Ryson Zettlemoyer

thanks to all those amazing ring finders out there helping people reconnect with these very sentimental pieces of life... (2021)

Pull up a chair, grab a seat, and listen in on this wild journey of my lost wedding ring. It was may of 2021. I’ve been married for only a year and a half to a woman I’ve been with for 9 years. My wife mentioned to me to go get the ring properly fitted cause it was loose. Regretfully, so I thought, I didn’t listen....

So how did it happen. My wife bought a dog that I had no interest in. We had two others. And I didn’t want to train another pup. So it was “her” dog. But you know how that goes. I fell in love with the lil one. So I’m outside in the driveway, we live way out in the country so our driveway is a dirt road, and on the first toss of the dog toy, Oh No! My ring... it’s gone... me and my buddy looked for hours. Nothing. Nowhere. It’s lost. Everyday I’d go out and look. As did my wife and other friends. We’d come up empty handed each and every time. We did this for days. Several days after losing it, I was having a buddy come visit who was going to stay with me for two weeks to help me move out of the house we were selling. Even more frustration around the lost ring. You see, my buddy was coming to help us pack up and move out. We had bought another home 4 hours away. That added some extra stress. Cause I knew my time to find it was limited. And with the move and all, how in the world will I find the time.

So my buddy talked me into buying a metal detector from big five. It was nothing special of a machine, just your normal low quality metal detector. We looked for days and weeks when we had the time. Nothing. Empty handed every time. It was doing a number on me. I felt as if I was missing a part of my body. I couldn’t help but think about it often as I looked down on my finger. And to make matters worse, my wife always gave me a hard time for wearing it on the right finger, cause that’s where it fit best. It was way looser on the left finger. So be it. Every time I went back to the property and I walked past that spot, I felt it, I would feel that loss.

Now you see, I could have had the ring maker make us another ring. But there was something special and magical about our ceremony and gathering. It was a weekend long event. And the magic that happened on that weekend was a once in a lifetime kind of thing. And all that magic, I believe, took form in those rings. So I had to find that ring. I couldn’t give up just yet.

Fast forward two months later. My buddy mentions to me that there are specialty detectors that can target specific types of metal, like in my case, white gold. Some days went by till I decided to look into a possible rental of one of these machines. Upon my search, I came across an article on a farmers insurance website, who I have insurance through, that spoke about a gentleman in Southern California who did the good deed of helping to find personal property lost along that coastline on the local beaches. It spoke about how he did it as a good dead cause he understood the sentimental value that these articles behold. I was elated. There was a phone number. I reached out to Stan by sending a text message to see if he could help. As I waited for a response I dug deeper. I noticed there was a website.TheRingFinder.com. I visited the page and not before long, Stan reached out to tell me about the site. I’m already there I said. And thanked him for responding and for the work he had done. So as I was reading through the site, I saw a section that allowed for searching a ring finder in our area. I put in the zip code and bam.

There was a ring finder here. I clicked on his name and to my dismay, it was an old friend whom I have not seen in many years. What an interesting coincidence. I had remembered when Ryson was younger, he was chatting about wanting to get a metal detector and find lost jewelry. To see that he was using some of his time for this made me smile. Cause he might be able to help me and we can also reconnect. It’s been an extremely long time since we’ve seen each other. So I grabbed the phone and gave him a ring.

He picked up the phone and asked him if he remembered me. He said of course. I told him my story and he said, “I can be there tomorrow.” Well I’m not around tomorrow as I now live 4 hours away. Told him I’d call him back to let him know when I can make it. It just so happened that the following day I found out that I had to go back to that area in the coming days. So I phoned Ryson up and said I can be there Thursday and asked if that worked for him. He said definitely. The previous day, my wife’s dad phoned me and said “I can’t stop thinking about that ring. Maybe it’s not where you’re looking. Maybe it’s behind you, or somewhere you’re not thinking about.” I said I feel like I looked, but will take that into consideration. So Ryson and I met up and he went to work. I had some errands to run and so I left him and his daughter who came along to get to work. I was gone for about 4 hours with no reception.

As I got back into service all these texts appeared. “Still no sign yet. Can you share anymore information?” My stomach sank. As I drove back I started thinking about buying a new ring. I must say, it didn’t feel good at all and I felt crushed. I stopped to pick him and his daughter up some lunch for their trouble. So I get back to the property and step out of the truck. Just as I step out and face Ryson, Bam! My ring is between his thumb and his pointer finger! I was the happiest Individual you’ve ever seen.

