Al Campbell, Author at The Ring Finders

Lost Wedding Ring Found with Metal Detector in Haitaitai, Wellington, New Zealand

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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Nathan and Joanna have only been married for 3 weeks and Nathan’s ring was a little bit big for his finger. Although meaning to get it resized it was one of those things he hadn’t got around to doing.

Last night he was at a small park in Hataitai shooting some hoops with a basketball. He felt the ring come off his finger but in the failing light he was unable to find it in the grass.
Returning the next morning he could still not find it and a short time later I met him at the park.
The basketball hoop was mounted on very short grass but backed on to a bank covered in longer grass and weeds. There was a lot of metal trash in the ground and I wasn’t having any success. I got Nathan to show me, again, where he had been and to demonstrate the shot. I could see that there was a possibility that the ring could have flung off behind him.
It was only a few minutes later that I got a good signal in the longer grass. I used my handheld pinpointer and finally found the ring right down on the roots of the grass. Very satisfying as it would have been impossible to find this without a metal detector.

 

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White Gold Engagement Ring Lost at Petone Beach, Wellington, New Zealand

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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Jane had been playing catch in waist deep water at Petone Beach, Wellington.  She fell, touched the bottom and as she came up a wave hit her and she felt her engagement ring slip off her finger.

Her partner helped her search but the ring had disappeared.

I arrived the following day and her partner put me in the area where they thought the the ring had come off.  I searched for about 3 hours as the tide went out.  I tried various detectors but couldn’t find the ring.  Surprisingly the sand was reasonably clean and I pulled every signal that I hit.

I returned a couple of days later and settled on my Garrett Sea Hunter PI.  I extended the area and grid searched as finely as I could.  Four hours later and the tide getting higher I rang Jane and gave her the bad news that I couldn’t find it.

I was gutted, knowing that it was out there somewhere and I had missed it.  A couple of days later I rang Jane and told her I would have another go at finding it.  Jane waded out in the cool water with me and showed me where she thought they were.  This was pretty much the same as where her partner put me on the first day.  I put a pole in the sand as a marker and did concentric circles until I was at a 10 metre radius.  With the time coming up to 3 hours in the water I decided to start searching parallel to the beach.  After 3 lines, and at the right depth, I got another good signal.  I couldn’t believe it when Jane’s beautiful white gold and diamond ring popped up from just under the surface.

I was able to return the ring to Jane at her work which was only a few minutes away.  Couldn’t get a photo of her at work but I can assure you the smile was worth all the hard work.

Jane sent me a photo. What a beautiful smile

 

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Smart watch lost in Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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Branden had been cutting down trees and doing a bit of landscaping when he noticed his smart watch was missing.

When I arrived he showed me a large hole he had filled with compostable material and dirt and rocks.  Unfortunately it was up against a concrete wall that had metal reinforcing and so we had to dig it out by hand to avoid hitting the watch with any sharp tools.

It was amazing how hot the combustible material had got in just three days.  I scanned everything with a handheld pinpointer but when we got to the bottom of the hole there was no sign of the watch.

Next there was a raised garden that he had filled with pebbles.  I took a reading off an identical watch that belonged to his wife and used my CTX3030.

Still no target and it was looking grim but I carried on around the edge of the ground where I saw some old pebbles had been dumped.  Right next to a tree stump I got a dirty signal that was similar to the other watch.  Scraping away a layer of pebbles the plastic strap emerged and the watch was recovered.

When I checked the hole there was a 4” nail right underneath where the watch had been.

Branden was very grateful to get his watch back.

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Wedding Ring Located in Bush at Wilton, Wellington, New Zealand

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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Amy contacted me and told me that her wedding ring had gone out the window and fallen 3 levels into a steep bush clad bank.  She, and her husband Antonio, spent several hours searching for it without successs.

When I arrived the job looked daunting so I got Amy to drop a test ring (with a red ribbon attached) out the window.  I watched it disappear through the trees and could hear it bouncing off branches.

Luckily the red ribbon was visible when I got down to ground level.  Started working from that point, but the ground was difficult with a lot of rusty nails and a storm water pipe running under the ground straight through the middle of my search area.

A short time later, and only about 2 metres from where my test ring had landed I got a faint signal amongst all the clutter.  The pinpointed soon zeroed in on the small gold band underneath some loose foliage.

Ring Located !

Antonio & Amy

Amy and Antonio couldn’t believe I had found it when I showed it to them.

The smiles says it all.

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Wedding Ring located in garden in Ngaio, New Zealand

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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imagePavla was gardening at a client’s property when she noticed her wedding ring was missing.
She spent some time searching for the ring, without success, before contacting me.
It was only a small garden area to search but it was made difficult with small shrubs that held the coil 4 or 5 inches off the ground.
My CTX3030 didn’t come up with any good targets so I swapped over to my AT Pro with a small coil. It wasn’t a great signal but when I checked it with the pinpointer the ring appeared just under some bark chip.
The sense of relief is obvious in the photo and the big hug put a smile on my face as well.
As always, the reward money was appreciated and helps to pay for more equipment.image

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Wedding Ring lost for 6 months

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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About six months ago Kimberly and her husband had a bit of an argument and he threw his wedding ring across the street and into a thick hedge of trees on the front boundary.  They made up the next day and searched for the ring but were unable to find it.  It was soon forgotten until now as they were about to shift to Auckland.

imageWhen I arrived Kimberly showed me the area where the ring had gone into the trees.  My first thought was that it may have got hung up in the tree branches but I thought I should try the grass berm in front of the trees first.

