A LITTLE girl has found a “needle in a haystack” by locating a lost wedding band using a toy metal detector.

Six-year-old Katie Spence came to the rescue of her dad's pal, Neil Sneddon, when he lost his ring last Sunday in the harbour.

Neil told the Press: "I’ve just joined Aberdour Boat Club (ABC) recently and I was out on my first launch of the year. Cutting a long story short, I was pulling my soft inflatable boat up the slip way and my wedding ring dropped into the drink."

Panicked, he called his friend, Scott Spence, from Dalgety Bay, who came down after the tide went out with Katie to search for the white gold wedding ring.

Neil said: "Scott is a fellow ABC member. He brought down his helpful little daughter Katie. They were both armed with metal detection devices, and then after a hard long look Katie found the ring."

Dunfermline Press: Neil and his wife Leyla on their wedding day.Neil and his wife Leyla on their wedding day. (Image: Contributed)

Scott bought the metal detector ten years ago after Katie's mum, and Scott's wife, lost her wedding ring in Corsica, and while the machine was unable to locate Maria's ring, it helped reunite Neil with his.

Scott said: "Neil phoned me in a bit of a panic, asking if I could give him a hand. We agreed that it would have to wait till the tide went back out, and I went down with my daughter.

"She has this wee metal detector that I bought ten years ago, my daughter's only six so it was before she was born, but when we went on our honeymoon to Corsica, we used it to try and find my wife's wedding ring she lost on the beach –but we never found it.

"Ten years later it’s found a ring but it's not my wife's.

"When the tide went out, we spent quite a long time looking for Neil's ring and just when we were about to pack up, Katie started shouting 'it's beeping, it's beeping!' She had got her wee metal detector over the top of it and located it."

Dunfermline Press: Scott Spence originally bought the toy detector to look for his wife Maria's lost wedding ring, but that search proved unsuccessful.Scott Spence originally bought the toy detector to look for his wife Maria's lost wedding ring, but that search proved unsuccessful. (Image: Contributed)

Katie was "over the moon" on the drive back home and she was even given a cash reward from Neil for her efforts.

Scott added: "Overall, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so we were really lucky to find it."

For now, Katie has hung up her metal detector and is looking forward telling her classmates at Donibristle Primary School all about the lost treasure she found during show and tell.

Neil added: "It was amazing moment, well done the wee lassie Spence!"