NEED TO KNOW
- Sarah Maune had just finished breakfast with her kids, father and a few close friends when she decided to swim out to a coral reef about 100 yards offshore
- Though she clocked that her wedding ring was still on partway out, she realized after returning to the shore that she lost it in the ocean
- She then began the search for it — and shared the journey of finding her wedding ring on TikTok
Sarah Maune’s recent snorkeling adventure in Florida didn’t go quite as planned.
The mom of two had just finished breakfast with her kids, father and a few close friends when she decided to swim out to a coral reef about 100 yards offshore — something she’d been doing each day of their vacation. With her GoPro in hand, she planned to film more footage for her annual snorkeling videos.
But as she swam farther from shore, something suddenly clicked: her wedding ring was still on.
“I remember looking down and seeing my ring and thinking about how a barracuda had bitten someone wearing shiny jewelry in Florida just the day before,” Sarah tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I completely forgot to take it off.”
The ring holds deep sentimental value for the nurse from Washington, Mo. Her husband, Joel, started dating her when they were both freshmen in high school. Back then, he was working as a farmhand and saved up to buy the perfect ring — one he picked out himself after driving across the state.
“It’s a halo diamond with diamonds down the sides of the band in white gold,” Maune says. “It means everything to me.”
At the time, she tried to brush off the thought, but by the time she reached the reef, her heart sank. The ring was gone. She began looking around her in the water, but had no luck. So she grabbed her pool noodle and GoPro and went back to shore with a plan to retrace her steps.
“I tried not to panic. I’ve had friends lose their rings at work at the hospital while taking off gloves, and I know panicking only makes it worse,” she says. “So I stayed calm and started searching.”
While all this unfolded, Maune says her husband and kids were back at the pool. Joel, she adds, is afraid of the ocean and for good reason. Earlier that morning, someone had spotted a shark in the water.
That meant she was alone for the search.
Luckily, she had a few things working in her favor. She knew she had lost the ring somewhere along the straight swim out to the reef, and since she could still see the spot on the beach where she’d left her belongings, she had a visual marker for the path she’d taken. The ocean conditions were also ideal.
“It was an extremely calm and clear day, and that helped immensely,” she says. “If I had swum the whole reef parallel to shore and noticed it was missing when I got back, there would have been no way I could have ever found it.”
“I felt more confident because someone lost their room keys that morning while snorkeling and actually found them,” she adds. “So I knew it was possible.”
By that point, the ring had been missing for nearly 10 minutes. Despite the slim odds, Maune says she never considered giving up.
“Emotionally I was bumming hard. I know how sentimental the ring is and I want my children to have it one day. Physically I was exhausted swimming that much. It’s a far swim, especially when you’re not only looking for a ring but looking around you for the shark someone spotted that morning.”
“But one thing about me is I don’t give up easily,” she says. “I was determined to find it and I think that helped me stay calm while searching.”
Eventually, she made it about halfway back out to the coral reef — just past the point where she could barely touch the ocean floor — when something caught her eye.
“It was partially buried but I saw the shimmer off the diamonds from the sun above,” she says. “There were also a ton of seashells but those don’t shimmer.”
“At first I thought, ‘That can’t be it,’ ” she continues. “Then while I swam down and moved some of the sand off it I was completely shocked. I was right, I had swum directly in front of where I laid my stuff down on the beach.”
“I screamed and jumped in the water,” she adds. “There weren’t many people around but I am sure someone heard me on the beach.”
Maune originally brought her GoPro just to film her usual snorkeling videos, but after losing the ring, she quickly switched gears and started recording her search. She posted the first video explaining what happened, and it went viral — racking up 10 million views.
After miraculously finding the ring, she captured her reaction and shared a follow-up TikTok that gained over 8.8 million views and more than 4,000 comments.
She also revealed she hadn’t even told her husband about losing the ring until after she posted the video. He later shared his own reaction to the whole ordeal on TikTok.
“I was shocked at the number of views. I still can’t read all of the comments, as there are thousands! I received many messages from family and friends who watched the first video about me losing it before I uploaded the next video, finding it!”
“I did read a few comments telling me to go buy a lottery ticket because I am the luckiest person in the world,” she adds. “I loved reading people’s stories about how they have found their missing rings before. Many people shared similar stories.”
As for advice to others in the same situation, she says: “Don’t panic and try to remain as calm as possible. Re-trace your steps, but safety always comes first. If the ocean was choppy that day, I am unsure if I would have made the same decision to go back out to look for it.”
“I am so thankful we found it back and I am excited to share the story with our kids one day.”
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