Kapidr
Sr. Member
Ever wonder what it looks like to hand a family heirloom wedding ring back to the owner after she lost it in ocean? Dick's wife recorded the whole thing. Here is the link on youtube. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed living it!
Barbara
Metal detecting find and return number 16. Wedding ring returned. Wedding ring lost in the ocean.
This diamond was crafted in South Africa. Once the woman who owned the ring in which the diamond was in passed away she left it to her daughter who wore the ring with love for many years. Eventually the diamond was placed in another ring and was handed down to the grand daughter who after some time lost it at Cinnamon beach at high tide in the water.
The story should have ended there. Cinnamon beach is a coquina sand beach that is very narrow and at the low tide area coquina rocks cover the ground and the sand is very soft which allows for the ring to sink under the sand about 2-4 inches per tide. The rocks there are huge water carved rocks with many holes and gaps. Once the rings make their way under the rocks it's highly unlikely they are coming back out.
However, the mother (Who is the true hero here) decided to post on Craigslist lost and found stating a family heirloom 1/4 inch wide tri-colored gold ring with a .53 karat diamond was lost on Cinnamon beach and they were offering a reward for it's return. Dick Doyle saw the ad only hours after it was posted and contacted me to see if I was interested in a trip to try to find it. I was.
We emailed the poster immediately and asked them to remove or at least edit the post as there are people that check those listing with the intent of finding the item and keeping it. We let the poster know that we would be going to search for the ring no charge with metal detectors the next morning and asked if she'd meet us there or at least call and describe where exactly it was lost as the beach area is a half mile wide. We got no reply so the next morning we headed out anyway. I had given the poster my phone number in my email to her so I carried the phone with me in case she called but she did not. I also called my friend Karen and asked her to join us on the search and she agreed.
Dick and I headed out first thing in the morning and Karen was to meet up with us there later. We found the beach but were unable to drive to it as it's behind a gated community and the guard would not let us in. So we went to Hammock beach a bit north of it, which is a public beach, and parked there then proceeded to walk a bit less than a mile to Cinnamon beach.
We took an educated guess on where the ring may have been lost based on Google map images of the address the poster had posted and started near the likely stairway they would have taken to the beach. We drew a line in the sand vertical to basically cut the beach into two areas. Dick decided to search the South side, I chose the North.
The search went on for a little over two hours when Dick hears a good target near the low tide line close to the rocks and to his surprise and utter delight he finds the ring. He looks at me with a big smile and gives a thumbs up and then we jumped up and down with excitement. Another few tides and that ring would have been too deep to recover.
I checked my phone and still had no call so we decided to head back to Dicks house to check my email and found that the woman had emailed me but didn't leave a number. She basically said she was at a restaurant and could not call right away. I emailed her back and said "Please call me ASAP we may have good news for you."
Needless to say she was elated when we told her we found it but the story does not end there! She decided not to tell her daughter right away that the ring was found but planned instead to surprise her during the actual return.
We arranged to meet at Salt Water Cowboys and I called the staff to let them know what was about to happen and asked if one of the waiters could deliver the ring to the woman on a platter and they agreed excited to be a part of the return.
The mother had described to us that they were a party of 10 and that she herself was wearing a bright pink skirt and that her daughter Kayla, who had lost the ring, was wearing a black and white sun dress and had tattoos on her arm.
We showed the waiter which girl she was and we placed the ring in a black velvet ring box and had him place it on a platter and cover it with a napkin and then serve it to her. The video tells the rest of the story. Needless to say she was awestruck.
This was a fantastic return. My 16th ring return. I am so blessed that God has led me to this hobby and allowed me to show people His love by returning sentimental lost items to their owners.
This was an experience of a lifetime that I get to relive real time over and over.
BLESSED!
Barbara
Metal detecting find and return number 16. Wedding ring returned. Wedding ring lost in the ocean.
This diamond was crafted in South Africa. Once the woman who owned the ring in which the diamond was in passed away she left it to her daughter who wore the ring with love for many years. Eventually the diamond was placed in another ring and was handed down to the grand daughter who after some time lost it at Cinnamon beach at high tide in the water.
The story should have ended there. Cinnamon beach is a coquina sand beach that is very narrow and at the low tide area coquina rocks cover the ground and the sand is very soft which allows for the ring to sink under the sand about 2-4 inches per tide. The rocks there are huge water carved rocks with many holes and gaps. Once the rings make their way under the rocks it's highly unlikely they are coming back out.
However, the mother (Who is the true hero here) decided to post on Craigslist lost and found stating a family heirloom 1/4 inch wide tri-colored gold ring with a .53 karat diamond was lost on Cinnamon beach and they were offering a reward for it's return. Dick Doyle saw the ad only hours after it was posted and contacted me to see if I was interested in a trip to try to find it. I was.
We emailed the poster immediately and asked them to remove or at least edit the post as there are people that check those listing with the intent of finding the item and keeping it. We let the poster know that we would be going to search for the ring no charge with metal detectors the next morning and asked if she'd meet us there or at least call and describe where exactly it was lost as the beach area is a half mile wide. We got no reply so the next morning we headed out anyway. I had given the poster my phone number in my email to her so I carried the phone with me in case she called but she did not. I also called my friend Karen and asked her to join us on the search and she agreed.
Dick and I headed out first thing in the morning and Karen was to meet up with us there later. We found the beach but were unable to drive to it as it's behind a gated community and the guard would not let us in. So we went to Hammock beach a bit north of it, which is a public beach, and parked there then proceeded to walk a bit less than a mile to Cinnamon beach.
We took an educated guess on where the ring may have been lost based on Google map images of the address the poster had posted and started near the likely stairway they would have taken to the beach. We drew a line in the sand vertical to basically cut the beach into two areas. Dick decided to search the South side, I chose the North.
The search went on for a little over two hours when Dick hears a good target near the low tide line close to the rocks and to his surprise and utter delight he finds the ring. He looks at me with a big smile and gives a thumbs up and then we jumped up and down with excitement. Another few tides and that ring would have been too deep to recover.
I checked my phone and still had no call so we decided to head back to Dicks house to check my email and found that the woman had emailed me but didn't leave a number. She basically said she was at a restaurant and could not call right away. I emailed her back and said "Please call me ASAP we may have good news for you."
Needless to say she was elated when we told her we found it but the story does not end there! She decided not to tell her daughter right away that the ring was found but planned instead to surprise her during the actual return.
We arranged to meet at Salt Water Cowboys and I called the staff to let them know what was about to happen and asked if one of the waiters could deliver the ring to the woman on a platter and they agreed excited to be a part of the return.
The mother had described to us that they were a party of 10 and that she herself was wearing a bright pink skirt and that her daughter Kayla, who had lost the ring, was wearing a black and white sun dress and had tattoos on her arm.
We showed the waiter which girl she was and we placed the ring in a black velvet ring box and had him place it on a platter and cover it with a napkin and then serve it to her. The video tells the rest of the story. Needless to say she was awestruck.
This was a fantastic return. My 16th ring return. I am so blessed that God has led me to this hobby and allowed me to show people His love by returning sentimental lost items to their owners.
This was an experience of a lifetime that I get to relive real time over and over.
BLESSED!
