How to Find a Lost Platinum Wedding Band Inside a Car 1 Year Later...Alexandria, Virginia

  • from Washington (District of Columbia, United States)

Maureen’s Lovely Platinum Wedding Band Found After 1 Year!

John and Maureen Elated at the Sight of the Recovered Wedding Band!

BRIAN RUDOLPH, LOST ITEM RECOVERY SPECIALIST (LAND, WATER, SAND, HOUSES & VEHICLES) WILL FIND YOUR LOST KEEPSAKE! CALL ASAP (301) 466-8644!

I WANT TO PERSONALLY THANK CELEBRITY ACTOR, JON CRYER, FOR SHARING ON TWITTER, HIS OWN PERSONAL STORY OF HOW “THE RING FINDERS” HELPED HIM FIND HIS MISSING WEDDING BAND! NOW, MANY THOUSANDS AROUND THE WORLD WHO ONCE LOST THEIR SPECIAL RINGS AND KEEPSAKES ARE CONTACTING MEMBERS OF “THE RING FINDERS” LIKE ME! AS A RESULT, THESE PEOPLE ARE BEING SURPRISINGLY AND HAPPILY REUNITED WITH THEIR SENTIMENTAL JEWELRY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS!

Maureen is now one of many people around the world who have been personally affected by the recent Twitter feed of celebrity actor, Jon Cryer. Miraculously, he was able to recover his cherished wedding ring that was lost during his day off of work from filming the TV series ‘Supergirl’ on location in Vancouver, Canada. Cryer is recognized for his well-known acting roles, including the highly successful sitcom show ‘Two and a Half Men’ that ran for 12 seasons from 2003 to 2015, as well as the ever famous 1980’s classic movie, ‘Pretty in Pink’. Because so many around the globe have chimed in to Cryer’s Twitter story and are finding their lost treasures (thanks to the help of THE RING FINDERS), this amazing outcome has now been officially titled, “The Jon Cryer Effect”!

Ironically, Maureen emailed me while I was searching for another platinum wedding band for a gentleman who also read the Jon Cryer Twitter thread which gave him the idea to reach out to me!

This is what she emailed to me:

“Hi Brian, I just read about The Ring Finders via a Jon Cryer Twitter feed and found your information as the Alexandria, Virginia contact. I actually lost my ring a year ago, but I lost it in my car. I know this sounds strange, but I think it must have rolled into some weird component of the car. I recognize that the metal detector tactic might not work in this scenario, but I figured it was worth a shot. Let me know if you’d be willing to give it a try! Thanks, Maureen”

After I successfully finished my other search, I immediately called Maureen to talk about the details surrounding the need to recover her lost wedding band. As I drove away from the other search site, Maureen began to share what happened on the day that she lost her most priceless platinum wedding band.

THE BACKSTORY

A year ago, she left work, got into her vehicle and drove straight home. She didn’t make any stops whatsoever. At some point during the drive home, she was fiddling around with her rings that were on her left hand ring finger. She believed that the car may have been idle at a light, waiting for it to turn green when her platinum wedding band fell towards the vehicle’s floor because she heard it hit something. Luckily, Maureen’s engagement ring still remained on her finger. She quickly looked around while she was still positioned in the driver seat to see if she could eyeball the ring, but the highly treasured and sentimental item did not come into view. Maureen assumed that as soon as she got home she could simply hop out of her Subaru Outback and be able to locate the ring much easier as she could scan the floor from the outside of the car. That’s exactly what she did. When she parked the vehicle in the garage, Maureen got out and immediately inspected the driver side area, expecting to find the ring. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found! It was as if it disappeared into thin air! The young lady checked under the car mat, on and under the seats but all of her attempts to find the ring led to no avail. The whole experience was completely perplexing to her.

Next, she called her husband out to the Outback at some point and he also looked everywhere, but he too could not find the wedding band anywhere! Their only conclusion was that it fell into a small opening or compartment somewhere, perhaps in the dashboard or maybe under the seat in a place where the eye just could not spot it. In any case, they would continue to look over and over again for the next year! Maureen was so convinced that the wedding band was still hiding somewhere in her Subaru, that when the lease ran out on the vehicle six months later, the couple decided to buy the car instead of trading it in! Maureen thought to herself that if she gave up the car, her wedding band would be sacrificed, as well. She didn’t want to see that happen! One of her most important motivations for keeping the vehicle was that she could continue to hold onto the hope that one day her precious wedding band would be discovered.

