I received an e-mail from Summer, saying she had lost her ring the previous evening around 6 p.m. in ankle deep water. We went back and forth with e-mails, and I finally asked her to call me, so I could make sure I was going to the right area of the beach. Her fiancé, Nick, called me and gave me the exact location and said they’d be there waiting. I told him I’d be there in 10 minutes, grabbed my detector, and was on my way.
I got to the beach and walked out towards the ocean, holding my detector straight up in the air. I called Summer to let her know I was there and to look for me. She spotted me and pointed me in her direction. Once we found each other, I got more details. She pointed out one location and Nick pointed out a different area. Ok, double the area I thought it’d be, but one I could handle. Her losing it at 6 p.m. the night before meant she lost it roughly an hour after high tide, which was good because I got there right at low tide. I started doing a parallel grid at the low tide line, planning on working the incoming tide up to the high tide line. As I’m walking the grid, I look up and see an older gentleman detecting about the mid tide line. I walked over to him to let him know what I was doing; his response was that he was looking for the same ring. So, evidently Summer and Nick had seen him detecting and asked him to help without letting me know, or letting him know I was looking also. There were a couple of times we got in each other’s way, but I maintained my parallel grid. Summer and Nick came up and said they had to leave; I assured them I’d call them when I found it. They also let me know that they had originally come on the beach a little further down from where we were. Ok, I’m thinking now that I may have to come back during the night time low tide. With the distance I had covered already, the tide was catching up to me. I was pretty confident that I hadn’t gotten to the area she lost her ring, but I wanted to make sure I got the low tide area before it was under water. I kept my search going, extending it out further to cover the new area while making my way to the high tide line. Shortly after Summer and Nick left, the older gentlemen came up to me. We introduced ourselves, his name was Jim as well and we compared notes. Summer had told me, she lost the ring around 6 pm in ankle deep water. At some point, she had told Jim she lost it around 7 pm close to knee deep, which was no big deal. Jim said he was going to quit for now and come back out at the low tide tonight. I told him I was going to keep working my way up to the high tide line. About 2 more grid lines and I got a banging 22-23 VDI on my detector. I knew I was looking for yellow gold, but I was expecting something in the 17 VDI range. One scoop and I had the target out of the sand; I spread the sand out with my foot and saw the faint glimmer of gold. I had to look at the picture Summer sent me and the ring I was holding to make sure I had the right one. Bingo, it was a perfect match. I took a picture of the ring and sent it to Summer, with a text saying “Look familiar?” She immediately texted back saying “You found it!!! Oh my goodness thank you” Meanwhile, I caught back up with Jim to let him know I found it. Shortly after, Summer and I met up in the parking lot where she got her treasure back.
Summer/Nick – thank you for trusting me to help find your lost treasure.
Jim
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