Patent ID: 7409915

Claim:
An item lock apparatus for releasibly anchoring personal items to beach sand, comprising: an auger having an upright auger shaft with a shaft lower end and a shaft upper end and a ramped auger screw flange means below said shaft upper end for screwing into beach sand; a lug structure fixedly secured to said shaft upper end; a locking post extending upwardly from said lug structure and having a padlock engaging structure through which a padlock bolt can pass; a shield disk having a central disk port through which said auger shaft upper end passes such that said shield disk is rotatably mounted immediately below and is retained by said lug structure, such that said shield disk spins freely around said auger shaft, and obstructs access to said auger shaft to prevent unauthorized persons from gripping and rotating said auger shaft; a shield dome having a dome apex port for removably fitting over said lug structure and around said locking post to spin freely about said auger shaft and such that a padlock bolt can be engaged by said padlock engaging structure and locked above said shield dome while said shield dome encloses and prevents unauthorized access to said lug structure; and a lug engaging lever structure sized and configured to engage said lug structure for gripping to rotate said auger shaft to screw said auger shaft into and out of beach sand; such that items can be lockingly secured to the padlock and unauthorized persons have access only to said post, dome and shield disk which spin freely relative to said auger shaft and thus such persons cannot engage and rotate said auger shaft to remove said apparatus and steal any engaged items.