Jim Wren, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 29 of 31

Wedding and Engagement Ring Lost in the Surf – FOUND and Returned North Myrtle Beach SC

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

I got a call from Matt at 7 this morning asking if I could help try and find his wife (Denise’s) wedding and engagement ring set she lost yesterday afternoon in waist deep water.

I got there about an hour later and Matt showed me the area and gave me a great description of where Denise was at when the ring came off. I started my grid and after 30 minutes I reevaluated where I was searching in comparison with the time and tide when she lost it. I moved up the beach, started a new grid and after another 30 minutes got a great signal. Bingo!!! Met Matt and Denise inside the hotel they were staying at because a heavy storm with lightening had come up and it wasn’t a good idea to be standing on the beach with metal in my hands.

Denise’s expression says it all and she stated “I thought I’d never see it again.” There is absolutely nothing better than finding someone’s special treasure that they thought was gone forever.

Matt and Denise thank you for trusting me to find your treasure and for the very generous reward. Enjoy the rest of your vacation with piece of mind.

Jim

Denise's Ring Denise Derrerm 5-3-16

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IPhone FOUND and Returned – North Myrtle Beach SC

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

On April 14th, I had received a request from a Wake Forrest student to help find a sentimental item that he had lost on the beach. While I was out there searching I found an iPhone that was buried a few inches in the sand. I didn’t think much about it at the time and put it in my pocket and continued the task at hand.

After I got home I checked the phone and was surprised that it powered up with 5% power left, I stuck my charger on it for the night and the next morning had 100% power – good start to a great day!! I was able to access the phone without having to put a security code in so I checked out the phone contacts and found “Mom”. I had to use my phone to call mom because the found cell phone had been deactivated. After I introduced myself and told her where I was calling from she immediately said “you found the phone”. Come to find out her son, Jake, also attends Wake Forrest and was enjoying a little school vacation in North Myrtle Beach. Mom introduced herself as Laura and after getting her mailing address I got the cell phone wrapped up and in the mail. I texted her yesterday and found out the phone had shown up and all was good.

You can tell by Jake’s smile he’s happy to have it back.

Jake   iPhone

Thanks for reading my blog!!!

Remember, if you’ve lost your special ring or other valued treasure contact a Ring Finder member in your area through the TheRingFinders.com Directory.

Jim

The importance of getting your lost treasure found quickly – North Myrtle Beach SC

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

I got an e-mail from a gentleman asking if I’d help try and find his College ring, no problem I thought and then he gave me the details. Him and his buddies were here on a golf vacation and playing golf at one of the many golf courses in the area. He gave me an excellent description of where he was pretty sure the ring fell out of one of the pockets of his golf bag,  the only problem was he had lost it a little over 3 weeks ago.

Ok, lost 3 weeks ago in the rough, there might be a chance it’s still there so off I went. After about 20 minutes searching the rough in the area he gave me, I expanded the search out to cover about half the fairway. Bam, I got a pretty good shallow signal, used my pin pointer to zero in on the signal and there was a small piece of his college ring. I continued searching hoping to find the rest of the ring or maybe another piece or two – no luck!! I’m confident that his ring got caught up in a lawn mower and destroyed. I took a picture of what I found and sent it to him and then called him. He took it well saying at least he can put closure to his ring. Tough call none the less.

There’s no way to know if he had called sooner the outcome would have been different but it makes the point that the sooner a call is made to get help the better the outcome may be. This holds true whether the lost item is at the beach, in the ocean or lake, golf course or your own back yard. Call a member from TheRingFinders.com directory as soon as you realize your item is missing.

No smiles to post but here’s a piece of his ring.

Tim's ring

Lost House Key – Found, Myrtle Beach, SC

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

I received a forwarded text message through my daughter at about 8:30pm Christmas Eve from her friend Tiffany asking if I could help her friend Mistie find a lost house key. In the text was Mistie’s phone number so I called her. Mistie told me she was a pet sitter and had just taken care of one of her client’s pet and on her way to her car dropped the owner’s house key in the thick grass.

