This morning, Wednesday, about 11am, I got a text “Good afternoon. Is this Jim Wren with Ring Finders?” I responded with “Yes.” She came back saying “My name is Mallory, my fiancé Nick proposed on Monday. Yesterday at around 8PM (the day after I got engaged) I got into the ocean at Sullivan’s Island. The tide took my engagement ring right off my finger. I am absolutely devastated…is there anything that could be done?”I called her and got more details. They were here on a little vacation from Chicago after they both graduated from Law School. With the loss of her ring and another issue going on, she wasn’t having a good vacation. I checked the tide tables and low tide on Sullivan’s Island was roughly at 2:30pm and with a 2 ½ hour drive, I could be there about 30 minutes before low tide. I know there are a couple of guys who are Ring Finders around Charleston, but when I’ve called in the past they weren’t available. So, instead of giving Mallory the run around trying to find somebody, and with time being a major factor, I just grabbed my gear and headed south.
When I got there, Mallory and Nick had a parking spot reserved for me. As we walked out on the beach, Nick showed me the area, which was larger than I thought. It was an area about the size of a football field. Luckily, Nick had found a plank on the beach and had used it to mark the spot where they came out of the water after the ring came off. On Tuesday, Mallory was in waist deep water about an hour after high tide. I started a north/south grid line parallel to the high tide line working towards the water line. After about 6 grid lines, I changed directions, and ran the grid line east/west perpendicular to the beach. On my second grid line pass the mid-tide line on the slope, I got a solid 8/9 on the Equinox 800 VDI screen, which is what I was looking for. It was further down the slope than I thought it would be, as well as deeper in the sand than I thought after less than 24 hours. After I got it out of the sand, I had to verify I had the right ring against the picture Mallory had sent. Boom, Perfect match!! I knew Nick and Mallory were watching, so I just held my arm up. Nick saw it first and came running, Mallory wasn’t too far behind him. Big smiles and hugs. Total search time was about 35-40 minutes.
Nick/Mallory – thank you for trusting me and The Ring Finders to find your beautiful engagement ring. Best of luck to both of you in all your future endeavors.
Jim
