Jim Wren, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 25 of 32
Wedding Day Save, North Myrtle Beach SC
Matt Fry (TRF Myrtle Beach) called me saying he had just received a call for a lost ring in my area. He gave me Craig and Ashley’s phone numbers, and details on what happened and where it happened. I called Craig and got a few more details on their location and was on my way.
When I walked out on the beach, I saw the family standing in the dry sand, excited that I was there. The story goes that Craig and Ashley were getting married on the beach and Ashley’s son, Anthony, was the ring bearer. The way I understand it, as Anthony was handing the wedding band to Craig to place on Ashley’s finger, he dropped it in the soft sand, oops!!! I didn’t ask, but I assume the ceremony went forward without the wedding band. When I got to the spot the ring was dropped, I could tell the family had frantically searched the sand as there was a huge pile of sand that had been moved around. I turned on the machine, made two swings, and got a great tone on the Equinox 800 with an ID of 6 on the screen. Perfect number for the 14K white gold wedding band, maybe size 5-6, I was looking for. I ended up taking 3 small scoops of sand off the top of the pile before I saw her ring shining up at me from the bottom of the scoop. I took the ring out and handed it to Craig to verify, yep, we had the right one!!! Craig turned around and gave it to Ashely, and she wasted no time putting it back on her finger. It’s a great feeling to get that lost treasure back where it belongs.
As we got the pictures done, and walking back to the parking lot, Ashley’s daughter, Arial stopped, looked at me, and said; “I will never forget you.” Wow, that was awesome!
Craig, Ashley, Anthony, Craig Jr, Arial, and Ashley’s parents, it was indeed my pleasure to meet you all and help return your precious ring. Best of luck to all.
Jim
Man’s Platinum w/Gold Wedding Band Lost at High Tide, Found and Returned North Myrtle Beach, SC
This ring journey started when I got a text message from my son-in-law about a lost ring. I called him and got the location and was on my way. I got to the beach about 10 minutes later and got a brief ring description, search area, the name of the owner, Christian, and his phone number. I started a north/south grid search from the low tide line, working my way up the beach towards the dry sand. After about an hour and a half of searching, I was running out of the wet sand to search and daylight to see. I finally hit a great signal and dug it up. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my headlamp with me, but I could definitely hear the heavy metal sound of the ring rattling in the scoop as I gently shook out the sand. I reached in the scoop and removed the ring, lit it up with the flashlight on my cell phone, and was pretty sure I had the right ring.
I called Christian and introduced myself and confirmed he had lost his ring. I asked him to describe it, and when he did, I knew we had a match. He sounded like he was more in shock than excited that his ring had been found. He and his wife, Erika showed up within 20 minutes to claim his ring. Big hugs, a few tears, and huge smiles all around.
Christian/Erika, it was great getting to meet you both. Best of Luck to you two and so happy we got the ring back where it belongs!!!
Jim
Prescription Glasses Lost in the Ocean, Found and Returned North Myrtle Beach SC
It had been a great weekend with family in town and sadly as they all left, I wanted to do a little metal detecting. I had just received my new quest scoopal sand scoop in the mail and attached an old wooden handle and was ready to go. There were plenty of people on the beach; the problem was, there weren’t any places to park. After driving to three different spots, I finally found a parking spot and hit the beach. I had my new scoop in one hand and my new Equinox 800, third time out with it, in the other hand.
I hit my first target, stuck my new scoop in the sand, and wouldn’t you know it, my handle broke. I then remembered why the handle wasn’t attached to my T-Rex scoop, I had cracked the base of the handle and changed it out last year. Luckily, I still had my T-Rex in the trunk and headed back to the car. On my way off the beach, Betty approached me wanting to know if I had found a pair of kid’s prescription glasses. I hadn’t, so I got the description of the glasses and found out they had been lost within the last 10 minutes. I told her I needed to change scoops and that I’d be right back and see what I could do. There’s usually very little chance of finding freshly dropped glasses. Glasses are so light; they get pushed and pulled by the surf until the metal frames finally settle in the sand and get buried. Also, as they’re getting pushed and pulled, the lenses get scratched up rubbing against the sand.
