Hunt for wedding ring comes full circle, 5 years after landscaper lost it in PNE grounds
Thanks to Dave Rosychuk's dogged search on 100-acre site, Aaron Martinello has his wedding ring back
It may have taken five years, but an amateur metal detectorist was finally able to reunite a PNE groundskeeper with his lost wedding ring.
Aaron Martinello, who works as a landscaper on the PNE grounds, had stopped to take a break. He took off his gloves and realized his ring had come off.
"Oh great. I lost it on a 100-acre field," Martinello recounted. Turning around, he saw a man milling about with his metal detector and thought, "it's fate!"
Martinello described his wedding band to the man, Dave Rosychuk. He took down Martinello's number and began his search.
Rosychuk searched the grounds for a few weeks but with no luck.
The years went by.
"It eventually dropped off my radar," Rosychuk wrote in a Facebook post.
In the meantime, Martinello started wearing a replacement ring, his grandfather's, to replace the one that he had lost on the PNE grounds. This March, he was laid off due to COVID-19 and he has been staying at home, taking care of his kids.
Rosychuk, who works in the film industry, also had work slow down as production ground to a halt. He has been spending his time doing more metal sleuthing.
A few weeks ago, he found a 10-karat white gold wedding band.
"I didn't immediately make the connection (being old and all). Then I thought ... same general area ... What was that guy's name? Does he even work here any more? Then it came to me ... the guy's name was Aaron."
Rosychuk called the PNE, but they didn't know of an Aaron. He decided to head down to the grounds in person. He found a man mowing, part of the remaining skeleton staff. Luckily, the staff member had Martinello's number.
Rosychuk got in touch, and Martinello's description matched the ring Rosychuk had found.
Man and ring were reunited this weekend, and Rosychuk was gifted a six-pack of his favourite beer for his find.
It happened to be very good timing, as Martinello had misplaced the replacement ring he had been wearing since he had lost the other one.
"So I'm still at net minus one ring."
To hear Aaron Martinello and Dave Rosychuk share their story on The Early Edition, tap the audio link below:
With files from The Early Edtion