Lost – Gold and Silver Men’s Swiss Army dress watch – Kitty Hawk, Outer Banks, NC – FOUND!!
I got a Facebook message at 8:45 pm. I did not see it until the next day. The message read: “Please help friends at Kitty Hawk. He thinks he misplaced his watch at the beach just above the tide mark. (Soft sand) Swiss Army Men’s Officer’s dress watch. His wife has a matching one only smaller. (Very sentimental)
I called and talked with Sally. She told me that they were leaving today at 10am. I met them at the site after 7:30am.
I started the XP up at the water’s edge (as usual) and worked toward the cottage. Only a few hits but no watch. Bill was very meticulous. Yesterday, when the watch turned up missing, he had recorded directional heading from the cottage to where they had been on the beach. From that he was able to mark a 30-yard search area near the water. Yet, no watch!
I continued up over the dune along the walk path. Bill had mentioned previously mentioned that they had a bag on the beach that was emptied under the house in a sandy area. I decided to check knowing that if this didn’t work, I would have to come back at low tide and probably go in the water.
Big hit! The Deus II screamed at me. I knew it was the watch. It had worked its way down to about 5 inches in the sand.
I knocked on the cottage door and presented the watch. Billy and Sally were thrilled!
I just returned to my vehicle after water testing my detector at Pensacola Beach when I received a call from Suzanne. She and her family were on vacation at Orange Beach Alabama, it was high tide and surf was about 1 to 2 foot. Her daughter in law lost her beautiful wedding ring in waist to chest deep water somewhere about 40 or 50 yards from shore in a area about maybe 40 yards wide and asked if I would find it! I said I would do my best and I would be there in an hour. It was a large area and the surf made it very difficult to make sure every square foot was hunted. I ended up setting my scoop on every step so I could reposition if moved off track by the surf. The family had made friends with just about everyone on the beach so there was a good audience. Everyone was wishing me luck on my hunt and some didn’t think it was possible to find a little ring buried in sand underwater! It took me maybe two and a half hour to search the area with no luck. I went back to the family and together we reaccessed the area to search. Suzanne waded to the area and distance off shore she thought was the spot making a vertical line and her son stood on shore at the spot he thought was right and set the horizontal line. Between the two spots I started a search grid and overlapped by about ten feet in either direction as I slowly moved closer to shore a foot at a time. Suzanne stayed close while I was searching and we talked a bit. Suddenly I got a signal and called to her “this sounds like a good signal” and carefully set my scoop to prevent damage or a scratch to the ring. She was there before I could raise the scoop anticipating the wayward ring, anxiously waiting the sand to drain from scoop and suddenly a glint of gold, then she had it in her hand. She raised her arms with ring in hand and announced her daughter in law’s ring was recovered!!! The family and their many friend cheered. Everyone in the family was smiling and relieved, emergency over, no more worries. I was happy I was able to make everything right again, made my day!
