On September 2, 2026 and just after 9:30 p.m., I received the following text in part, “Hi Jim. This is Angie. I saw everyone recommended you on ring finders. I never knew it was a thing!! Super cool how you do this. My best friend, Nikki and I were at the beach Monday. We were visiting friends outside the Sea Cabins near 60th. She lost her silver, small round diamond engagement ring under the pier. We went back an hour later and checked the parking lot and beach, nothing. She’s been upset ever since and I figured I would give this a try.” We went back and forth, so I could make sure where I was looking. Angie also stated that Nikki had put her rings in her beach chair and got to the campground and opened her chair. Her wedding band was in it but not her engagement ring. Angie also included a picture of where they were sitting under the pier, which helped. I had another engagement ring search just up the road from this that I had to hit before low tide the next morning, so I told her I’d check it out the next morning after I searched for the other ring.
I got to the pier at 6:30 the next morning and checked under and around the underside of the pier, taking the search both up and down a few sections, with no luck. I wasn’t satisfied that I couldn’t find it because it’s not in an area that would get heavily hit with detectors. So I planned on coming back and checking after I talked to Angie to find out which way they went when they left the beach. I felt that ring should be there somewhere.
I wasn’t able to get back out there until Saturday afternoon about 3 p.m. and when I did there was a family set up right where I needed to search. I learned from Angie that when they left the beach they went to the left (as facing the ocean) so I did a wide grid search to the beach access, still not finding the ring. Finally, the family taking up the space was packing up and left. So I went back under the pier and extended the search out to the right. Good decision. About 20 feet out, I hit a solid 6 on the VDI (visual display indicator) which is a great number for a white gold engagement ring. Angie told me Nikki’s ring was silver, but a white gold ring looks silver but rings up with totally different numbers on the VDI. Silver would ring up in the mid 20s, a single white gold ring signals up in the 4-6 range. One scoop of sand and I had Nikki’s ring in the scoop.
I made my way back to my car and looked at the picture Angie had sent and was confident I had Nikki’s ring. I took a picture and sent it to Angie with a text saying, “Your Friends?!?” She immediately responded saying, “OMG!! You found it.” I called Angie to get an address to mail it back. Tuesday I got it in the mail to Angie who is holding it until Nikki returns home from vacation. On Saturday, September 19th, I got a picture of Nikki with a big smile and her ring back on her finger.
Angie – Thank you so much for contacting me to help your friend, Nikki get her ring back.
Nikki – I’m so happy that you got your treasure back!
Jim
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