House Key Lost in Sand .. Balboa, Calif. .. Recovered
Monday June 1, 2015
It was about 3pm when I got a call from a guy I call John Doe. I call him John Doe because I forgot to ask him his name. Then when I ask him to pose for a photo he declined. I just got through with a doctor visit. My detectors were in the car and I was a couple miles from where John lost his only house key in the sand at the Balboa Penensula, Newport Beach, CA.
When I arrived John met me at on the boardwalk. We walked out to the beach where he showed me where he had picked up his shirt forgetting that his single brass house key was wrapped in the shirt. When he picked up his shirt the key dropped into the sand. After a half hour searching by hand John gave up. He went to the Internet after his neighbor told him about TheRingFinders.
We walk out to the to the towel line where he pointed to the area where he had been. I left my Minelab CTX 3030 on discrimination setting not to be bothered by bottle caps, pull tabs or other trash. It was a small area, but I could not find the key. John had another brass key with a large metal ring (ferrous) . When he threw it in the sand my detector could not give me a signal. The ferrous ring was nulling out the smaller brass key. A lesson learned for me.
I put my detector into all metal mode and reworked the area I had gridded. No Key to be found. When I looked at John, he had that look of doubt on his face ready to give up the search. I asked him again if he was sure this was the location.. His face dropped saying positively, “it was right here” I moved 5 feet up from the where we were and got a good signal which turned out to be his key. John was glad to have his key because he would have had to replace 4 locks if we didn’t find it.. It was another special day on the beach at the Balboa Peninsula.