Though Maureen and her husband continued to search over the next year for the missing ring, it wasn’t until the Jon Cryer Twitter thread emerged that a sense of new hope had arisen for the bride of almost 10 years (coming up on November 1st, 2020, just a couple of weeks away). With the success story that was shared by Cryer regarding how THE RING FINDER’S CEO, Chris Turner, recovered the actor’s wedding band so valiantly, she thought to give THE RING FINDER’S member, Brian Rudolph, a shot at finding her lost wedding band, as well! I couldn’t have been more happy to have been handed such a challenge as we talked extensively about Maureen’s search needs on that cold and rainy October afternoon!

THE SEARCH

Once Maureen had finished sharing her story about the missing wedding band I began to ask her a slew of questions to gain more insight as to what may have possibly happened to her beloved keepsake. I needed to examine all of the clues available in order for me to have a chance at solving the mystery of the disappearing ring! This included: wanting to know who had been in that vehicle for the past year, such as family members, friends, detailers and valet parking attendants. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she was the only one who predominantly drove the vehicle and that perhaps maybe once in the past year there was a parking attendant in the car, according to what she remembered. The car was never cleaned by anyone but the couple and they ruled out any possibility that the vacuum cleaner may have sucked up the ring!

My biggest question that would remain unanswered for the time being was whether or not the ring had traveled outside of Maureen’s vehicle and onto the garage floor when she was getting out of her seat. This would mean that the wedding band would have had to fall onto her lap first and then drop out onto the garage’s concrete slab once she removed herself from the Outback. I did ask Maureen if they checked the garage and she said that it was searched but not extensively. This was because she was very convinced that the ring had never left the vehicle in the first place and that she remembered hearing the ring hit something when it dropped from between her fingers.

After the two of us covered all of the details and questions that I could conjure up, we scheduled a time for me to come out the following day to see if this metal detecting specialist could crack the case as to where this wedding band had actually ended up! I couldn’t wait to get inside that Subaru Outback!

The next day, I arrived at Maureen and John’s property, ready to tackle this enormous challenge. I happen to love searches like this one! I am not only a metal detectorist, but a metal detecting specialist and item recoverist who searches for lost property, not only on land, but also in: houses, vehicles, sand and water. I love the variety of circumstances by which people end up needing my services to help them find their most precious keepsakes!

When I walked over to the infamous Subaru, Maureen came out to greet me and she asked if I needed anything before she slipped back inside to handle her day’s work. I told her that I was fine and that I would call her if there were any needs. I was hoping that the only call that I would have to make to her would be the one to inform her that I had successfully found her missing wedding band!

The first leg of my search dealt with exploring under all of the vehicle mats and seats. I took out my handy endoscope which can be placed into small crevices and spaces where the human eye cannot visibly explore. It allows me to search all around tight spaces in between seats and inside the machinery of the motorized systems that drive the seats back and forth. This device not only sends a video feed to my smartphone so I can see what’s going on in these places that I search, but it also records the video in order for me to later review what this electronic eye picked up throughout the entire search process. The endoscope has been highly effective in helping me recover other people’s lost rings in the past.

Once I finished searching under both front seats from the front and sides, I opened the rear doors and searched under the front seats from behind. It is so important that you don’t miss a single detail because that one spot that you might have missed could be the very place where the ring was hiding. Obviously, the couple had looked everywhere, so if they missed it, the ring would have most likely ended up somewhere where their eyes could not lock on to it. I eventually concluded that the wedding band was not under the front seats, nor in the seat rails or under the hardware that allows for the seats to slide back and forth. There was no point searching inside the rear seats or children’s car seats since Maureen lost the ring while driving the car. It was now time to start inspecting the dashboard.

I was really hoping that I would find the missing band under the seats, because the moment that I have to start poking around inside the dashboard, things can get rather complicated and time-consuming. Since I previously covered all of the facts with Maureen and she didn’t seem to waiver regarding her memory of what happened on the drive home that day from work and that she seemed pretty confident in what happened, it kept my mind mentally strong, knowing that the ring had to be in the car. Yes, there was the possibility that the Subaru was parked by an attendant at one time or another, but I told Maureen that since she couldn’t spot the ring in plain sight, the ring would not have been so visible to catch the eye of a potential thief either. She agreed with me. Maureen clearly heard the ring land somewhere. Therefore, it also made me confident that it did not fall on her lap which made it highly unlikely that it ended up outside of the vehicle and into the garage. My belief was that the band had remained somewhere inside the Outback.

