Family Heirloom, lost ring Navarre – FOUND!!!
This weekend was the Blue Angels show so I assumed that Sunday morning I would have a lost ring call from Pensacola Beach. In reality, the call came from Stefanie, just down the road in Navarre. When I spoke to Stefanie, I immediately knew that I had to go look for this ring and when I hung up I looked over at my wife Jeannie and she said “I want to go with you”. It’s always a good sign when my lucky charm wants to go so I started getting excited as I packed up my gear. When we got to Navarre, we quickly parked and headed to the beach. As we walked along on the sand, I saw a woman waving at me about 100yds away. When we got to her she explained that her name was Nicole and she was the actual owner of the ring. She had Stefanie call because she was too upset to talk when she lost it. As we walked over to the rest of her family she explained that her mother received this ring 65 years ago and had left it to Nicole when she passed away 14 years earlier. Nicole was actually raised by her Grandparents and refers to them as her mother and father. It made it even more important because her Father, who was a Police Officer passed away in the line of duty seven years ago. This ring was a symbol of the two of them and Nicole had every intention to pass it down to her oldest daughter, Josie who was also looking on expectantly as I prepared to hit the water. Nicole had been knocked down by a wave a few hours before and when she came up from all fours in the shallow water, her precious family heirloom was no longer on her hand. She had a good general idea where she was but with the tide coming in quickly and the waves getting bigger every minute, she was rightly concerned. I told her that I would grid out the entire area and that if it was there, I would find it. It only took about fifteen minutes before I heard a very deep signal up on the shelf before the sand drops down. I happened to be right in front of Jeannie and she quickly started videoing for prosperity. I made one deep scoop and looked down to see the beautiful diamond ring with so much history at the bottom of the scoop. Nicole was a short way down the beach but I motioned to her that I had it. She came over and in disbelief pulled out the ring and gave me a huge hug. As Josie and Stefanie came over, I got to see the smiles and happy tears and once again be reminded why I do this. Congratulations to you all, I am glad I got to be a part of the story for such an important part of your family’s history. God Bless!
Marta called and said her husband Travis had just lost his wedding ring in the sand. They were at the volley ball courts in Point Pleasant Beach when it flew off. We made arrangements to meet on court 18, I also had her request to shut down that one court so the ring wouldn’t go any deeper. When I arrived Travis showed me where he thought it had came off, and in just a few swings the ring was in the scoop. It took longer to find the court they were on than the recovery itself. I love the expressions when an item is returned.
Andrew called asking about locating his wedding ring he lost in the bay the night before. We talked for a while and he was positive of the location the ring popped of while catching a football. He said it was in chest deep water, and he had pictures of exactly when it came off. I met him at the house a few hours later, got my gear together, and we walked out to the spot. Well, the water was quite rougher and deeper than it was the prior evening, but we continued the search with no luck, as he stood in the exact spot he said it flew off. After 2 hours we threw in the towel, and decided to resume searching in the morning at low tide. I brought my weight belt to hold me down, and a buoy to mark the spot. After about an hour I got a strong signal that turned out to be his ring. Turns out it was closer to chin/shoulder deep where it was lost, and low tide with no boat traffic allowed me to get his ring in my scoop in roughly 5′ of water. Definitely one of the more challenging recoveries, due to the water depth, and not being able to see my equipment on the bottom. Andrew and his wife were totally amazed. 
Thursday morning early I received a call from Chris. He and the family were playing on Pensacola Beach late Wednesday afternoon when his wife, Katarina, noticed her engagement ring was missing. Chris asked if I could help, that he and the family were due to check out of the condo they were staying in a few hours and had to travel back to Austin that day. They had a photo of Katarina or the beach with the ring on her finger and she hadn’t gone in the water so the assumption was it was lost somewhere in the sand. I told him I would be glad to help and would come immediately. Fortunately my gear was already charged up and in my van. I quickly kissed my wife bye and headed for the beach. I arrived about two hours before condo check out time so I got with Chris and Katarina right away and got details about where they were on the beach and the activities they took part in. They pointed out approximately where they set their beach chairs, but there was significant surf the night before and the beach had significant erosion from the waves. Now beach erosion is very common here, sand is constantly, moving around, but their spot was able to set the longitude axis so we started there. Katarina said they played catch with a ball and she had jumped up several time with her arms raised with finger reaching out, which sounded like the place to start searching. All in all the area was pretty big, between one half and two thirds acre. Because the ring was lost in late afternoon and this was the next morning I assumed it was not deep in the sand, my first mistake. Because they were under time restraints I was working faster than normal, my second mistake. Two hours later we got together to reassess and I started again but this time I set the detector to search deeper and moved much slower. I started from the spot where the beach chairs were located and followed the anticipated route Katarina may have taken to where she played ball. About half way to that spot I got a fairly good signal but it was two to three times deeper that I expected. I set my recovery scoop as deep as I could so I could get under the target causing no scratches or damage to a ring, spread the sand on the surface and checked for a signal, got nothing. I quickly stuck my detector coil in the hole and received a much better signal, carefully digging a second scoop of sand and spreading it out I ran the detector over it and pinpointed the ring. Reached down and held it up for Katarina. She was overjoyed! Now there were probably thirty people on the beach many who had watched me hunting not really knowing why. When Katarina received her ring and held it up most of those thirty or so people understood and started clapping. Her two daughters were excited and when to get their Dad. I apologized to Chris for my two mistakes that delayed their trip home, but he didn’t care he was just glad they were returning home with the ring that had been on her finger for 15 years! I think both had half way come to accept the ring was lost forever. It was a happy ending all around. I do not know how the ring was able to get maybe 8 to 10 inches deep and was glad I found it after about three and a half hours but I would have kept going till it was recovered.
