Lost Ring in the ocean – Found Sunset Beach NC Tag | The Ring Finders

Beach Proposal at 11:30 am, Ring Swimming With the Fishes by 1:30 pm at Sunset Beach NC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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Saturday, June 5th, about 2:30pm, I received a frantic call from Mackenzie asking if I could help find her “silver” ring that she lost in the ocean. Knowing that low tide was around 11 am, I was hesitant to ask the normal questions, but I did. “What time did you lose it, and how deep in the ocean were you?” Mackenzie responded that she lost it about an hour ago and she was in a foot of water. I knew with the 30 minute drive that the ring would be out of reach with the incoming tide by the time I’d get there. I wanted a chance to see what I’d be up against when I went later that evening. I also wanted to meet Mackenzie and get the full story so I went ahead and made the trip. When I got to the beach, I met Mackenzie, her fiancé, Alex, and 3 or 4 of her friends. I had Mackenzie show me the area she was at and tell me exactly what happened. She told me Alex had proposed to her at about 11:30 am; she said yes, they took pictures and a little while later she got in the ocean with her new engagement ring. She also said that the ring was a little big, and while in the ocean she watched it slip off her finger and disappear. I talked to Alex to get his perspective and he told me pretty much the same details Mackenzie had except he said the ring was Platinum. I started a perpendicular grid search from the shore to out in the ocean. After a short time, Mackenzie came out in the ocean where I was and said her friends thought she was further south down the beach. By that time, it was close to high tide, so I told her I’d be back around 9.

I got back up there around 9 pm and started a grid search from the far end of the southern boundary working north towards the pier. After an hour plus, and working about three quarters of the area, I got a great signal on my PI detector. I dug one scoop of sand, checked the hole and had the target in my scoop. I walked back up the beach to get out of the water before I dumped the scoop of sand. I turned on my headlamp as I spread the sand out with my foot and didn’t see anything. I ran the coil over the sand again and still got the signal. I reached down with my hand and spread the sand out some more and got a little glimmer of something shiny. Boom, I had Mackenzie’s engagement ring. I sent her a picture and waited for a response. After 5 minutes, I called her and told her to check her text messages. Her excitement was what I expected! I had a second ring search that I still had time to make before low tide on a different beach and ask Mackenzie if they could meet me there. It was actually closer to where they were staying so they agreed. I was finished with the second search shortly before they arrived and I was waiting in the parking lot. When I returned the ring to Alex to put back on Mackenzie’s finger it was within a minute or two from being 12 hours since he had proposed and slipped the ring on the first time.

Anna – Thank you for sharing my information with Mackenzie and Alex.

Mackenzie and Alex – Thank you for trusting The Ring Finders to help find your lost treasure

Jim

         

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4th Generation Gold Greek Orthodox Byzantine Cross w/Gold Chain Lost on Sunset Beach NC – Found and Returned

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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On Tuesday, Jul 21st, at 10:59 p.m. I got the following email from Stephanie, “Hi Jim, We have a family home on 6th street at Sunset Beach and on Sunday, on the beach at 6th street, a 4th generation Greek Orthodox Byzantine Cross on a gold chain was lost in the sand. It was my great grandmothers. Someone recommended that you might be able to help. If so, please let me know! Thank you so much! Stephanie.” I saw the email about 11:30 p.m. and immediately responded asking a few questions for more details, time of day, was she still in the area, etc. I gave her about 30 minutes and then sent her another email asking for her phone number and saying I’d call her the next morning between 9-9:30 a.m. This morning I had the following email from Stephanie, in part saying, “It was placed in the cup holder of the chair for safekeeping and then I forgot about it being there. When it was time to go, I closed the chair in the harder sand, just beyond the soft sand, and carried the chair on my back up past the trash cans, and then down the 6th street boardwalk. I realized when I was at my grandfather’s house that it was gone. I searched the gravel at his house, the boardwalk 3-4 times and the sand where I was sitting (before the tide came up). My cousins are still staying at our house on 6th street and could point out where we were. My parents, husband and I had to drive back home on Sunday for work on Monday. Since then, I called the police, and fire dept, Sunset reality, and put messages in some of the Face book groups.” She had also included her phone number, so I called her. While we were talking she mentioned that there had been a few people with detectors trying to help find the cross. I got her cousin’s name, Wilson, and his phone number. Low tide was at 3:32 p.m. so I had plenty of time. About 1:30 p.m. I gave Wilson a call and told him I was on my way.

I arrived on the beach about 2 p.m. and met Wilson and his wife, Corie, an extremely sweet couple. Wilson pointed out the area that Stephanie and the rest of the family had been sitting on Sunday. Stephanie had told me that they were sitting just off the dry sand, Wilson said they were out closer to the mid tide line. Not a big deal because I had planned to search at least down that far anyway. I started my grid search extending it both North/South and East/West. After searching for 3 hours, I had a couple of areas where sunbathers and a family were sitting that I still had to work around. The sunbathers finally packed up, so I was able to clear those areas. I only had one area to search, the one the family was occupying. This area would have been right in line with the path Stephanie would have taken to leave the beach. Otherwise, I was confident I had covered the area as completely and thoroughly as I possibly could. After waiting for a while longer, I finally went up to one of the family members and asked them about how much longer they planned on staying. They weren’t sure, so I told Corie that I’d be back a little later and headed home for dinner.

I went back about 7:30 p.m. and although there were still people on the beach, the area I needed to search was clear. I paced off the steps I had originally done before I left and started my grid search. As I turned the corner on my 5th line, and exactly where the family I had been waiting for were sitting, I hit a target that was giving me a solid  5 on the Equinox 800 VDI. GOLD! I carefully dug a hole so I wouldn’t take the chance of breaking the gold chain if this was indeed the cross and chain I was looking for. As I was removing the scoop from the hole, I saw the gold chain following the scoop. BOOM!!! I reached down and lightly pulled the chain and the cross came with it. I had left my phone at home, so I didn’t have the picture Stephanie sent but I was positive I had the right thing. Earlier Corie had told me she had seen the cross, so I drove to the house they were staying at. By now it was 8:30 p.m. so I was afraid I was disturbing them. I knocked on the door and Corie came to answer it. I held the cross up and asked is this Stephanie’s? She covered her mouth with both hands and stared. Then she said she wasn’t sure and face timed Stephanie. Corie turned the phone towards me as I was holding up the chain so Stephanie could see the cross and chain. Stephanie had no doubt and quickly confirmed it. It hit me that I was holding something that had been in the family close to, if not over, 100 years old. This crosses’ story can now continue for maybe another 4 generations or more.

Wilson and Corie – Thank you so much for all your help on this and the kindness you showed me.

Stephanie – Thank you for trusting me and The Ring Finders to help find your family’s lost treasure.

Jim

    

 

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Man’s Platinum Wedding Band Lost and Found – Sunset Beach NC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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I got a call from Patrick about 1:30 p.m. today, Jul 25th, telling me his brother-in-law, Jason lost his Platinum Wedding Band and was wondering if I could help find it. I asked him when it was lost and he said about an hour ago. This was great, because that meant he lost it right at high tide. Patrick also told me it was ankle deep and about 100 yards from a particular sign posted on the beach. Ironically, the sky was turning black and the thunder was rolling across the sky. I asked if someone could meet me to put me in the right spot. Unfortunately, they had left the beach ahead of the storm, and weren’t available. This was another one of those “it should be easy” searches. I told him I was on my way.