When I got back to the site, I started doing a grid search in the surf, hoping to visually spot the glasses. After a pretty extensive visual search, I told Betty that I’d be there for a while, working the outgoing tide, and if I found the glasses, I’d leave them with the lifeguard. As I’m working the tide line, I walked north of the lost area and spotted the glasses laying on top of the wet sand about 20-30 yards away from the original area. I picked up the glasses, verified they were the right ones, checked for damage, and headed back to find Betty. Betty and I spotted each other about the same time, and I held up the glasses. She and Annie, the mother of the girl that lost the glasses, both came running towards me. Both were very excited and called Kamila to come down from the hotel and get her glasses. While we were waiting, I found out they were on vacation from Illinois and were originally from Poland. I didn’t learn the relationship between Betty, Annie, and Kamila, but it didn’t matter. Once Kamila showed up, she identified the glasses and checked them for damage, everything was okay. Found out from Annie that she had called her husband who was going to overnight a spare set of glasses the next day.
Kamila, so happy I was able to help get your glasses back where they belong.
Jim
Lady’s 14K White Gold Engagement Ring Lost at Ocean Isle Beach NC, Found and Returned
When I woke up on Tuesday, May 8th, I noticed I had a 6:30 a.m. missed call with a voice mail from Michigan. Robert, who had left the message, stated he had found me through The Ring Finders website and was wondering about the details in finding a lost ring. He also said his wife’s engagement ring was lost in my area. When I called him back, we discussed the details of the search. He stated that his mother-in-law had lost his wife’s engagement ring, probably had it on her little finger and it slipped off. One of his questions concerned this being a scam, I assured him everything was on the up and up and gave him a short version of my history. The conversation seemed to put his mind at ease and he gave me the description of the lost ring and the general location. Shortly after, I was on my way to Ocean Isle Beach.
During the forty minute drive, Robert sent me pictures of the rental house they stayed in, the beach access where they entered the beach, and the search area. Actually, there were two search areas, one possible area, and inside that area was a probable area. It looked like this might be a pretty big search, everything considered. I texted him about 10:35 a.m. telling him I was there, and I’d let him know when I found it. I also asked him when her ring was lost and he responded saying either the 1st or 2nd of May.
A couple of things I’ve learned while beach hunting and watching people, one – they don’t venture to far right or left from where they came onto the beach, and two – they “usually” veer to their right to find their spot. So, I grabbed my PI detector and went straight from the stair access to the mid-tide line, dragging my scoop behind me leaving a line in the sand. The PI was going crazy with all the trash in the sand making this search very time consuming. Luckily, I had brought my AT Pro and hiked back to the car to retrieve it. I was alternating my search grid from the left and right of my center line when I noticed two ladies walking out on the beach. True to form, they were veering to the right of the stairs and started setting up their chairs and stuff right where I needed to search. I nicely told them what I was doing and asked if they would mind setting up about 10 feet left in an area I had already searched. They didn’t seem happy but they moved, thank goodness. Two more passes on the right of my center line, and just about where the ladies would have been sitting, I got a strong signal with a 51 on the screen, exactly what I expected for a small lady’s white gold ring. I looked down at the sand as I waved the detector back over the spot, and actually saw the top third of the ring sticking out of the sand. BOOM!!! I had her ring.
At 12:55 p.m. I texted Robert a picture of the ring, asking “Look familiar?!?! and then called him. When he answered his phone, I asked him if he got my text, he said he had but hadn’t looked at it yet. I told him he needed to look at the text. I heard him gasp, and he said something like “oh my goodness, I can’t believe you found it.” Before we hung up, we worked out the details to try and get the ring back to him, in Michigan, by Mother’s Day so he could surprise his wife, Abbey. Unfortunately, the ring didn’t make it back in time, but Robert had a backup plan. For Mother’s Day, he had her open 4 boxes inside one another, each box contained a picture. The first box had a picture of my book, “Teardrops in the Tides; The Journeys of a Ring Finder.” The second box had a picture of the search area. The third box was a picture of my scoop in the sand where I found her ring, and the forth box had a picture of her ring. Robert shared with me that Abbey was so happy she cried.
Robert, thank you for trusting in me to help find Abbey’s ring.
The smile on Abbey’s face says it all, how can it get it better. Robert also sent Abbey’s Mother’s Day surprise!!!
