The ethics of beach hunting

[Mentez]

Hi All

I'm not wanting to start an argument, and I'm not assuming some sort of moral high-ground because I've never been beach detecting (Because I plan to).

On the whites forum there is a question posed of "Should you ever detect in a cemetery" (they aren't advocating digging up graves before you all panic!), which got me thinking. How do people think when they find a ring on the beach? Do you ever feel like trying to return it to its owner as it might have a huge amount of sentimental value to them? An old lady I know lost her wedding ring at the beach and it was heartbreaking for her as her husband had just died the year before after 56 years of marriage. She was crying for weeks at the loss of that ring.

I know I'm lucky because I live in the UK and detector finds are easy to obtain going back 2000 years to roman and pre-roman artifacts and coinage, it's highly unlikely that the owner of 99.9% of what I find will be alive. I don't have to go to the beach to enjoy my hobby, I'm lucky in that respect I guess.

I'm not preaching, and I'm not sure where I stand in this as I think I'd like to give beach hunting a go. I was just wondering what peoples thoughts were, as that thread in the whites forum really got me thinking?

 

[goodmore]

People return rings all the time. The problem is finding the rightful owner. Class rings are easier because of the identifying features. Lost wedding and engagement rings are tough because there is usually no way to find the owner. There might be a unique inscription, but where do you advertise? The local beach newspaper? Tourists usually are long gone. I have read stories of this actually working out, but I feel no obligation to do it.

And just for the record never ever show your finds to anyone!

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Many times when hunting we are asked to find a newly lost item(that day) I will always give it a go. But if it's lost in the water and it has become high tide , I ask for the info and description. I look another day. It is really rewarding to some to give back a sentimental item to the owner.Very few do this just for the reward of money either cash reward or the scrap gold value. But its a by product of doing this hobby! I have done this for 36 years and I just enjoy digging crap from the ground. Karma plays into it as well I have heard many of hunter finds another item on his/her way back to hunt again.

 

[deanosaur1972]

Well I am a 100% beach hunter..................... and yes I find a few rings now and again

Here is my policy..........

If someone advertises a ring lost on the beach I will gladly help them find it.............. they can come with me.

If I am approached on the beach - then I will gladly go and help try to find it............

If I am approached on the beach and asked if I have found a ring my answer will always be NO........ even if I have 3........... there some members of the public who would be quite prepared to claim something that is not theirs........ I would take a telephone number and a description of the ring and if that was consistent then I would gladly return the ring but I would want their details first and would call them later.

If a ring is that special - then if they lose it they are going to advertise for it to be returned, I check the lost & found sections on-line and in the local paper......... again only happy to return.

As for handing it in to the Police (and if it was unclaimed after a period of time then it would be mine) .................... Sorry, I have a friend who works for the police and her ring went missing in the staff room!! Also the thought of someone just claiming it and not having the decency to call and say thanks would be too much to take - don't need a reward, but a thank you is a must. Again if its that special someone would advertise.

Do you know its never the rings and jewelery that get me thinking, its usually kids stuff....... toy cars...... or a kids ring worthless objects that the kid will be upset over losing, far more upset than the guy who has just lost his plain gold wedding band.

 

[Critterhunter]

I had a guy this summer approach me on the beach and said there was $20 in it for me if I found a junk metal class ring his kid lost. He pointed in the water to the general stretch of beach and since I was griding that spot anyway I was happy to. Ended up finding it about an hour later and called him on my cell. He came down to the beach, handed me the $20, and I was happy to give him the ring. On the phone I asked what the ring said and such but truth be known I didn't care if it was his ring or not. For $20 than type of junk metal is worth selling anyway.

Now, a few months back a lady walked into a gas station asking if they found a gold neck less her farther gave her before he died (I think she said that, she was upset). After I paid for my coffee and smokes I walked out the door looking at my feet as I made it back to my truck. I only took about twenty steps when I found that neck less. It was HEAVY, meaning high K gold value. I picked it up and looked around the parking lot. There she was in her car ready to leave. I walked over and asked her to describe that neck less and then gave it back to her. I'm out of work right now and sure could have used the money in scrap value but as I've said before my in morality only goes so far. On the other hand, if I never heard of her losing that jewelery and I found it in the parking lot I'm not going to try to track down the owner. Maybe if it was a ring with a name inside I might, but I haven't found myself having to make that kind of moral decision yet.

