Page 30 - August 2019

How the “Shark Tooth Fairy” Got His
Name
About four years ago, a news article
covered Mike’s story and dubbed him the
“Shark Tooth Fairy.” According to Mike,
the name just stuck. As word spread of
the “Shark Tooth Fairy” and his amazing
treasures, more people began to show up at
the hunts.
In October of 2014, Mike and a few
volunteers had collectively buried around
a half a ton of fossils at the shoreline of
the Sands Beach for the kids to find. “One
particular hunt just blew up... there were
people from all over! Around 2,000 people
ended up showing up!”
Unfortunately, the hunt caused a traffic
his houseboat began to tilt to one side. So, mainly adults.” jam that traveled up Parris Avenue, onto
with permission from Stan, the dock’s owner, Mike had originally envisioned it to be Ribaut, and over the Battery Creek Bridge.
he started piling up his finds on the dock for the kids and still had a lot of buckets of The road had to be closed down to clear
next to his boat. “Before I knew it, the dock teeth so, “ I decided to do it on a Saturday out traffic. Mike would soon learn, “there is
started leaning and I get a phone call from and post it ahead of time.” He also decided a city ordinance, if you have an event with
Stan,” who happens to be a dear friend of to make his next hunt more of a challenge over 100 people, you have to have police
his, “telling me that I needed to offload some than finding teeth just thrown on top of the security and traffic control...paid security.”
of my shark teeth because his dock was sand. “I buried a couple of buckets worth Up until this point, all of his hunts were free.
leaning.” of stuff all along the high dunes...about “It was all free, this was for me, a part of my
Mike quickly thought of a solution that 50 people showed up to the event and healing. To see the excitement on these kids’
would lighten both he and Stan’s problem. everybody had a great time.” faces, that was enough right there.”
The thought occurred to him that he could This was only the beginning for Mike,
take some of his treasures to the Sands and his boat was still leaning over. So,
Beach in Port Royal. “I had the idea of after about a month of diving to acquire a “One day I was in the grocery
recycling my finds. I put a post on social few more “trophy” teeth, he was ready for store and this little kid comes up
media that read something like, ‘Hey come his next hunt. He wanted to build on the to me and tugs at my shirt. He
out to the Sands today, I've put out some previous hunts and for the first time in a long says to me, ‘Hey! You are that
shark teeth!' I never thought it would become time, he felt good. That childlike adventure
what it is today, but I posted it for people to of treasure hunting was the beginning of guy...the Shark Tooth Fairy!’”
head out there with their kids and grab some a healing process for Mike, and doing
shark teeth. I didn't think about the fact that the kids’ shark hunts unearthed something Undeterred and willing to do whatever
it was the middle of the week. I went out to much more meaningful. These hunts would it would take to continue the hunts, Mike
see what kind of turn out there was, a lot of become the catalyst for his complete decided to charge a small $5 entry fee to
people turned out but I realized they were healing. “...Today, I’m just a happy guy!” the adults only. The fee would only cover

the cost for the required security and traffic
control. Mike says he never intended to
charge anyone and continues to offer
the hunt free of charge to children. “They
are what all of this is about anyway.” This
time Mike was told he would now need a
peddler’s license to charge people.
Following the hunt, Mike decided to
host a special needs hunt in response to
feedback that he had received from many
of the participants about their desire to see
a hunt that could accommodate children
with special needs, those who couldn’t be
in large crowds or who were confined to
wheelchairs. He realized that this hunt would
have to be on a much smaller scale, so
he partnered with a parent of a child with
special needs, and spread the word about
his next hunt. “We informed people through
social media that there would be a hunt
30 August 2019 | www.BeaufortLifestyle.com