Lost Rings at Night! – Pensacola Beach – FOUND!
Well, I’m not sure if this counts as 2 rings or more but I am sure that Kelly and Bill are absolutely thrilled that I was able to put them back on her hands where they belong. Kelly and Bill have been married for 25 years and have been down vacationing from Michigan. Kelly folded her rings into her swimsuit early in the day for safekeeping and forgot they were there when she got up later to meet her sister. You can imagine her shock when she realized they were gone that evening. Kelly went ahead and called me even though it was nighttime and I’m glad she didn’t wait. Bill had gone out with a sand flea rake for fishing and combed the area already to no avail. I told him later that he had actually just made the rings go deeper and deeper every time he disturbed the sand because of the density of gold. Luckily for Kelly and Bill, I have a wonderful wife and even though we were at dinner 30 minutes away, she offered to ride with me and we immediately went home and grabbed my gear. I met Bill in the parking lot and he walked me down to the area he thought they had lost them. I could see all of the rake marks and I told Bill I would start my search there and then fan out if needed. I absolutely love night searches on the beach. It’s nice and cool and you can hear the waves over the hum of the machine in my headphones. You can enjoy the stars without bumping into sunbathers and it’s just a great time to enjoy what I do. I also knew that I had a very anxious couple waiting on the outcome so I was very glad that as I made my first pass I heard a faint gold sound. I was a little surprised at how deep it was even though I knew Bill had thoroughly raked the area. When my first gentle scoop to five inches came back empty I thought to myself that they were very lucky they called me and I had the machine that I was using. The second scoop was the charm and I reached down and dug the first ring out of the scoop to make sure I didn’t scratch it. When I saw that I had them both in the scoop, I smiled and handed them to Bill. With a shaky hand, he asked me to hold the light and he took a picture and sent it to Kelly in the room so she could stop worrying immediately. We walked back up and told my wife that I was already done in less than 10 minutes and Bill asked us both to come up and meet Kelly. When we walked in the door I was quickly reminded why I do this. Bill and Kelly both got choked up remembering how much those rings had been a part of over the last 25 years. I was glad that my wife got to witness that and I hope Bill and Kelly have many, many more happy years together. 👍😃