toddler Was Chasing Bubbles When He Helped Find 82-Year-Old Woman Who Had Been Missing for Days
Now Asci has another chance to help reunite someone with their lost wedding ring.
While searching for Teal's ring, the man located another missing band hidden in the Atlantic Ocean. Asci shared his own post on Facebook in hopes of finding its way back home.
"If you or someone you know lost a men's wedding ring in the water off 18th St. please PM me with a description," he wrote the Hampton Beach Facebook group. "I would love to return it to the owner."
