We Almost Ran Out of Time!

I received a call in the late afternoon from Maria, who said she found me (somehow) via Chat GPT. I don’t know anything about Chat GPT, but she found me.

Maria said she and the family were enjoying a hot day playing in the cool rushing waters of Lytle Creek. Maria explained that she had taken off her Apple Watch and had set it on her hat that she also had removed. When she was getting out of the creek, she grabbed her hat and the watch fell into the water. There were several large rocks by the shore in the rushing current. Maria’s Apple Watch app on her phone showed the watch was still in that area. The family looked but to no avail.

I told her it would be dark by the time we met up, so we opted to meet the next day. We caravanned to the spot where she smartly had placed a large branch on the guardrail to mark their position adjacent to the creek where they had been playing, which was about 100 yards from the road. The Apple Watch app showed the watch was still there. Maria, her two sons, and her sister and I climbed down to the spot in the creek and I saw a large bunch of boulders. The water was flowing fairly fast. I had bought a clear plastic bin in hopes that I could use it as an underwater “viewer”. Unfortunately, the water was too turbulent. So that left trying to hand search around and under the big rocks, where they felt pretty confident it had dropped. Not finding any success, I pulled out my Garrett Pinpointer and checked the rocks closest to me. The watch had a metal band. No luck. I then handed it to Maria, as she was better situated a little higher by another large rock with water flowing by it. I explained to her that if there was something metal it detected, it would vibrate. She began probing down in the water between rocks and she suddenly looked up and said it was vibrating. I took it from her and put it back down into the void and, sure enough, it started vibrating. I reached in and began feeling around. Unfortunately, it was full of roots. But a bit more searching and I felt the watch and band and brought it to the surface.

Maria is a strong woman of Faith. Before this adventure got started, we had met up at a gas station near by and would convoy from there. As we started to leave, a homeless man and his dog were walking by. Maria stopped her car and got out and interacted with the gentleman and dog. Just taking the time trying to uplift another less fortunate person and canine companion.

She kept telling me that she just had a good feeling about today and that God was leading her. The smile on her face when I brought the watch up was a sight to behold. They all started cheering! Then, Maria looked at her watch. There was only 1% charge left on the battery! I guess her good feeling about the day was true.
I was happy to be a part of this happy ending, because when you drop something in a fast moving creek or river, the outcome many times isn’t as happy.

Received a phone call from a woman who sounded desperate and urgent. She had told me that her mom found me and to call immediately. Fortunately, she knew right where she was when she saw and felt the ring slip off her Finger. Unfortunately, it was in the wet sand, followed by extremely rough wave action! About an hour and 15 minutes later, I found it! The family was so happy and grateful that felt great! 👍🏻

Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common occurrence. While swimming at a public beach, his ring slipped off his finger and disappeared beneath the water.

Beaches are a top priority for metal detectorists during the summer because incidents like this happen so often. When I received the call, I knew time was critical. At a busy public beach, every passing hour increases the chance that someone else could find the ring or that shifting sand and heavy foot traffic could make recovery more difficult.

We agreed to meet a few hours later, after the beach had become less crowded. Once I arrived, the search area was identified, and I conducted a thorough search until, at last, his ring was recovered.

Thank you for trusting me to help recover your lost ring. Seeing your appreciation—and your near-tearful expression when it was returned—made every minute of the search worthwhile.

I got a call about a lost ring but the couple had gone home to Northern Va. She sent me a dot on a google map to the area she thought she had lost it. After gridding the area with no luck i asked her did she take any pictures and she sent me the picture and I was able to pinpoint the spot she was at and it was found in 5 minutes! I gave her a call on the phone and gave her the good news!