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Darick Langos, operator of Scuba Bear Diving Recovery Service in Port Barrington, Illinois, says he has recovered over 200 Apple watches from the bottoms of lakes in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. And he has the pictures to prove it.
He says that almost all of them had the original watch band too.
“The ones with the sports bands … they do not stay on in the water,” Langos told Shaw Local.
Langos has also found dozens of smartphones and hundreds of rings, earrings, hunting knives, and even guns while scuba diving in Indiana’s Chain O’ Lakes and on Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.
He has gotten so good at it that he turned into his full-time business.
“It is a good paying gig, but super niche,” Langos said, adding, “I am the cheapest guy I know of. I don’t charge if I can’t find it.”
Langos says if a person comes to him and is “99% certain” where they lost something he has very good luck finding it.
He uses a metal detector that can locate an object under up to 50 feet of water.
However, if they say it is located “somewhere out in the middle of the lake,” it’s pretty much a lost cause.
Prescription glasses are another item that he often gets calls to go look for in the water.
“They can be insanely expensive, $800 for prescription glasses. I am able to find it in less than a minute,” he said.
Interestingly, Langos says he doesn’t sell any of the jewelry he finds while scuba diving.
“I haven’t sold anything, including a white gold Cartier ring, unless I get it back to the owner,” he said.
As for all those Apple watches he’s found, he says most of them will still take a charge, but since they are almost always locked it’s tough returning them to the right people.
[UPI]