Kimberly with her husband's ring

Kimberly with her husband’s ring

I was bracing myself for a long and difficult search but after about 5 minutes I got a good signal.  I found the ring about 1cm down.

It was such a thrill to reunite it with Kimberly.

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Lost Earring Found in Upper Hutt

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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Alex contacted me to see if I could find an earring that his wife, Judy, had lost in a paddock while working with a ewe that was lambing.  Unfortunately I was out of the country for the week but asked them to wait for my return and I would do my best to help them.

When I got home I spoke to Judy and she told me that she had since lost another earring in similar circumstances but in another paddock.  However the first one was of sentimental value and therefore the top priority.

When I arrived at the property Judy was able to show me the matching earring so I could get an idea of what sort of signal to expect.

First Earring found

First Earring found

The earring was tiny and gave almost no response unless the coil was right on top of it, but at least they had an area marked out with sticks, about 3 metres square, where they thought it should be.

I went over the area as carefully as possible but got nothing.  I extended about 3metres to one side but still got nothing so went 3 metres to the other side of the original square.

A short time later I got a good signal and went down on my knees with the pinpointer.  It was going nuts but the earring was almost invisible .  It had landed head down and the pin was sticking straight up.

Judy holding her earring

Judy holding her earring

One down, one to go.  They took me to the next area and within about 2 minutes I got a signal and found the other earring.  It was almost as difficult as the first one to see as it was also head down

Judy's second earring

Judy’s second earring

I was very relieved to be able to find both earrings as something that small is always going to be difficult.  Alex and Judy were so pleased.

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Engagement Ring found in Johnsonville, Wellington, NZ

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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Lubna reunited with her engagement ring

Lubna reunited with her engagement ring

Lubna was a bit embarrassed when she rang me as she had thrown her engagement ring into the neighbour’s garden which was heavily overgrown with weeds and bushes. Of course she regretted it straight away but even after clearing away most of the weeds her family could not find it.

It is winter, here, and as soon as I arrived at the property it started to rain and I only had a short time before it would be dark.  The area to be searched was very small but with so much foliage and rubbish I resorted to getting down on my hands and knees with my handheld pinpointer.

An hour later, with a pouch full of rubbish, I had finished the most probable area without success and had to extend the boundary.

A couple more bits of rubbish and then while pointing at the base of a small tree yet another signal.  As I cleared away the debris Lubna’s beautiful white gold and diamond encrusted ring finally revealed itself.

It looks like it has bounced sideways off one of the trees and then slipped down to the bottom of another tree.

Sorry for the bad photo but is was dark by the time I took this

Sorry for the bad photo but it was dark by the time I took this

The smile says it all.

This was after I cleared away the weeds and rubbish

This was after I cleared away the weeds and rubbish

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Keys found in Brooklyn, Wellington, New Zealand

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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Peter's Keys

Peter’s Keys

Peter lives on a very steep property in the hilly suburbs of Wellington.  He was leaning on a balcony and dropped his car keys into the foliage some 10 metres below.  He had spent a couple of days looking but when he failed to find them he came across the RingFinders site when searching for a metal detector on the internet.
When I arrived Peter had been dropping small plastic bags full of stones to get an idea of where the keys may have landed.  This was great but there was always the possibility that the keys could get deflected by one of the many trees in the area.  To make matters worse there were several small metal utility pipes running down the bank right in the line where the bags had been dropped.
I use a CTX3030 and put on the 6″ coiled for this job.  I started at the top and slowly worked my way down the bank until I was standing at the bottom.  The pipes were causing a problem and I reverted to the handheld pinpointer.  A short time later I got a response while running the pinpointer through the top of a small shrub that was just above head height from where I was standing.  When I moved a leaf I got a glimpse of the grey plastic of the remote.

Peter was very happy to have his keys returned

Peter was very happy to have his keys returned

Peter was very pleased to get his keys back and gave me a very generous reward.
Isn’t it crazy how expensive these keys are to replace.  Peter said he would have had to claim insurance to replace his keys, so he was very relieved that he didn’t have to go through that hassle.

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Lost Wedding Ring Found in Kapiti, Wellington New Zealand

  • from Wellington (New Zealand)
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Andrea and Travis were making a video and re-enacting a scene from The Lord of the Rings movie.  Andrea finds her “Precious” ring on a log and then tosses it to one side.  It was meant to land on a bank with almost no grass where it would be easy to see, however it landed short where the grass was a bit longer and they were unable to find it.

Andrea's Ring

Andrea’s Ring

I thought this was going to be an easy, quick find as it was a very small area to search.  I ran my CTX3030 over the area but couldn’t get a signal that remotely resembled a gold ring.  I extended the search by quite a distance and we even reviewed the video to get an idea of where it may have gone.  I then got Andrea to re-enact the throw with one of my test rings.  Each time it landed in a similar area so I had another sweep.

Over a clump of grass I got a very weak signal that looked more like trash than a ring but I checked it out with my pinpointer.  It was indicating something in the middle of the grass but it wasn’t until the pinpointer actually touched the ring that I could see it.  It was sitting vertically on its edge right at the bottom of the grass.

Andrea's ring safely on her finger

Andrea’s ring safely on her finger

No one could believe that they hadn’t found it when the were looking for it but they all agreed that we probably wouldn’t have found it without the detector.  Hugs and smiles all round.

Now, Andrea was a bit embarrassed by all this but when they showed me the video it looked pretty cool, and this will certainly add to the story.

They also gave me a generous reward for which I very grateful.

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