August 18, 2024
A mid-day text from Jeanna would keep me busy for a couple of hours with only half the results I strive for. It seams that her daughter Julian had been enjoying time at one of Cape Cod’s private beaches. She had taken her 4 rings off and place them in a pocket for safe keeping. The rings, each given to denote a special occurrence, is a tradition held by her father.
I arrived at the area of loss to and found more beach goers than I thought would be in the area I needed to search. Carefully I searched the open area and very soon found one ring. Nearby was an unoccupied tarp for young children to rest on. There was no children on it so I gently swung my detector over it, heard a target and ask the father if I could retrieve what I thought was a second missing ring. “go away and come back tomorrow.” I explained what I was looking for, and why I was requesting to retrieve the target under the tarp. Begrudgingly he said I had two minutes. It only took 15 seconds to carefully pull the tarp back half way, retrieve the target which was the second ring and replace the tarp exactly as it initially was, minus some sand that had been on it. I wondered just how he would have reacted if it had been his daughter’s ring I was looking for.
Well there were no more signals at the time. I would have to wait for other beach goers to leave for the day so as not to interrupt their enjoyment. I returned three hours later, and after the last of the beach goers left I completed the search of an area four times that of the area I had been shown that the rings might be in. The search did not reveal either of the last two missing rings. I wonder just where those two rings might be. Either way they were not there for me to find, even after I went back a third time, just to put my mind at ease for doing everything I could to find them. My best two theories are one someone else had already found them or they had not fallen from Julian’s pocket in the area I searched.
I made arraignments to return the two rings to Julian’s mother, Jeanna. We both agreed that I had done my best and all were not lost. Had I been contacted on the day they were lost, the outcome may have been different. That is why it is so important to start a search as soon as possible after a loss is made. In this instance I was searching 6 days after the rings had been lost. My best guess is that someone just happened to see the rings and picked them up. I did contact other known detectorists about the loss with negative results.
In the end, both Jenna and Julian are thrilled to have back what I was able to find.
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