I arrived and met Mistie at the gated community about 45 minutes later and followed her to the house. She showed me the approximate location of where she thought the key was and about 5 swings and a minute later I had a good solid 65 on my AT Pro. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my pin pointer so I was sitting on the sidewalk feeling through the thick grass and found the key about 5 inches off the sidewalk.

Mistie was so relieved and excited to call the owners, who were on vacation in Atlanta, GA, to let them know their key had been found.

Merry Christmas Mistie and thank you for the very generous reward.

MistieLost Key

Man’s Wedding Band Lost in the Surf – Found and Returned at Sunset Beach NC

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

I saw and responded to a posting on Craigslist about a Man’s lost wedding band. Not hearing anything back and having some spare time I decided to go ahead and conduct a couple of searches hoping I’d find it to return. Two days later I received an e-mail from Aimee saying her and her husband Steven would love my help. After exchanging e-mails and her telling me that Steven had been skim boarding in a 2 block area instead of the smaller area described in the CL posting I knew I’d need some help.

I contacted my son-in-law Donnie, who had helped me on a few other searches, and asked him if he wanted to help me again. About 3 hours later we were on the beach to catch the 2am low tide. I sent him south to cover one block while I headed north to cover the second block. Because of the full moon and the higher than normal tides my calculations of the general area of the beach the ring should have been were off by a number of yards. After a little more than 2 hours of searching Donnie started waving his flashlight to get me attention. I walked the block to catch up to him and I asked him if he’d found it. His response was “I think so” and handed me the ring. Bingo we had a match between the ring in hand and the picture of the ring in the CL post.

I contacted Aimee this morning and she couldn’t have been more excited that Steven’s ring had been found after being lost for 5 days in the sand. Luckily they were still in the area so I took the ring to them.

You can tell by the smiles on their faces that they’re one happy couple.

Steven and Aimee – thank you for trusting me to find and return your lost treasure. Good luck in your future endeavors.

A special thanks to Donnie for his help once again – he’s turning into one great partner!

Steve and Aimee LathSteve Lath's Ring

Thank you for reading my blog.

Jim

Husband’s Silver Wedding Band Lost in the Sand – Found. North Myrtle Beach SC

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

I got a very nervous phone call from Londa about 1130pm on Oct 22, 2015 asking if I could help find her husband Wayne’s wedding band that he lost in the sand. She said they had just gotten married the day before and were on their honeymoon from Lexington NC. She went on to say that they were sitting on the beach and when her husband stood up he was cleaning the sand off himself and shook his hands when his ring went flying. I told her I’d be there in less than 30 minutes.

When I arrived she met me in the parking lot and we headed to the sand. As I got to the beach I saw Wayne with a flashlight looking for his ring. Thankfully, Londa had already drew a line in the sand showing me where they were sitting. Wayne showed me where he was standing when the ring came off his finger so I started my grid. By his description I figured the ring would have gone towards the ocean but actually ended up closer to the dunes. It took me about 5 minutes to find it and I let Wayne pick it out of the scoop. Needless to say they were one happy couple!!! This will be one more memory in a long life together.

Londa did everything right by calling very shortly after Wayne lost his ring and by marking off the area he lost it in.

Wayne and Londa, Thank you very much for the generous reward.

Thank you for reading my blog

Jim

 

Man’s Gold Wedding Band Lost in the Surf – Found and Returned – Myrtle Beach, SC

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

I got a referral from my son-in-law on a lost ring he saw on Craigslist. I contacted Ruth, whose husband, Todd had lost his wedding band while they were here on vacation from North Carolina. After talking with Ruth she explained that the wedding band had originally belonged to her father and that Todd took a liking to it and started wearing it about 6 months ago. Ruth also said that Todd had lost the ring in the surf about 2 hours before high tide.

I got the description and location which I then learned was lost behind a resort in Myrtle Beach. Normally I would pass this off to Matt Fry the TRF member in Myrtle Beach but I didn’t want to further complicate this so I took the request.

