How to find a lost ring North Myrtle Beach SC Tag | Page 2 of 2 | The Ring Finders

Yellow Gold Wedding and Engagement Set Lost in the Ocean, Found and Returned North Myrtle Beach SC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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This ring search started with a 10:53 pm text from Monica on Tuesday, June 28th. Her text read “Hello Jim, my mom lost her wedding and engagement ring in the ocean yesterday evening and we cannot find it. Can you help?” My son and daughter-in-law were in town, so, I responded back to her that I was on vacation. I also told her that I had a couple of guys filling in for me, and ask what beach. She gave me all the details I needed to pass along to Mike G., the guy handling North Myrtle Beach for me. I forwarded the info to him, knowing he was probably in bed, but I’d talk to him in the morning. Shortly after getting all the texting done, I found out the kids had plans and I could go ahead and do the search. I sent another text to Mike letting him know I could do the search and to let me know.

This morning, I woke up to a text from Mike saying that he would prefer me take the hunt. He had helped a neighbor look for a lost ring the day before and was hobbling around. I also had a text from Monica asking if Mike had replied. I told her, that instead of Mike, I was going to be doing the hunt. I’d be there at noon to work the outgoing tide. Everything was working itself out.

I showed up a little before noon and met Monica, Norman and Tina in the resort parking lot. Tina was the one who lost her precious treasure. What happened was, Tina had gotten into the incoming tide about 5:30 pm Monday evening and was hit and knocked down by a pretty rough wave. When the wave hit her, she fell forward and watched her ring set fly off her finger. The last two days have been horrible for her not having her rings. We walked out on the beach and Tina showed me the area she lost her rings. Knowing she lost her ring about an hour and a half before high tide and I was there a couple of hours before low tide, I figured the ring set would be accessible in the wet sand. I started a perpendicular grid search going out to about thigh deep and heading north. I knew I was going deeper than I needed to but I didn’t want to miss the low tide, just in case I miscalculated. I did about 10 grid lines and hadn’t had one target. I went back to my start line and started working the grid south. I glanced up to see Norman and Tina and their expressions looked like they were losing hope. I also noticed that some tourists were starting to move their chairs down closer to the surf, so I was losing search area. On my 5th or 6th line I got the loud and clear 15/16 on the Equinox 800 VDI (visual display indicator). This was in the range I was looking for. One scoop and I had the target out of the hole. I spread the sand out with my foot and saw the yellow gold shining in the sunlight. I picked the ring up and it was exactly as Norman had described it – BINGO! I looked up at Norman and Tina and Norman was watching so I did my little “found it shuffle.” He popped up out of his chair, said something to Tina who then joined him in a very fast pace in my direction. When Norman got close, I held out my fist holding the ring and dropped it in his hand. Tina was overwhelmed when she saw it but she was so happy.

Monica – Thank you for finding me on your Google search.

Tina/Norman – Thank you for trusting me and The Ring Finders to help find your lost treasure.  Now you can enjoy your last couple of days of vacation. Have a safe trip back home.

Jim

 

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25th Wedding Anniversary Vacation Catastrophe Averted – Found and Returned Holden Beach NC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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On Wednesday at 1:24 pm I received a text from Kimberly saying, in part “Hello are you a metal detector service?  My husband’s ring just slipped off his finger in choppy ocean. Not sure if it’s even possible to find, Holden Beach.” I didn’t see the text until an hour later and responded that I was and to please call me. After a while and no response, I called her and she put her husband, Jeff on the phone. Jeff said he was in about waist deep water between 1 and 1:30 pm. Taking a quick look at the tide charts, high tide was going to be close to 3 pm and the next low tide was a little after 10 pm. I told Jeff I’d be there at 8 pm and got the address. As the afternoon progressed, I started thinking about the dropping tide, the time he lost his ring and what time sunset would be. Getting there at 8 would give me less than an hour to search before it was dark. I normally don’t have a problem searching at night, but this year there’s been terrible rip currents along the east coast. I didn’t want to become a statistic hunting at night because I couldn’t keep an eye on the ocean conditions. I also thought that since he lost his ring within 2 hours of high tide, that 4 hours after high tide the ring should be reachable. So, I text Jeff saying I’d be there by 6:45. I showed up on time and met Jeff. As we walked out on the beach is when I learned that he had been throwing a football. My first question was “are you left or right-handed?” He responded right-handed, which meant he didn’t throw the ring off. He said he actually saw the ring come off his finger and sink. He tried diving for it but to no avail. As I’m walking out to the surf I noticed the sea breeze really kicking up the waves – not good! Jeff pointed out the area and I started with a parallel grid search to the surf, and after 4 or 5 lines, I switched to a perpendicular grid search heading out in the ocean. I was having a horrible time trying to keep a straight grid line because of the waves and current. After 2 hours of searching with no luck, losing daylight, and just plain getting beat to death with the waves and current I called it a night. I knew the ring was there, but with the noise and interference I was getting in the headset from the detector, I was sure I walked right over the ring and didn’t hear a tone. I told Jeff I’d be back at 9 the next morning.

