A surfer in Florida was reunited with his prosthetic leg after a 13-year-old boy found it during a treasure hunt with his dad

• Carter Hess, a surfer in Panama City, Florida, lost his $3,000 titanium prosthetic leg while surfing in St. Andrews Bay in April.
• Weeks after Hess lost it, Sebastian Morris, 13, and his father, Bobby, found the prosthetic leg buried near jetties in St. Andrews State Park on Monday.
• Hess was reunited with the leg on Tuesday after The Panama City News Herald wrote Sebastian and Bobby finding a leg and searching for its owner.
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A surfer in Florida was reunited with his prosthetic leg after a 13-year-old boy found it during a treasure hunt with his dad weeks after it was lost.

Carter Hess lost his $3,000 titanium prosthetic leg when he was hit by a wave while surfing in Florida's St. Andrews Bay in April, The Panama City News Herald reported.

It was found weeks later on Monday, when Sebastian Morris, 13, and his father, Bobby, found the leg buried near jetties in St. Andrews State Park, about 30 feet away from where Hess was surfing.

Hess learned they had found his prosthetic when The Panama City News Herald wrote about the father and son finding a leg and starting an online campaign to find its owner. Hess's friend sent him the story, and Hess realized it was his prosthetic that was found.

"I don't think I would have ever found it," Hess said of his leg.

He met up with Sebastian and the teen's mother on Tuesday to retrieve his prosthetic and thanked the family on Instagram.

Hess had his left leg amputated in 2012 after he stepped on an improvised explosive device while serving in the military in Afghanistan, according to USA Today.

The prosthetic that was lost was made for Hess at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland for the specific use of surfing.

Hess plans to go surfing again with the leg as soon as the weather allows it, and hopes to take Sebastian scuba diving one day.

"I've been very upfront that this is an amazing, great young man," Hess told the News Herald of Sebastian. "A lot of guys, especially treasure hunters, would have just put it in a trophy case — but he realized it could be important and someone could need it."