I ended up at the location and searched extensively for the next 3 days during the low tides with absolutely no luck. By then I was convinced someone else had found the ring. After my third search, I contacted Jim Brouwer, President of our local MD hunting club, asking him if he’d put the description out to the other members to see if anyone had found the ring and if so, was willing to return it.  Jim replied saying he had found a similar ring around the same location. Wow, what’s the chances of this all falling into place? I contacted Ruth the next day asking if she could provide a picture of the ring and her husband’s ring finger size.  About 3 hours later Ruth sent me the information and I forwarded it on to Jim along with Ruth’s contact information. Bingo – we had an exact match. Jim got the ring in the mail and back to Todd and Ruth.

A big thanks goes to Jim Brouwer for his complete understanding, cooperation, and willingness to help return a treasure and put a smile on Todd’s face.

College Ring Lost in the Ocean FOUND 6 Weeks Later, North Myrtle Beach SC

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

I got a call from Evan on Friday, Sept 11th asking if I could look for his ring that he lost Aug 7th while on vacation here from Texas. When he called I was on a little weekend vacation with my wife and at the time we were on a tour boat to Ft. Sumter SC. I told him I’d be glad to look and I’d call him back Sunday for the details.

I ended up texting and then calling him Saturday night and got a general vicinity of where he lost his ring. In our conversation he said that he and his wife were here vacationing with his Law school buddy but he wasn’t familiar with North Myrtle Beach and wasn’t real sure where they were. He told me that he is confined to an electric wheelchair and thought they were close to the Cherry Grove beach. He also sent me a video that his wife had taken that showed his friend Gary carrying him out into the surf and the point that both were knocked over by a wave causing the ring to come off Evan’s finger. Luckily the video showed Gary carrying Evan past 2 posts stuck in the sand with a sign attached to one of the posts to indicate the location of a drainage pipe. This helped narrow the search area but I still wasn’t completely positive of where Gary and Evan were. Early Sunday evening I went to the presumed area looking for the 2 posts with a sign and the drainage pipe. There were two possible locations about 3 blocks apart so I did a 360 degree video of both locations and sent them back to Evan and his wife, Summer to look over and see if anything looked familiar. Evan and his wife both were pretty sure the 1st video was the right spot. I returned later that evening and searched until just above low tide at 2:30 am. I went back again on Monday at low tide and I still wasn’t convinced I was in the right spot. Evan was finally able to get a hold of Gary and Gary’s father on Wednesday and confirmed I was in the right area.

Thursday I was back at the same spot and searched from the dry to the wet sand and out into knee deep surf. Still no luck except for totally cleaning the dry sand of every bottle cap and other piece of trash in a 25X75 ft. area!!! Meanwhile I was e-mailing back and forth with friend Jim Brouwer, and president of one of the metal detecting hunting clubs in Myrtle Beach to see if he knew of anybody in the club that might have found the ring. In one of the e-mails Jim asked me if I had found it yet and I told him no but was going back out on Saturday at 4pm and if he wanted to come out to come on.

Saturday, I got there a little early after studying Evan’s video over and over again. I tried to position myself exactly where I thought Gary had started walking into the surf. Then I estimated the angle Gary walked since he didn’t walk straight in. I counted the number of steps (38) and the length of each step Gary took. I drew out a square gridline dragging my scoop in the sand. I also drug the scoop at the angle I thought Gary walked from the spot I thought he started to the low tide line and then started my grid search. Jim showed up around 5 and started a grid to the south of where I was. My search was from North to South and Jim’s was from South to North, after a number of passes I had to stop because Jim’s machine was interfering with mine. Jim ended up moving a little further south and started working a North to South grid. Right at 6:15 I had a medium signal right under my angle line I had dug in the sand showing my estimated line Gary walked. Bingo I had Evan’s College Ring in my scoop. I couldn’t believe it.

After 6 weeks and a day of being lost I wasn’t sure the ring was going to be found. We’ve had a lot of sanding over here and there’s always the possibility of another metal detectorist finding it. I had my PI set at maximum sensitivity and it took 4 or 5 scoops to pull it out from a depth of at least 10-12 inches or more.

Evan had shared his story with me on just how important his ring was to him and it truly touched me. Every ring return brings me great joy but this has a very special meaning and one I’ll never forget!!!

I mailed Evan’s Ring Monday and he got it today, Wednesday. I got a text from him saying “WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE!!!! You have mail coming your way but will never understand how grateful I am for you and all of your tireless hours!!!!”