The next morning came quick, but I was ready for the task. I showed up a little early and hit the beach. This time I brought my White’s PI, a great machine but it doesn’t give any indication of depth or type target it hits, just a solid tone. So, there’s a lot more digging involved than with the Equinox 800 that I used the day before. I started a perpendicular grid search straight out from the beach as far as I could get out before hitting the last sand bar where the waves break hard. Probably about 35-40 minutes and half way through the search area, I got a solid steady tone. I was pretty sure this had to be Jeff’s ring; normally trash (bottle caps, pull tabs, and other junk) doesn’t make it out as far as I was away from the shoreline. Two scoops of sand and I had the target out of the hole and in the scoop. I shook the sand out in the water, looked in the scoop and BINGO, I had a gold ring in the scoop. I had seen a picture that Jeff’s son had posted on a FB page showing Jeff’s ring and I knew I had his ring. I packed up my stuff from the beach and headed up to their rental house to give Jeff the good news. About half way up the beach I looked up and saw Jeff walking my way, he didn’t say a word. I made the comment that it was starting to get rough, as I reached in my pocket, pulled out his ring and held it up for him to see. No doubt, he was more than excited. I handed him his ring and he turned around towards the house, held it in the air, and yelled “He found it!” His entire family had been watching me and saw when I stopped searching and started digging. Then everyone watched as I walked out of the water, picked up my stuff and started walking their way. My understanding is they thought I might have found it but no one wanted to say it. Within seconds, Kimberly came running down the beach to hug Jeff. There were a couple of tears being wiped away, but they were happy tears. I’m not sure if this was actually their 25th Anniversary vacation with family but they are celebrating 25 years of marriage in Oct.

Jeff/Kimberly – Thank you for trusting me and The Ring Finders to help find your lost treasure. An early Very Happy Anniversary to you both and now you have one more chapter to add to your ring’s story. Best wishes to you both. And Thank You for Everything!

Grandma – Thank you for all your prayers, they helped.

Jim

 

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First Day of Vacation, Alan’s Damascus Wedding Band Lost in the Ocean, Found and Returned North Myrtle Beach, SC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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Just as I was sitting down to dinner, I got a frantic call from Alan. He said he had just lost his wedding band in the ocean and asked if I could help find it. Looking at the tide table, it was just coming up on high tide at 8:15 p.m. which was in less than an hour. Alan said he had been playing with his 3 year old son in the water when his ring slipped off his finger. He also said he knew the exact area he lost it. This was looking like it would be a quick search and recovery with an outgoing tide, knowing where he lost it and playing with a 3 year old in shallow water. Well Mother Nature had a whole different plan. I told Alan I’d meet him at 10 p.m. and work the outgoing tide.

