iPhone Lost In The Sand, Found With A Metal Detector In Ogunquit Beach, Maine
๐๐ฑ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐! ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐๐ฌ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐? ๐ฑ๐
Imagine being thousands of miles away from home, working a summer job, and in the blink of an eye, your only connection to your family vanishes into the shifting sands of a massive beach. ๐ฎ
That is exactly the nightmare that turned into one of the most unbelievable, international team-effort rescues we have ever pulled off at Ogunquit Beach ! ๐๐๐
๐ฑ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐! ๐๐ฑ
It was just before 10:00 AM on August 29th when my phone rang. On the other end of the line was a young woman named Dominyka, and you could instantly hear the distress in her voice.
The previous evening, after clocking out of her shift at the Beach Store at The Norseman Resort, Dominyka and a group of her co-workers headed down to the sand. It was something they had done many times over the summer, but with the season drawing to a close, this night felt special. They walked along the dunes, stopping and sitting a few different times, sharing laughs, running around, and just having an absolute end-of-summer blast.
But an hour or two later, as the group finally made their way off the beach back toward The Norseman Resort, reality hit. Dominyka reached for her phone, only to realize her “lifeline” was gone.
Panic immediately set in. She and her friends turned right around and rushed back onto the pitch-black beach. Using whatever light they had, they desperately tried to retrace their steps. But Ogunquit Beach is massive, the darkness was overwhelming, and after hours of searching the vast, shifting sands, they came up empty-handed. Devastated and exhausted, they finally had to abandon the search for the night.
This phone wasn’t just a piece of technology; it was her absolute lifeline to her family, sitting almost halfway around the world in ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐ฎ๐๐ง๐ข๐. Dominyka explained to me that she and her tight-knit family rely heavily on Life360 โa private, family-focused app designed strictly for real-time location sharing and safety coordination. Without it, that vital link to home was completely severed.
Hearing the urgency, I grabbed my detector and packed my gear. Luckily, the tide wasnโt going to be an issue for this recovery since the search area was up close to the dunes and only stretched halfway into the dry sand. My biggest concern wasn’t the phone being buried deeperโit was the massive crowd expected for a beautiful, sunny day on the last Saturday of August. If I didn’t get there fast, someone was bound to set up their beach chairs, blankets, and umbrellas directly over the phone, blocking it completely.
Knowing the gridlock that a perfect summer Saturday brings, I initially suggested waiting until late afternoon when the crowds cleared out, leaving a wide-open beach to search without obstacles. But Dominyka, who was already back at work and calling me from a friend’s phone, pleaded with me. She suspected the phone was lost right up near the dunes where the crowds aren’t quite as thick.
Going against my usual intuition, I just couldn’t tell her to wait. The pure stress and panic in her voice was heartbreaking. I told her I was coming right away, but warned her that between the Saturday rush and the location, it would take me at least an hour just to fight the traffic and arrive.
Cheryl and I jumped into ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ง๐๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ and began battling the heavy gridlock down The Maine Turnpike and then Route 1, towards Ogunquit, Maine: Beautiful Place by the Sea.
When we finally arrived, we headed straight to the Beach Store to meet Dominyka, who was already hard at work. Thankfully, her awesome supervisor let her step away to guide us.
We walked out onto the sand, which was filling up incredibly fast and already packed with beachgoers.
Dominyka showed us the general area she remembered and shared a screenshot of the phone’s last known GPS ping.
Unfortunately, the screenshot didn’t show any landmarks or helpful detailsโjust a generic dot marking a location on a massive, featureless beach.
She added that her group definitely hadn’t walked past the volleyball net, which gave us a solid boundary.
Still, the remaining dry sand area was dauntingly massive.
With duty calling, Dominyka had to head back to the store.
I reassured her and laid out the game plan: I was going to grid search the entire area. I started close to the dunes, moving north until I hit the volleyball court, then turned right back around to head south. I would repeat this tight pattern, slowly making my way outward toward the center of the beach, carefully dodging the sunworshippers, blankets, and umbrellas as I went.
