Lost Ring in the sand Holden Beach NC Tag | The Ring Finders

Mother’s Gift Lost in the Sand, Found and Returned on Holden Beach, NC

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)

I and my wife were on our way from dinner when I decided I wanted to spoil my granddaughters with some Krispy Kreme donuts just before bedtime, cause that’s what grandpa’s do. As I was paying for the donuts my phone rang. Noticing an out of state number, I was pretty sure this was a lost ring call. When I answered, Jennifer said she had lost a ring on Holden Beach and wondered if I could help find it. I asked my normal questions of: where was it lost on the beach, dry sand, wet sand or in the water, and at what time. She replied it was at 5 p.m. but she wasn’t exactly sure where. She knew she had the ring on when she got to the beach. She also said she was with her triplets at the water’s edge and then when she was leaving the beach she was putting shoes on one of the babies and noticed her ring was gone. She continued by saying that a pretty good size wave was coming in and she was scurrying to get the kids out of the way and thinks it may have fallen off then. I got a little excited when she told me what time she lost it, because high tide was at 5:23 p.m. and it’d be after 9 p.m. when I got there, so I wasn’t going to get wet! I told her I’d be there in an hour.

When I got to the address she sent me, she was outside waiting. I got a few more details as we walked out to the beach. She told me this ring was her mother’s and that her mother gave it to her for a birthday present and for the birth of her triplets. The ring was White Gold and was extremely sentimental to her. Just to be safe I turned my detector on as we walked to where she was with the babies just to make sure it hadn’t fallen off as they were leaving. We got to the spot and I started a grid search right at the cut line for the high tide. Within a few steps I got a good 8/9 and started digging. I was down at least 6 inches and thought her ring couldn’t possibly be this deep in 4 hours. Figuring the target ‘can slaw’ (pieces of a beer can that have deteriorated over time with the sand and water movement), I did about 3 more grid lines towards the ocean. With no other signals, I was sure the ring was in the hole. I went back and took 3 more scoops of sand out, checked the hole and knew I had the target in the third scoop. As I spread the sand on the beach from the scoop, Jennifer said, “There’s my ring.” She reached down and grabbed her ring and did a very excited happy dance. She was beyond excited and so were I and her father-in-law, Mickey, who had come out on the beach to watch. The feeling of returning someone’s treasure is incredible and is exactly why I do this.

Jennifer, thank you so much for trusting me to help find your lost treasure. Have a great rest of your vacation and love those babies!

Jim

 

Man’s 14K White Gold Wedding Band Lost on Holden Beach NC, Found and Returned

  • from North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina, United States)

My morning started off with a phone call from Matt asking for help in finding his Wedding band. He said that he had lost it yesterday after he put his ring in a chair cup holder, forgot about it, and later picked the chair up slinging the ring into the dry sand. These are the type of calls you dream about, lost in the dry sand, behind a rental house on a beach that doesn’t get hunted much, if any. I knew this was going to be a quick and easy search, and what made it better was Matt said he had marked the 10 ft X 10 ft area. I got the address and started on the 50 minute drive.

When I arrived, Matt was waiting for me on the front steps. He walked me through the house, introducing me to his wife, Cari, other family members, and then out to the beach. He pointed out the area he had marked and I started an east/west grid. On my third pass, I hit it. My Equinox 800 gave me a solid 16 on the screen, I took one small scoop, shook out the sand, and there it was. I grabbed the ring out of the scoop and held it up in Matt’s direction, his expression was priceless. I got a huge bear hug as I handed him his ring back. Cari had been standing up on the deck of the house and saw me hold the ring up and came walking out to the beach. Both were overjoyed and is exactly the reason I do this. Total search time was less than 5 minutes.

I asked Matt how he found me and he said he was trying to find someplace to rent a metal detector and called Joe Denton, the Minelab Detector distributor in Myrtle Beach, who at one time rented machines. Joe and I are friends, so Joe gave Matt my information and that’s how I got the call. Thanks Joe!!!

Matt and Cari, Thank you for trusting in me to help find your lost treasure. Best of luck to you both.

Jim