Gold Heart-Shaped Locket Recovered at Belleair Causeway Boat Ramp

Item recovered July 31, 2025.

Mikey had reached out to the Dunedin Ring Finder in the evening about a lost gold heart-shaped locket. Steve was busy at another recovery search and reached out for assistance. It was getting late in the evening and Mikey was still at the location to show where the item was lost. I knew time was short before darkness would arrive so I gathered my equipment and set out on the 35-minute drive to the boat ramp.

I called Mikey on the way to get more details on the loss. He explained that earlier in the day, his girlfriend, Ryann had been in the water at the dog beach teaching her Great Dane how to swim. In the process, the dog’s paw had caught her gold necklace, breaking it and the charm had fallen off into the water. Fortunately, the gold chain got caught up in her swim suit and never fell into the water. All that was missing was the gold locket which slipped off the chain.

I arrived at the location and Mikey showed me to the area where the locket was lost. The water in the channel was dark, murkey and loaded with small pieces of metal from fishing weights, to bottle caps and pull tabs. Due to the small size of the item, it seemed as though this recovery could be a challenge, especially since I only had an hour or two of daylight remaining.

The search started in the shallow water and I worked my way down to a drop-off into the channel approximately waist-deep. Because the search are was narrowed considerably, I dug at every non-iron target I heard. I must have been on my 14th to 15th item when I pulled up my scoop from the water and noticed the obvious glow of the golden heart resting atop the silt. The item had been found!