Edward Trapper is something of a superhero. For more than 30 years, metal detecting has been his hobby. In the last five years or so, largely thanks to social media and word of mouth, he’s turned his passion into a side gig. When people lose jewelry on Jersey beaches, Ed comes to the rescue.
“You do a lot of detective work,” says Ed about his process. In 2025, he had 107 successful client recoveries.
One client was Sarah Cannon. In May, while on her bachelorette trip on Long Beach Island, she lost her ring in the sand. “I just quickly took my ring off and put it in my lap to put sunscreen on,” says Sarah. “When I stood up to give the sunscreen back to my friend, it fell out of my lap.”
When she realized it was missing, she went back to their rental house, thinking she left it there.
When she didn’t find it, she started to panic. Her friends dug through the sand, looking for her salt and pepper diamond.
“I was just really upset,” says Sarah, “I was distraught.” Luckily, her friends started researching online for solutions. That’s when they found Ed. They called him, and he said he’d be there in 30 minutes.
“Ed came out and found it within a minute,” says Sarah about her ring. “Fortunately, we were sitting in a circle so that made it easy to identify the space.”
When he pulled the ring out of the sand, “we all started screaming,” says Sarah.
“They were all kinds of happy,” says Ed. “That’s what really drives you on these recoveries—the emotions you get when you do that return.”
To thank Ed, they tipped him generously. (Ed only asks clients to cover his expenses, such as gas, tolls and parking, but he gladly accepts tips for his services as well.)
Ed is often asked about his success rate. “You cannot hide from my machine,” he explains. “If your item is where you say it is, I will find it.”
During the summer, Ed, who works for the Lacey Township Board of Education, can have anywhere from one lost-ring call in a weekend to seven calls in one day. Most of his calls are from Monmouth and Ocean counties, but he covers from the northern tip of New Jersey to Atlantic City. He’s open to other locations depending on the circumstances. (His friend, John Favano, covers South Jersey).
Ed’s side business continues to grow, especially after one of the women in Sarah’s bachelorette party put a video of Ed finding her ring on TikTok.
That video, which now has 1.9 million views, was the impetus for Ed, who is 67, to make a TikTok of his own to further get the word out about his metal detecting services.
Ever since Ed graduated high school, this has been his passion. “I wanted to get certified to dive and go down to Florida and dive the Spanish wrecks for gold doubloons and stuff,” he says. Although that never happened, “now, I call myself a modern-day treasure hunter.”
He’s made a name for himself in the LBI area. Everyone from police to lifeguards recommends Ed. “If somebody loses something, they’re like, ‘Oh, call Ed, NJ ring finder, he’ll get it for you.’”
And Sarah can attest to that. When Ed found her ring, “he saved the whole weekend,” she says.
