Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Nearly Five Gallons of Lost Keys.
Have you ever lost your keys? If so, you are not alone. I've found tons of keys. Those shown above are a small portion of those that I've found. Today I'm going to talk about just a few of the things that were found and returned to the original owner. People don't hear about many of the items that are found and returned by detectorists.
People often ask detectorists what is their most valuable find. One answer I give is this one about the time I found some keys. I was in the Florida Panhandle doing some consulting for the Naval Air Station and after work went out to a remote beach to do a little metal detecting. I encountered a family just leaving the beach. No one else was around anywhere. When they got to the car, they discovered they had lost their keys. I won't tell the whole story because I told it before. But they told me they lost their keys, and I followed their tracks to where they had their blanket and found their keys in short order. This is in the days before cell phones, and if I wasn't there to find their keys, I don't know how long it would have been before they could have got a locksmith or whatever.
I remember only two times that I received a reward for finding an item for someone. I never asked for a reward and usually don't accept a reward even if it is offered, however there was this one time when I was offered fifty dollars if I could find the keys for the beach concession business at the Fountainbleau hotel. The fellow lost the keys before he opened the business that morning. It was a big bunch of keys. He was out of business until the keys were found. It didn't take me long to find them, and I received the fifty dollars.
Many of the hotel keys have been replaced by magnetic cards, so there aren't as many keys out there to be found.
Of course there are other kinds of things that I've found for people. Over the years I've found buckets of eye-glasses too.
I was metal detecting in the shallow water in front of another resort one day when a fellow told me he lost his eye glasses. He was a tourist staying at the local hotel. I looked for the glasses and found them. The surf was rough, and it took some time though. The fellow offered to buy me a drink, but I thanked him and declined.
Tourists don't realize how easy it is to lose their glasses to an unexpected wave. And glasses are light enough that they'll drift along the bottom in a rough surf.
Here is something you should know about. Eye-glasses can be recycled. The Lions Club has boxes at various locations where you can leave used eye glasses that they will pick up and recycle. I dropped the eye-glasses that I found into a box at a local hospital. They have a web site that tells how they can use your old eye-glasses to provide sight for people in need. Here are a couple sentences from their web site.
If you have used eyeglasses you no longer need, you can donate them now. Lions accept prescription and reading glasses, sunglasses and plastic and metal frames. Children's glasses are especially needed.
You can use the following link to learn more about the Lions Club program and how you can donate used eye-glasses to help someone in need.
http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/how-we-serve/health/sight/index.php
Sometimes the lenses will be scratched up from the sand. I don't know if they can regrind those or not. It doesn't matter if the frames are messed up.
I've been asked to help find a lot of things. One day I was asked by young girl if I could find her dental retainer that she lost in the water. That is something I knew nothing about. I asked her if it had metal on it and she said yes, so I gave it a shot but was unsuccessful.
As you know, people also lose coins and jewelry. I'll talk about some of those some other time and give some additional tips.
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With the beautiful weather and snow-birds in town, there is a good chance you'll be able to find something for someone.
The surf remains around two feet. There will be a moderate low tide. The wind is coming out of the east/southeast.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