I remember years back when I found a gold man's ring. Ended up having a 2 carrot high quality diamond in it that I got around 3 to 4 grand (been a while, can't remember) for wholesale by a gold smith. The jeweler he sold it to retailed and sold that stone for 10K. Anyway, back to the topic. When I saw that ring come out of the ground I was praying it didn't have a name in it. I didn't want to have to make that kind of moral judgement call and at the time I sure did need the money. Glad it didn't. Turns out the ring was over 100 years old (judging by the cut of the diamond I was told this), so even if there had been a name in it that person was probably dead.

 

[John(Tx)]

they could easily tell someone what you found and they will claim it. HH

 

[tonyweston]

me toooooooo I never show or tell of my finds , I beach/ water hunt all the time in Majorca and I have had the pleasure of returning many items of bling ( I must admit the feel good factor is brilliant )and I hope returning items may give the general public some insight to our unusual hobby !!
The Spanish have a very useful tradition of engraving their partners name and date of wedding inside each others rings thus making identification and safe return very easy .( when I find them its Booty but I call them SAD rings )
Last year I found a wedding band with the name Fernanda and the date was only a few days old !! poor things they must have been on honeymoon ? I just wished for days after that they would have the savvy to tap me on the shoulder and say Hi Im Fernanda and live happily ever after ? but alas Fernanda now sits in my treasure chest just another sad ring memory

like many hunters kudos for me is worth far more than

 

[plugger]

If you can find the "rightful" owner, by all means, that is the proper thing to do. Class rings are pretty easy, but cheap(er) silver rings are hard to trace and few people advertise them in the lost & found. If it can be identified by some engravings on the ring, try to locate the proper owner. The subject of a reward is up to the finder and the person who lost it, but I certainly wouldn't hold for "ransom"! Let your conscience be your guide, as my Mother used to say.

Plugger

 

[synthnut]

I will not spill the beans about what I have found to anyone on the beach ....If someone want's me to try to find something for them , I am more than happy to help if they can guide me to a general area and describe what they lost .... There are too many other opportunities where you can end up keeping what you find not to help someone in need .....I also agree that it is the owners responsibility to have something engraved in such an expensive item to help identify it should it be lost .... Put yourself in someone elses shoes and just remember to do unto others as you would have others do unto you !!....... Jim

 

[plugger]

I collect all those toy cars, tanks, airplanes and save them up until I have a 5 gallon bucket's worth and then fill it with water and simple green and clean them all up, rinsing and then drying them. I donate all of them to local churches and the battered women's shelter and other similar organizations. Some summers I can get 100s of these toys. Usually, they will end up with a traumatized child who does not get to go to the beach as often as they should. I am sure many of you do the same, right?

Plugger

 

[deanosaur1972]

Some summers I can get 100s of these toys. Usually, they will end up with a traumatized child who does not get to go to the beach as often as they should. I am sure many of you do the same, right?

Yep, mine go to the local Salvation Army................ if they are presentable enough.

 

[John(Tx)]

I think that is a wonderful idea, I'll start collecting mine and do the same, I normally give them to kids at the beach when they are around. HH John

 

[goodmore]

Stop over at the beach forum and see Jesus. What do you do if someone shows you a picture of them wearing it? What if the insurance company sees it?

 

[deanosaur1972]

What do you do if someone shows you a picture of them wearing it? What if the insurance company sees it?

First one's easy - give it back.........

Second one..........hmm well if an insurance company is checking around then its going to be a very expensive ring......... and I would have expected that the loser of the ring would have advertised so if it was local to me I would already have known about it and been able to help. From what I understand an insurance company pay very well to people who find the lost goods - I am sure I have heard of 20% plus of the insured value. Personally I would judge that differently from all of what I said in my first detailed post....... as it would have turned from a personal return into commercial return.


I should be detecting now...... but we have some of the worst rains this year tonight, I don't mind getting wet but flooding is forecast....... so here is a couple of things I could of returned and didn't...................


First one is going back about 7 years ago......... used to detect in the evening rather than night then..... so I am happily walking along when I am confronted by someone stood in front of me, I stop and take off my headphone's.....

