Mokume-gane Wedding Band Lost at Hermosa Beach, CA…Found and Joyously Returned.
I was checking my phone earlier today, the 4th of July, and saw that I had received an email from Geoff who explained how he had lost his wedding ring yesterday while playing with his daughter in the surf at the beach in the early evening. I could tell there was an air of desperation in his email, because it was lost yesterday, and also in the surf, he wasn’t sure it could be found. I called him to find out more about the loss. When he told me about the loss, and where he was, as well as the tide at the time of the loss, I was hopeful for a recovery. I told him I would be there as soon as I could get there, the timing was right as it would be low tide in about 2 hours.
I was amazed that I was able to find parking close to the area of the loss on this holiday. I met Geoff and his family at the strand, and we headed out to the area of the loss. Geoff explained how he had paced off the area the previous day, which took us to where he remembered the loss taking place. He also explained how he and his wife had come back at 1:30 AM in order to search at the low tide hoping the ring would be visible. It must have been tough and discouraging to be at the beach at such an early time with only flashlights looking for something that would have already sunk down probably 6 inches. I started to search, setting a grid on the slope to the water. I worked one way with no luck, so I went to work on the other side. I was working the sand right where the water was coming over my feet when I received a signal, dug and found a penny. I kept looking in the same area, when I got a real good signal, dug down, and when I pulled the scoop out the ring was showing, so I reached down and brought it up to show Geoff. He couldn’t believe it, and I got hugs from both he and his wife. To see such joy is what this is all about. I told Geoff I was going home to start my Bar B Q. He thanked me for coming while I could have been grilling, when told him there was no way my ribs meant as much to me as his ring meant to him, and that it was my pleasure to help him.
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard, using the most up to date metal detectors, to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Northridge, Pasadena, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.
Jared wrote, “Hello! I wanted to reach out to let you guys know how grateful I am for Mike McInroe! What a blessing he is. Our lost ring story begins 33 years ago when my mother was pregnant with me. Due to the swelling she wasn’t able to wear her wedding ring anymore and being from the poor midwest, she felt awful not having her ring on and being pregnant. Despite their financial situation my father came home one day with a new, larger ring so she would have something to wear while she was pregnant. It wasn’t much but it meant the world to my mother! She decided while she was pregnant with me that one day she would give it to me or my spouse to wear when we were expecting our own. 33 years later, that day finally came. While she was visiting us for our baby shower in Orlando from the cold of Minnesota she brought the ring to give to my wife and to share that story with her. Heartbreakingly she never got the chance. The day she decided to give it to my wife we were all fishing off our dock in the canal. My mother was wearing the ring on her pinky finger and when she went to cast the rod–she dropped her precious ring of 33 years into the muddy water. Needless to say my mother was heartbroken– as was I for her! I searched in the water for an hour or two, to no avail, bringing up bucket after bucket of mud in a hopeless search. Meanwhile my wife was laughing at me–having no idea why in the world I would be in the water and having no idea about the ring or the family story. We did not find the ring and my mother flew home to Minnesota heart broken. (A few weeks later she bought and mailed us a ring that looked similar, feeling it was all she could do.) I was determined to find that ring! In my search to figure out how to build a pump and dredge system to dredge and sift the mud, I found theringfinders.com while searching for “How to find a ring underwater.” I emailed Mike on a Friday morning and by that evening we had a time set for the following day. The next morning I explained to Mike how the ring had been lost 4 weeks prior and showed him the dock and where we thought it might be. He said a little prayer as he climbed down the ladder into the canal and began his search. About 20 minutes later we heard the wonderful buzzing of his metal detector, picking up a strong signal. A couple of muddy scoops later and with a huge grin on his face, he pulled the ring out of his muddy sifter. Mike was an amazing spirit and a blessing to come and find our lost ring. We had our baby just a few short days after finding the ring and I can’t wait to surprise my mother when she comes down to meet the baby and to find out we found her ring–the ring she had been holding for 33 years!