Jim
14K Man’s White Gold Wedding Band Lost in the Sand, Found and Returned North Myrtle Beach, SC
My wife and I had just arrived at our oldest daughter’s house to see our three granddaughters for an afternoon of fun. As we’re walking in the front door, I heard my daughter, who was on her phone, say; “Hold on, he just walked in the door.” As she’s handing me her phone, she says it’s one of her co-workers, Sandra who had a lady in her office reporting a lost ring. When I talked to Sandra, she informed me that a young couple had lost his wedding band in the sand in front of the resort, and the young lady was extremely upset. I got a description of the lady making the report (tall, blonde hair, and wearing a cowboy hat). I told Sandra I’d be there in 15 minutes. Luckily, I had thrown my PI machine in the trunk before we left home because I had intentions of hitting low tide after we left our daughter’s house.
After finding a place to park, I walked out on the beach looking for a tall blonde wearing a cowboy hat, and not seeing one. As I’m walking down the beach, I see a young man walking towards me with a big smile on his face. He asked if I was there to find a ring when I said yes, he introduced himself as Rob and he leads me up the beach to the soft sand. As I’m walking up, I see his wife, Anna, who is about six months pregnant and crying, sitting in the sand running her hand back and forth over the top of the sand, trying desperately to find his ring. Their story was that his ring was sitting on a towel and when she picked up the towel to shake it, his ring went flying. Rob showed me the small area and on my second grid line, BANG! When I got the signal I looked over at them and smiled, they knew. I let Rob reach in the scoop and get his ring back. Now Anna’s tears were tears of joy.
Rob and Anna – thank you for trusting me to find your lost ring and the very best to you two and your new addition!
Jim
Platinum Engagement Ring with 1ct Diamond Lost around Wilmington, NC – Found and Returned
Sara-Kate called me on Monday, Apr 16th, saying she had lost her engagement ring and asked if I could help try and find it. No problem I thought, then Sara proceeded to fill in the details. The first issue was that she had been driving to one of three places when she took her ring off and put it in her lap while she applied lotion to her hands. She was sure her ring fell off her lap and out of the truck when she made one of her stops on the way to the beach. The problem was she wasn’t sure which part of her trips she applied the lotion. She went on to say that she went from her house to her friend’s house, both in Wilmington, NC, from there to a gas station on Carolina Beach, NC, and then finally to the Freeman Park beach at the north end of Carolina Beach, NC . This search just got a little more complicated. She told me she checked, rechecked and checked again for her ring inside the truck with no luck. She had talked to her friend and asked if she would look in her driveway, which had negative results. She also called the gas station, who didn’t return her call. So, this pretty much left the loss at the beach, or somebody picked it up in the parking lot at the gas station. The second issue was the beach is located in Freeman Park, and North Carolina has rules about metal detecting in Parks. The rules aren’t specific to National, State or City Parks; the guidelines are just “Park Rules,” which states “metal detectors are not allowed in any park area except to locate lost personal property when authorized by a Special Activity Permit.” I know that beach is heavily detected, in fact, I’ve detected there myself, but this time I wasn’t willing to get arrested. I called the park and was told that it wouldn’t be a problem to detect there, so that was good. The third issue was this particular beach can be driven on, with a four-wheel vehicle. When Sara-Kate lost her ring, it was at night and very dark on the beach so she wasn’t positive where she parked and got out to walk to their campsite. Luckily, it was high tide when she lost it, so I didn’t have to worry about it being in the ocean. I also had to consider that it might have been run over and pushed deeper into the soft sand, so I had to dig the deep targets as well.
With the park permission out of the way, the only thing left to do was search the beach. We tentatively made plans to meet around 7 p.m. but she’s a mother of two children, ages 5 and 1, and children don’t follow schedules. So, we decided to meet at 7 a.m. the next morning, Tuesday, at a local McDonalds and go from there.
It’s an hour and a half drive from home to Carolina Beach, so my morning started really early. We met around 7:30 a.m., drove to the beach, I jumped in her truck, and we drove out to their camping spot. I always take two machines, usually my PI (primary) and AT Pro (backup), glad I did this time. Sara-Kate put me on the spot, as she remembered it, and I started my search. Within the first three steps, I had collected a dozen tent stakes, which was wasting too much time digging them out. I went back to her truck and grabbed the AT Pro and started over. After searching where she thought she parked, I moved probably 100 yards further south and worked a back and forth grid search to my original starting point. The area I was searching is all camping spots, and the amount of trash people leave in the sand is amazing, and this is with trash cans every 15-20 feet. Anyway, after searching for almost 4 hours and cleaning the beach of trash, there was no ring. I was completely confident I had hit it hard and hadn’t missed the ring. Bless her heart, Sara-Kate was trying so hard not to show her disappointment, but I could see it in her face and hear it in her voice. When I can’t find something for somebody, I truly feel their pain. I knew she had pretty much given up hope of finding it because she was talking about filing an insurance claim on it.
