LAKE TRAVIS, Texas (KXAN) — A diver went down more than 40 feet into Lake Travis Tuesday and somehow found an heirloom wedding ring lost by a couple vacationing in Austin.
On Saturday, Josh and Jessica Goldenberg went boating with some of their friends. Josh decided to take a risk and keep on a precious piece of jewelry.
“Against my wife’s wishes, I wore my wedding ring into the lake thinking that there was no chance it could fall off,” Josh told KXAN over a FaceTime call Tuesday. “It hadn’t fallen off my finger before.”
The ring, however, slipped off his finger while he was climbing back into the boat and disappeared into the depths. The ring could not easily be replaced because it belonged to Jessica’s late father, Eric Becker, who died unexpectedly several years ago.
“It was kind of symbolic and a nice thing for Josh, my husband, to have it and wear it,” Jessica explained.
“Anything short of actually having the ring back would have felt like a huge loss,” Josh added.
Their boat guide Saturday put them in contact with Robert Weiss at Lake Travis Scuba, who’s often hired to recover people’s belongings from the bottom of the lake. Even though the couple marked the approximate last location of the ring, Weiss said the chances of finding it there remained slim.
“It’s in Devil’s Cove. There’s a lot of boat activity,” Weiss said. “If you’re in certain areas, there’s a lot of anchors getting dropped and pulled, dropped and pulled, so there’s a lot of turbulence and disruption on the bottom.”
On Tuesday Weiss brought Igor Povsnar, a commercial diver, to the spot in the lake. Povsnar suited up, went down and spent 65 minutes looking for the gold-and-silver wedding band.
“I basically did a whole bottom sweep, like 360 degrees,” he said. “I proceeded with a second sweep, and, on the second sweep, I was able to find it.”
Povsnar said he located the ring amid mud and debris about 40 feet from the location marked by the Goldenbergs. He brought it to the surface, where Weiss described the discovery as “mindblowing.”
The two men called Josh at work in Philadelphia to share the unbelievably good news. He then told his wife that her father’s ring had miraculously been found.
“The scuba guys are absolutely amazing,” Jessica said, smiling during a FaceTime call. “I’m still in complete awe and super, super grateful.”
Weiss now plans to mail them the wedding ring, so they’re expecting to get it back in the next few days.
Even through they’re relieved, excited and surprised to have the ring returned, the Goldenbergs told KXAN that they now plan to abide by at least one new rule.
“It’s something that we will cherish the rest of our lives,” Josh said. “And I will not be wearing a wedding ring into any body of water.”
Jessica added: “I told Josh that he is never, ever, ever allowed to wear the ring near water again.”
