Hyatt Regency Resort … Huntington Beach, Calif. … Monday .. April 6, 2015
I received a call from a lady who said they had lost her husband’s ring Easter Sunday in the sand while staying at the Hyatt Regency Resort in Huntington Beach. She told me her husband’s name is Chris Turner and he was in a meeting. He would contact me soon. For a second I thought the call was some sort of prank, because the founder and CEO of TheRingFinders is also Chris Turner. It was just a coincidence. I told her I would not wait for him to get out of the meeting, because this is one of the most heavily hunted areas of Huntington Beach by recreational metal detectorists, especially the day after spring break. I would go to the general area and wait for Chris’s phone call.
After arriving I walked out on the beach to the towel line. I could see that the beach sifting machines had already passed through this part of the beach. They are very thorough, but sometimes they set up their machines for surface cleaning allowing them to travel faster covering more area.
Chris called saying he was on his way to show me the exact location. When he walked on the beach I was gridding about 50 feet away from where they had set up yesterday. He directed me over to the location and told me that he had given his wedding band to his wife to put in her coin purse. On the way back to their car he asked her for the ring. It was not in the purse. They went back spending 2 hours searching the sand. Possibly they moved enough sand that the ring sunk deep enough that it was missed by the sifter. I made about three or four 25 ft. passes and got the beautiful solid sound of precious metal. Scooped up Chris’s beautiful ring that he has worn for 16 years of marriage. Smiles and high fives from the other people on the beach. Then a big man hug from Chris. It was hard to keep a positive attitude in this search because I know this beach well. Just as we were taking a few photos for this blog, here comes one of the regular Detectorist that work this beach. I was surprised we didn’t see more. Chris got on the phone to give his wife the good news. Then on his way back to work.
