Tom Townsend, Author at The Ring Finders

Chase and his friend Kevin were a couple of my first Ring Finder customers back in 2015 when they both lost their wedding rings on the same day, in the same location!   Sunday morning, Chase texts me saying, “I did it again.”  This time on a private beach on Lake Michigan near South Haven.  Searching The Ring Finders site, he saw I was still listed.  Instead of contacting the Ring Finder for the South Haven area (sorry Dave 😊) Chase contacted me again.  He had put sunscreen on and stepped into the ice cold water to rinse off his hands and thought that was probably when he’d lost it but didn’t actually feel it come off so it could also be on the beach somewhere.  Hoping I didn’t have to step into the ice cold Lake MI water, I did a quick search on shore where he thought he and the family were the day before.  No such luck.  I scanned the shoreline 5’ or so into the water for about 5 minutes; that was about all I could handle, the water was PAINFULLY cold.  No ring.  I searched the beach some more while my feet thawed in the warm sand and tried again a few feet further out in the water.  Still no ring.  I was pretty sure at that point it wasn’t in the water so I searched at little further north of where I’d started, hoping I didn’t have to step back into the ice cold Lake MI water.  Bingo!  Another happy face for my Book of Smiles 😃

I got a call from Don the day after July 4th saying he’d lost his platinum wedding ring in the sand at Grand Haven State Park the day before.  Having only been married 5 weeks, his friend asked to see his ring.  In hindsight, tossing it to him probably wasn’t the best plan on the beach.  As soon as something hits beach sand it vanishes like socks in a dryer.  Don spent HOURS sifting a 6’x10’ section of the beach with a colander with no luck in locating the ring.   I love these types of searches vs water searches. Knowing where something is lost in the sand it can usually be located in an matter of minutes and this was no exception – Don had his ring back in less than 5 minutes 🙂

I got an email from Debbie letting me know that her husband lost his wedding ring the week before at PJ Hoffmaster State park.  After attempting to locate it with a friend and their metal detector with no success they contacted me through The Ring Finders website.  I met up with Debbie and her husband the next day and after a 30 or 40 minute search his ring was in my scoop.  😎

I received a text from Hailey who said her friend Gavin had lost his deceased father’s wedding ring at Grand Haven State Park.  After returning home to Muskegon, Gavin called me and stated he’d lost the ring IN the lake.  The detector I had with me wasn’t waterproof so i would have to run home to grab my Garrett AT Pro and meet up with him about 2 hours later.  When I arrived at the beach Gavin and his mother were there, as well as Greg, the Ring Finder from the Grand Rapids area, and 2 firefighters with metal detectors already searching.  After a brief 15 minute search I got a signal so loud that it startled me and I had his family heirloom in my scoop.  His mother was so overjoyed she started to cry.

I received a text from Rebekah Saturday evening after losing her engagement ring in waist deep water in Lake Michigan at Holland State Park.  She and Mike had only been engaged 3 weeks and was desperate for help to retrieve it.  I was able to meet them at the park the following day but when I got close to the park the traffic backup to get in was a half mile long.  Hoping I wouldn’t have to park outside the park and hike in with my detecting gear I was let into the park after about a 20 minute wait.  Rebekah had a pretty good idea where the ring had slipped off so I began a methodical search.  Normally, it would take 30-40 minutes to find a target given they knew approximately where they ring was lost.  This search, however, turned out to be the longest search I’ve ever done.  After 2 hours, Mike and Rebekah had to leave and I said I’d stay another hour, if I hadn’t found it by then I’d return the following weekend and try again.  An hour later, just as I was about to give up, I got a solid signal and saw her beautiful white gold and sapphire ring in my scoop.

