I received a very early morning message from Brianna saying she had lost her rings and wanted to know if I could help find it. I replied asking the usual questions about time, location on the beach, and any additional details. By 10 am I hadn’t heard anything, so I messaged her asking her to call me. If the rings had been lost in the water I had a small window of opportunity because low tide was at noon. She called a short time later and gave me the details. She said that her family had been sitting near the high tide line and she had put her rings in her grandmother’s bag for safe keeping. Her and her husband had gone swimming in the ocean and having a good time. After leaving the beach, and some time later in the day, she asked her grandmother for her rings. Guess what, no rings in the bag! While they were still at the beach, her grandfather, Frank, had gone in the bag and removed his cell phone, so they concluded that’s when the rings had to have fallen out. I told her I had a couple of things to do and I’d text her when I was on my way.
I arrived about 30 minutes later and met her and Frank walking down the sidewalk towards the beach. Once on the beach, I asked a few more questions including what I was looking for. Brianna showed me a picture of the ring and I asked if it was white gold, she responded it was silver. Looking at the picture, I was pretty sure I was looking for a white gold ring, but I kept both options open so I knew what to look for as far as numbers on my Equinox. Frank pointed out two areas they had been sitting at, so I started a grid search in the one that he was pretty sure was where he grabbed his phone. The beach was already very crowded, and my search areas were shrinking. I searched the 10X20 foot area finding only a few junk targets. I started searching the second area and Frank said that Brianna thought they were a little further out towards the water in the first area, and Frank thought they might have been a little further south. Ok, I finished up the second area and moved back to the first area and extended the search out to cover both Frank and Brianna’s areas. In the course of doing the grid, I had to ask a couple of groups if they would mind moving a little so I could search the areas they were in. Once I explained what I was looking for, I had no problems. Just a few steps past one of the groups I got a strong signal with a 10 on the Equinox 800, which was exactly what I was looking for with a White Gold ring. One scoop and I had it out of the hole, spread the sand out with my foot and saw the sparkle of diamonds looking up at me. I picked it up, blew the sand off, and turned around holding the ring up for Brianna to see. I could see her shock, eyes the size of quarters, and mouthing “you found it?” By the time she ran down the beach to me, the tears were flowing. Evidently, she had told a number of people on the beach what was going on because I got a nice round of applause and people wanting to see her ring once I gave it back to her. All returns are fantastic, but these types are extra special. Grandpa’s out of the dog house, big smile on Brianna’s face, all is good again!
Brianna, thank you for trusting me to help find your treasure, enjoy the rest of your vacation, and have a safe trip home.
Jim
