Here's a fun repatriation posse-find story :

Tom_in_CA

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Hey, someone's gotta balance out scuba's stories, so here's one that unfolded for me about 17 yrs. ago :

There is a local Whites dealer , who also has rental rates for a machine. $15 or $20- ish per day. They had rented a machine to a guy. He came back later in the day, frustrated, because all he could find was some scattered foil and bottle caps. He asked the dealer if they knew of anyone local, who was more experienced, that could help him find a ring. The dealer gave him my ph. #.

I got the call, and agreed to meet the guy on the beach in front of a resort hotel @ the following morning. He explained that he was in town for a 3 day business convention meeting, that his company had flown him out to attend. And his flight to leave town was the next day. And that he was going to be DOG MEAT if he didn't find this ring.

Because, the story is: He was just newly wed. He had no sooner got back from his honeymoon a week or so earlier, when his boss told him that they needed him to attend some business function in Monterey, CA. The guy went home & told his wife he has to go on this business trip.

At first, she was excited. Because she knew that the company had a policy of paying for a spouse to go too. And since they were from the mid-west, far from the ocean, she was excited at the prospects of getting to go on a touristy Pacific Ocean trip. But the guy poo-poo'd the notion. Telling her:

"There won't be time for sight-seeing, tourism, playing around, etc.... It will be all work work work. So why don't you stay at home. After all, weren't you going to work on the house, unpack things, etc..., right ?"

She reluctantly agreed. Sad that she wouldn't be with her newlywed husband for several days. Sad that she wasn't going to get to see the ocean, etc... :(

The guy took off on the business trip with another company coworker. Once their first day of meetings here wrapped up, they headed for the hotel, which was right on the beach. Then promptly went down onto the beach to clown around, throw nerf footall, splash around, etc... And ... you guessed it .... he saw his ring fly off during a ball throwing motion. He went to the approx. location of where he thought it landed. Started combing the sand with his fingers. To no avail. You know how dry sand "swallows" a dense heavy object like that. And if you are a mere 1 ft. off, you might as well be a mile off. They scratched and clawed for awhile, and then realized they needed a metal detector.

He looked in the phone book, and sees a dealer in the nearby town rents them. But this is after 5pm, and the dealer is closed for the day. So he made careful note of the spot where the ring had landed, by making note of a pile of conspicuous seaweed. Thinking that the next morning, he would know the exact spot to swing the rental detector at.

Imagine his shock, the next morning, when he realized he'd forgotten to take one thing into account: The high tide, during the night, had re-arranged all the seaweed piles. Doh! But he figured he could still approximate the area, and went to rent the machine.

After an hour or so, he realized he just didn't understand the machine enough, and .... time was running out. His flight was going to leave the following day. He began to envision that .... if he returned home without his ring, then the obvious question his wife would have is : Where did you loose it ? If he said "on the beach playing around", then .... well gee.... she would obviously be mad. Because ... supposedly, he wasn't supposed to have had any time for recreation and fun-play, eh ? It was supposed to be work work work, eh ? Or perhaps she'd think he took it off to look single for some unscrupulous reasons ? Not to mention the fact that it was a heavy fat Platinum band, that I'm sure wasn't cheap in the first place.

He took the rental machine back to the dealer and asked if they knew of anyone in the area who was experienced at md'ing that could help. They referred him to me.

I got the call, and agreed to meet him out there the following morning. He asked what I charge. I told him "whatever tip you think is fair. But nothing at all if I'm not successful". By this time (the 2nd day after having lost it), 2 high tides had come & gone. His flight was a mere few hours away from leaving. He pointed out the general area .

After about 30 minutes, I found it. The guy said "how much do I owe you ?"

The rest of the story in the next panel .....
 
I was about to repeat "whatever you think is a fair tip". But instead, I turned and pointed to the hotel and said: This coming weekend is my 1 yr. anniversary. Book a room for my wife and I, so we can have a little romantic getaway on our anniversary night. " And I told him it doesn't need to be the ocean view-facing rooms (which are more expensive than the ones that face the street-side). Because, as of that time, I knew that the cost of a room there was something on the order of $150-ish per night. I figured that was a fair "tip".

The guy marched me into the lobby of the hotel, took me up to the front desk, and whipped out his company credit card onto the counter. Told the clerk: "Room for two, for this guy". He rushed out the door so as not to be late for his flight. So I booked the room with the desk clerk, as said: Room for 2, on the street facing side, on such & such night.

Then I went home and told my wife "Guess what we're doing for our anniversary next Saturday ?" :blush2::coolman:

That next Saturday, we arrived to check in. When the clerk gave us our room #, it was like the penthouse suite on an ocean facing view. I corrected him and said "There must be some mistake. We have a regular street-side-facing room ?" He studied the reservation paper and said "The guy called back and told us to upgrade it". Ok, so we got a good smile out of that, and got ready to board the elevator to the penthouse suite.

But as we turned to leave the desk, the clerk said "Oh, and I see that you have dinner for two at the restaurant " (there is a restaurant on the top floor of this hotel). I told the guy, "no, this must be a mistake. We just have a room". He looked again at the paper work, and said "It was added to the ticket afterwards". So again, we got a nice chuckle from that too. Knowing that ... instead of going downtown for dinner as we'd planned, we'd be having dinner right there @ the place :)

We put our stuff in the room, then went to the restaurant, and placed our order. A few minutes later, the waiter returned to our table with a bottle of champaign. We alerted him that we hadn't ordered this . Assuming he had our table mixed up with someone else's. The waiter looked at his notepad, and said that he had been told to add this to the table-of-so-&-so, compliments of so & so. Again, we got a nice smile from that too. After the waiter left, I looked at the menu costs, of the bottle sitting in front of us, and saw that it was the most expensive on-the-menu at this swanky place !

We added up all the upgrades the guy had done, and it was hundreds and hundreds more than the agreed upon tip. But ... hey ... I guess the guy was relieved that his b*tt had been saved from the trouble it would have caused, if he'd shown up back home without his ring.
 
Lordy, Tom. That's better than finding a big ring worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars! That guy probably ended up dog meat anyway, but you came through golden! You're wife , I'm sure, enjoyed the special anniversary too. Great story; both to remember, and to tell.
 
Great story Tom, that guy must have REALLY wanted to get that ring! Amazing how thankful some folks can be...
 
:dingding: That story gets the dinger! It's amazing what company credit cards can pay for! :lol:
 
Fantastic story and well told too! That would be a nice feature for a Readers Digest short story
 
Man that was awesome. Sometimes you get lucky finding a ring and sometimes you get lucky finding a ring for someone who really returns the favor. I bet that was a great night.
 
Thats a tough one to top! Not gonna even try! How about your WORST ring find attempt/return experience? Plenty of those I imagine!

Good post Tom! Enjoyed it immensely!
 
Awesome story....posted on my 15th anniversary :) That means I'll be successful this weekend finding my brother in law's father's ring tomorrow :)


That is SO cool...it's nice that there are some grateful people out there like that.
 
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