Searching inside the dashboard is never an easy process. If Maureen’s hands were above the steering wheel at the time that the ring fell, I thought that maybe the band landed on top of the steering column which would have made a “ping” noise. It could have slid down into the narrow crevice of the dashboard and be lost somewhere in the electronics within. I carefully placed my endoscope into that crack along the top side of the column and began to search all of the places that the ring may have fallen into. This included bundles of wires, cables, relays, bolts that kept the plastic dash pieces together, and many other kinds of miscellaneous items that I had to maneuver around.

I can’t tell you how many pieces of metal in a vehicle tend to look like a silver, metallic ring and it really can get you excited, only to find out that what you were looking at was something completely different than what you were seeking after! I spent a very long time moving the camera about, searching for the very petite platinum wedding band that was no larger than a size 3.75 / 4.

After about two hours into my search, I contacted Maureen to let her know that things were moving along and that I was checking out two particular objects that may have some relevance with this mystery that I was trying to solve. I wasn’t sure if either one of these items that I had viewed on the endoscope could possibly be the ring. However, I was going to carefully inspect them to see if maybe the band got wedged into one of these two particular areas where these round targets were stationed.

Maureen came out to the car for a few minutes before she would have to return back inside for a conference call. I showed her what I was seeing with one of the objects using the endoscope and she too thought it could be her wedding band. The only problem was that the outer texture of this “ring” shaped object did not fit the description of a normal looking platinum ring. So, I tried to then show her the second object that I was investigating. Unfortunately, that attempt fell short when I couldn’t maneuver the endoscope to the exact region of where I first spotted the potential target.

Just before Maureen had to leave, I summarized my plan of action in attacking this search head on. First, I would complete my goal to determine whether or not those two potential targets that I was analyzing could be her ring or not. If neither one turned out to be what I was looking for, I would continue searching inside the dashboard. However, the next attempt would involve me placing the endoscope snake into the dash from down below where I pulled a lower instrument panel off to get better access. I told Maureen that there was nothing resting on that access panel which made me conclude that the ring did not drop down to the lower regions of the dashboard. So, this would lead me to inspect the higher spots where the ring may have gotten caught up alongside the steering column but deeper into the dashboard spaces than the zones that I had already searched.

If I still could not find the ring there, I would then have to search the only other area left for me to investigate. I pointed down to the vehicle’s fuel door release lever located on the left side of the driver’s side floor mat, just a few inches from the left door jamb molding. I shared with Maureen that earlier I poked my head down towards the floor and peeked at the lever from a particular angle in order to look down into the housing of that mechanism. I did observe that there was enough room for a small ring to slide down into it and potentially disappear under the housing that would lead to the floor of the vehicle. After checking that out as my last and final search spot by unscrewing the housing and observing the “underworld” of that floor area with the endoscope, I told her that I would have no other options left to consider. The hopeful owner of the Outback thanked me for what I had accomplished thus far and for what I shared with her in regards to the rest of my game plan if my other options didn’t pan out. Maureen then returned to the house to make her Zoom appointment.

For the next 30 minutes or so, I was able to search some more areas up into the dashboard before I too had to pack up and leave to make it to another appointment nearby in McLean, Virginia. I told Maureen that I would return back to her place to resume the search if I didn’t find the ring prior to leaving for my next client. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the wedding band inside the belly of the dashboard, so I resolved to return in a few hours to continue searching some more inside the large instrument panel. I wasn’t frustrated or deterred by not having the results I wanted to see and I wasn’t going to give up until I completed all of my objectives. I packed up my tools and texted Maureen to let her know that I had left her property.

Early that evening, I returned back to Maureen’s Outback to continue with part two of my investigation. It was completely dark outside but I didn’t care in the least. In fact, it’s an advantage to have less light during searches like this one. I called Maureen to let her know that I had arrived and she asked if it was okay for the children to accompany their mom and dad out by the car in order for the rest of the family to meet me. I laughed and said, “Of course!” in addition to asking her why I was such an interesting person to them, knowing that they were somewhere in the age bracket of five and eight years old. Maureen said that they were intrigued with the fact that I had a YouTube channel and they were interested in meeting me knowing that I was attempting a very unique recovery operation of mom’s most precious wedding band. I was quite delighted to soon meet the boys, as well as Maureen’s husband John.

All of us had a delightful time hanging out on the lawn right next to the driveway where the Subaru Outback was still parked. Before I showed the boys how my endoscope operated, I found out that one of them had a birthday just a few days earlier! I asked what his favorite gift was and he proudly ran back into the house and returned with the coolest frisbee! It would glow randomly with different LED colors! Because it was so dark outside, it was really neat looking to watch! I asked a couple of questions directed towards the other brother before I demonstrated some of my technology that helps me find rings for people. This little “pow wow”  also gave me an opportunity to interview John and ask him some questions about what he thought happened to the ring and where he attempted to search for the special item.

