Lost Ring Oak Island NC Tag | Page 2 of 2 | The Ring Finders

10K Clemson College Ring Lost in a Golf Course Pond – Found and Returned North Myrtle Beach, SC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)

On February 13th, I received a phone call from Ryan asking if I could help retrieve his Clemson ring he lost, the day before, in a pond on a private golf course. My first question was, “are there any alligators?” He assured me there wasn’t, and went on to say that he lost it throwing a ball in the pond for his dog to fetch. He also said the ring was in about 6 to 8 foot of water. I told him I was up for the challenge, but I wasn’t a diver. However, my son-in-law, Donnie was, and I’m sure he’d help if I needed him. After all was said and done, I agreed to search but had to wait for a waiver of liability from the golf course. In the meantime, I called Donnie and told him what was going on, and I was going to attempt to recover the ring, and I’d call him if I needed his help.

Ryan sent me a text two days later saying his boss finished the waivers, and I could search as soon as I signed it. I had them make two waivers, in case I needed Donnie to help. We set it up that I’d meet him at 2 p.m. in his office, sign the waiver, and start the search. When I got to his office, I learned he was the Assist. Superintendent, which explained why he was able to have his dog with him on the course. He drove me out to the pond in one of the maintenance carts, and when we pulled up, I thought it didn’t look too bad. Well, looks were deceiving!
As I took my first few steps into the pond, I was sinking at least seven to eight inches in the extremely soft mud. I immediately started picking up great signals, but they were long and narrow. There’s only one thing those could be, yep – Golf clubs! Total, there was two putters, one fairway wood, two club shafts, one grip with a shaft, one tee marker, and two clubs I didn’t pull up.

So as I made my way out to the area Ryan said he saw his ring hit the water; the water was getting colder and deeper. The water temp had to be in the low 50s, my wetsuit helped, but it was still cold! I got out as deep as I could on tiptoes until I was chin deep and still wasn’t in the right spot. I searched as well as I could but wasn’t getting anything close to a small solid signal. I made my way back out of the water, picked up my cell phone and called Donnie.
When Donnie showed up, he had his scuba gear and went right to work. He made his way out and searched with no luck. By then it was almost dark, so we called it a day and made plans to go back.

We decided and planned on going back, today, February 20th. Donnie came up with a plan that he’d run a rope anchored on shore to an anchor buried in the mud past the suspected area. The rope gave him a track line that he could follow while submerged since any movement stirred the mud up and made visibility zero. Close to 30 minutes later, Donnie popped up holding the ring in his hand. Ryan drove up to check on us just as Donnie handed me the ring. Ryan was definitely excited he had his ring back.

Donnie, thanks again for all your help, couldn’t have done this one without you.

Ryan, Thanks for trusting us to find your ring. Good luck in all your future endeavors!

Jim

Man’s White Gold Wedding Band Lost, Recovered and Returned at Oak Island, NC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)

Sunday night I got an e-mail from Daniel G. telling me he had lost his wedding band on the beach at Oak Island, NC the previous Friday. In the e-mail he asked if I would be willing to drive to Oak Island and see if I could find it. I responded saying yes that it’d be no problem and then asked the normal questions – where on the beach, the time he lost it and the ring description.

The next morning Daniel had followed up with his responses as well as calling me. He knew exactly where he had been, what time it was and even down to the number of paces it was from the soft sand into the high tide line. Looking at the current tide tables, I saw I had about 4 hours before high tide so I headed out for the hour drive up there. Once I got to the beach I followed his directions and he couldn’t have been more exact on where it was. On my third grid line, in ankle deep water I got the signal. Two scoops and I had his wedding band in my hand. I took a picture of his ring and sent it to him with a text saying “Bingo”. While I’m standing on the beach waiting for his response, I noticed two ladies walking towards me. They walked up to me and introduced themselves as Daniel’s mother and his Aunt and informed me that Daniel had called them that morning letting them know I was going to be looking for it. They thought they’d come down and watch. I told them I had already found it and had sent Daniel a picture and text and was waiting for his response. Neither one of them could believe I had found it and were really surprised and excited for Daniel. Shortly after Daniel called and was very excited about his ring. He told me to go ahead and give it to his mother, which was good so it didn’t have to be mailed. A great ending to another lost ring story.

Daniel – Thank you for trusting me to find your lost treasure.

Jim