As we’re driving off the beach, I don’t remember which one of us brought it up, but we decided to head to her friend’s house and give it a try. Following her in my car, we made the 20-25 minute drive and pulled into the driveway. My first impression was if her ring hadn’t been picked up in the parking lot of the gas station, it had to be here in the grass. Sara-Kate and her friend were trying to remember where the cars were parked in the driveway at the time of the loss. Meanwhile, I started doing a grid search about 6-7 feet left of the driveway working my way back towards the driveway. On the third pass, while I’m checking out a pretty good shallow target, I glanced over to my left, and there was her ring. Just sitting down in the grass, where it had been for the last two days. I picked it up and cupped in my hand, walking towards where Sara-Kate was standing talking to her friend’s husband. I was acting like I finished with trying to find her ring and looking disappointed. I said to her, “Well young lady, I don’t know what to tell you.” She responded, “You can tell me you found my ring,” as she’s jumping up and down like she’s excited. My response was, “OK” as I held up her ring holding it between my finger and thumb. It caught her totally off guard as she stared at her ring not fully grasping what I had said, then Bam, she stepped back, bent over at the waist, covered her face with her hands and said (loudly): “Oh, S#&T”!!!! Then the tears started flowing. The moment was priceless and is exactly why I love being a ring finder. It took Sara-Kate a few minutes for the shock and excitement to wear off, and the reality of having her ring back to set in. When it did, we jumped in our cars and drove to her house to give her fiancé, Danny the good news. Sara-Kate was so excited to tell Danny, she flew out of the truck and into the house, yelling over her shoulder to me “come on in.” When I got in the house, I got to meet the whole family. Her fiancé, Danny, their 5 year old son Wyatt James, who wanted me to go out in the back yard to play, and their precious little daughter, Lilly. Lilly actually let me hold her and gave me big grins. I’m pretty sure the whole family was feeling the excitement of Sara-Kate having her ring back. Danny was definitely happy and couldn’t believe we found it. He confided in me that he hated the thought of having ten more payments on the ring, but Sara-Kate didn’t have it. Well, now she does Danny!!! Nothing but smiles and hugs when I left. It doesn’t get too much better than this.
Sara-Kate and Danny – Thank you for trusting me to help find your treasure. Best of Luck to you two, you’re an awesome couple with a beautiful family.
Jim
Wedding and Engagement Rings Lost in the Dry Sand, Found and Returned in North Myrtle Beach, SC
It was a little bit before 10 p.m. when I saw an email from Jennifer saying she had lost her rings and wanted to know if I could meet her sometime the next day and possibly look for them. I immediately sent her a response saying I could be there in 20 minutes and to call me. If at all possible, when I get a call on a lost ring, I want to start the search as soon as possible. There’s a lot of things that could go wrong, the longer the wait. Jennifer called me 20 minutes after I sent the email and we agreed to meet. We met at a McDonalds since her and her family were staying in a gated resort and I’d need an escort to get into the resort area.
As we’re riding in the elevator to get from the parking garage to the main level, Jennifer filled in all the details of her losing her rings. She told me that her future son-in-law, Noah, had previously asked her and her husband’s permission for their daughter, Aly’s hand in marriage. Tonight was going to be the night Noah was going to propose. The family was on the beach and Jennifer, who’s a photographer, was snapping pictures of the kids, waiting for the big moment. Jennifer had been laying in the sand taking some pictures, and when she stood up and started brushing the sand off the front of her pants, her rings went flying. The temperature on the beach was in the low 40s, so her hands and fingers had swiveled up making her snug rings fly off her finger. She continued telling me that she spent an hour searching with other members of her family to no avail. Jennifer said that Aly was thinking this might be the big night, and this was all part of the surprise, and she’d end up finding her new engagement ring. Jennifer had to convince her that her rings really were lost. At some point during the search, Aly and Noah went to Bass Pro and bought a metal detector, which proved ineffective. After another hour of searching and freezing, Jennifer googled lost ring and found me through The Ring Finders website.