Before I returned to searching the vehicle, I shared with everyone that I was not moved in any way by the fact that I had not found the ring as of yet, and I told them that I don’t stop with my recovery efforts until every angle of my investigation has been effectively checked off my list! I then attended to the task at hand, which was to continue searching up into the dashboard once more to make sure that I did not miss anything during my last go around.

I may have searched the dashboard for another 30 minutes before I finally concluded that the ring was definitely not up inside the guts of the dashboard. It seemed clear of any rings so I re-fastened all of the pieces that secured the fuse box and the lower instrument panel that was fastened underneath the steering column.

After I reluctantly re-searched between the seat rails and under the hardware that powers the front seats to again find no platinum jewelry, it was at that point that I was hoping that my last search spot would expose the missing ring. Knowing the odds of this, I knew that the chances were very, very slim indeed. I threw my “hail Mary pass” in the direction of the fuel door release lever which I had pointed out to Maureen earlier in the day. I only had that one location left to check before I would have to call it quits.

I can’t count how many times my searches come down to the “final play of the game” so to speak! When I have exhausted almost all other possibilities left on the board, and I just about run out of all “real estate” to metal detect or search inside a house or vehicle (like in this particular case), sometimes I receive the breakthrough that I had been looking for for so very long! That was in fact what was about to happen once again!

I Remove the Fuel Door Release Lever Housing to Inspect Below

The whole time that I was inside the Subaru that evening, I was using my high lumens headlamp to illuminate certain areas in the vehicle while I placed my endoscope in position. I would then turn off the light in order to see the video feed better on my smartphone screen. Then, once I finished searching the dashboard and car seats for the last time, I needed the light to highlight the area that I would be searching next. So I aimed the beams down towards the fuel door release lever located on the floor, which is positioned to the left front side of the driver’s seat. I pulled the little plastic cover off of the top of the fuel door lever housing in order to expose the type of screw that was keeping the housing in place. Then, I took out my Phillips screwdriver from my toolkit and began to loosen the screw which kept the plastic piece fastened to the floor. Next, I carefully maneuvered the housing in different directions until I figured out how to remove it over the release lever mechanism that remained in place. With my headlamp on the highest lumen setting, I looked down into the exposed opening which was reinforced with some type of metal mounting bracket, attempting to view any round pieces of metal that may be visible before I would have to power up my faithful endoscope one last time.

The Endoscope is Placed Down Into the Center of a Metal Mounting Bracket Which Leads Under the Carpet

Just like the first time I checked, I couldn’t see any objects hidden in that small space that I was so limited to view. I then recalibrated the endoscope and placed the end of the snake into the center of a small open space that led down into the flooring of the vehicle. First, I placed it to my left, into the flooring, but it was completely clear of any metal debris or objects. Secondly, I turned the endoscope towards the other direction and followed it over to the right side of the opening underneath the carpet and through the metal reinforcement bracket. I kept looking at my smartphone screen which is paired with the endoscope lens, hoping to see something that may resemble a ring. Again, this would be my final opportunity to successfully recover the missing ring inside the vehicle because I had run out of all other options.

The Endoscope’s First Image of the Suspected Ring Find!

Seeing This Image Being Broadcasted from the Endoscope to my Smartphone, I Knew I Had Found Maureen’s Missing Platinum Wedding Band!

