Homing In on Treasure : They’re first on the beach after a storm and last in the park on a beautiful weekend. They’re high-tech prospectors whose thrill is the hunt.

They are as much a part of the South Bay’s beach scene as the surfers and skaters and volleyball players. Yet, to most beach-goers, the treasure hunters toting beeping, high-tech wands remain a mysterious lot.

Perhaps it’s their solitary nature, the odd devices they carry or just a curiosity about what they could be finding submerged in the sand.

“People think we’re a bunch of scavengers,” said Bob Glick, 50, a longtime treasure hunter from Torrance who frequently searches for valuables on Hermosa Beach. “They don’t realize that this is my hobby and my sport. We don’t all need the money. Other people have baseball and football and tennis. I have detecting.”

Enthusiasts say the activity is increasingly popular as manufacturers come up with increasingly clever machines, which cost up to $1,000 and can detect coins and jewelry hidden many inches under the ground.

There are 15 treasure hunter clubs scattered throughout the state and more than 300 nationwide, but Southern California remains a hot spot for the hobby with its acres of sandy beaches, expansive deserts and moderate climate. One of the nation’s largest and oldest of such groups, the Prospector’s Club of Southern California, just celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Glick, vice president of the Downey-based club, approaches his treasure hunting with the same intensity of a surfer who plies the waves day after day at the crack of dawn. He has nine detectors and says his finds have paid for every one of the them.

The devices vary in their degree of sophistication, though all send electrical fields into the ground and then measure the deflections. Some are designed for searching in specific environments, such as hard-packed soil or highly mineralized sand. Models aimed at beginners simply emit a tone when metal is near, whereas the more elaborate ones have monitors that also indicate the type of metal underground. The pros wear earphones wired to the wand to make sure they do not miss even the most minute tone.

Glick’s biggest find, one he shows off with a glowing smile on his face, is a diamond ring he plucked from the sand in Huntington Beach. Its value: about $1,000.

Treasure hunters embrace the “finders keepers” credo tightly--unabashedly searching for rings dropped from fingers during romps in the surf, necklaces and other jewelry that disappeared into the sand, and anything else left behind. But they do not consider themselves parasites who prey on the misfortunes of others.

The clubs encourage hunters to try to track down original owners if they can. When a successful match is made, the owner is often invited to club meetings to pick up the lost article to the cheers of club members.

But what keeps the hobby going is, as Walsh put it, the fact that “about 99% of the things you find have no identification and are impossible to return.”

Treasure hunters are also proud of the time they take out to help anxious people look for lost articles and the code of ethics they follow to protect the environment. Many treasure hunters also volunteer their services to local law enforcement agencies, who regularly use them to hunt for murder weapons.

“It’s real exciting,” said Charles Carfrae, a 64-year-old retiree from Downey who helped Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies search for evidence after a murder in Arcadia last fall. “You’re helping the law enforcement agencies out, and there’s a real thrill in finding whatever it is the officers are looking for.”

Treasure hunters rave about the exercise they get from trooping across the sand for hours with their four-pound wands and the camaraderie they develop through the clubs. But most of all, what keeps them traversing the area’s beaches and parks long after others have returned home is the potential to discover actual buried treasure.

Roger Gard, who sells detectors at Riviera Coins in Redondo Beach, says the pastime fulfills an urge that everyone has: the desire for easy money.

“To me there’s a thrill when you find something for nothing. Every time your machine beeps, it could be one of these,” he said, showing off a gold pendant he once found on the beach.

The pastime attracts a diverse following.

“We’ve got about everyone in our group--children, young college kids right up to people who are retired,” said Ralph Crowther, president of the West Coast Prospectors and Treasure Hunters Assn. in Garden Grove. “The stereotype is a retired loner, but that’s not really the case.”

No matter the age, every hunter likes to gloat a bit about that especially satisfying find.

Crowther, 35, of Westminster, wears a gold ring that he found on the beach. He recalls fondly his biggest day, when he unearthed two diamond rings and a gold chain.

John Walsh, 44, who heads the 300-member Prospector’s Club of Southern California, said he hasn’t had any exceptional finds. But he notes proudly that his wife discovered a 24-karat gold bracelet worth about $1,500 the first time she used a detector.

The beach is the most popular local searching ground because of the constant stream of visitors, but the treasure hunters say any plot of land will do. Local clubs sponsor trips throughout the area, and one stop last month was Torrance Park, where about a dozen hunters scoured for lost coins.

Along the coast, the hunters are most visible after storms when the churning ocean litters the sand with treasures that have been washed ashore.

Treasure hunters are also the first ones on the sand after big beach volleyball tournaments and the last ones to go home at the end of a beautiful summer day. Late-night beach detecting is best, some hunters say, because the county’s beach cleanup machines have not yet made their early morning runs.

Some treasure hunters say they have heard of hunters who actually haul in enough loot to support themselves, but most are simply enthusiasts in search of a subterranean thrill.

Glick, for instance, moved quickly through the grass at Torrance Park last month waving his wand as he walked. All of a sudden, his detector let out the blare that signals underground treasure.

Glick, an old pro, pulled out a knife, sliced into the turf and stuck his fingers underground. Was it a pricey ring, a gold nugget, a rare coin?

After a few seconds of investigation, Glick continued his search.

He had discovered a sprinkler head.

Treasure Hunter’s Code of Ethics

1. Leave the land and vegetation as it was. Fill in all holes.

2. Observe all laws.

3. Don’t destroy, damage or deface public or private property, or what’s left of ghost towns or deserted structures.

4. Don’t litter.

5. Respect the rights and property of others, and observe posted areas.

6. Always conduct yourself in a manner that is courteous and polite.

Source: Prospector’s Club of Southern California