18K Yellow Gold Wedding Band Lost, Found and Returned Murrell’s Inlet SC
This is part 1 of a 2 part story that started on July 6th, when I saw a FB post from Charlie that said, “Where’s all my treasure hunters at? My wedding band slipped off my finger into shallow water at high tide on the point yesterday. Does anyone have a metal detector to help me look for it? We’re in Inlet Harbor. Low tide is at 11:50 am so that would be our best chance. Thank you!” A contributing factor was he lost it the same day we had a tropical storm go through the area. His post had some naysayers, prayers offered and offers of hope. I copied and pasted my Ring Finder page to his post and waited. Within about 10 minutes, Charlie called and asked if I could help. I told him I could be there in about an hour, he agreed, and I was on my way.
I arrived right around low tide and met Charlie at the house he and his wife Renee were staying. I followed him to his grandfather’s house where I parked. We introduced ourselves and he walked me out to the beach. He pointed out the area, which maybe was a 25X20 foot spot. I got a few more details and went to work. From all the coins, trash, old cans, and fishing weights and hook. This beach hasn’t been cleaned or detected in a while. Charlie was very confident of his area, so I started a north/south grid line. Most of Charlie’s family had shown up to watch and I heard one gentleman say they had been sitting at the top of the sand. I finished the slope down to the water and no ring. I worked up to the top of the beach, again getting fishing weights and hooks when I got a solid 19 on the VDI (visual display indicator). The 19 indicated to me that I had gold under the coil. I moved some sand and saw the glimmer of gold. I reached down and pulled Charlie’s wedding band out from its hiding place. I held it up for Charlie, Renee and the rest of the family to see. Charlie came over and I handed him his ring. He checked the engraving and confirmed their wedding date was what was engraved. Ring Found!
At one point during the search, I found out that Charlie’s brother-in-law, Cory had lost his gold wedding band. He had lost his on the 4th of July and probably in about waist deep water. I did a search of the upper beach and out in the bay about waist deep. Because of the tide I had to give up on Cory’s ring. One out of two wasn’t bad.
Charlie and Renee – Thank you for trusting me to help find your lost treasure. I wish you two all the best.
Jim
Sue lost her wedding ring set at Gulf Shores a couple day before calling me for help. She didn’t know where to go and it took a day or so to find someone who could help. I told her i would be there first thing in the morning. I met her where she and the family were staying and we walked to the beach area she thinks it was lost. She wasn’t sure how it was lost, where it might be or if it was even on the beach but felt hopefully it was on the beach. She talked about the day it was lost and her activities and locations. The house and car had been searched and it wasn’t there, so logicly it must on the way to the beach or somewhere on the beach. She showed me the various places they were on the beach and the routes to and from those various places. With that information I put together a search plan and proceeded. After about 30 minutes and after digging several other targets I got a very good signal and knew i found something good. I dug it and showed it to Sue who shouted you found it! She was very, very happily. I’m glad I found it for her, it made both our days. 
Jason lost his wedding band in the sand at Pensacola Beach on Sunday. He called that evening and i said I would help and agreed to meet first thing Monday morning at the beach. Jason had a fairly large area identified as the target area. There wasn’t anyone on the beach and the weather was comfortable. I started a grid and searching it pretty fast while Jason was working the phone lining up his days business. Fortunately his ring was in the area he designated. I found it in record time and it was back on his finger and he back to work on time! 
I was called to find a ring on Robinson Island late Saturday afternoon the day before Easter. The ring was lost in the water near the their boat when the owner threw the anchor to set a stern line in about waist deep water. By the time I got there the party and most of the boats had gone home, so it was easy to maneuver while searching except for the pop tops and pull tabs. When you’re hunting jewelry you can’t depend on knowing the metallurgy so you have got to dig everything. I wasn’t counting but I’ll bet I dug over 100 pull tabs. That said when I finally located the ring the data from my detector was unmistakable. Ring was recovered, we got back to the dock with a little sun left and the the family was all happy.
