The Ring Finders
Metal Detecting Service Inc.

Last week, I recieved an email from Marti of Folsom, California.  She and her husband, Charlie, had been to the north shore of Lake Tahoe and while spending time together on the beach, Marti lost her white gold wedding band.  The couple was a few days shy of their 39th wedding anniversary and Marti was heartsick at the loss.  In fact, she told me in her email that she was unable to even talk about the incident and would have her husband Charlie call me to explain what had happened.  Charlie did call me later and told me that they had been sitting on the beach when Marti took her ring off to apply sunscreen.  He thought that she had likely placed the ring on her lap and then forgotten to put it back on before she stood up to go swimming in the lake.  Charlie was certain he put me in the area in which the ring was lost and asked me if I was available to travel to Lake Tahoe.  Since Lake Tahoe is over two hours away, making my call out fee greater than normal, I suggested that he try screening the area first.  I explained how to make the screen and how to drag the beach.  Charlie later called to advise that after two hours of back breaking work he had not been successful and they wanted me to attempt recovery.  I met Charlie in Truckee and followed him to the trail head leading to the beach.  I began my recovery effort by setting up a grid, using orange cones in the area Charlie identified as the area where they were sitting.  As usual, I expanded the area 10 feet in each direction to be safe.  Fortunately, Charlie had the identical wedding ring.  I was able to scan his ring with my Whites Spectra V3i and see what information I could expect on my detector screen if I was able to locate Margti’s wedding band.  I then began my grid search and after locating a number of coins and trash targets, I got a solid, repeatable signal and was certain that I had located the ring.  I told Charlie to carefully use the hand sand scoop on the target area.  As soon as he brought the scoop up out of the sand, I saw a flash of silver and knew we had hit pay-dirt.  Charlie was incredulous, elated and emotional all at the same time when he recognized that I had recovered his wife’s wedding band.   He jumped up and gave me a high five!  He gripped the ring tightly in his hand and exclaimed, “Thank you!”  I was so happy to have been able to recover this significant symbol of such a lengthy marriage.

UPDATE:  The local news station, KCRA did a very nice piece on the recovery of Marti’s ring.  See it here:  http://www.kcra.com/video/24545394/   The local paper, The Sacramento Bee also ran a story.  Read it here:  http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/10/2947730/momme-when-your-ring-falls-off.html#