Jan. 1st, I received this comment on one of my ring search stories. Rich wrote, “I believe I lost my ring on the beach approximately 50 yards to the right–facing the ocean–from the end of the Oceanview parking lot wooden walkway. It may have slid off my finger when I shook out my wife’s towel. It is a simple gold Florentine wedding band with “Marla love Oli 1974″ engraved on the inside. By some stroke of luck if anyone finds it, please notify me. Thanks, Rich” So I sent Rich an e-mail and asked him my usual questions, like: “What day and what time of the day were you on the beach and shook out your towel?” And “When can you meet me and show me the exact place where you were on the beach?” And, “And it sounds like you are not exactly sure that you lost it on the beach!” Rich’s response was “I am sorry, but I forgot to mention that I am in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and was vacationing in Florida when I lost my ring.”
Thankfully Rich was able to give me precise details about where they were on the beach and what the area looked like. He even sent me a link to a google map with a pin of where they were when he shook out their towels. One of his descriptions of the beach indicated that there was soft sand and a long row of seaweed close to where they were sitting. That is what it looked like on Dec. 26th–the day after Christmas. But when I arrived at the beach, 9 days later, it was totally different looking. Sometime between Dec. 26th and Jan. 4th we had some really big waves with extra high surf. Enough to take a good 3 feet of sand off the upper beach area. There was literally no soft sand, except way up on the dunes. So I set up my 4 flags in the target area and looked for 4 hours and no ring. I did find lots of other targets–185 to be exact! Old crusty, green coins, fishing weights and all sorts of items. I sort of figured the ring would not be there after so much erosion and made plans to come back the following Sat. to look again. When I arrived on Saturday, the tide was a bit higher than I expected and I wound up searching higher up the beach and after digging more green coins and fishing weights—to my surprise up pops Rich’s lost gold wedding ring! I could hardly believe it was still in the same general area after all that erosion. I determined that a mans gold ring is quite different than a coin in that it does not slide and move around like a coin would. As the waves wash over it, back and forth, it tends to go down because of the hole in the center.
Rich was thrilled to hear that I found his ring and I was able to mail it to him the next week. All told, I searched 5 and a half hours and dug 185 targets, while looking for Rich’s ring. And it was so worth it!! Lost your ring? Call ASAP!
Mike McInroe, in sunny Florida
Love the photo of all your finds on this search! Looks like a couple rings in the mix. Always nice to get the bonus targets; makes up for the futile searches. Congratulations on the find. Would still love to connect with you one day.