I got a call from Patrick about 1:30 p.m. today, Jul 25th, telling me his brother-in-law, Jason lost his Platinum Wedding Band and was wondering if I could help find it. I asked him when it was lost and he said about an hour ago. This was great, because that meant he lost it right at high tide. Patrick also told me it was ankle deep and about 100 yards from a particular sign posted on the beach. Ironically, the sky was turning black and the thunder was rolling across the sky. I asked if someone could meet me to put me in the right spot. Unfortunately, they had left the beach ahead of the storm, and weren’t available. This was another one of those “it should be easy” searches. I told him I was on my way.
As I drove the 30 minutes to the beach, it was pouring down rain, with lightening strikes everywhere. My plan was to get to the beach and wait out the storm in my car. That was all unnecessary because the storm had cleared out and the sun was shining when I got there. I walked out on the beach and called Patrick to confirm I was in the right area and to confirm I needed to go left about 100 yards. Everything confirmed, I walked down to the water’s edge and started pacing off 100 yards, in 25 yard increments. Not following my instincts, I started at the 50 yard mark and started a grid search parallel to the beach right at the high tide line. After 4 grid lines out towards the ocean, I was coming up empty. If only I had started at the 25 yard mark. After changing to a perpendicular grid and searching for 3 hours, covering about 125 yards across the beach, I took a break. I walked back to my 25 yard mark and kept the perpendicular search going. My 4th line I got a solid 14 on the Nox 800 VDI, usually a 14 indicates a pull tab, but not this time. BOOM! As I dug out the compact sand and spread it across the beach, I saw the ring rolling across the sand. I sent Patrick a picture of the ring, with a text asking where they were. I didn’t get a response, so I called him, no answer; I left a message telling him to call me. After a few minutes, he called and I ask if he had seen his text. After a pause, he asked if it was the right ring. I replied, I’m sure it is, it’s platinum, and it’s doubtful that another man’s platinum wedding band would be lost in exactly the same area as Jason’s. He asked where we could meet and I told him it’d be easier if I just came to him. When I walked out on the pool area where the family was sitting, I was welcomed with loud cheers. We donned our covid-19 masks, and did some fists checks. It’s hard to see the big smiles under Jason and his wife, Shannon’s mask but I assure you they had some huge smiles.
Patrick – thanks for calling and getting things started.
Jason and Shannon – thanks for trusting me and The Ring Finders to help find your lost beautiful treasure.
Jim