I met Alan just before 10 and he walked me out to the beach and pointed to the area he had lost his ring. This is when I realized Mother Nature had reared her ugly head. The wind was blowing straight into the beach causing 2-4 ft swells. The tide hadn’t gone out like I expected and it just wasn’t looking pretty to find a lost ring. Alan said he thought the ring was still another 40-60 ft out in the ocean from where we were standing. I started a parallel grid search along the beach, trying to work the outgoing tide, and then switched to a perpendicular grid. After about 30-45 minutes, I felt bad that Alan was sitting there watching. Knowing that his excitement rose every time I dug a target only to have it dashed when I pulled out a piece of junk. I suggested that he go back to his rental and I’d call him when I either got too tired or I found it, he agreed and left. I kept working the outgoing tide, and was being as careful as possible. It was dark, with a little bit of moon light, waves were still high, and the surf was still a little rough. I had worked my way out where I was about knee to thigh deep and got a great signal on my White’s PI. I was right in line with where Alan said he was, so I started scooping out sand. After 4 scoops of sand, I had the target in my scoop. I let the waves wash the sand out of the scoop and turned on my headlamp. Boom!! I saw a beautiful ring mixed with the shells. I wasn’t sure of what the ring would look like. Alan said it was a Damascus wedding band and was made from silver, copper, rose and yellow gold. What I was sure of is I had a beautiful man’s wedding band in my scoop. I walked out of the water and grabbed my cell phone. I tried to take a couple of pictures that I could send to Alan. It was close to midnight but I sent a picture with a text asking “Is this yours???” I got an immediate response saying “Coming out now!!! That’s it!!!!” I think it took him seconds to show up. He was very excited when I handed him back his treasure. He said his wife had gone to bed but he was going to wake her up and surprise her.

Alan – Thanks so much for allowing and trusting me to help find your lost treasure.

Jim

  

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Lady’s White Gold Wedding and Engagement Rings Lost in the Sand, Found and Returned on Carolina Beach, NC.

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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I got a call from John Finnerin, The Ring Finder for the Wilmington NC area today asking if I could take a ring call for him. He had family coming in town and wasn’t able to take the call himself. “Absolutely!” So he gave me Justin’s name, number, and a brief scenario of what had happened. I called Justin and told him I’d be there in about an hour and a half, and I was on my way. After I got through the traffic, I called Justin to get more details. He told me that his wife, Ty, had taken her 3 rings off and handed them to him so she could get wet in the ocean. He put the rings in his lap for safe keeping. Within a few minutes he stood up to get a beer out of the cooler and the rings went flying. He saw one of them land in the sand and was able to find it, but wasn’t able to find the other two. I assured him that once I got there, he’d have the rings back on her finger within 5 minutes. I wasn’t being cocky, it was the fact that he had just lost them, knew exactly the small area where he lost them, and hadn’t moved from the spot since it happened. As a beach ring finder, these are the searches you dream of.

I called Justin when I got to the beach and he met me at the beach access ramp and walked me out to the lost ring area. I had him move a couple of beach chairs and a cooler. The search area was maybe 3’X5’, I turned on my Equinox and told him to time me. I was able to stand in one spot and cover the whole area. Boom, I got the 9 on the VDI that I was looking for. I took a small scoop of sand, checked the hole and knew I had the rings in the scoop. I gently shook the sand out of the scoop and held it up for Justin to retrieve both rings. I heard Justin’s friend say 10 seconds. Big smiles from everybody. I also found out that Justin and Ty were down from Raleigh, with another couple, to celebrate Ty’s birthday tomorrow.

Justin and Ty, thanks for trusting The Ring Finders to help find your lost rings. Ty, I hope you have a great birthday, and you guys have a safe trip home. Oh, and thanks for the shot!!

Jim

   

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14K Men’s Wedding Band Lost in the Ocean for 2 months – Found and Returned North Myrtle Beach, SC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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I had orginally gotten a call on August 11th, 2016 from Jeff H. stating he had lost his wedding band in the ocean which turned out to be right at mid-tide. He went on to say he had been in and out of the ocean over the course of a few hours and wasn’t really sure when, where or how deep he was when it slipped off his finger. I was just wrapping up another ring find with Jim Brouwer and was waiting for the couple to come back to the beach to get their ring when Jeff called. Jim agreed to go ahead and head to Jeff’s resort and start looking and I followed soon after.

When I got to the resort Jim already had a grid search going from the mid tide line seaward so I started a grid search at the current tide line and worked seaward. After a few hours, the tide turned, we weren’t having any luck and it was getting dark and neither one of us had our head lamps so we called it quits. I made at least 3 maybe 4 more trips out and searched north/south and east/west grids and felt really confident that I had covered the area as well as I could.

