Minnesota diver Kevin Burkart seems to have a knack for finding lost treasure. With zero visibility in Minnesota’s Prior Lake, Mud Bay might have challenged some divers, but it was no issue for Burkart when he dived in five years ago in search of a lost $13,000 wedding ring — and did it again to find another ring this year. Although the name of the bay was recently changed to Crystal Bay, it is, in fact, “a zero-visibility, shallow silt graveyard,” says Burkart, a diver since 1998.

As for his first find, waterfront partygoer Felicia Schaefer was gesticulating with her hands when she accidentally flung her wedding ring into the bay. In a panic, she called friends who called friends and eventually reached Burkart, who accepted the challenge of searching for the ring as a favor.

Diving that night to waste no time, Burkart alone searched for the ring in the area where Schaefer thought she’d lost it, with the aid of multiple dive torches, as a crowd of supporters formed on the shore. One of the lights created a sparkle on the diamond and caught his attention, leading him to find the ring in only seven minutes.

“The ring spoke to me,” he says of that unforgettable moment. The crowd erupted with applause when Burkart broke the water’s surface and announced that he’d successfully recovered the ring.

Burkart took the plunge again this summer after another friend lost her ring just about 100 yards away from where the first ring was lost and found. Searching during the day, with better visibility this time, he hand-dredged a 50-square-foot area for 55 minutes before finding the ring. “It was more of a relief than elation,” he says.

About the incident Burkart says, “It felt great to help out using scuba as the catalyst. I mean, it’s $5 worth of compressed air. No big deal.”