Martin was snorkeling in the water right off La Jolla Cove and when came ashore, he pulled off his wet suit. In doing so, his bracelet broke and pieces sprung off into the sand and shallow water. He managed to find most of it, but, the end couple of links were still missing and he couldn’t find them. In talking with a few people on the beach, he met Bill, who is a regular there. Bill told Martin to contact the local metal detecting club, The San Diego Coinshooters, for help. He emailed Mike, who’s in charge of our club website. Mike then contacted me to see if I’d be interested in helping him. I contacted Martin right away to get the story and location. Since Martin lived out of town and had already returned home, we had to do this all by photos and descriptions. The site isn’t an easy area to search. Lots of rocks and mushy sand on a tidally active steep beach. Since it had already been a week since the loss, I told Martin that it was going to be a long shot, but, I was game if he was. With the go ahead, I hit the beach at 3:30 am to take full advantage of the low tide at 5:30am. He’d made a map for me to go by, and it proved accurate. I started at one end of his circled search area and about 3/4 of the way though it, I got a weak, bouncy signal mostly down in the mid teens on my Equinox showing a target at 8-10 inches deep. Everything heavy sinks deep very quickly at this beach, so, not unusual, and probably just another pull tab or bottle cap. This time, we were in luck. I found his bracelet links in the bottom of my scoop. Initially, Martin thought it was just a gold link that was missing, but, it turns out that both a gold and silver link had been lost, hence the strange signal. This is a very sentimental bracelet for Martin, so, he plans to have a jeweler fix it. A happy Martin made the 2 1/2 hour trip here to San Diego to pick it up. A pleasure to me you Martin and thank you for the reward and gifts.
You’re very welcome! You definitely deserved it! It was a pleasure meeting you as well Mark. And thank you so much for your expertise and help!
I’m beyond happy having the stone back. After searching on my own for a few days I gave up any hope that I will see my yellow sapphire again.
A week later Bill told me about The San Diego Coinshooters club. After talking to Mark on the phone I knew right away that he’s a PRO.
I started to feel that maybe there is still hope.
The next morning I got a text from Mark that he found it! When he sent me the photo of my lost stone I couldn’t believe my own eyes.
I couldn’t wait and went to pick it up the same day.
I would recommend Mark to anyone who lost their jewelry on the beach. He’s a true expert and a very nice person.
Best,
Martin