Shortly after 11 am on Tuesday, July 2nd, I received a text from Lora that said in part, “What kind of fee do you charge? My husband lost his ring!!!” I responded telling her, “I do this on a reward/gratuity basis. Call me so I can get the details” along with my phone number. When she called, I found out her husband, Mike had lost his ring the previous evening at about 8:30 pm while looking for shells. She gave me the hotel name and I told her I could be there in about 15 minutes. When we got off the phone, I looked up the hotel and found out it’s in Myrtle Beach and not North Myrtle Beach like I thought. I called her back to confirm Myrtle instead of North Myrtle, which she did. Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle beach are too separate cities but have exactly the same street numbers, so it gets confusing for both locals and tourist. Now that I got it straight, I told her I’d be there in about 30 minutes. She told me that her and Mike were out and about and they wouldn’t be there to show me the area. She was able to give me a pretty good idea of where I needed to search so I wouldn’t be wondering around aimlessly.
I text her when I arrived on the beach, and she responded back that they were heading back. Looking at the tide tables when Lora first called, Mike lost his ring about 2 hours before low tide. By the time I arrived I was about an hour after low tide, so I didn’t have a lot of time to search. I started a north/south parallel to the beach search right at the water line. When Lora and Mike showed up, I got a few more details. Mike was in the water, maybe shin deep and taking cupped hands full of water and throwing up towards the beach. With this new info, I changed to a perpendicular east/west grid search and a few yards outside the suspected search area. I told Lora and Mike that they didn’t need to stick around, and I’d call them either way. With the east/west search I was getting in the water to about thigh deep. I knew Mike’s heavy Titanium ring would ring up in the mid 20’s on the Equinox 800, so I was confident I had found his ring. After digging a scoop of sand and spreading it out on the beach, I saw Mike’s ring peeking up through the sand. I took a picture of the ring and sent it to Lora saying, “Kiss and make up.” I called her and all she could say was “OMG” about 4 times. Then she said, “we’re on our way.” When they arrived, I got a big hug from Lora and a strong handshake from Mike. That’s when I learned they were in Myrtle Beach celebrating their one-year wedding anniversary. This will be one they will never forget!!!
Lora/Mike – Thank you for trusting me to find your lost treasure. Wish you all the best and many many more Anniversaries, but none to match this one!
Jim