I received a call from Krati concerning some friends who were visiting from the Livonia area that were in desperate need of my help.  Alex & Ankita had only been married a week when Alex felt his wedding band, passed down from his grandfather, slip off his finger while in the water at Silver Lake in St. Joseph.  It was lost the night before around 9:00pm and they searched frantically for it until sunset to no avail.  After an hour and 20 minute drive the next day, I arrived at the beach just before 2:00.  It was extremely helpful that they knew the approximate spot to begin my search.  After some direction on which way to go, north or south, and sweeping my detector for just 5 minutes or so, my very first signal was Alex’s ring.  The accompanying photograph says it all.

After completing a successful Ring Finder search for a client in Royal Oak, I was doing a little searching on my own at Grand Haven State Park.  I was approached by fellow West MI Ring Finder, Gregg Larabel.  A woman had stopped him on the beach and said she had lost a ring while walking along the shoreline between the pavilion and the pier.  He told her he’d look and that if he found it she could contact him through The Ring Finders website and he would get it back to her.  I was more than halfway to the pier at that point so I started searching the shoreline going north while he looked to the south.  About 15 minutes later I found it just a few feet from shore.  Not knowing if Greg was still on the beach, I texted him a picture of the ring and dropped it off to him the next morning to deliver to Michelle.

I received a call Thursday from Joe who had lost his wedding ring the day before in Lake Michigan at Grand Haven State Park.  He said he was from the east side of the state and they were about to leave for home. They had been in Grand Haven celebrating their 3rd wedding anniversary where they had been married on the beach in 2016.  I asked him to photograph the beach with landmarks (benches, buoys, etc.) to give me a general idea of where to start looking (it’s a REALLY long beach).  After searching for over 2 hours the next morning, I called Joe to get clarification on the search area.  He said the ring had slipped off about 10’-20’ from the buoy, so I tried again.  After about 10 minutes I saw gold in my scoop!  I texted him a picture of the ring.  He was so happy.  I mailed his ring to him and asked him to take a picture of him with it for my Book of Smiles.

I got an unusual call from SB Swae in Grand Haven to locate a ruby bead from a necklace that had broken while he was felling a tree next to Tech Audio, his uncle’s business.  He said the necklace contained several pure silver beads that had fallen off the strand along with the ruby bead and, if I found the silver beads, the hope was I might find the ruby bead also.  We both knew it was a long shot but it was worth a try.  In the event I found the silver beads but not the ruby before it got dark, I stopped at Home Depot to purchase a UV flashlight knowing that rubies glow under UV light.  When I arrived, Swae had staked off a 25 sq/ft area where the necklace had fallen off, believing the beads would be in that general area.  While I searched he told me the story behind the necklace.  Swae had purchased the necklace in India and had it blessed by the Dalai Lama.  It only took about 10 minutes to locate where the silver beads had fallen.  At that point, we got down on our hands and knees with a pin-pointer and carefully sifted through the brush and were able to find all but 4 of the 35 lost beads, including the ruby!

I received a call from Angela on Thursday, Aug 23rd. Her husband, Hector, had lost his wedding ring in Lake Michigan at Port Sheldon Pier 4 days before.  When my wife heard where this search was to take place she insisted on tagging along.  Because the search area was within a gated community, Angela met us at a nearby park and escorted us into the lakeside community my wife’s grandparent’s lived in when she was growing up; she was SO excited just to be where she’d spent so many summers when she was little.  The search, however, would have to wait for a few more days; the waves were 5′-7′ high and it wasn’t going to get any better until the weekend.  I went back Sunday after church and started my search a little after noon.  It was REALLY foggy and I couldn’t see more than about 50 yards in any direction but the water was nice and calm and I was the only one on the beach.  It only took about 30 minutes to find Hector’s ring right where he said it had fallen off (about 30 yards off shore and about 30 yards from the pier).  It never ceases to amaze me how gold rings tend to stay right where they’re dropped even after 4 days of high winds and waves.  Angela had worked worked 3rd shift the night before and slept thru her alarm so it was about an hour before she and Hector arrived after I had texted her that his ring was safe and sound in my pouch :o)