Rings found at Coronado beach
I received a call from Angela about two gold rings that were lost at the beach in Coronado. The usual story, the rings were removed for skin lotion and stowed for safekeeping but ended up in the sand when the couple packed up to leave. They were just visiting here and had to leave the next mornning, so time was of the essence. When I received the call, they were not available until later to show me in person the exact area but they were able to describe it fairly well.
Knowing that this beach gets searched often, my wife and I hot footed it down there and I began a grid. I usually do a quick, one-direction, no overlap scan first to hopefully save a lot of time. On a fresh drop in the dry sand like this one, that’s usually all it takes. No such luck this time. The area was reasonable large, even with their detailed description so I was resigned to the fact that I would be there a while. I then started another grid the other direction and worked slow and with a 50% overlap. Still no rings but I was finding coins and good sounding junk, so I knew nobody else had beat me to them. I had already expanded the search area quite a bit so I figured I had covered the “drop area” at least once. Ok, I guess I could have missed one of them but both? Time to start over so I began gridding the area in the same direction as my first quick scan but this time, slow with overlap and dig every sound. After another half hour or so, I get a scratchy foil/junk signal and out pops the engagement ring! After seeing the tiny size of it, I finally understood why I wasn’t getting a strong signal! It was maybe a size 1 1/2 and wire thin. I then ran a spiral pattern, with the first ring as the starting point. On my second time around, I found the wedding band, same scratchy 12-03 on my E-trac and same tiny wire sized band. I guess I’ll have to start digging more junk targets when I hunt for fun!
I made the fun phone call to her husband Mike and offered to drop by their hotel and drop them off. We met a happy Mike out front where he told us that he hadn’t informed his wife yet that they had been found. He was planning a surprise for later. Thank you, Mike, for the reward, and I hope the surprise turned out well and you had a safe flight home!
Brenda B. called me today just as my wife was taking fresh biscuits out of the oven for strawberry shortcake. I told my wife I would be right back because Brenda lives a couple miles away. So I jumped in my car and headed for Brenda’s house. Upon arrival I drove up to a newer development of homes with well manicured lawns and in the middle of her lawn was a screw driver sticking out of the grass. I rang the doorbell and met Brenda, she told me her daughter lost the charm off her necklace while playing in the lawn with her boyfriend. The screwdriver marked the spot where she thinks she lost it. I set up a grid and started in line with the screwdriver I moved back and forthe for about 10 feet both ways. It is amazing how many coin hits I got in a newer lawn but that is not what I was looking for. I expanded my search out about 20 feet and there it was in direct line from the screwdriver 20 feet away. All is well and I suggested that Brenda buy her younger son a detector to find some of those coins.
half an hour. Within 30 seconds we found the ring, new shiny and very nearly lost. It was the heaviest white gold ring I think I have ever recovered and I’m very relieved to have recovered it for them.
between the brick path boundaries and grass the detector let off the gold ‘growl’. Laying out of sight, camouflaged by the gravel, lay our ring. Mr & Mrs Marchment were very pleased having been married decades and made a generous donation to the air ambulance.
