My hunt started as a normal metal detecting trip to Claytor Lake public swimming beach in Virginia about 2 hours from my house in North Carolina. It was the summer of 2005. My dad was with me as he was the one to get me hooked on metal detecting. We had moved from detecting on land to water detecting a few years back because the digging was so hard on my aging dad’s knees. We pulled into the parking lot, like several times in the past, we noticed how many people were already there. The parking lot was almost full, which is always good. The more people, the more we will find! The spot we hunt is a roped off swimming area about 250' long and about 35' wide, with a nice sandy bottom. My detector is an older Minelab Excalibur 1000. I have found tons of stuff with it and it has paid for itself many times over. I use a stainless steel Starv scoop with a 40" fiberglass handle to get the goods off the bottom of the lake. We entered the water and about 30 minutes went by with a few coins and a silver earring being found by me. It was hard to swing the detector due to all the people. As I was detecting, I passed by a guy and we struck a conversation up. You know, the same old question, "have you found anything good yet?" I replied no, nothing good yet, and here is where it gets interesting! As he asked me the question, I noticed he had a huge yellow gold rope chain with a big yellow gold charm that looked like a pair of handcuffs around his neck. I thought to myself, now that is what I'm looking for! We went our separate ways and about 30 minutes later I passed by the guy again. He again asked the question, "you found anything good yet?" I had found a nice ring by then and showed him my treasure. I couldn't look him in the eye because I was so distracted by the chain around his neck! I continued on my way. As the day went on, I passed this guy another three or four times, and he asked the same question over and over again. Toward the end of my hunt, I had a few decent finds and my dad found a few things but nothing to pay for the 2-hour drive to where we were detecting. I asked my dad if he was ready to go and he said yes. I told him I was going to make one last pass. About that time, I received a nice low tone. I put my scoop down in the sand and pulled it up. As the water and sand sifted away, I caught a glimmer of a necklace. Before I could get it out of the scoop, the same guy with the same old question was standing in front of me, "is it something good?" I said yes, I think so. I kind of held it under water to my side so no one could see my treasure I had found. It was good......really good! Yellow gold and heavy! When I finally got my senses back, I turned to the guy and looked at his neck. The huge yellow gold chain with the big hand cuff charm was missing and guess what was in my scoop! I looked in my hand and looked at him and said, "have you lost anything?" He looked dumbfounded and said "well no". I looked at him again and said, "weren't you wearing a necklace?" He put his hand on his neck and then turned a pale white! He had no idea his necklace was gone! I normally get the person to describe what they had lost, but there was no mistaking that this was his necklace right down to the handcuff charm and all. I gave it back to him and he ran out of the water thanking me many times as he put the necklace in a safe place. I wish I had a picture but we all know what heavy gold chains look and feel like! My treasure this day was doing the right thing. Happy Hunting!
Jason Tedder – NC – USA.