Just as I moved the snake back and forth on that right side of the opening, suddenly my eyes locked onto an object that appeared on the screen that resembled a thin small washer or possibly even a ring! I moved the endoscope closer and closer to the object, trying to keep it in view because it kept moving out of frame. However, once I stabilized the lens of the endoscope on a certain angle, roughly about 2 inches or so away from the mounting bracket opening, I was finally able to view most of what that particular object happened to be. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at! Without question, it was a ring! I had found Maureen’s wedding band! Even for someone like myself who finds rings for people all the time and sometimes in the craziest places, I was still experiencing a moment of utter disbelief! There it was! For over a year, the ring had been literally sitting under Maureen’s feet the entire time! Every time she pumped gas into her vehicle, her ring finger that had yearned to hold that priceless band once again, would pull the lever to open the fuel door which was literally a couple of inches away from where the ring had rested over this entire time! Unbelievable! My face lit up like a firecracker, displaying the biggest smile as I was hunched over towards the floor with half of my body hanging outside of the vehicle! I had the happiest feeling of excitement knowing that soon enough, Maureen was going to be wearing this wedding band once again! She was correct all along! The wedding band had never left the vehicle! Maureen’s account of her hearing the ring land on the floor of the car was also 100% correct! There was only one place on the floor that could have helped to make a “ping” sound like what she heard and that was when the ring hit the fuel door lever’s plastic housing! The odds that it would fall right into that housing and then drop farther down into the open gap which led into the flooring area was astronomical! It would require one perfect shot to fall into there and be lost under the carpet! Any other drop would have caused the ring to end up falling on top of the carpet and it would not have been heard, let alone ever be lost! This is why the ring disappeared into thin air…or so she thought! I was totally blown away by this discovery! I just had to laugh out loud, though quietly because I didn’t want to give up the surprise that I was about to spring on Maureen! It was at that moment that I was filled with so much gratitude to my Lord who I prayed to earlier, asking for guidance and wisdom in order to recover this lost property for her, which I knew had meant so much to Maureen! She and her husband also prayed that I would find success during my search for the missing wedding band! The Lord clearly answered! Because my knees were still resting upon the concrete driveway, I was in the perfect position to worship God, thanking Him for helping me find this lovely platinum wedding ring in the most unlikely of hiding places! It was a location where the jewel had resided for the past 12 months! And to think that the couple considered trading in the vehicle six months earlier! The ring would have never been recovered and Maureen would have never had the chance to wear it on her finger ever again! Ultimately, they would have left the band buried under the carpet for the rest of its life on the road until finally it would reach the “bone yard” to be scrapped! A terrible thought!

What a Beautiful Sight Indeed! I Was Even Able to Perfectly Read the Couple’s Wedding Date Inscribed Inside the Band!

The Very First Moment that I Recovered the Ring from Below!

My search for the missing ring had come to a successful end! Next, it was all about the reveal of this most precious keepsake! Maureen and her family were all absolutely blown away by the surprise that I laid before them that night! I don’t think anybody in that family, including myself, will ever forget that moment of excitement and celebration! The whole moment was completely surreal for everybody, including myself! I love what I do for people, and I certainly was grateful for the opportunity that was handed to me to attempt a successful search and recovery of this ring! This precious object was part of Maureen’s and John’s love story from the very beginning of their marriage and now it would stay with them for the rest of their lives together! I was so happy to be a part of the continuation of such a story!

Had it not been for the Jon Cryer tweet, Maureen may have never known about THE RING FINDERS, or about me and what I could provide for her in helping to recover the band. The roadmap to this ring recovery was nothing short of a happy-go-lucky story with a very happy ending! It started with Maureen reading Jon Cryer’s Twitter tweet about THE RING FINDER’S Chris Turner who found the actor’s beloved wedding band in Canada (almost 3,000 miles away from Alexandria, VA)! Then, an email is sent to me requesting my help in finding Maureen’s own ring, we talk on the phone to discuss the story of how the ring was lost, I examine all of the clues and tips, I ask my client endless questions and interview her once more upon my arrival at the search site. Then, I begin the “investigation” in the vehicle for Maureen’s beloved keepsake, and eventually after searching every possible place where the band could have possibly ended up, I successfully recover Maureen’s lost ring that had been missing for over a year in her car! WHAT AN AMAZING STORY! This is certainly one search that I will absolutely never forget, and its one ring that I feel pretty confident will never ever go missing again!

If you would like to view the SEARCH VIDEO and the fantastic RING REVEAL pertaining to this search, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and you will be notified when the search video is uploaded onto YouTube.

SUBSCRIBE TO BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO VIEW THIS SEARCH VIDEO!

If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and the RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the video will be uploaded soon. To receive a NOTIFICATION letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device. In the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING RETURNER, click SUBSCRIBE and lastly, CLICK ON THE “BELL” to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view! 

BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL LINK: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmcn09QqWhHrj-7SGqlUBJQ

CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644!

VISIT THE RING FINDER’S WEBSITE TO READ MORE OF BRIAN’S SUCCESSFUL SEARCH STORIES at:

https://theringfinders.com/Brian.Rudolph/

HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!

VISIT BRIAN’S LOCAL WEBSITE FOR ADDITIONAL STORIES AND INFORMATION AT: www.theringreturner.com

 

1 Comment »

One Reply to “How to Find a Lost Platinum Wedding Band Inside a Car 1 Year Later…Alexandria, Virginia”

  1. Rob says:

    Wow Brian, great story and education on how to find a ring in a car!
    And, congratulations on breaking 100 recoveries!!!!
    You need a new handle…something like “The Ring Master”.
    Rob Ellis

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