Thursday night about 9 pm I got a text from Kayla saying, “Hello! Sorry for the late text but I just found your phone number online – I lost my wedding ring today at North Myrtle, would you be able to help us try to find it tomorrow?” I text her back asking her to call me and included my phone number. I didn’t hear anything else until this morning when I woke up to the following voice mail. “Good morning, Jim, my name is Kayla. I had texted you last night. I thought you could possibly help me find my ring that I had lost yesterday on the beach. We are staying at the Tide Master Condos here in North Myrtle Beach and the ring was lost yesterday while I was kind of in very very shallow waters. I was with my daughter, and it just slipped off my finger. So, I was hoping maybe you could help us. I don’t know it might be lost forever, but if you wanna give me a call back, thank you.” I checked yesterday’s tides and saw low tide was around 11 am and high tide a little after 5 pm. Today’s tides would be around noon and 6 pm. It was already a little after 10 am when I called her, and I asked her two of the three more important questions. She already told me how deep she was, so I asked about what time she lost it, and did she know the area. She responded she lost it about 2 pm and she knew the area. I told her I’d be there about 11:30 pm. Two pm put it right about mid-tide. We’ve had some horrible surf conditions, with strong sea breezes, and rip currents. I knew that a lot of sand would have been pushed up on the beach, making any targets buried deeper than normal.
I actually arrived a little early, and as I made my way out to the beach, I called her and told her I was there. We met on the beach, and she showed me the suspected area she lost her ring. I started an east/west grid search just below the slope on the beach working perpendicular to the beach. I was finding very few targets and as expected they were deep. She told me her ring was white gold with diamonds. Ladies’ white gold can range from low single digits to low teens depending on size, on my Equinox 800. After a couple of hours, I had detected the entire lower portion of the beach all the way out to the south end and wasn’t finding her ring. I decided to change course and started a parallel grid search starting from my perpendicular grid at the bottom of the slope working towards the high tide line and covering the entire area behind the resort. At some point, a young gentleman came up and started talking to me, who I learned was Kayla’s husband Matt. Matt told me he had a metal detector but hadn’t brought it with him. In the process of our conversation, I asked him what he remembered and what time he thought she lost it. He said he thought it was around 3:15-3:45 pm. Good info because that would put it a little higher on the slope. Kayla had joined us, and we talked a little bit and they both went back up to their spot on the beach. A little while later I got an iffy and faint signal that was jumping from 9 to 13. Ok, I’m in the zone of white gold. I dug four to five big scoops of sand out of the hole, each time checking the hole. Which the hole had grown to close to a foot deep before I finally got the target out of the sand. I spread the sand out with my foot and ran the coil over the area. Boom, I had a solid 10 reading and looked through the sand. There it was, just lying there waiting to be found. I hollered at Kayla who didn’t hear me the first time, so I yelled again. When she heard me and turned around, I held her ring up in the air. She flew down the beach! I asked her what her ring looked like, and she explained it as I held it closed up in my hand. Then I showed it to her and asked, “Look like this?” Her happy tears started flowing and I got a huge hug. Matt followed shortly and shook my hand. I heard loud applause coming from the upper beach from the people that had been watching me for the last 3 hours. A few ladies even came down to see what was going on.
Kayla and Matt – So happy I was able to find and return your lost treasure. Thank you for trusting me to help.
Jim
We were spectators watching this entire event unfold. We saw you arrive and begin working. After a few hours I had little hope of her ring being found. We were sitting in front of Kayla and Matt on the beach and my husband actually saw you the moment you found that ring. It was a very happy ending! I can imagine the relief she felt. Thank you for what you do!
Jim,
I truly believe words cannot express my gratitude to you for finding my wedding ring. But, I’ll give it my best shot.
Matt and I met 7 years ago and knew immediately it was meant to be. He is my rock, my soulmate, my best friend. He and I have been through some wonderful times and some hard times. The birth of our daughter, Olivia, was one of those wonderful times. She is now four, and this was her very first trip to the beach. As we made our way into the surf, she was apprehensive and grasped my hand tightly. The waves that day were a bit rough, as I think you mentioned. I held her hand tight as I could, and we went in about calves-deep. One bigger-than-expected wave knocked her down, and ‘mama bear’ kicked in. I wasn’t thinking about anything else at that moment, I scooped her up, and we went back to our towels to dry off. A few minutes later I felt something was “off” and I glanced down at my left ring finger, which was now bare. My heart sank, I told Matt what happened, and we both cried. I thought back to our wedding day, the beautiful ceremony where we promised to love each other “til death do us part”, and my grandfather walking me down the aisle. My grandfather was more “dad” than grandpa, and one of my last memories with him in good health was him walking me down the aisle on my wedding day. It was only a year or so later that we lost him. I was so excited when you found my ring I didn’t even remember to tell you, but you remind me so much of my grandfather. He is my guardian angel, and I like to think he might have been helping us that day (or at least put in a good word with the man upstairs, haha). I just couldn’t believe the time and effort you put in, hours in the heat searching and searching. Many would have given up, but you didn’t. Thank you so much for your kindness and selflessness that day; you will always hold a special place in my heart.