Got a call from Taylor, a reporter from WBTW Channel 13 news, wanting to do a story on The Ring Finders of North Myrtle Beach. I agreed to the interview and contacted Matt Fry, TRF Myrtle Beach, and invited him to join in. We all met up on Oct 14th and had a great time. Enjoy.
Jim
On Wednesday, Sept 22nd, I got the following text message, in part, from Ben saying, “Hi Jim. I found your site after I lost my gold ring. I lost the ring about an hour and a half ago in a wading pool near the ocean. Would you be able to come see if you can find it asap before the tide change? Thank you.” Knowing the tide table, he lost it right at low tide. I knew by the time I would have gotten there, his ring would be underwater, with an incoming tide and out of reach of me trying to find it. I called him and got some additional details. Luckily, other than losing his ring, he did everything right as far as knowing exactly where he lost it. Unfortunately, he had to leave town for a work meeting, but we agreed I’d meet his wife, Katie, on the beach today at 3 p.m. and she could show me the exact spot. The last thing I asked him to do was pace off the distance from a stationary object at the top of the beach to where he lost his ring and text me the steps. A short time later, he sent me the paces and the starting point.
Today, I text Katie saying that I was going to be there a little early. I also told her that with all the information Ben had given me that there was no need for her to meet me. Ben had mentioned that he and Katie had an 11 month old, so I didn’t want her to have to worry about the baby just to point something out to me. I paced off the distance Ben had given me and started a west to east perpendicular grid search from the beach to the surf. I met a couple of ladies that had been there to help Ben and Katie search for his ring the day before and thought that they were east of where I was searching. Within about 10 minutes, Katie, her baby, and her mother showed up. Katie also thought they were a little more east than I was searching. So I moved east and changed my west to east search to a east to west search. After about 45 minutes, I got the tone and numbers I was looking for on my Equinox 800 for a man’s gold wedding band. As soon as I got the signal I looked over at Katie, who was standing about 20 yards away with her mother and baby and gave her the “I got it” look. I think she froze where she stood and didn’t take her eyes off me. After 2 scoops, Ben’s ring was lying on top of the sand. I picked it up, washed off the sand and turned around to face Katie, holding the ring up for her to see. She was overwhelmed and her excitement alerted the entire beach that something was going on. She ran over to me, wiping the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. Being just a small part of that kind of excitement is exactly why I do this, there’s nothing better. I took the attached picture and sent it to Ben, with no text. He immediately responds saying, “Hey Jim, I am on a plane and get texts but no pics. Did you find it??” Katie and I agreed that I’d just send him “Wait till u land!” It was kind of mean, but he seeing his wife holding his ring would make it all worth it. It wasn’t long before he sent “Yesssss!”
Ben and Katie – Thank you so much for trusting me and The Ring Finders to help find and return your precious treasure. Your ring now has one more chapter to add to its story. Best of luck to you two!
Jim
This adventure started with a Sunset Beach NC Face Book post saying in part, “on vacation and a friend had lost an important piece of jewelry, and we’re looking for someone that has a metal detector.” Someone responded to her post with my information. So, about 8:30 Friday night, I received a call from Victoria. She started with telling me about the Face Book posts and was calling to see if I could help. I was ready! She also said the ring was lost in the dry sand, on the right side of the pier. She added that it was very unlikely the high tide would not reach the ring. I suggested we meet in about 30 minutes. I think Victoria was a little apprehensive about meeting a strange man, at night, on a dark beach, which I totally understood. She wanted to meet at noon the next day, which I had concerns with. Knowing that Sunset Beach is a big tourist destination in the summer, parking would be an issue. There would also be shoulder to shoulder people on the beach, at noon, on a Saturday. I also know that Sunset Beach is heavily detected by both locals and tourist. She understood, but noon it was.
I arrived about 10:30 a.m., figuring I’d be lucky to find a parking spot. Surprise, I got the last ‘free’ parking space on the Island, I think. Since I had an hour and half to burn, I started detecting the beach. About 11:30 a.m. I text Victoria telling her ‘I was there,” and She immediately responded saying, “we are parking now.” We met up on the beach and Victoria introduced me to Jennifer, the young lady that lost her engagement ring. Victoria led the way across the top of the beach until we reached the area. Victoria had the presents of mine to tie one of her hair bows to a tiny bush growing up through the sand at the bottom of a sand dune. Jennifer wasn’t sure how far her ring may have flown off her finger when she had turned around while they were packing up to leave. I confirmed with Jennifer that I was looking for a white gold ring as I turned on my Equinox. On my second line, I got a solid 6 on my VDI, meaning ‘white gold.’ I looked over at Jennifer as I scooped up the sand. I gently shook the scoop to empty the sand out and saw some shells and Jennifer’s beautiful engagement ring at the bottom of the scoop. I walked over to Jennifer, held out the scoop, and let her remove her ring. She got a big smile on her face when she saw her ring.
Victoria – Thank you for contacting me.
Jennifer – Thank you for trusting me to help find your lost treasure. Enjoy the rest of your vacation.
