I received a call from Joanna asking questions about The Ring Finders, i.e., cost, how it works, etc. I could tell by the sound of her voice that she was upset. After we discussed the details, she said she had lost her Anniversary ring in the dry sand. Ok, I’m thinking this should be pretty easy, but like so many other ring hunts, they’re not always as easy as I’d like. This find, through my own fault, was going to be tougher than it should have been. First, she lost her ring in Myrtle Beach, which is Matt Fry’s area. So, I told Joanna I needed to call Matt, and one of us would call her back. When I called Matt, he was on his way to another ring search that he had been on for a while and told me to go ahead and take this one. I called Joanna back and told her I’d be there in less than 30 minutes. Actually, I thought this was going to work out pretty good. I’ve been searching for another ring myself that was lost in waist-deep water at low tide a few days ago, so I was waiting for the right tide. I thought I’ll go find Joanna’s ring, and then head straight to the second one, maybe I could have a double ring find in one day.
Since the second hunt was going to be a water search, I grabbed my White’s PI. This machine was more than I needed to find Joanna’s ring in the dry sand, but I didn’t want to take two machines and end up leaving one of them in the trunk with the heat. I just got this White’s PI, my second one, a couple of weeks ago as a backup for the one that’s in the shop for repairs right now. So, I grabbed the machine and was on my way.
When I got to the beach, I called Joanna and told her I was there and started walking down the beach looking for her. Her husband, Remi, saw me and we met up with Joanna. As we’re walking to the spot of her lost ring, I asked her the details of what happened. She explained that she was putting sunblock on her kids and a very short time later realized, at some point during the process, her ring had come off. She showed me the suspected area, which had a huge hole in the sand where the kids had been digging. The area wasn’t very big, maybe 10 ft. X 10 ft., and then Remi pointed to another small area where the towels had been laid out. I turned my machine on and instantly realized I had made two very foolish mistakes. The first, I didn’t test the machine before I left the house, but why would I, it’s a brand new machine that I had used the day before, and it worked fine. The second, I didn’t bring a second machine, just in case. How embarrassing that I showed up to find a ring with a machine that didn’t work. I’m thinking, If I run back home for another machine it’ll be an hour. The second choice was to call Jim Brouwer who was maybe 20 minutes away if he wasn’t already on the beach. I explained what was going on to Joanna and Remi and called Jim. When he answered, I explained to him what was going on, and he was on his way.
When he showed up, I showed him the area, and he started his search. He quickly covered the small search area finding only a bottle cap and a penny. I then asked him to check the towel area, at the same time watching the disappointment on Joanna’s face. As Jim searched the towel area, I’m starting to wonder where else to look because we were running out of real estate fast. At this point, knowing full well that she probably already had, I asked Joanna if she had checked her bag. I got the answer I expected. Ok, Jim was just about done with the towel area and still no ring. There was one more spot to check. When I had originally gotten to the area, Joanna’s family had been sitting in a couple of the beach chairs underneath a beach umbrella. I moved the chairs back from under the umbrella, and asked Jim to check that area. Watching Joanna and Remi, I think they were trying to accept the fact that the ring wasn’t going to be found. As Jim was swinging his detector over the chair area, I was starting to have my own doubts. As I’m watching Jim work the back half of the area under the umbrella, I see his face get that ‘I’ve got a good signal’ expression. He made two or three passes over a small area and then moved some sand with his foot, a couple more passes with the detector, and then he reached down and picked something up. As he held Joanna’s ring out to her, Ba-Boom, she did a double take, said “My Ring!” and took it from his fingers. Then it indeed sunk in and some tears were shed. What a beautiful moment.
Joanna and Remi, so happy we could get your treasure back where it belongs. Now another chapter has been added to the beautiful story that goes with the ring. I apologize for not being better prepared to find it and having to make you wait an additional amount of time before you got it back. Best of Luck to both of you.
Jim – buddy, thanks so much for answering the call and helping me out.
Jim
