Lost Ring Sunset Beach NC Tag | Page 2 of 2 | The Ring Finders

Newlywed’s Honeymoon Happily Continues at Sunset Beach, NC

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

Howard called me around 11 a.m. saying he had lost his wedding band, and asked if I could help find it. He continued by saying he had lost it in a big clump of grass and hadn’t been able to locate it. He further told me he was at the Sandpiper Bay Golf and Country Club at Sunset Beach, NC. I told him I’d be there in about 30 minutes.

On my drive up there, I’m thinking he may have lost it on the golf course and was hoping he had a good idea of exactly where it came off his finger. I ended up at the community club house instead of the golf course club house and asked a lady where the course club house was. She asked if I was the ring guy, after replying in the affirmative, she said that her husband was the one that lost his ring. Luckily, he had lost his ring in the landscaping Saw grass around the pool area in about a 5 ft square area. Rachelle and I introduced ourselves, and as we’re walking to the area she said that they had gotten married 2 weeks ago and that he’s had his ring for 2 days. We met up with Howard and he said that the ring was a little tight. He also said that he’s not use to wearing jewelry, so he had the ring about half way on his finger when it fell off. He heard the ring hit the cement, saw it bounce, and then disappear in the grass. I grabbed my AT PRO and started running it over the top of the grass where he thought it was. He told me it was a 14K gold wedding band, so I knew I’d be looking for a VDI (visual display indicator) number in the high 50s. After going over his suspected area a couple of times, I moved down the sidewalk, and about a yard or so I got a solid 57 on the detector. Visually, I couldn’t see anything so I used my pin pointer and BANG, found it buried deep in the grass. I pulled it out, wiped it off, and stuck it up for him to grab. He was flabbergasted that he had it back, he told me he had just about given up on finding it. Rachelle gave out a woo hoo shout. Honeymoon was saved.

Howard and Rachelle, thank you for trusting in me to help find your lost treasure. Enjoy the rest of your honeymoon and have a safe trip back home to Denver, CO.
Jim

  

Their Ring Story Continues on Sunset Beach NC

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

This lost ring story started about 3 p.m. when Patrick, who was on vacation from Raleigh, NC with his family, was in the surf throwing one of those balls that skip across the water. Just after 6 p.m. he called me asking if I could help find his wedding ring. He said he had googled lost ring in the ocean and my blogs popped up. I asked him a couple of questions, what time he lost it, and how deep he was when it happened. He told me he lost it about 3 and he was about hip deep. Knowing what the tides were for the day, 3 p.m. was right at mid-tide and hip deep meant he was probably out a little further than the low tide line. Time was of the essence because by the time I’d get there, the tide will have turned around and was now coming back in. I got a few more details, including the address, and told him I’d be there in 30-45 minutes. At the time, my wife and I were leaving our neighborhood on our way over to see our granddaughters. My wife has heard these type of conversations before and instantly knew what was going on, she made a U-turn to get me back home. I grabbed my gear and headed to Sunset Beach.

When I got to the rental house, I met Patrick and his wife Colleen, their son, and other family members. On the way out to the beach, I asked Patrick if he was throwing the ball when it came off, and thank goodness, he said the ball hit his finger when it came off. He and his brother-in-law gave me a general location and I started an east/west (sand to ocean) grid line. I think I was on my ninth line, and maybe ankle deep in the surf, when I got a strong hit. I dug a scoop of wet compounded sand, checked the hole, and was pretty positive I had Patrick’s Platinum Wedding Band in my scoop. I shook the scoop out in the surf and heard the loud clanging of the ring. I walked back up to where Patrick was standing, shaking the scoop as I walked so he could hear the clanging. I don’t think he was believing what he was hearing until I held the scoop out for him to retrieve his ring. He was beyond excited and I got some great bear hugs. On our way back up to the house, I asked him if he thought his ring was gone for good. His response was something like, “I didn’t think I’d ever get it back.” We also worked out a plan to surprise Colleen by saying the surf was getting to rough and that Patrick really appreciated me coming out and trying. Colleen was on the back deck as we walked up the steps. We played the surprise though and as I’m telling her that I tried, but the surf was getting big, I kept glancing at Patrick’s finger trying to get her to look. At one point she looked behind her to see what I was looking at, then BAM!!, she saw the ring on his finger and her eyes started watering up, which made mine water up. I got a big hug from her and she was so excited. Great ending to an otherwise trying time.

Patrick and Colleen, thank you so much for calling me and I’m so happy we were able to get Patrick’s ring back on his finger where it belongs! Have a great rest of your vacation and a safe return home.

Jim

  

Platinum Engagement Ring with 1ct Diamond Lost around Wilmington, NC – Found and Returned