Fast forward to Hurricane Mathew, we didn’t get the sand movement on the beach that we (the guys that metal detect) had hoped for but we did have some. There’s 3 lost rings that I had gotten calls on this summer that I haven’t found yet so I thought this would be a good opportunity to give each one another shot. Jeff’s ring was number 2 on my list so I had planned on going out this week for one last crack at it. Oddly enough, Jeff text me Saturday evening (Oct 15th) asking “did the hurricane wash up my ring?” We text back and forth and I let him know I was going to give it one more shot. Shortly after we finished I contacted my son-in-law Donnie and asked if he was available to help find this ring sometime this week. We set it up to search at low tide Monday (Oct 17th). I got there maybe 10 minutes before Donnie and was working a grid from the middle of the resort north and from the wet sand to about chest deep in the ocean. When Donnie showed up I had him start his grid from the south side of the resort and work north to the middle, this way our machines wouldn’t be interfering with each other and we could cover the area quickly before the tide turned. I was digging a target in the wet sand within 10 minutes of Donnie starting his grid search when he walked up behind me and dropped a ring on the sand at my feet. I looked at it and couldn’t believe he’d found Jeff’s ring after 2 months in the ocean. We confirmed the inscription on the inside of the ring with what Jeff had told me and BINGO, we had a match!

I took a picture of the ring and text Jeff and then called him. In his own words he was speechless. I’ll never know whether the hurricane helped move enough sand or the extra low tide helped us get out to the deeper ocean but nonetheless Jeff has his ring back where it belongs. Along with the picture he sent me of him and his wife, Michelle, he also sent me the picture with their hands together titled “back together”. There’s nothing more I can add!

Donnie, thank you for all your help and making it possible to get this ring home.

Jeff and Michelle, thank you for trusting in me to help find your treasure. Best of luck to you both!!

Jim

  

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Sentimental Tri-color 10K Gold Ring Lost in the Intracoastal Waterway – Found and Returned Holden Beach NC.

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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I got a call from Heidi A. on Sunday, August 28th asking if I could possibly help find her toe ring that she lost while swimming with her sister-in-law Jennifer in the Intracoastal Waterway at Holden Beach NC. Heidi went on to say that the ring was specially made from another ring that had been given to her. She also said that she had noticed her toe ring was gone as she was leaving the water and that her foot had sunk up to her ankle in the mud. I got the area it was lost in, checked the tide table and saw I had a small window of opportunity for low tide and started the 45 minute drive.

When I arrived at the spot it was around 10pm and pitch black, on top of that there were broken clam and oyster shells all over the beach and with every step I was getting stuck in the mud. I searched for about an hour and a half from the high tide line to mid tide and called it a night. The next day I arrived a little before low tide and searched for an hour and a half knee deep in mud and my feet were cut up from the shells and still didn’t have any luck.

I decided to pick up a pair of hip waders and give it another try two days later. The hip waders worked great but I still wasn’t finding the ring. I talked to Heidi and she had mentioned that Jennifer was going to be back that weekend. I suggested that Jennifer meet me either Saturday or Sunday to give me a more exact area where the ring was lost.

Jennifer met me on Sunday during low tide, showed me the area she thought it was in but thought Heidi might have lost it in the mud and not the water. I had my White’s PI and decided to start my grid in the right corner and go straight out to knee deep water and work the grid from the shore to the water and back. First target was in the mud and was a fishing weight. I walked out to about upper calf depth and got a second target, as I’m separating the thick mud with my fingers in the scoop I hear the clank of something metal – BINGO!!! I washed the ring off and walked back up to Jennifer, who had stuck around and said “boy these conditions are horrible”. I’m pretty sure Jennifer thought I was all finished until I stuck my closed fist out to her and dropped Heidi’s ring in her hand. I love seeing the expressions on people’s faces when I give them back a lost treasure. Although it wasn’t Heidi, I think Jennifer did a really good job in showing her excitement for Heidi.

I took a picture of the ring and sent it and a text to Heidi saying “Surprise!”. I think it took Heidi less than 10 seconds to call me. She couldn’t believe it.

Unfortunately Heidi had to wait a few days before she got her ring back but she knew for sure it was on its way.

Thank you Jennifer for putting me in the right spot which was a tremendous help and a huge time saver.

Thank you Heidi for the very generous reward and the Starbucks gift card (I love Starbucks). Also thank you very much for trusting in me to find your lost treasure.

Jim

Heidi's Gold Toe Ring Heidi

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