Wind and Sea Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost ring at Wind and Sea Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
Contact:

Skylar was visiting here from her desert home and was enjoying a relatively cool day at Wind and Sea beach here in La Jolla California At the end of the day, she packed up her gear and headed 60-70 yards across the dry sand to the stairs up to her vehicle. Once at the vehicle, she discovered her engagement ring was not on her finger anymore. She hadn’t taken it off and was at a loss as to what could have happened to it. Checking her possessions, and retracing her steps back to where she was camped didn’t result in finding the ring. She had a rather sad 2 hour drive back home. She and her mother managed to get my contact info and called me for help. Being she was a bit unfamiliar with that beach, all I could get was a general area where she had been, so, working with just a map would have been pretty tough. Skylar volunteered to drive back and show me the search area in person. Wonderful! That always makes thing easier. She and her mother drove to the beach, and met me the same day she called and at about the same time she had left the previous day., so, things should look very familiar. We proceeded to the spot she was camped and I started my search. Quite a few people were still there on the beach at 7pm, so, I had to be mindful of that and not encroach too close to anyone. After coming up empty searching the surrounding area where Skylar had been sitting and storing her gear, and as close as I wanted to get to a couple close by on their blanket, I asked Skylar to try and take the same path to the stairs so I could follow and check that section of beach. We got all the way to the base of the stairs without finding the ring. I mentioned that maybe they could look upstairs in case it fell out there and was maybe (but extremely unlikely) still up laying there in plain sight by where she had parked. I turned around and headed back to the camp site, taking an abutting path slightly closer to the water. I made it all the way back to ground zero, but, still no ring. I then expanded out a bit more around that area, even closer to the couple on their blanket, and got the signal I was waiting for, just 2 feet from where I had stopped when I first started the search! I turned around and headed back toward the stairs, but, didn’t see Skylar or her mother initially, so, I just slowly detected my way back thinking they must be upstairs. I dug a few junk targets along the way, and when I got close to the stairs, I realized they were waiting there. They thought I still hadn’t found the ring yet, seeing me lollygagging my way back but, I pulled out the ring and surprised them both. They were both very happy and will now have a much more joyful ride back home. A pleasure to meet you both and thank you for the reward.

Tags:
Category:

Ring recovered at Wind and Sea beach La Jolla

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
Contact:

Justin was photographing another couple on the beach for some wedding album shots, when a rogue wave blasted through and knocked him off his feet and pushed him onto some rocks. In trying to keep his feet and save his expensive camera gear, his wedding ring came off. Finding it in that soft sand they have at that beach was impossible without a metal detector. When I received the call, I was skeptical it could even be found, but, was more than willing to try. That is one of the worst beaches in our area to make a water recovery. It has a heavy surge, large shore break waves, steep drop off, and sand so soft and loose, that it’s almost like quicksand. He sent me a photo of the site of the loss. I arrived the next morning at 4:30am to take advantage of the minus tide. I had the photo on my phone to use so I could match up the area. Unfortunately, it was real foggy that morning and hard to tell the exact area in the dark and fog. I saw a couple of features that looked like a match and began my search. After over an hour of gridding, no ring. In fact, no good targets of any kind. Not surprising at that beach. Once it started to get light from the approaching dawn, I looked again at the photo and then realized that I wasn’t in the right area. I finally determined the correct spot and started a 2nd grid. Still no luck. a few pieces of scrap aluminum and that was it. Nothing more to do but give him the bad news. It was still pretty early, so, I decided to move down the beach to an area where I had good luck in the past. I headed about 200 feet south and started hunting for fun. I liked to hunt the cracks up on the rocks and cliff. stuff falls into them all the time. While up on a ledge checking some cracks I got a good signal in some loose sand. It was only a couple of inches deep, so, easy to make a recovery. What do you know, it was a ring that matched Justin’s description! His was a fairly common tungsten carbide, so, I wasn’t positive that it was his, but, I was hopeful. I got to looking and it was a long way from where he took this photo. After contacting him later, he told me that he was using a telescopic lens and that he was a lot further back from what it looked like in the photo! He wanted to come and look at it to be sure, but, I was pretty certain at that point. Sure enough it was a perfect fit. Glad I could help Justin.

 

Tags:
Category: