New Named Tropical Storm Franklin.
He's is going out to sea and won't affect us.
One of the neat things about detecting is when you return a lost item to someone who really treasures it. It happens relatively often. And sometimes when at the beach someone will ask you to find something that they just lost. Sometimes the lost item is a valuable piece of jewelry, but sometimes it is something like a pair of glasses or car keys.
I've been able to return a number of gold and diamond rings, an emerald ring, gold chain, and glasses and keys. Most of the time you don't get a reward. And sometimes not even so much as a thank you.
I've told some stories in the past about how some attempts to return lost items were harshly turned away. That is puzzling, but you never know the circumstances of the loss, which might account for the owner not wanting any contact.
I once found a matching engagement and wedding ring in close proximity in the water and thought they might have been thrown away.
Once I was able to find a tourist,s eye glasses that were lot in the ocean. He offered to buy me a drink as a reward. I declined.
One lady after getting her emerald ring back, ran back to her beach blanket and returned stuffing a twenty dollar bill into my pocket.
And one day a guy that ran the jet ski rentals and other concessions at a major hotel lost a big bunch of keys, which put him out of business until they were found. He offered me fifty dollar to find them. It only took me a few minutes to earn the fifty dollars.
I always tell people to get a very detailed description of an item before showing it to someone who says that they lost it. I can recall at least three occasions when someone tried to claim an item that wasn't theirs. People will do that.
When a $30,000 diamond ring went up for auction after sitting in a police evidence room for two years, 25 people called the police claiming that it was theirs.
Here is the link to that story.
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/$30-k-diamond-ring-returned-to-owner
Fortunately many rings can be traced to their owner.
One detectorist was lucky enough to find a Super Bowl ring on a beach and personally returned it to the player.
Here is the link to that story.
http://www.minelab.com/usa/consumer/success-stories/superbowl-ring-found-on-beach-and-returned-to-player
And here is a really great web site. If you've lost or found a class ring you can enter it into a database. Hopefully many rings are returned through this web site.
Here is the link.
http://www.classringfinder.com/ContactUs.aspx
I highly recommend using this site and think I should come up with some type of award for the site.
And here is a link to another story about a found class ring being returned. This one was eye-balled.
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2011-06-21/story/class-ring-found-returned-50-years-after-loss
You never know what you are going to find on a beach. It seems like anything in the world can pop up on a beach. I just saw a story where one man found a human skull on the beach. I'm glad that wasn't me - the skull I mean. I wouldn't want to be the finder either.
One man recently found 55 pounds of cocaine on a beach. If you ask me it really really isn't rare for drugs to be found on a beach.
Here is a link to that story.
http://www.sharpanddriverlaw.com/drug-crimes/499/galveston-drugs/
Of course you know what to do if that happens to you - call the police.
I once saw three huge bales of pot that washed up on a Treasure Coast shipwreck beach one morning before they were removed by the authorities.
Back to the lost jewelry. If lost jewelry isn't found, it can't be returned.
I don't know why some people can't understand that.
Yesterday I posted an incorrect statement and after discovering it, removed it. As a result I'll refer back to my June 2, 20089 post giving the rules and regulations for metal detecting on Florida beaches as provided by Tom Guidus.
Here is one statement from the June 2, 2009 post which corrects the error I made yesterday.
... and other than the National Parks, and a few upscale hotels around the state. You are allowed to hunt the beaches from the base of the Dune to the low tide line as you desire, and that includes the beaches adjacent to the 1715 fleet of Spanish shipwrecks.
Sorry for any confusion that I may have caused. The entire June 2, 2009 post on rules and regulations is still available for review.
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
The wind is from the southwest and the seas still calm. The surf web sites show an increase in seas next Wednesday and Thursday, but only up to two feet. That might well change though. They are not real reliable with their predictions several days in advance. And who knows what all of these tropical disturbances will do by then.
Right now Treasure Coast beach conditions remain poor. There is a lot of action in the Atlantic though, so thing could change.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net