This search began on Monday, June 29, 2026, when I received a text from Kimberly at 7:15 a.m. Her text said in part, “Hi, everyone refers me to you. What else do I have to lose? Last week I lost my family/mother’s ring in the ocean while playing catch with my son. The ring came off just below the pier just off to the right of the pier. The ring is a wide band type ring with three birthstones (Aquamarine, emerald and blue topaz) and four names (which she included) engraved on it. The band is silver.” I asked her the basic questions for a water loss, “what day, time, and how deep was she.” We went back and forth with more questions and answers. Finally, I told her I give it a shot. When I got there, I started a mid-beach to knee deep water grid search just to the south of the pier. After looking at the area as a whole, I face timed her to get a better idea of the area, since what I was looking at was huge. During the face time, Kimberly mentioned some stairs leading down to the beach and also her kids had told her that the lifeguards had put a lifeguard stand out there about where they were. That phone call helped me reduce the area considerably. I changed my position and started at the far side working back towards the pier. After about 2 hours or so and getting hit by the incoming tide, I called it for the day. I called her and told her my plan and that I’d go back out the next day. I also told her the theory about silver rings is that they’re a lighter metal and are more apt to be moved by the waves and current. I’ve had searches for silver rings before that I couldn’t find. I know it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but I’d rather be upfront and honest with someone.
Tuesday, I arrived back out there about an hour and a half before low tide and decided to work south of the lifeguard stand, she had mentioned and work back towards the pier. I was probably a few grid lines past the lifeguard stand and almost to a set of stairs that came down to the beach from a rental when I made my turn to head back into shore. Boom, I hit a big signal showing a 24-25 (good silver numbers) on the VDI (visual display indicator) on the Equinox 800. Dimes usually show up in that range, but this signal was stronger and louder than a dime. A couple of scoops of sand and shells and I had the target out of the hole. I rinsed the sand out in the surf and gently shook the scoop. I didn’t see anything but shells again, so I shook the scoop again. Still nothing until I looked in the corner of the scoop and peeking out behind a shell leaning upright against the edge was a little bit of silver. Shook it lightly one more time and there was Kimberly’s mother’s ring staring up at me. I took a picture of the ring and called Kimberly, who didn’t answer, so I sent the picture and text saying, “Happy Mother’s Day – again!!!” I had left the beach and headed home when Kimberly responded, “Omg!! Are you still down there? My family is still there on the beach now.” So, I turned around and called her. She gave me their names, so back on the beach; I found Mark and Robin (I think that was their names). They took possession of the ring to deliver to Kim on July 4th. I guess on this search, the silver ring was heavy enough that it didn’t move. With everything said and done, the ring was pretty much where Kimberly said it would be. Lesson learned on my part.
Today, July 4th, I got a picture from Kimberly showing me her ring was back where it belonged.
Kim – Thank you for calling and trusting me to help find your precious Mother’s ring.
Jim
