Unique 2 Generations of Rings Lost in the Ocean, Found and Returned in North Myrtle Beach SC
Kevin called me at 10 a.m. this morning saying he had lost his gold wedding band the day before and wanted to know if I could help find it. He went on to say that this ring was extremely sentimental to him as he had taken his grandfather’s wedding band and his father’s wedding band and melded them together to make one ring, his. This ring’s story had a long history attached to it and needed to be found. I asked him what time he lost it and how deep he was in the ocean. He replied, “3 p.m. and about belly deep.” Knowing the tide tables, this was right at mid-tide. So, depending on how much sand was on the beach, I’m thinking his ring should be buried very close to the low-tide line. I had a few things to do, and low tide wasn’t for a couple of hours so I told Kevin I’d be there around 11:30ish.
When I got to the beach, I texted Kevin saying, I’m here and stood around scoping out the conditions. It wasn’t long before Kevin and his wife, Suzanne, showed up, and Kevin started pointing out the suspected area. I thought my best hope was an east/west grid search, going from the wet sand to roughly waist deep water. Kevin didn’t know exactly where the ring had come off and mentioned that he had drifted both north and south. So I wanted to extend the search area taking advantage of the low tide. I had my White’s PI, which meant I was digging every piece of wire, bottle cap, and pull tab; and wasting a lot of time digging junk. I was on my 6th or 7th line and hit a great signal, dug it, and unfortunately, it was another bottle cap, a quick cuss word and I moved on. Within about 6 inches, I had another strong signal, thinking I had yet one more bottle cap to add to my collection, I dug the target. As I spread out the sand with my foot, I see this round thing peeking up through the sand and shells. Didn’t look like a bottle cap, reached down to pick it up and my finger went through the middle of it – BAM!!! I was holding this beautiful ring. I instantly knew it was Kevin’s from his description. I nonchalantly washed the sand off his ring in ankle deep water, grabbed my scoop and started walking back up the beach. I slipped his ring on my index finger to hide it from view until the right moment. At the same time, Kevin was walking down the beach towards me and asked, “Tell me.” I said, ‘Tell you what.” He replied, “Tell me you found my ring.” I held my hand up with the ring on my finger and said, “I don’t know, you tell me.” He yelled out, “Oh My GOD,” put both hands over his face, and was totally overwhelmed. Suzanne came running up the beach from the surf, with tears in her eyes. Many, many hugs and thank yous. This is the reason I do this. Total search time was just over an hour.
Kevin and Suzanne, thank you so much for trusting me to help find your lost treasure! Have a safe trip back home.
Jim
While out searching the rough surf for a large gold necklace, I was getting tired and thirsty and decided to take a short break. As I sat there relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean, a man approached me and explained his dilemma. Two weeks earlier, Teddy had been walking on the beach and towards the end of his walk he noticed a bunch of garbage in an area of the soft sand and decided he would do the noble thing and pick up the trash and deposit it where it belonged…..in the garbage can! Earlier in his walk, he had been fiddling with his ring and for some “unknown” reason he slipped the ring onto his pinkie finger, where it was a tad loose.
Daytona Beach, Florida is a great place to enjoy the Atlantic Ocean. There are miles and miles of beaches, more sand than one can imagine and refreshing, warm salty water to play and swim in until your heart is very content! Unless of course you happen to lose your wedding ring. And that is exactly what happened to Bart on August 18th, 2018 while playing catch with a football in knee deep water with his young son. They immediately stopped playing and scoured the sandy bottom, desperate to find his lost ring. Unfortunately his ring had simply vanished.
