Platinum Diamond Wedding Band Recovered … Malibu, Calif.
Pt. Dume State Beach, Malibu, CA. #1 …… Saturday April 4, 2015
Rachel’s husband Joel contacted me Saturday morning asking for help to find a wedding ring set that was lost by his wife in the sand Friday at Pt. Dume State Beach, Malibu, CA. I asked them to get to the location to secure the area that the rings were lost. It is spring break and with the great weather the beaches have been crowded. I was on the road soon after the phone call but it would be about 11am before we could meet up.
After arriving I met Rachel and she explained that she had taken off her wedding ring set off, setting them on her towel while applying sunscreen. Later in the day she picked up her towel shaking the sand off. It wasn’t until after they got back home that she realized that her rings had to be in the sand at the beach.
I started to grid search the immediate location where they had spread their beach gear. I was racing to search the part of the beach not claimed by other beach goers. Twenty feet away from them I found the platinum wedding band. Normally the larger engagement ring would be very close by, but it did not show up. We were right at the most used part of the beach the towel line, next to the lifeguard tower and close to the restrooms. I still could not get to all the sand area it could have been thrown when she shook the towel. After waiting 3 hours for people to leave the un searched sand, I could not find the larger diamond ring. It was hard to tell Rachel it was not there, but I know that I covered the area thoroughly and it was not there. It is very likely that somebody had found it, there are many people that work these beaches with detectors everyday this time of year. Especially the towel line. Rachel did tell me that the ring I found was very sentimental to her because it had diamonds from both her mother and grandmothers rings. She had worn these rings over sixteen years.
Normally I could search that type location in about one hour. I stayed more than 4-1/2 hours till I felt I had gridded the whole area in more than three directions in all metal mode with the highest sensitivity I could set my detector. Later I called a local detectorist to asked if he knows of any recent find from this beach. We also posted a lost ring add on Craiglist in hopes that someone has found the other ring.
This was a disappointing search for me, because I’m used to finding both rings when a set has been lost. I guess this is what they call a bitter – sweet type feeling. Rachel’s 11 year old daughter was so happy after finding the wedding band, she said that she made two wishes that morning. One wish was that we could find the wedding ring .. She said she couldn’t tell us the other wish, because it would ruin the wish.
Sarah and her husband had spent the day at Laguna Beach. The weather has been awesome, sunny and temperatures in the mid 80’s. They left about 2pm to get on the road before traffic got too bad. Thirty minutes down the road Sarah realiz
ed she did not have her wedding ring set. Two very special rings that she has worn for over 25 years. Her and her husband had recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last week. She knew that she had put the rings in the cup holder of her beach chair while putting on sunscreen. There was a possibility that the rings were in the sand where they had been sitting. Returning to the beach and sifting through the sand with their fingers with no success . Sarah Google searched “how to find a ring in the sand” . Up popped a link to TheRingFinders with my contact information. I was in my car about 8 miles away, but it took about 20 – 25 minutes to get to her location. Just as I pulled up Sarah’s husband found the larger ring. I was able to locate the smaller ring after a few swings of my CTX3030 minelab metal detector. It was a weak signal which may have been because it was in a vertical position. It may have been buried a little deeper because they had been moving around a lot of sand doing their search. What’s most important is Sarah has both of her very special rings back on her finger, hopefully for another 25 years. Sarah commented how her smart phone and the internet worked to bring us together. I agree, I have the metal detecting equipment and know how to use them, but the smart phones and internet makes these recoveries happen.
I received the call at about 3:30pm while detecting at Huntington Beach. It took me awhile to walk a half mile to my car, but I was able to me Alexis and Andrew at 5pm. We talked about the circumstances leading to the loss of the ring. I explained to them how my equipment works. Some people think metal detectors can find things several feet from the coil. Other people do not believe the work for such small items as rings. I knew it was possible to search the long walk back to the parking lot, but the best place to start would be where she picked up her blouse. Sometimes other persons move an item containing the ring or keys not knowing something was hidden inside. I set up an area to grid search about 40’x30′.. Making six passes parallel to the beach with out success, I setup my CTX 3030 to beach mode – all metal and began a cross grid. The next move would have been the long walk back to the parking area. (time consuming and the sun was setting). Three 30 foot passes to and from the water I got a nice 12-02 signal. Calling Alexis over to see the signal and hear the sound, I told her this is your ring and I scooped it. It was a beautiful ring. She dropped to her knees in tears of joy. Andrew also came over to thank me telling me that he had all but given up on ever seeing their ring again. It was a great day and I got another lesson of humility. It is a game of inches and it pays to cross check.
Jason called me Saturday evening from home in Corona, Calif. asking if I could help him. His friend had told him about TheRingFinders. He noticed his wedding ring missing after six hours of doing chores around his large property. Jason had spent a day and a half retracing all his activities in search of his wedding band. He lives on a large piece of property and had been doing a lot of work in almost every part of his yard. Almost everything he had been doing could have caused his ring to slip from his finger. He was taking down Christmas lighting decorations from his two story house, fences and trees. Dealing with hundreds of feet of cords coiling them up then putting them in storage boxes. He also took the Christmas tree from the house cutting off all the limbs to put them in large trash containers. On top of all that work he spend time cleaning his pool. All these activities were done without gloves and all these activities were the type of movements that would cause a ring to slip off a finger.