How in the world did you do it I said. “Come with with me,” he says. He points to the pine needles under a fallen branch. It was sitting right there, perfectly being preserved. I could have seen it with my both eyes. But we kept assuming it was over there, where the dog toy was tossed. As opposed to where the arm goes after you throw. Kind of where my father in law said it would be. Ryson then proceeded to tell me that he just went back to the spot I told him I stood in when I threw the toy.

He played it over and over again. Even to the point of tossing his own ring. And then, at one moments notice, he realised that the arm crosses over and maybe the ring went to the left. And as he thought this, and his eyes moved in the direction. Bam. He saw it glistening on the bed of pine needles. He found it without even using the metal detector. Now that’s good investigative work. Cause I thought I had looked. But to be real, my belief, is that the universe had a bigger plan. I was supposed to lose that ring so that I can go on this journey, even though it didn’t appear positive in the moment, to rediscover an old friendship. And to see his now teenage daughter who I only knew as a new born.

The universe works in mysterious ways. And this was one of those mysterious ways. Thanks for reading my story. And thanks to all those amazing ring finders out there helping people reconnect with these very sentimental pieces of life. And in these days and times, this means that much more. There will never be any way to truly repay you guys for what you do. But know that I, we, give so much thanks for you ring finders.

Ryson found my ring! Amazing and awesome! I’m so happy to be reunited with my engagement ring! I can’t thank you enough Ryson! (2021)

I am still in disbelief that Ryson was able to find my engagement ring 10 days after I lost it on the beach during my vacation to the Northern California coast. He was very professional and is good at what he does. I lost my engagement ring when I put it on my beach blanket while putting sunscreen on and then I forgot to put it back on. When it was time to leave the beach that evening I grabbed the beach blanket and then walked 10 ft toward the ocean and shook my beach blanket out. I did not realize until 9pm that night that it was gone. I thought it was lost forever. I decided to wait until the morning to look for it and the tide had come all the way up. I looked for the ring for awhile with no success and even rented a metal detector and tried to find it. I spent at least 2 hrs the day after I lost it and two more hours the next morning looking for it with no success and ended up with sore muscles from metal detecting. Then it was time to go home and after I made it home my fiancé told me that a friend told him about the Ring Finder’s website. I texted Ryson soon after and after reading the testimonials decided to give it a try. He texted me that he was at the beach and a few hours later sent me two pictures of my ring that he found in the sand with the comment “Great News!”. It sure was. I looked at those two pictures many times after in disbelief. I have told many friends this awesome story. I definitely thought my ring was lost forever but the end of this story was a good one! I still can’t believe that Ryson found my ring! Amazing and awesome! I’m so happy to be reunited with my engagement ring! I can’t thank you enough Ryson!

-Lisa

Wow! He found it! (2021)

First, we want to thank Ryson from the bottom of our hearts for his quick and professional location of my wedding band. Susan and I have worn matching bands since we were married in May, 1977- almost 44 years. Unfortunately, I managed to lose my band over the last Thanksgiving Holiday when our kids and grandchildren were visiting. I had been on a weight loss program for about a year and I knew that the ring was looser fitting. Sure enough, the band fell from my finger during what I suspected was yard work. My bad. While I also suspected that it was lost when I was cleaning our chicken coop, we looked for it everywhere, but were unsuccessful. We were beginning to think that it had made its way into the garbage or yard waste and was under the landfill somewhere. To say we were sad and depressed about losing the band would be gross understatement. That was almost three months ago and we were becoming resigned to the loss.

I then remembered that some people with metal detectors had successfully searched for old coins on our property some years ago. (We live in an older Victorian.) Further research revealed that metal detectors can locate gold objects. So, I contacted Ryson and he agreed to conduct a search of our property Sunday (2-21-2021). He asked some questions about my activities at home over the Thanksgiving Holiday. He started with the chicken coop – where I had initially thought it might be – and within a few minutes he reached down about 6 inches under some hay near the coop, looked up and said “Recognize this?” Wow! He found it! I will never forget the look on Susan’s face when I went into the house and showed it to her. We are a matching pair once again.

Our gratitude to Ryson extends way beyond the modest “reward” he was paid for pulling off this personal miracle. The object of his search can not be replaced and we were and are genuinely impressed with both his expertise and kind manner. We would suggest only that this testimonial be entitled “Ryson to the Rescue” because he certainly did rescue us from what would have otherwise been a very sad event.

Thank you, Ryson.