We made our way out to the beach and Jennifer showed me exactly where they were all at when she felt her rings come off. It was obvious they had been searching hard because the soft sand was all dug up and thrown around. I started a north/south grid about 10-15 feet from where Jennifer said she was standing and on the first pass got a great signal. Dug a couple of scoops of sand, shook out the scoop and saw the 14K white gold wedding band staring up at me. Jennifer came running over to me to see what I found, and I handed her the ring, she was very excited. Ok, now to find the diamond engagement ring. I continued my grid search in the small 15 by 15-foot square working towards the area where Jennifer had been standing with no luck. So I went back to my starting point and moved one step in the opposite direction and BAM! Dug a scoop, shook it out and WOW!! I walked towards Jennifer and let her remove the ring from the scoop. She was completely surprised we found both rings and elated we had. Big hugs. Total search time was around 10 minutes.
Jennifer said she was very disappointed that during all this, Noah didn’t get to pop the question. Since he didn’t get to ask Aly, Jennifer asked me to hold off on posting this story until after the kid’s big moment.
Jennifer sent me a text tonight saying Noah popped the question and Aly said yes and when Noah proposed, Aly didn’t drop her ring in the sand!
Jennifer, thank you for entrusting me to help find your lost treasures. It was a pleasure meeting you, and I wish Aly and Noah all the best in their future endeavors.
Jim
TEARDROPS IN THE TIDES; The Journeys of a “Ring Finder”
Just wrote and published a book about some of the ring find and returns I’ve had over the last few years.
10K Clemson College Ring Lost in a Golf Course Pond – Found and Returned North Myrtle Beach, SC
On February 13th, I received a phone call from Ryan asking if I could help retrieve his Clemson ring he lost, the day before, in a pond on a private golf course. My first question was, “are there any alligators?” He assured me there wasn’t, and went on to say that he lost it throwing a ball in the pond for his dog to fetch. He also said the ring was in about 6 to 8 foot of water. I told him I was up for the challenge, but I wasn’t a diver. However, my son-in-law, Donnie was, and I’m sure he’d help if I needed him. After all was said and done, I agreed to search but had to wait for a waiver of liability from the golf course. In the meantime, I called Donnie and told him what was going on, and I was going to attempt to recover the ring, and I’d call him if I needed his help.
Ryan sent me a text two days later saying his boss finished the waivers, and I could search as soon as I signed it. I had them make two waivers, in case I needed Donnie to help. We set it up that I’d meet him at 2 p.m. in his office, sign the waiver, and start the search. When I got to his office, I learned he was the Assist. Superintendent, which explained why he was able to have his dog with him on the course. He drove me out to the pond in one of the maintenance carts, and when we pulled up, I thought it didn’t look too bad. Well, looks were deceiving!
As I took my first few steps into the pond, I was sinking at least seven to eight inches in the extremely soft mud. I immediately started picking up great signals, but they were long and narrow. There’s only one thing those could be, yep – Golf clubs! Total, there was two putters, one fairway wood, two club shafts, one grip with a shaft, one tee marker, and two clubs I didn’t pull up.
So as I made my way out to the area Ryan said he saw his ring hit the water; the water was getting colder and deeper. The water temp had to be in the low 50s, my wetsuit helped, but it was still cold! I got out as deep as I could on tiptoes until I was chin deep and still wasn’t in the right spot. I searched as well as I could but wasn’t getting anything close to a small solid signal. I made my way back out of the water, picked up my cell phone and called Donnie.
When Donnie showed up, he had his scuba gear and went right to work. He made his way out and searched with no luck. By then it was almost dark, so we called it a day and made plans to go back.
We decided and planned on going back, today, February 20th. Donnie came up with a plan that he’d run a rope anchored on shore to an anchor buried in the mud past the suspected area. The rope gave him a track line that he could follow while submerged since any movement stirred the mud up and made visibility zero. Close to 30 minutes later, Donnie popped up holding the ring in his hand. Ryan drove up to check on us just as Donnie handed me the ring. Ryan was definitely excited he had his ring back.
Donnie, thanks again for all your help, couldn’t have done this one without you.
Ryan, Thanks for trusting us to find your ring. Good luck in all your future endeavors!
Jim