Him: Haven't found my toe ring have you?
Me: No, where did you lose it....
Him: Out there - points out into the water.....
Me: No sorry, what did it look like.......
Him: Bet you have...
Me: Pardon?
Him: Bet you have found it you B******

And off he storms.............. I noted where he was sat - and I carried on (thinking why someone would get so upset about a toe ring - and also insult the only person who could help) .... into late evening and the beach had cleared and I was returning I ran the detector over the spot where he was sitting........ one shiny toe ring...... he hadn't lost it in the water after all it was right where he was sitting. I still have the toe ring........... and this didn't used to be a toe ring, its been altered, used to be a standard ring, an old one. I also have a feeling that its platinum. Now had he been nice in the first place that initial conversation would have ended up with me taking a telephone number and description and he would have had it back.


The other two were this year - having never found a mobile phone before I found 3 in two hunts - one was dead, but the other two still switched on. The first one was expensive - flicked onto messages to see if there was one saying "if you find this phone" etc etc........ ok so nothing like that - opened up a couple of messages and my eyes widened, it was a young ladies phone who is an escort girl (a hooker) - so numerous client requests and also drug deals...... The second one was a guy's whose messages were from a string of different women describing certain things that they would like this guy to do to them (use your imagination!!)

So in both cases - did the only thing I could and destroyed the sim.......... any other option of tracing the owner could have caused all sorts of nightmares....

Sometimes despite all the best intentions things don't quite work out................. I am hoping the GT will cause me many problems with expensive diamond rings though...

 

[Jim Robertson]

n/t

 

[Gary in Daytona]

It actually goes beyond ethics. You have LEGAL responsibility to return a lost item to an owner if that can be established. I would always return something that I can find the owner, and have spent a lot and time finding an owner only to not even get as much as a thank you. Didn't sweat it because that goes with the territory, it's annoying but I believe in paying it forward.
But yes, of course you need to return items, that's not only the right thing to do, it's the legal obligation of the beach hunter.

 

[John(Tx)]

if these people want their items back so bad why don't they go buy a metal detector like we do and search for it? You put down $1000 for a machine and they get the reward? Class rings I can understand, everything else, finders keepers unless the person asks you for help, if I'm wrong so be it. John

 

[Gary in Daytona]

In most cases, you're wrong, but not because it's my opinion. I've been told by several people in law enforcement (sometimes while I was hunting the beach) that if you find an item and know who the owner is (told by a observer or see an ad in the paper later on), or they approach you or find you and identify the item sufficiently, it still belongs to them. Granted this may not happen very often, but it does happen. And yes, I've been know to seek them out and put the (probably well identified) class ring back into their hands, in some cases to a very ungrateful person.
I'm not too fond of this idea either, but that's the way it is. I guess that's why you have to wait so long for lost items if you turn one into the police station. It gives the owner time to claim their goods.

 

[mtpockets]

This one will always stick with me:


I had a person ask me to "Help" him find his wedding ring..OK...

Keyword: Help.

as soon as he tells me where he thinks he's lost it, he exits the water and goes to his beach area where his friends and family are, Reaches into the cooler and cracks open a cold

then sits down and fires up a smoke.. hitting his friends on the arm while pointing at me smiling and laughing..Kinda like I was his worker..

Needless to say.. I just keep wading through the surf.

I'm sorry.. but if you lost something that's of value to you.. I'd be standing around in the water trying to look for it myself too... Borrowing someones
snorkel mask.. whatever, until that guy with the detector tells you to get out of they way before you bury it deeper.


I've returned several..... to those who waited around and tried helping..

if these people want their items back so bad why don't they go buy a metal detector like we do and search for it? You put down $1000 for a machine and they get the reward? Class rings I can understand, everything else, finders keepers unless the person asks you for help, if I'm wrong so be it. John

 

[erikk]

if these people want their items back so bad why don't they go buy a metal detector like we do and search for it? You put down $1000 for a machine and they get the reward? Class rings I can understand, everything else, finders keepers unless the person asks you for help, if I'm wrong so be it. John

I will go out of my way to return a class ring or search for a ring that was just lost while I am there and they ask for help. Other than that IMHO anyone that wears jewelry to the beach deserves to lose it and if they do and if I find it I will keep it. On a very expensive ring you can bet it is insured. If the person who lost the ring and was paid off by the insurance company gets the ring back do you really think they will call the company and tell them they are sending the check back-In your dreams .02