Lost Cross at Beach, Brant Beach NJ, LBI, Recovered by Edward Trapper, NJ Ring Finder
I was at a family picnic when I received a call from Anthony, stating that he had just lost his beautiful cross on the beach, somewhere in the area they were sitting. It was early afternoon and I told him I would be able to swing by soon, and to secure the area so nobody else came and setup their beach things in the exact same spot. Anthony assured me that was not a problem because they were there for the entire day, plus the fact he was very anxious to get his cross back where it belonged around his neck. We spoke about the events leading up to the mishap, that’s when he told me about the big creator he and his friends had dug that day in the sand where they were sitting. He said they had all been digging around looking for the cross for quite a while, but were positive it must be there somewhere, because he had spent the best part of the morning there, digging. It was then I asked them to please stop digging otherwise the cross may get buried to deep for my machine to pick it up. When I arrived I could see the creator from the dune walkover, and it was pretty big. Sure enough, it was close to 4′ deep, and roughly 6′ in circumference. I hopped in, scanned the entire bottom and the walls, without even a squeak of a sound from my metal detector. Next, I scanned the piles of sand they had pulled out of the hole with no luck either. I asked them to pull the piles down lower, to an average of no more than 10″ higher than the regular beach level. Once again, no luck anywhere, so only one more place to look was the bottom, after they pulled about 10″ of sand out. Now, with all the sand moving, I assured that the cross was positively NOT in, or anywhere around the crater. So, back to the drawing board, where he mentioned they were tossing a football on the tide line earlier, and that his friend did tackle him there. I told him I really wish he mentioned that earlier, as the tide had been rising very quickly. Once he showed me the area, the cross was in my scoop within 2 minutes. If Anthony told me that one detail of the day, my search would have started there, and all the sand moving could have been eliminated. Lost of detective work is needed to rescue items from their hiding places.
I received a call from a gentleman who was inquiring about my ring finding service. He was basically gathering information for his son, Nick. He explained that Nick was off loading some hay bales, when one of the strings grabbed his wedding ring and flung it out into the cow pasture. We discussed how my services work, which he felt was extremely reasonable. His one main concern was that they had been looking for the ring about 1 week already, with a pretty decent metal detector, and had absolutely no luck finding it. He was wondering if the same thing would happen when I came in to try and locate the ring. I had explained that unless you are extremely experienced in recovering lost items, it could be very challenging, especially in a cow pasture with about a week of rain. Talk about smelly and muddy to say the least. He was going to talk it over with his son, and assured me I would most likely get a phone call in the next day or so. This was a private location so there was no rush. As figured, Nick sent me a text asking if I wanted to give it a shot, to which I replied, absolutely! Nick’s one concern was being he had no luck, what do I think the odds of me finding the ring were. I assured Nick that if he was 100% positive his ring came off in the manner that was explained the night before, I was just about that positive I would be able to recover his ring. We made arrangements to meet after work that day. Once I arrived I put on my boots and out to the location we went. Again, as I do with every, I went over and over again exactly what, where, and how the ring flew off. After about 25 minutes covering every inch in multiple directions, all I had was a pouch full of trash. Actually, I was starting to think his ring may have not came off where he said. We took a few steps back to survey the location, and the only thing possible was the hay trailer was about 10’ or so closer to the road side of the field. I worked one or two paths from the already covered spot, and my machine let out the sweet sound of success!!!! I bent over and pushed the slop around until my pin pointer held a steady sound, and just as I figured, there was Nicks ring. I so so love when my clients are positive they know when their items fly off. Thank you agin Nick, it was a pleasure.
Kerry called during the day and left a message wondering if I would be able to help find his lost wedding ring on the beach in Wildwood NJ. I called him right back to go over some of the details about how he lost his ring. Kerry explained he was on the beach with his family, playing with the dogs, and when he looked at his hand he noticed his wedding ring missing. He was very detail oriented, recalling every move leading up to the beach episode. After going over every detail of the day, he distinctly remembered having it on at dinner, and was almost positive it came off while playing with the dogs on the beach. Well, then he mentioned that he had searched the entire area with a metal detector and had no luck. They had also walked back and fourth the entire distance many times. If you know this beach it’s quite a vast area, kinda like walking to another zip code or two. I hope that brought things into perspective a bit. It was getting dark so they threw in the towel for the day, and returned the next morning with rakes to rake the entire area with hopes the ring would pop up. With no luck, it was time for them to pack up and head back home. I asked him to mark the exact location on his cell phone, with the GPS feature on Google Maps, and send it to me with a picture of his ring, and I would head right there after work. I parked right by the boardwalk, grabbed my gear and headed out to the beach. I opened the location he sent and somehow it was right where I was standing on the beach just beyond the boardwalk. I figured I would follow the dog tracks, but with the wind blowing about 30 knots they were getting covered by the drifting sand. Kerry had mentioned that he was straight out, and roughly 50′ from the high tide line, which was a good thing. Once I got close to the water I was able to see the area they had been raking earlier that morning, without that mark I highly doubt I would have been able to find the spot. Another huge thing in their favor was that the area was flat wet sand from from the prior high tide, and even though it had been raked quite a bit, didn’t blow flat, with the screaming south east wind. I turned on my machine, made one path around the perimeter, and on my return path Bingo!!! My machine gave off the sweet sound of success. A nice solid low tone, which I knew immediately was Kerry’s ring. Once back at my truck, I called his relatives phone hoping they were in town, but they were not. Then I called Kerry with the good news, and arranged to meet him at a later date to return his ring. another great recovery in the books.