As I proceeded north, finding just a few coins and the usual beach trash, Cheryl was using her eyes to visually scout the sand. After a full hour with absolutely no luck, we turned to head back south.
Just then, Dominyka reappeared on her lunch break! She told us she had just been messaging her sister on social media using a friendโs phone. Her sister confirmed that the phone’s location hadnโt changed on the Life360 app, and incredibly, it still had a charge!
Thatโs when a lightbulb went off. I asked Dominyka if her sister could ๐ ๐ซ๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฑ๐๐๐ญ ๐๐๐ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ directly from Life360 . Dominyka wasn’t quite sure what those were, so I pulled out my own phone to show her how coordinates work for a current location. Using her friend’s phone, we literally walked her sisterโall the way back in Lithuaniaโthrough the steps to extract the exact numbers and text them over to me.
I kept searching the sand, and about five minutes later, her sister came through with the coordinates!
I immediately typed the exact digits into my phone’s mapping app and simply followed the blue line. The GPS led us about 100 feet from where we had initially started, pulling us closer to the center of the beach.
The map brought us right up to a family enjoying the gorgeous summer day. I politely let them know what we were doing, and they graciously offered to pack up and move. I told them to hold on a second, as I wanted to quickly scan the open sand around them first.
As I swung my metal detector right next to the exact spot the GPS coordinates pointed to, a massive, incredibly loud signal blasted through my headphones!
I ran my detector’s coil back over the spot, and as the loose sand shifted, a tiny corner of the cell phone peeked through. ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐!!!
Dominyka was still in the middle of talking to the family about moving their blankets, and I called out to them that they could stay put because I had already found it! Before pulling it up, I placed my headphones onto Dominykaโs head so she could hear the solid, roaring target tone of her buried phone. I reached down, brushed away the remaining sand, and pulled the phone out.
Dominyka completely erupted! She started jumping up and down in pure excitement, shouting, “๐พ๐ถ๐พ, ๐๐จ๐จ๐จ๐จ๐จ๐, ๐ป๐ฏ๐จ๐ป’๐บ ๐ช๐น๐จ๐๐!”
The phone had been buried a mere three feet away from one of the family members lying peacefully on her beach towels. The Life360 GPS coordinates had put us ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ the phone.
Then came the best part. Dominyka gave me a massive hug, thanking me over and over. “๐๐ก, ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ง๐ค ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐จ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐๐ก. ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐๐ข๐๐ญ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐จ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐๐ก. ๐๐จ๐ฎ ๐ก๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ง๐จ ๐ข๐๐๐,”
she said.
She immediately contacted her sister halfway around the world to share the unbelievable news, and her family in Lithuania sent their thanks across the miles to me as well. I can only imagine what it feels like to be in a foreign country and lose your only lifeline to the people you love. Seeing Dominyka’s pure panic and distress completely blossom back into a bubbly, happy young lady filled with joy reminded me why I do this.
I truly have the best job in the world, and I absolutely love it.
๐จ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐? ๐จ
Don’t wait, and don’t lose hope! Metal objects can vanish in seconds, but we are equipped to find them. Whether itโs a precious wedding band, a set of keys, or a lifeline cell phone, we are here to help you get it back.
๐ก ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐:
๐๐๐ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฉ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฎ๐ฌ! If you lose an item, stand right in the exact spot you think it was lost and take a photograph facing a prominent landmarkโlike a house, a unique tree, a rock formation, or a hotel structure. We can pull the hidden GPS metadata directly from your photo to pin down your location, and use the visible landmark as a perfect visual reference while we search!
Remember: “๐ฐ๐ ๐ฐ๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ป๐ ๐๐๐, ๐ฐ๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ป๐ ๐ผ๐.”
๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ซ ๐๐๐ฑ๐ญ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ง๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฒ: ๐๐๐-๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐