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

Sara-Kate called me on Monday, Apr 16th, saying she had lost her engagement ring and asked if I could help try and find it. No problem I thought, then Sara proceeded to fill in the details. The first issue was that she had been driving to one of three places when she took her ring off and put it in her lap while she applied lotion to her hands. She was sure her ring fell off her lap and out of the truck when she made one of her stops on the way to the beach. The problem was she wasn’t sure which part of her trips she applied the lotion. She went on to say that she went from her house to her friend’s house, both in Wilmington, NC, from there to a gas station on Carolina Beach, NC, and then finally to the Freeman Park beach at the north end of Carolina Beach, NC . This search just got a little more complicated. She told me she checked, rechecked and checked again for her ring inside the truck with no luck. She had talked to her friend and asked if she would look in her driveway, which had negative results. She also called the gas station, who didn’t return her call. So, this pretty much left the loss at the beach, or somebody picked it up in the parking lot at the gas station. The second issue was the beach is located in Freeman Park, and North Carolina has rules about metal detecting in Parks. The rules aren’t specific to National, State or City Parks; the guidelines are just “Park Rules,” which states “metal detectors are not allowed in any park area except to locate lost personal property when authorized by a Special Activity Permit.” I know that beach is heavily detected, in fact, I’ve detected there myself, but this time I wasn’t willing to get arrested. I called the park and was told that it wouldn’t be a problem to detect there, so that was good. The third issue was this particular beach can be driven on, with a four-wheel vehicle. When Sara-Kate lost her ring, it was at night and very dark on the beach so she wasn’t positive where she parked and got out to walk to their campsite. Luckily, it was high tide when she lost it, so I didn’t have to worry about it being in the ocean. I also had to consider that it might have been run over and pushed deeper into the soft sand, so I had to dig the deep targets as well.

With the park permission out of the way, the only thing left to do was search the beach. We tentatively made plans to meet around 7 p.m. but she’s a mother of two children, ages 5 and 1, and children don’t follow schedules. So, we decided to meet at 7 a.m. the next morning, Tuesday, at a local McDonalds and go from there.

It’s an hour and a half drive from home to Carolina Beach, so my morning started really early. We met around 7:30 a.m., drove to the beach, I jumped in her truck, and we drove out to their camping spot. I always take two machines, usually my PI (primary) and AT Pro (backup), glad I did this time. Sara-Kate put me on the spot, as she remembered it, and I started my search. Within the first three steps, I had collected a dozen tent stakes, which was wasting too much time digging them out. I went back to her truck and grabbed the AT Pro and started over. After searching where she thought she parked, I moved probably 100 yards further south and worked a back and forth grid search to my original starting point. The area I was searching is all camping spots, and the amount of trash people leave in the sand is amazing, and this is with trash cans every 15-20 feet. Anyway, after searching for almost 4 hours and cleaning the beach of trash, there was no ring. I was completely confident I had hit it hard and hadn’t missed the ring. Bless her heart, Sara-Kate was trying so hard not to show her disappointment, but I could see it in her face and hear it in her voice. When I can’t find something for somebody, I truly feel their pain. I knew she had pretty much given up hope of finding it because she was talking about filing an insurance claim on it.

As we’re driving off the beach, I don’t remember which one of us brought it up, but we decided to head to her friend’s house and give it a try. Following her in my car, we made the 20-25 minute drive and pulled into the driveway. My first impression was if her ring hadn’t been picked up in the parking lot of the gas station, it had to be here in the grass. Sara-Kate and her friend were trying to remember where the cars were parked in the driveway at the time of the loss. Meanwhile, I started doing a grid search about 6-7 feet left of the driveway working my way back towards the driveway. On the third pass, while I’m checking out a pretty good shallow target, I glanced over to my left, and there was her ring. Just sitting down in the grass, where it had been for the last two days. I picked it up and cupped in my hand, walking towards where Sara-Kate was standing talking to her friend’s husband. I was acting like I finished with trying to find her ring and looking disappointed. I said to her, “Well young lady, I don’t know what to tell you.” She responded, “You can tell me you found my ring,” as she’s jumping up and down like she’s excited. My response was, “OK” as I held up her ring holding it between my finger and thumb. It caught her totally off guard as she stared at her ring not fully grasping what I had said, then Bam, she stepped back, bent over at the waist, covered her face with her hands and said (loudly): “Oh, S#&T”!!!! Then the tears started flowing. The moment was priceless and is exactly why I love being a ring finder. It took Sara-Kate a few minutes for the shock and excitement to wear off, and the reality of having her ring back to set in. When it did, we jumped in our cars and drove to her house to give her fiancé, Danny the good news. Sara-Kate was so excited to tell Danny, she flew out of the truck and into the house, yelling over her shoulder to me “come on in. » When I got in the house, I got to meet the whole family. Her fiancé, Danny, their 5 year old son Wyatt James, who wanted me to go out in the back yard to play, and their precious little daughter, Lilly. Lilly actually let me hold her and gave me big grins. I’m pretty sure the whole family was feeling the excitement of Sara-Kate having her ring back. Danny was definitely happy and couldn’t believe we found it. He confided in me that he hated the thought of having ten more payments on the ring, but Sara-Kate didn’t have it. Well, now she does Danny!!! Nothing but smiles and hugs when I left. It doesn’t get too much better than this.

Sara-Kate and Danny – Thank you for trusting me to help find your treasure. Best of Luck to you two, you’re an awesome couple with a beautiful family.

Jim

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

2 Rings Lost in the Wet Sand, Found and Returned Sunset Beach NC

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

I got a call from Brett A. a little before 3pm on Thursday, July 21st saying he lost 2 rings in the wet sand and asked if I could help. Unfortunately I was 800 miles away on vacation but I had pre-arranged with a good friend, Jim Brouwer to respond in my absence. I got Brett’s number and location and called Jim, who immediately responded and was on scene within an hour. Jim called me back in about an hour and a half saying that Brett put him right on the spot and within 3 gridlines Jim had the first ring and a couple of swipes later had the second ring. He said Brett made the comment that he was glad he was wearing sunglasses and then Brett immediately called his wife with the good news.

Great job Jim B. (pictured on the right). Thanks for filling in for me and putting a smile on someone’s face!!!

Jim

Brett and Jim Brett's Gold and Titanium rings