This is what this is all about and it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Evan – Thank you so much for the opportunity and your trust in me to find your treasure!!

Thank you for reading my blog.

Jim

14K White Gold Wedding Band Lost in the Surf – Found! Cherry Grove, SC

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

I got an e-mail from Kevin about a lost ring I had posted on Craigslist that wasn’t a match to his. So after a few e-mails back and forth I met Kevin on the beach at 9am on Sept 22nd. Kevin and his family were here on vacation from Georgia and he told me he was playing Frisbee with his sons on Sept 20th. In the process of catching the Frisbee he misjudged catching it and felt his ring fly off in a different direction than the Frisbee went

I set up a 30X60 ft. grid and started searching. On the 6th pass I got a good strong signal, dug a shallow scoop and there it was. I called him letting him know I had found it and he came right down from his room with a big smile on his face.

Kevin really helped me out on finding this ring by getting landmarks and knowing the area he lost it in.

Kevin – Thank you for the generous reward.

 

Thank you for reading my post

Jim

 

Ring Lost in the Ocean – Found in the Wet Sand at North Myrtle Beach SC

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

I got a call on September 6th from Amy asking if I could help find her daughter Adrianne’s engagement ring that was lost in the ocean during the incoming tide. After finding out the resort location I was on my way and arrived in about 15 minutes.

I got there about 6:30 pm and found out Adrianne was on her way back home for work the next day so I met Adrianne’s younger sister Samantha (Sam). Sam gave me a general location and explanation on where and how the ring was lost. She also told me the ring was “silver” with a diamond on it. The story was that Adrianne was playing catch in about knee deep water an hour or so before high tide. Adrianne attempted to catch the ball which she miscalculated just a little jamming her ring finger when she felt her ring slip off.

It turned out to be a long night, a couple of heavy storms with wicked lightening moved through and I wasn’t having any luck finding the ring. After 4 hours of grid searching (north/south, east/west and circular) I called Amy and let her know I’d be back around 7am the next morning. Thinking I was going to have to expand my search area quite a bit and that it probably wouldn’t hurt to get some help. I e-mailed TRF member Matt Fry (Myrtle Beach) and friend Jim Brouwer, author of the book “Gold Beneath the Waves, Treasure Hunting the Surf and Sand” asking if either of them would be available the next morning.

I got back the next morning at 6:45am and started another north/south grid. Around 9:30, after getting rained on again, I looked up to see Jim walking down the beach. At this point I could have literally kissed him for showing up but refrained because the condo patios and the beach were getting pretty crowded with people. Anyway, I gave Jim the lowdown on where and what. Suggested he start looking in the area going north and I’d go south. Two hours went by and I see Jim walking towards me again, wasn’t sure if he was calling it a day (which I doubted knowing him) or he found it. When he got to me he asked if I was sure it was a “silver” ring that we were looking for and that he got a 12.04 hit on his CTX 3030. Owning a White’s PI I had no idea what a 12.04 was, but Jim informed me it wasn’t “silver”. Ok, so I asked if he found it at which time he dropped this beautiful 14K White Gold w/approximately a 3/4 Karat Diamond on it. Wow, my instant hero!! I asked where he found it and I’m almost positive I had gone over that area at least 4 times between last night and this morning. I did a quick test with my PI and I got a very faint signal with the ring on top of the sand so I very likely could have missed it buried the inch Jim found it at which I’m not sure why. My PI should have easily picked it up.

After thanking Jim at least 10 times for his help, I slipped the ring over my little finger and dropped my gear off at the car. I found my way up to Amy and her husband Brian’s condo room and knocked on the door. Amy came to the door and I started giving her a song and dance about how we’ve been searching for so long and that it was raining again and then I paused to let it sink in. Then I stuck out my hand with the ring and said “And we found it”!! I can’t describe her excitement other than to say it was awesome. Sam quickly texted Adrianne who was busy at work. Another fantastic outcome thanks to a friend’s help. Thank you Jim Brouwer!

I got a text from Amy a little later saying Adrianne was speechless, she breathed the biggest sigh of relief. That’s what this is all about!!

Brian and Amy thank you so much from both Jim and me for the very generous reward.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Jim Wren