Lost Gold Wedding Band Honeymoon Island, Florida…Found!!!
Steve Thomas
Dunedin Ring Finder lostringdunedin.com
“It’s only lost until I find it!”
Lost a ring or other metal valuable at the beach or in a grassy or sandy area? Jewelry slip off of you while working outside, playing with the dog or swimming? Please contact me ASAP at (843) 995-4719 or @dunedinringfinder. I offer a FREE metal detecting service, reward optional but appreciated upon recovery!
My wife and I recently were in Texas for about six weeks for the birth of our second grandson. I received several messages from individuals who had lost jewelry in the water at Honeymoon Island. Because I knew I would not be returning for several more weeks, I needed to call upon some experienced, trustworthy detectorists to conduct searches for these lost items as soon as possible and before they were found by someone who would not return them.
Jim contacted me to say that he had lost his white and yellow gold wedding band in shallow water at Pet Beach, Honeymoon Island State Park. Jim and his wife BJ were enjoying the day and the water but Jim had slipped on the rocks and shells in calf deep water and had fallen to his hands, losing his ring in the process. Because I was still in Texas, I messaged the Pinellas County Florida Ring Recovery group and over the course of the next few days several detectorists (Scott, Brenda, and Jason) searched for the ring. Jim had met Scott on site and showed him where he thought he lost the ring but the ring could not be found. Because Jim was so certain of where he had lost the ring, we all assumed that the ring had been found by another detectorist.
I returned from Texas a few days later and Jim reached out to me and asked if I could meet him at the beach for one last search. I agreed and arrived at the loss location about twenty minutes before he did. I turned on my Minelab Equinox 900 and began a grid search of the wet sand walking north and after a few minutes hit a target that I thought was in the rusty beer cap range. As I began to dig, some curious beach goers came up to see what I was doing. With my second scoop out popped Jim’s ring! I was shocked that it was still there after several weeks although it was a little further north and a little closer to shore than I thought it would be. The beach goers were very excited after I told them the story and they agreed to sit quietly and watch me surprise Jim when he arrived. Jim walked up to me a few minutes later and after introductions I asked him to point out to me where he thought he had lost his ring. Jim pointed in the general direction of the hole I had just pulled the ring from! I took Jim’s ring out of my pocket and asked him if this is what it looked like. Jim was initially speechless and the beach goers burst into applause.
Thanks to my fellow detectorists from Pinellas County Florida Ring Recovery for assisting with the search. And thanks to Jim for the generous reward and for trusting the Dunedin Ring Finder to find your ring. I was so blessed to have found it!
Eileen called just as I had gotten out of the dentists office, wondering if it would be possible to come and search for her I-Phone that slid off the roof of a car, and landed somewhere alongside the roadway. She explained that she had put the phone on the roof of the car, and said goodbye to her company. Forgetting the phone was on the roof she went inside, and her company drove off. The following day she realized the phone was missing, and realized what had happened. She contacted her friend hoping he had picked it up prior to leaving the night before, which wasn’t the case. They had finally decided it must have slid off the car roof and landed somewhere on the side of the road. Using the find my phone app. they found the last known location of the phone before it died, where they searched for 4 days without any luck. That was when she decided to call in a professional recovery expert. We made arrangements to meet on the side of the roadway that afternoon. It was there Eileen went into more detail about HOW important this phone was, as nothing was backed up to the cloud, including over 6000 pictures, that were absolutely unreplaceable. This area was right in front of a big housing complex, that had manicured grounds with fences and pristine walking paths. I was praying it didn’t fall off there as the grass cutters had recently cut the lawn, and it would have shredded it to bits, had they ran it over. I instructed Eileen to go into the management office, explain what happened, and ask if possibly the phone was turned in. While she was in doing that I covered the entire area on both sides of the road, and all the landscape, with no luck, just as I had figured. Standing back, looking in the opposite direction, the curve in the road looked ever so inviting of an area, for a phone to slide off the roof. I walked back covering everything from the road in about 10′ with no luck. Then I turned around and continued back along the tall weeds, and wood line. Right along the weeds, just inside of where the mowers cut, I received the loudest broken signal from my metal detector, that I know ever to familiar, would be her cell phone. Sure enough BINGO!!!! I had her phone. I decided to record the moment when I returned her it, and needless to say, what a heart filled experience it was, reuniting Eileen with over 6000 photos, which covered many years of her life prior, to this almost tragic mishap.
Jennifer called to inquire about the possibility of recovering her wedding and engagement ring, that accidently flew off her finger into the water, at the boat dock. As usual I questioned her about exactly what had happened, as well as any information she might know about the water depth, clarity, current, etc. She explained that she had opened the state room door, stepped out onto the finger dock, and was brushing some crumbs off one of the boat cushions, when both rings flew right off her finger, into the dark water below. Jennifer was adamant this was exactly what happened, and confirmed both rings must be pretty much straight down, or possibly under the other boat, or under the finger pier. The water was a workable depth of around 5′ or so, depending on what end of the finger pier I was. Knowing how deep and dark the water was, I had to gather many items to ensure I had what was needed, to make this a successful recovery. Once on location at low tide, the water did average 5′, so that was a good thing. What wasn’t so good was how black and muddy the bottom was, as you can see the nasty black mud in the one picture. after clearing MANY targets, which is common in marina locations, I got a promising signal, that turned out to be Jennifer’s wedding ring. She was quite surprised I was able to find it with all the trash on the bottom. One would figure the other ring would be right near by, but after another 45 minutes, I had no luck. I really didn’t want to throw in the towel, but I was leaving for vacation early the following morning, and had to call it a day. Jennifer was extremely grateful, as I promised her I would return the first chance I had after I got home.
