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Aussie boy's $20,000 find buried at popular beach

The boy came armed to the beach with a 'metal detector and small shovel'.

A "very excited" young boy was able to dig up a man's prized $20,000 watch that he lost at a popular Sydney beach on Tuesday.

Josh Shave, 10, went hunting for the valuable Cartier Santos watch at Balmoral Beach with his father Simon, when the stressed 79-year-old man couldn't find it in his shorts pocket after going for his usual morning swim.

“Dad was in a real state and very upset,” the man's son, Justin, told the Mosman Collective. “He returned to the car after his swim, and when he went to put his watch on, it wasn’t there.

A photo of Balmoral Beach in Sydney where a man lost his Cartier watch. A photo of Josh and hid dad Simon, who found the Cartier Santos watch at Balmoral Beach with a metal detector.
A 10-year-old boy managed to find a $20,000 Cartier Santos watch for a man who lost it at Balmoral Beach in Sydney. Source: Google Maps/Facebook

“He parks in the same spot and swims in the same spot every day, but even after retracing his steps, it couldn’t be found.

The 1975 watch bought in France holds great sentimental value for the man, being one of his "most treasured possessions".

How did the boy find the Cartier watch?

Luckily, they were connected with the right people for the job — Josh's family, who regularly look for lost things in the area. His mum Meggan Brummer then sent her son and husband out to find the treasure trove reportedly worth $18,000 to $20,000.

“Simon and Josh went down to Balmoral after school finished, armed with a metal detector and a small shovel,” Ms Brummer told Mosman Collective.

She said they weren’t too hopeful, given the watch was so valuable and had been missing for the entire day.

Expecting to be at the popular swimming spot all day, it was not long before the boy's metal detector started vibrating near the steps leading down to the beach at about 5.20pm.

“As soon as I saw it, I became very excited – I knew I would be able to make the sad man happy again," he told the publication. "It is the most expensive thing I have ever found.”

Being extremely thankful for the boy's kind act, the man reportedly gave Josh some pocket money.

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