The week started with my usual browsing of Craig’s List for lost items. I always check the local lost & found postings for items lost at the beach. Or checking to see if anything I found might be posted as lost or to see if any has been lost in my area that I might assist in recovering. I also post that I have found items and ask potential owners to email me with descriptions for possible return.
In reading I found a post by a desperate mom. She was asking is anyone had found her daughter lost High School class ring. So I contacted the mom via email to see if there was something I could do. Her daughter had lost it almost a month ago and had just gotten around to telling her. Her mom was very upset as she had just made the final payment on the ring. Seems her daughter was at the beach one day and had taken off her ring and placed it on her towel. Of course we all know what happened next. When leaving she grabbed the towel up and shook it. The ring went flying. They looked awhile for it but to no avail. She emailed me back with which beach the ring was lost at. Well I know all the beaches in my area pretty well. I knew this was a very large beach and asked her to find out if her daughter could be a little more specific on the location and get a description of the ring. All she found out was it was to the right of the life guard stand and toward the unguarded area. Well at least my hunt area had been cut in half. But I got a good description of the ring. The ring was from Sebastian River High School, was silver with a pink stone that had a crown in it. It had a surfer girl on one side and the school mascot, a shark on the other. Also they had her initials where on the inside of the ring.

 I could not get to the beach that evening because they lock the gates to all beach access around here at sundown and it was already getting late. So I would go the next evening right after work. When I arrived, the area between the life guard stand and the guarded/unguarded area signs was about the size of a football field. I decided to start at the far end and work my way back toward the life guard tower. I was using a 12” coil for max coverage. I was not concerned with depth on this hunt. I mentally pictured the area in 4 sections and would work each area. I hunted the first area but after an hour I started to think someone had wandered into the area with a detector and had already found the ring. I had zero targets. You see this is the “Treasure Coast” of Florida. Everyone here has a detector or knows someone who has a detector. Everybody looking for Spanish treasure hits these beaches while here on vacation. I rarely ever go to the beach without running into some else there with a detector. So you never know who had already been over the area. But after awhile I did find a few coins. So I thought I might get lucky and the ring was still there. Well after running a grid on the 1st section with no luck I stared on what I called the second area. I found a few pieces of junk and light aluminum. Then I got a good solid hit along the towel line. This is the area just above the high tide mark where most beach goers place there towels to lay on. I took a big bite out of the sugar sand with my scoop. As I lifted it up the sand poured out. And there is my scoop was the ring. I had found it. After laying there in the sugar sand for almost a month, it was now safe and ready to be reunited with its owner.

I could not wait to get home and call the owners mom. I called her up and she almost started crying on the phone. She could not believe I had found it. We made arrangements to meet a few days later and I handed her the ring. She would give back to her daughter later who not able to be there that evening. I got a very nice thank you card from them.