A little after 6:30 p.m., I received a text from Maryline that said, “Hello, I found your contact on the internet to help find lost rings. Lost mine today on Myrtle Beach. I’m wondering if you could please help out.” I asked her to call me so I could get the details. When she called, I learned she had lost her rings in the soft sand, and she could put me in the general area. I asked her to text me the address and was on my way.
On the way there, I got another text from her saying, “We are checking some pictures we took, and it seems like it could have fallen on the wet sand or the sea.” Uh-oh, I’m thinking we may have a problem if the rings were lost in the water. We were just coming off of high tide; so I might not be able to reach them. I called her to verify the time. She said one of the pictures showing the rings, while holding her baby in the surf, was about 4:30. Ok, that was about an hour before high tide. So, things were looking good again, the tide had turned, and it was getting close to an hour after high tide.
I met Maryline in the parking lot of the resort and we walked a couple of blocks to the beach. She walked me out on the beach and showed me where they had been sitting. She then took me down towards the water and showed me the general area where she was sitting with her baby. I started a north/south grid line about ankle deep with plans to work up the slope towards the dry sand. My thought was that if she was sitting in the surf and had put her hands in the wet sand, her rings would come right off her finger. I was probably three quarters of the way up the slope and hit a solid 6 on the VDI (visual display indicator), which is exactly what I was expecting for a white gold ring. A couple of inches away I was picking up an 8 on the VDI, again what I’d expect for a little bigger white gold ring. I took a scoop of wet sand and dumped it on the beach. I immediately saw her small wedding band. Boom!! I held it up and Maryline came running, jumping and screaming to get her ring. Now to get the engagement ring out of its hiding place in the sand. Unfortunately, the waves were filling up the hole with water and sand, burying the engagement ring. Suddenly, I wasn’t picking up the engagement ring on the detector. I think the ring got turned on its side and my detection area was now very small. So basically, I was digging blind and pulling up big scoops of sand. I finally pulled up a scoop and before I could run the detector over it, Maryline’s brother-in-law, TD saw it and reached down in the ball of sand and pulled it out. Maryline started jumping up and down and she got so excited that another couple came to see what was going on. Finding people’s lost items and handing it back to them never gets old.
TD – Thanks for your help!
Maryline – Thank you for calling me and allowing me to help find your lost treasures.
Jim
H
