Lost Ring in Sand Playing Football .. Newport Beach, CA.
The sun was setting when I received a call from Gary’s wife. They had been visiting friends who live on the beachfront in Newport Beach. She told me that her husband had lost his wedding ring in the sand.
When I got the call, I was detecting in Laguna Beach. It took me about 15 minutes to get back to my vehicle and another 30 minutes to drive the 13 miles to their location.
Gary was there to explain how he had been playing football, when one of the kids grabbed his hand, pulling the ring off into the sand. The area was only 30×40 ft. square. Should have been an easy search, but after cross gridding three times. It was not looking good.
Gary walked up to me, saying he had to leave. I knew that the ring was not in the location that he had laid out. Asking him where else he had been, he pointed off to the right of the place where he thought it got pulled off his finger. It was getting cold but I would not leave till I covered the whole playing area.
I started a new grid pattern at the far side of the field. Two passes, then the magic sound of a gold ring in my ear phones proved to be the missing ring. Everybody was still in the house saying their good-byes, when I walked up to the house to give them the good news.
This was a classic search. Everybody was so positive that the ring had come off after his hand was grabbed. Actually it had fallen off more than 50 feet from that event. It’s my experience that kept me searching, when they had given up hope that I could find it. Again, I was still as surprised as they were.
A very nice family and you can see the smile on Gary’s face showing he was happy to have his ring recovered. He did apologize for putting me in the wrong place. I assured him this happens often, it’s part of the challenge.
Matt and Tiffany were walking the beach at low tide watching the sunset. Matt had intentions of proposing to Tiffany by presenting her with a engagement ring. It is a very flat beach and they were well away from the waterline. Matt came up with an idea to put the ring under a shell, so when Tiffany picked it up, she would find the ring. Even though they were away from the waterline, a small surging wave came up washing over the shell and the ring. The ring immediately disappeared. As soon as the sand gets saturated it is actually like quick sand, the ring sinks out of sight. Most times it doesn’t go very deep at least for the first few days. They spent a couple hours searching frantically as the tide was coming in and darkness overtook them. After returning home, Matt went online to research buying or renting a metal detector. That is where he found theringfinders.com locating my contact information. We met for a few minutes the next day at the next low tide. After hearing a detailed story and checking the past tides, I set up my grid pattern.. Matt was very positive about the location of the loss. My concern was the size of the setting may help the waves move the ring great distances. After 4 hours with no success I had to abandon the search till the next low tide.. The next afternoon I started 3 hours before low tide working an area south of the yesterday’s search. Then reworking the original location finding very few targets. Exhausted with the tide coming in, I was making plans for the next day’s search. My plan was to return with my Excalibur detector and search waist deep at the next low tide. It was dark, so just before leaving I went 100 yards. north swinging randomly. That’s when I got the sweet sound of gold.. Five or six inches down I scooped the beautiful white gold diamond ring.. I sent a photo of the ring in my hand to Matt in a text.. He said he almost dropped his phone when he saw the picture. We met the next morning at Starbucks. Tiffany and Matt came together . I had put the ring in a jewelers ring box with a sea shell. I gave it to Matt and he gave it to Tiffany.. This was the first time she had seen the ring other than a photo.. What a beautiful day, I will never forget.. Thanks to Matt and Tiffany for sharing the special moment with them.. I love my service.. Ring Lost Thurs. 10-27-15 — Ring Found Sat. 10-30-15 — Using Minelab CTX3030 metal detector 
Erika called Monday asking me if I would or if I knew anyone that would search for a ring lost at Descanso Beach in Avalon, CA. “Catalina Island”
