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BBC radio celebrity needs help finding lost ring

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Dave Vitty says if someone finds the ring, he'd like to thank them live on his BBC radio show.

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By TONY HOLT

Hernando Today

Published: October 29, 2009

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Dave Vitty

PINE ISLAND - One minute he was eating a jumbo chili cheese dog and the other minute his ring went missing from his finger.

Dave Vitty didn't ingest his wedding band. He thinks he might have lost it near one of the palm trees at Pine Island last week.

He suspects he dropped it while wiping the sunscreen off his hands with a beach towel.

"The hardest part in all honesty was realizing I had lost it," he said as he tried to squeeze some humor out of the situation. "My (wife) was actually sympathetic when I had told her. I was expecting a rougher ride from her. It was very out of character."

"Comedy Dave" Vitty, of London, is the head comedy writer and sidekick on "The Chris Moyles Show," which broadcasts live on BBC Radio 1 and airs stateside from 6:30 to 10 a.m.

His problem has been a popular topic on his show in recent days.

He hasn't ducked from the publicity. He actually wants it to see it spread across Florida's Gulf Coast. Somebody – likely someone with a metal detector – is bound to stumble upon it someday.

"If someone just finds the correct palm tree," Vitty said. "My fingers are crossed that someone will."

Willy Kouchounian is the owner of Willy's Tropical Breeze Café – the place that sold Vitty the chili cheese dog he raved about. Vitty also remembered meeting Kouchounian during his vacation. He thought he seemed like a good chap.

Those early impressions were reinforced after he was told about the missing ring.

"I appreciate their efforts to find it," Vitty said of Kouchounian and his employees. "They're doing what they can."

Kouchounian posted a sign on his booth letting the public know there is a gold ring lying somewhere on the beach.

Vitty announced Friday he is offering a $200 reward for the ring's recovery. Those working at the café have promised to pass that along to visitors.

"It's going to be hard," Kouchounian said about finding the missing jewelry. "I went and I looked all over."

The odds improve significantly with a metal detector. The same small group of people can be seen most days scurrying the beach looking for anything of value.

Cindy Labriola was managing Kouchounian's café Friday morning. She and another employee only saw only one man pacing the sand with a detector. They weren't sure whether he showed up looking for the missing ring or if it was part of his routine.

No one had mentioned anything to Labriola about the ring even after a story was published Thursday in the newspaper.

She couldn't muster much confidence that Vitty would ever see it again. She said the odds were "slim to none."

Moments later, she recalled a story about a woman who had lost her engagement ring in the same vicinity more than a year ago.

Coincidentally, a man with a metal detector was down the beach and she asked him to search the spot where she had been sunbathing. He obliged and quickly recovered the ring.

"He just happened to be there at that moment in time," Labriola said. "It was her lucky day."

There are no known metal-detection clubs specifically for Hernando County, but there are a few across the Tampa region and Central Florida.

Wally Swartz lives in Largo and is the president of Suncoast Research and Recovery. Some members of his club live in neighboring Pasco County, which is a shorter drive to Pine Island. He said he could probably coax one or two of his fellow hobbyists to search the beach with one phone call.

"The prospects of finding a ring (on a beach) are very good at times, but it depends on a lot of variables," Swartz said. "We have found a ring missing for 50 or 60 years, but then we've failed to find one missing for two or three days. You just never know."

Those who are part of any metal-detecting group don't automatically keep everything they find. In fact, there is an unwritten honor code most of them follow, Swartz said.

"I stress this," he said. "You've got to return the jewelry when you can. My members are pretty good about that."

Kouchounian said the same about his customers. He has seen people return wallets still stuffed with cash, he said.

Vitty didn't realize he had lost his ring until after he had left the beach and was visiting his in-laws in Lake County. He was scheduled to fly back to London in a few hours and he had no time to return to Pine Island.

"It was heartbreaking to realize I had no time," he said. "It was a four-hour round tip. It just wasn't going to happen."

Some hope of finding the ring was restored after one of his producers contacted Kouchounian by phone Thursday.

It was he who suggested the $200 reward.

"Initially I was suggesting the person who successfully finds the ring and returns it should have an all-expenses-paid meal at Willy's," Vitty said. "It was in fact Willy who suggested I generate more interest with a more-generous reward. I felt he was probably right."

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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