As I drove the 30 minutes to the beach, it was pouring down rain, with lightening strikes everywhere. My plan was to get to the beach and wait out the storm in my car. That was all unnecessary because the storm had cleared out and the sun was shining when I got there. I walked out on the beach and called Patrick to confirm I was in the right area and to confirm I needed to go left about 100 yards. Everything confirmed, I walked down to the water’s edge and started pacing off 100 yards, in 25 yard increments. Not following my instincts, I started at the 50 yard mark and started a grid search parallel to the beach right at the high tide line. After 4 grid lines out towards the ocean, I was coming up empty. If only I had started at the 25 yard mark. After changing to a perpendicular grid and searching for 3 hours, covering about 125 yards across the beach, I took a break. I walked back to my 25 yard mark and kept the perpendicular search going. My 4th line I got a solid 14 on the Nox 800 VDI, usually a 14 indicates a pull tab, but not this time. BOOM! As I dug out the compact sand and spread it across the beach, I saw the ring rolling across the sand. I sent Patrick a picture of the ring, with a text asking where they were. I didn’t get a response, so I called him, no answer; I left a message telling him to call me. After a few minutes, he called and I ask if he had seen his text. After a pause, he asked if it was the right ring. I replied, I’m sure it is, it’s platinum, and it’s doubtful that another man’s platinum wedding band would be lost in exactly the same area as Jason’s. He asked where we could meet and I told him it’d be easier if I just came to him. When I walked out on the pool area where the family was sitting, I was welcomed with loud cheers. We donned our covid-19 masks, and did some fists checks. It’s hard to see the big smiles under Jason and his wife, Shannon’s mask but I assure you they had some huge smiles.

Patrick – thanks for calling and getting things started.

Jason and Shannon – thanks for trusting me and The Ring Finders to help find your lost beautiful treasure.

Jim

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Their Ring Story Continues on Sunset Beach NC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)
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This lost ring story started about 3 p.m. when Patrick, who was on vacation from Raleigh, NC with his family, was in the surf throwing one of those balls that skip across the water. Just after 6 p.m. he called me asking if I could help find his wedding ring. He said he had googled lost ring in the ocean and my blogs popped up. I asked him a couple of questions, what time he lost it, and how deep he was when it happened. He told me he lost it about 3 and he was about hip deep. Knowing what the tides were for the day, 3 p.m. was right at mid-tide and hip deep meant he was probably out a little further than the low tide line. Time was of the essence because by the time I’d get there, the tide will have turned around and was now coming back in. I got a few more details, including the address, and told him I’d be there in 30-45 minutes. At the time, my wife and I were leaving our neighborhood on our way over to see our granddaughters. My wife has heard these type of conversations before and instantly knew what was going on, she made a U-turn to get me back home. I grabbed my gear and headed to Sunset Beach.

When I got to the rental house, I met Patrick and his wife Colleen, their son, and other family members. On the way out to the beach, I asked Patrick if he was throwing the ball when it came off, and thank goodness, he said the ball hit his finger when it came off. He and his brother-in-law gave me a general location and I started an east/west (sand to ocean) grid line. I think I was on my ninth line, and maybe ankle deep in the surf, when I got a strong hit. I dug a scoop of wet compounded sand, checked the hole, and was pretty positive I had Patrick’s Platinum Wedding Band in my scoop. I shook the scoop out in the surf and heard the loud clanging of the ring. I walked back up to where Patrick was standing, shaking the scoop as I walked so he could hear the clanging. I don’t think he was believing what he was hearing until I held the scoop out for him to retrieve his ring. He was beyond excited and I got some great bear hugs. On our way back up to the house, I asked him if he thought his ring was gone for good. His response was something like, “I didn’t think I’d ever get it back.” We also worked out a plan to surprise Colleen by saying the surf was getting to rough and that Patrick really appreciated me coming out and trying. Colleen was on the back deck as we walked up the steps. We played the surprise though and as I’m telling her that I tried, but the surf was getting big, I kept glancing at Patrick’s finger trying to get her to look. At one point she looked behind her to see what I was looking at, then BAM!!, she saw the ring on his finger and her eyes started watering up, which made mine water up. I got a big hug from her and she was so excited. Great ending to an otherwise trying time.

Patrick and Colleen, thank you so much for calling me and I’m so happy we were able to get Patrick’s ring back on his finger where it belongs! Have a great rest of your vacation and a safe return home.

Jim

  

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