Lost ring found at Mission Beach
Delaney took her engagement ring off before playing volleyball (a wise move) and handed it her friend Haley to put it in Delany’s bag for safe keeping. Haley dutifully place the ring inside the bag on top of Delaney’s jacket. Later in the day, Delaney grabbed her bag and hurried off to meet some friends down the beach. Once she met up with her friends, she remembered the ring and searched through her bag, but, the ring was gone. What to do? Well, she called friends for help and searched the web. I got the call, listened to a few particulars, and headed out to see about getting that 5 month old engagement ring back on her finger. Parking is always “fun” down by Mission Beach this time of year. Nothing close to where they were, so, I had to park in a lot a ways to the north. As I was walking to the location, a guy rides up from behind on his bike and asks of I’m there to find a ring. I tell him that hopefully I am, and then I notice that he has a detector too! He got the word also about the lost ring. We both see Delaney waving to us and we head over to meet her. Turns out they had a metal detector too and someone else in her group was also searching the sand! Okay, 3 people looking for this ring in the dry sand, that shouldn’t take long. Wrong! All three of us gridded the area where the bag was sitting when the ring was placed inside. We expanded out in all directions and made a few passes down the beach in the direction Delaney ran to meet her friends. Problem was, that exact location could not be determined. I could be anywhere from a few hundred feet away to several hundred yards, and maybe in the dry sand, maybe in the wet. That made that search area HUGE! We’re talking many football sized areas.
After a couple of hours without success, it started to get dark, windy and cold. Without knowing the exact area where she searched her bag, it was anyone’s guess at to where to search. We called it a night and I took a bit more info to mull over, and told Delaney I would keep the info and a photo on file should the ring turn up. She said they were going to return in the morning to continue the search and try to determine where she had been. I wished her good luck and to let me know if she discovered a new area we hadn’t covered. The next morning, I thought about going back down there and contacted Delaney to see if she had any new information. She said she thought maybe she was closer to the water and it might be in the wet sand now. They had already searched, but, came up empty. I decided to go ahead and give it another try. Delaney was already heading north on the road back home, so, she couldn’t meet me. No problem, I know the search area, and so just went on my own. I re-searched the first area by the volleyball court without success, and then headed the direction toward the supposed second area. Oh, I forgot to mention that since the night before, the beach grooming machine had gone through the area and sifted a 100 foot wide swath between the two search areas. Wonderful…., the ring could have been scooped up or moved hundreds of yards before falling out of the machine. I figured that would be the last area to search and I would concentrate on the slope and wet sand where the sifter didn’t go. 3 hours and many 300 yard long passes later, I was thinking about calling it. It was mind-numbingly quiet with virtually no targets of any sort, making it more of a walk on the beach than finding treasure. The good news is that you can cover a lot of ground when you don’t have to stop for anything. I finally, decided that this was going to be my last pass and head back south toward the 1st location. I got maybe a 1/4 of the way there when I got a nice solid 12 on my Equinox 800. Earlier I had found several of those sounds/readings, and they were all pull tabs or wadded up bits of foil. I took a healthy scoop of wet sand and thought I saw a flash of yellow gold as the sand sifted out. Sure enough, once the sand was gone a beautiful yellow gold engagement ring was looking up at me. Yes! Since I already had a photo of the ring, I knew it was Delaney’s. I texted her a photo and a subsequent phone call confirmed it was her ring and that she was on the road heading home. She arranged for her friends, that were still here in town, to meet up with me, so, they could pick up the ring and return it to her on their way home. They met me a short time later, took possession of the ring, and added their thanks to Delaney’s. A pleasure to meet you all, and thank you for the generous reward. My best wishes on your upcoming marriage Delaney.
One week ago a lady reached out to me for help finding her husband’s ring. Prior to calling me, she had posted on Facebook requesting help and had a map of where she thought it might have been lost. She sent me the Facebook link that included three streets highlighted. I replied that I would be glad to help, however, more information would be helpful. What was happening on that day? Riding a bike? jogging? driving? While waiting for her reply, I walked the sidewalks of the highlighted streets. The next day the husband called. He stated he had been moving from one house to another 1.7 miles away. He had removed his ring and placed it on the right fender of his truck. I went to the house and there was a small loam area that had been raked and searched as well as a circular stone drive way. I detected all of that and then went onto the street. I covered the area on the right shoulder of the ‘highlighted streets”. I estimated it to be half a mile. The next day I searched the yard for a second time. I called the husband and went over the time line again. I learned the truck was at the second house. This is where he first noticed he was missing the ring was . I also walked the shoulder of the street about a mile . On the third day I went to the second house and searched the truck with no luck. Finally, I said I am going to walk back so I have at least covered the whole route. Just a little distance from the second house there was the ring sitting real close to a storm drain. It had traveled 1.6 mile on the fender of the truck!!!! A few days later I was able to drop it off at their office. I never got to meet them but I am sure they were happy to get the ring back. It did suffer some damage while in the wild. I think it must have been run over at least twice. Bill
.This afternoon a gentleman called about a ring he lost four days ago. He lost it in a really huge field on his daily walk after work. He had placed his ring in his pocket and later on the walk placed his shirt in the same pocket. He was pretty sure the ring came out when he removed his shirt. The story sounded logical . We walked about a mile out into this field to an area where he usually puts his shirt back on. He was uncertain exactly where but somewhere within 50 square yards!! I detected and keep talking to him about that day . He seemed more uncertain as time went by. I told him that was normal . He wasn’t expecting someone to grill him over all the details of his relaxing walk. We moved on back out to another area he frequently replaced his shirt, again no ring. He thought it was useless being such a huge area and I said lets just work our way out kinda slow . At one spot he starts to go through a real wet area. I said wouldn’t you have gone up around the corner. He said maybe and headed for the corner. I keep right behind him swinging like crazy. thirty yards further and I see the circle of gold. I placed my foot over it and said “Hey come back here for a sec.” He came back and I said this this what a gold ring sounds like as I swung the coil over my foot. I don’t think he realized what was happening as I moved my foot and passed the coil over the ring. He just stared at his ring .It seemed like a long time but I am sure it was just a few seconds before he finally he picked it up. He was just speechless. I’m smiling like crazy and he gives me a bear hug!!!!!All the way back he kept saying he just couldn’t believe it. I am a little surprised as well .I guess the ring must have been caught in the shirt somehow. Lady luck was with me for certain tonight.. Bill
