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PEQUANNOCK - Diver finds hubby's sunken $6K wedding ring
(by Stephen Janoski - Staff Writer - October 14, 2008)
Photos courtesy of rockon photos
John and Dawn Mazzo in front of a Pompton Plains fire truck. John donated an underwater metal detector to the Pequannock Dive Team in order to assist its members with the finding of his $6,000 wedding ring, which was lost in the waters of PV Park on Labor Day. The ring was found on Sept. 21.
PEQUANNOCK - Resident John Mazzo was spending the last days of summer at PV Park with his wife, Dawn, when the unthinkable happened - he realized that his wedding band was missing from his finger.
“I was there with my family,” Mazzo said, “playing with my nephews in the water, when I got out and realized that the ring was gone. I knew I was in trouble.”
After searching on his own, he realized that he was not going to be able to find the wedding band without some assistance.
Determined not to leave the $6,000, platinum-and-gold ring to a watery grave, he contacted the Parks and Recreation Department, which in turn put him in contact with Craig Munson of the Pequannock Dive Team to see if it could help.
So Munson, the lead diver, along with Rick Woodham, rescue diver, set out to try and find the ring on the murky bed of PV Park.
After several weekends of searching, they were met with frustration. The divers determined that only an underwater metal detector would be able to help them, which Mazzo decided to donate to the team. Even with the detector, however, the team kept pulling up “quarters and hairclips,” and little more.
John and Dawn Mazzo with divers Craig Munson and Rick Woodham of the Pequannock Dive Team. John is holding the underwater metal detector that assisted in the recovery of his wedding ring. The two divers spent several weekends searching for the ring, which turned up under 3 inches of sand at the bottom of Pequannock Valley Park.
However, in a twist of fate, the divers’ luck changed, and the ring was finally found on the morning of Sept. 21 - which happened to be the Mazzos’ wedding anniversary.
“It was a great thing, those guys never gave up,” said Mazzo. “I’d never lost it in 11 years, and to have them find it on my anniversary was freaky…it made me think, ‘I guess I was supposed to marry this one.’”
Mazzo, who owns Mazzo Jewelers in Totowa, said that he had just about given up hope when Munson called him on the morning of the Sept. 21 to let him know the good news.
“He also told me that if anyone had seen him find it, they’d have thought he was crazy - wearing scuba gear in 2 feet of water, jumping up and down yelling, ‘I found it!’” Mazzo said.
Munson, however, never lost faith.
“I was concerned that maybe someone had stepped on it and found it since Labor Day. But otherwise, I knew that if it was still in there, we were going to find it,” Munson said.
The addition of the metal detector proved crucial, as Munson said that the ring was found under about 3 inches of sand.
“The visibility was pretty bad there, but I was determined to find it,” he said. “It wouldn’t have happened without that metal detector though.”
Munson has been a firefighter for more than 30 years serving on West Milford’s Co. 5 as well as the Riverview Park Co. in Totowa over the years. He has been with Co. 1 in Pompton Plains for about nine years.
This was not the first time Munson has been called on to find missing jewelry.
“I found an earring for a woman in Pennsylvania last month…but that was a little easier. Even though it was 60 feet down, there was good visibility and it was sitting right on the top of the bed,” said Munson.
Mazzo said he has learned his lesson and isn’t going to repeat the mistake.
“I’m pretty much taking (the ring) off when I go in the water,” said Mazzo.
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