Phone Lost While Kayaking the Flint River…FOUND by Ring Finder in Brownsboro, AL!
Christina McCree – Ring Finder/Metal Detectorist for northern Alabama and southern/middle Tennessee…call or text ASAP, anytime 24/7…610-504-6135
On August 22nd, 2023, I received a call from Maurice stating he had lost his Samsung Galaxy S20 cell phone while kayaking the Flint River in Brownsboro, Alabama. It had been about a week since the loss. Maurice had already bought a new phone, but he really wanted all the files he had on the one that was lost. Maurice made a post on Facebook for help on how to recover his phone. Someone mentioned my name in the comments, so that’s how he discovered the metal detecting service, The Ring Finders. We decided that he should first try a local group that specializes in item recoveries from the Flint River, because of the limited entry/exit points. You pretty much have to kayak that entire 5.5-mile stretch of river (3–4-hour float) to get to the area of loss.
Unfortunately, that group wasn’t available to search for Maurice’s phone, so he reached back out to me. We planned a kayak trip on Sunday, September 17th. I met Maurice at the North Alabama Canoe and Kayak (NACK) rental. I had all of my water detecting gear and Minelab Equinox 800. We got on the river and made our way down to where Maurice lost his phone. It was just past the powerlines, where you need to call the rental place to pick you up. His kayak had flipped over on a rough spot, next to a log.
The water was pretty cold, so I had on my 3mm wetsuit. There was a decent current by the log, but it was fairly shallow. There was a 4-5-foot-deep spot, so that’s where we thought the phone should be. I cleared the main shallow area and focused in on the deeper spot. I ended up finding 2 other cell phones, which were not Maurice’s (I’ll try to get them back to the rightful owners). I searched further down the river, but still didn’t find it. I went back to that deeper spot and ended up finding another phone. This time, it was the right one — Maurice’s phone!
Maurice was so happy to have his phone back! We celebrated and I thanked the Lord for a successful recovery. I packed up my gear, we took some photos, and we kayaked to the pick-up spot. Even though the phone had been in the river for about a month, Maurice had it back and should be able to retrieve the data from his SD card. I’m so thankful and blessed that I’m able to use my hobby of metal detecting to help others. All thanks and praise to God! Looking forward to the next adventure…
I received a message from Yvonne asking if I would be able to get her husbands wedding ring out of the bay. It slipped off his finger getting out of their boat the night before. I was a bit worried about the water depth, knowing how much tide there is on the bay side of LBI, also how much mud was on the bottom, which always is a huge factor with water recoveries. They had returned home and explained that whatever worked best for me to have at it. I was able to go the following afternoon when the conditions were perfect. Luckily there was a dock ladder, because it was about 6′ down to the water, and around 5′ deep, also there was about 4″ of mud, so I was just able to maneuver with the water depth, but was still able to get the ring in my scoop within 30 minutes. The ring was returned about a week later, unfortunately I never got a chance to meet Alex or Yvonne, when Alex picked up the ring, I was in the water working on another successful recovery.
