Diver Finds Lost Wedding Ring at Bottom of 45-Foot-Deep Lake

Typically, in the unfortunate event that someone loses a wedding ring or other piece of jewelry in a body of water, it's gone forever. But one woman who lost her $9,500 wedding ring in a California lake was lucky enough to get it back, after enlisting the help of a professional diver who specializes in recovering lost objects.

Michael Pelley, who goes by the apt nickname "Merman Mike" on his social media channels, was recently contacted by a Bakersfield woman named Jennie who had been swimming with her family in Bass Lake near Yosemite National Park when her wedding ring went missing. One of Jennie's friends suggested that she try to contact a diver to help, so after she finding Pelley on TikTok, she reached out to him.

Pelley quickly replied that he would be happy to help. But after making the three-and-a-half hour trek from his hometown of Sacramento, CA, he knew that the chances of finding the ring were slim.

As he explained in the description of a YouTube video documenting the dive, he soon learned that the lake was 45 feet deep and man-made, which would complicate the recovery effort.

“As soon as I realized it was a man-made lake and there were no dam gates open or anything like that to let the water out, I realized there was going to be no visibility as soon as I hit the bottom because the silt doesn't have anywhere to go,” Pelley later told Fox 26 News in Fresno.

After realizing that he basically had "almost zero visibility" on his first dive attempt, Pelley resurfaced to come up with a better game plan.

"I followed the anchor line back down to 47 feet and started searching again," he wrote on YouTube. "This time I removed one of my gloves because I needed to be able to feel what was under the silt, since I had zero visibility. I then started to search with my metal detector while keeping one hand on the anchor so I would know where I was."

"After pulling a couple of sticks and cans out of the thick silt, I finally pulled out what I thought was going to be another bottle top or pull tab," Pelley continued. "But instead I was looking at a giant diamond! It was the wedding ring!"

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Pelley said that he was "beyond excited" to find the ring, especially knowing how slim the odds of actually finding it were. After returning the ring back to Jennie, he said that he went down for a third trip to pick up some trash from the lake floor that he hadn't been able to grab, and also found a few pairs of sunglasses, "including some sweet Oakleys," and a phone while he was down there.

"However, finding and returning the wedding ring back to Jennie was the main goal," he added. "And we were able to achieve it so I couldn't be more happy about the outcome!"

You can watch the full video of the dive, including the thrilling moment when Pelley discovered the ring at the bottom of the lake, in his YouTube video, below.