Elsa Green will never forget her trip to the beach in Eagle River, Michigan.
That day, she had just arrived at the beach with two of her friends and her son, and they all planned to spend a nice day just relaxing and enjoying themselves.
They had just placed their belongings on the sand when she saw something from the corner of her eye – a big, black beetle slithered across her baseball cap.
Instinctively, she flung her cap, hoping the beetle would fly off… and it did, but so did her diamond engagement ring and matching wedding band that were inside that cap.
At that moment, her heart sank.
An Unfortunate Set Of Circumstances
“I’d been wearing those rings every day for 17 years. But at that moment, I figured they were gone. I’d taken them off to put on my sunscreen,” Elsa Green told the Washington Post.
As soon as they realized what had happened, she and her friends immediately started to look for her rings.
They searched the large patch of sand on Lake Superior, but were unable to find anything.
There was even a kind man at the beach with a metal detector who tried to help them, but they just weren’t lucky. “He didn’t find anything, and neither did we. I felt sick about it,” Green said.
One of Green’s friends, Colleen Parks, ran to the sheriff’s department in Eagle River to see if they had any way to help, but was unfortunately told no.
However, after Colleen left the office, Sgt. Brad Pelli, of the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office, thought of something and hurried to the beach.
His partner, a 5-year-old Dutch Shepherd named Dogo, was extensively trained to locate concealed drugs, weapons, and also detect human scents on small objects.
Therefore, Sgt. Pelli contemplated allowing him to attempt.
“In the past, he’s typically found stolen firearms in the forest or a knife at a crime scene. Looking for a lost wedding ring was a first,” Sgt. Pelli said.
K9 Dogo Saves The Day
When Sgt. Pelli arrived at the beach with his K9, he asked everyone to grab their things and leave the beach for a few minutes. This would help Dogo have a better chance of picking up Green’s scent on the rings.
He gave the dog a “search” command and let him do his thing.
After a couple of minutes, K9 Dogo plopped down on the ground, signaling that he had found something.
Could it actually be the ring?
Pelli got down on his knees, looked, and sure enough, there was something glimmering in the sand. Yes, it was Green’s engagement ring.
“I told him, ‘Good boy!’ ” several times,” Sgt. Pelli said.
Green couldn’t believe that the dog found her ring, and she was completely stunned. She thanked both profusely; however, there was another ring lost in the sand… her wedding band.
This time, Sgt. Pelli went alone to the same area and carefully sifted his fingers through the sand. He found it right away since the wedding band was just a few inches under the sand.
“K9 Dogo, you will forever be my hero! Dogo put his training and skills to use and sure enough he found my rings! Dogo, I’ll be bringing you ice cream to say thank you!,” Green wrote on her Facebook page.
Thanks to K9 Dogo, what could have been a total disaster turned into a very happy day filled with a lot of surprises.
“I’m still amazed by it all. What are the odds of finding those tiny rings in the middle of all that sand?,” Green told the Washington Post.
