I got a call in the early evening on 8/19 from Kevin, who with his family, was visiting from Virginia. He told me he was body surfing and was knocked into his daughter by a wave when he felt his wedding ring slip off his finger. He said he pretty much gave it up as gone forever but then later saw how much difference there was between high and low tide and thought there might be hope. He found me through The Ring Finders site and asked if I could help try and find it.
He gave me the location and a description of the ring and after checking the tide tables, I saw that the low tide was at 5:33 am the next morning. So after doing the calculations of drive and search times I told Kevin I’d be there by 4:30 in the morning and that he didn’t have to meet me there that early and I’d call him when I found the ring. I set my alarm for 3 am, which is way to early and dark to start a search for a ring but it worked. I got there about 4:15 am and marched off the 75 yards Kevin said he paced from the dunes and added another 25 yards. Kevin also told me it was about 5-10 yards north of the stairs of the beach access and I made it 15 yards. Dragging my scoop behind me I made a nice little search grid that put me right in the middle of the mid-tide line. I’m thinking this is a good sign and there is hope in finding this ring.
After a north/south grid search and finding nothing, I started an east/west grid over the same area and on my first line I extended my search grid to the low tide line. Coming back on the 3rd line, I got the one and only signal I had and Bingo. The ring ended up being buried about 4-5 inches deep and about 105 yards from the dunes. Naturally my head lamp batteries were too weak to show enough light but luckily I had grabbed a flashlight out of the car before I hit the beach and what I had in the scoop matched his description. I texted him at 5:17 am saying “Good morning, does this look familiar?” and added a picture of his ring. Got a response in about a minute saying “Incredible”. I also told him I was going to go eat breakfast and I’d be back about 6:30, this would give him a chance to wake up. When I got back, him, his wife Kristi and 2 young daughters were walking towards the beach. We introduced ourselves and then proceeded out to the beach so he could see where I found it. He told me that since he was getting his ring back that it was such a great start to the day that he and the family would watch the sunrise. And what a sunrise it was!!
Total search time was 45 minutes.
Kevin and Kristi – Thank you for the very generous reward and the opportunity to help you get your treasure back.
Kevin did all the right things in ensuring he had the best opportunity in getting his ring back – he paced off the approximate location and had land marks to his lost ring.
Thank you for reading my blog.
Jim Wren/The Ring Finders/843-655-5889