Jim
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
I received a call today from Josh looking for the guy with a metal detector that can find rings. I confirmed he had the right guy, and asked what had happened. He responded that he had given his gold wedding band to his wife, Emily, for safe keeping while they were on the beach. She had put it on her thumb and at some point it slipped off. I asked a few questions including where they were. When he responded they were staying at the Holiday Inn in Myrtle Beach, I knew I’d have to get a hold of Matt Fry. Since Matt’s The Ring Finder for Myrtle Beach, any calls I get for that area I pass to him. When I called, he said he was in the middle of something and to go ahead and take the call, thanks Matt. I called Josh back and told him I’d be there in 30-45 minutes.
Vacation time is definitely back in full swing at Myrtle Beach. Traffic was bumper to bumper, and parking was non-existent. I grabbed a parking spot in the hotel parking lot, and stopped by the front desk to let them know, so my car wouldn’t get towed. As I walked out on the beach, I saw a couple waving at me. When I got close, we introduced ourselves and Josh showed me a small area in the dry sand, maybe 5’X5’, where they thought the ring slipped off. I turned on the Equinox and thoroughly scanned the area with not even a peep. So, I started a grid line working north, still with no targets. After about 4 lines, I went back over the same area working the grid south. Two lines south from my original starting point; I got a solid 17, which told me I had gold! I scooped the ring out of the sand, shook the sand out and let Josh reach in the scoop and retrieve his wedding band of 7 years. Both Josh and Emily were extremely excited their lost treasure was found.
Josh and Emily, thanks for trusting me and the Ring Finders to help find your lost ring.
Jim
I was about half way home from an unsuccessful 6 hour search when I checked my email and found one from Kyle. In her email she stated, “Hi, I saw your name on the ring finder website. We lost a wedding band at Sunset beach today. I can point you to almost exactly where we were sitting. (Landmarks) we lost it at low tide. I went back at high tide and the water was right up to where we were sitting. Please let me know if you are available and what your cost is.” The timing was perfect because I was just coming up to the turnoff for Sunset beach. In her email she had also included her phone number, so I gave her a call. I confirmed she hadn’t lost it in the ocean, but in the dry sand, and I her I could meet her in 15 minutes. She agreed to meet, and gave me the beach access street number, but said it’d take her about 20 minutes.
I met Kyle, her sister Jen, and a young man as we were walking across the access boardwalk out to the beach. Kyle explained how she lost it, and then we just chit chatted on the long walk out. Kyle said that she and Jen have always wanted to get a metal detector and find treasure. When we got to the beach, it was pitch black. There are no hotels or resorts to light up the beach, and with overcast skies there was no stars or moon. We turned right when we got on the beach and kept walking; I started to worry a little thinking Kyle may not be able to find their spot. After a couple hundred yards or so, Kyle stopped and said we were right here in front of this mound. I turned on the Equinox 800, tested a duplicate ring Kyle had, which rang up as a 12 on the VDI. Took 2 steps and got a 13/14 on the VDI, which I thought would be a pull tab with those numbers. As I dug the target, I even commented to Kyle “I think this is a pull tab.” When I shook the sand out of the scoop and looked, I saw her white gold wedding band and said “or maybe not” as I held it up for her to see. She and her sister were a little surprised with how fast it was found. I told her the credit was all hers for putting me in exactly the right spot. I then let Kyle and Jen use my machine and run the coil over her ring so they’d get an idea of how to detect, if they were to get a machine.
Kyle – Thanks for contacting and trusting me to help find your lost treasure. Enjoy the rest of your vacation and stay safe.
Jim
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
I was researching a Face Book page where someone had referred me to a young lady that had a recent loss. In the process I read a post from Terisa stating that her husband, Nathan had lost his tungsten wedding band in some bushes. I reached out to her by text saying I’d be glad to help, if she liked. She responded saying her and Nathan had been trying to find a place to eat. They were on a mini-vacation and in the middle of the covid-19 virus, and couldn’t find a restaurant to eat at. About the only place open was a little ice cream shop. Out of frustration, her husband “misplaced” his wedding band in a large bush next to the ice cream shop. This seemed like a pretty simple search.
When I got to the strip mall, I thought it’d be best to ask permission before I started climbing through their bushes. I walked into a smoke shop, the shop closest to the bushes, and told the lady behind the counter, who I was and what I do. As I was telling her I needed to look in the bushes for a man’s ring, she interrupted me and said, “I found that and called them, leaving a message, and they never called me back.” Meanwhile, she was looking through a drawer until she found the ring. I compared the picture Terisa sent me to the ring, and I had a match. Easiest and fastest return I’ve had. On the way home I stopped off at the post office and got it in the mail back to Terisa.
Terisa – thank you for allowing me to help find your husband’s ring.
Jim
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
I was on a ring search on Sunset Beach when a young man, Arkhum, came up to me and asked if I would mind looking for his Silver Pendant and Chain Necklace. He told me he’d lost it the day before and knew the area where it was lost. I followed him up the beach to the dry sand area where he pointed out the area. About 3 steps, I had a strong signal, dug a scoop of sand and had it. I handed him back his necklace that his wife had bought him. He was very happy to get it back.
Jim
