Dave Boyer, Author at The Ring Finders

Beth call today, saying her husband, Ross, had lost his wedding ring on Sunday just days after they celebrated their 12th anniversary.  Ross and the kids had been swimming in the pond out back of his friends’ house when he noticed his ring was gone.  This 90 degree day was perfect for a hunt, so Gregg Larabel and I jumped into our cars and met Ross at the friends’ home.  We started where Ross said they had spent most of the time in the water.  Then his friend got home and told us he thought Ross might have lost it when he fell off the raft while playing with the kids.  That was in deeper water than where we had already searched, so we moved out to chin-deep water and searched some more.  We were just about ready to give up for the day when I made one last swing thru the deep water–and that’s when I got a good hard signal of 50 on my At-Pro.  It is not easy to scoop the bottom when you have to stretch to keep your chin out of the water, hoping not to drown!  So it took me a few tries, but the ring ended up in my scoop, leading to lots of smiles all around.  That warm feeling just never gets old.             

Received an email from Karen stating that her son’s girlfriend was standing on the dock and after a lovers’ spat she threw gifts from him into the lake — a small gold ring, a thin gold necklace and a pendant.  Her friend was taking a video at the time and recorded the whole thing.  Gregg Larabel, my fellow ringfinder and I jumped in the car and headed out for the search.  We met Karen at the lake and watched the video on her phone, but with the small screen and the distance from the camera we could not see any items flying thru the air.  After about an hour searching I did find the ring, but not the other two items.  As we left we asked Karen to email us that video so we could watch it on bigger screens.  When we did, we saw a small splash in the water and it appeared to be out further than we had searched.  We also got a better idea of the direction of that splash by pinpointing landmarks on the far shore.  Later this week we are going back with the new info to try to find the other two items.  The good news is the couple made up, and Karen would like to surprise them with all three items.   This is a picture of Karen.                                                                                                 

On this cold and dreary day, Gregg Larabel, my fellow ringfinder and I went looking for the ring Ryan lost while he was mowing his lawn on his riding lawn mower.  Like all of West Michigan this time of year, Ryan’s fairly large front yard was covered with leaves–and the front yard is where Ryan thought he probably lost his ring.  We started hunting right away and found a few coins, then, after about an hour of hunting, I got a good signal and parted the leaves to see his ring lying right on top of the ground near a tree.  I stuck a stick in the ground to mark it, and left it where it was.

Ryan was not home from work yet, so we raked up a few leaves from his driveway while waiting and worked on how we were going to surprise him with the ring.  As he arrived home with the two kids in tow we told him we did not have much luck, and showed him the coins we had found.  We gave him our story that there must be some kind of buried pipe under the lawn over by that tree.  I gave him my pin-pointer and told him to check that area near the stick I had stuck in the ground.  It took him a couple of seconds to move some leaves and see his ring for the big surprise.  His reaction made our day!

Received an email from Greg today saying he needed help in finding his wife’s earring that was lost yesterday playing doubles in their backyard sand filled volley/badminton court.  In the heat of the battle Greg swung and hit Kate in the head by mistake with his racket.

After the match and heading back to the house she noticed her earring missing.  Time to call TheRingfinders!  Gregg Larabel, my fellow ringfinder, and I jumped in the car and headed out for the search.

Greg showed us the spot where they were standing when Kate was hit in the head with the racket and nearby I got a good signal.  Greg knelt down and used his fingers to sift thru the sand and retrieved his wife’s earring.

As you can see the earring should be in a U shaped so he hit her pretty good to straighten out the wire.  They won the badminton match so Kate forgave him for hitting her in the head.  The smiles on their faces is what it is all about.

Gregg Larabel, my fellow Ringfinder, and I searched for a lost house key for LeAnn (a special education teacher) a couple of weeks ago with no luck.  During that search LeAnn mentioned she had lost a ring years ago, and knew it was gone forever.  We had to twist her arm to hear the whole story.  LeAnn’s Dad gave the ring to his wife to celebrate LeAnn’s birth, and Mom passed the ring on to LeAnn in her sophomore year in high school.  In her senior year a friend pushed her off a dock into the lake, and her ring flew off into the water.  Last night LeAnn gave Gregg the address of where she lost the ring, and off Gregg and I went this morning for the treasure hunt.  Shortly after arriving at the lake I was in waist-deep water when I got a good strong signal, probably a pull tab I thought.  No, this sounded better than a pull tab.  Could this be the ring?  (Your heart rate really does go up a notch.)  Several scoops in 6 inches of muck, and the ring appeared in my scoop.  Almost 10 years under water has been a little hard on the ring, but we hope a jeweler can fix it up for her.  The plan is to get a picture of LeAnn with her repaired ring when it is completed.       

Melinda was enjoying a day at the beach on Saturday and put her watch in her beach bag for safe keeping.  She didn’t look for the watch until Monday when she was going to the beach again.  No watch in the beach bag!  She went back to the same spot on the beach and searched the area with no luck.  She asked at Noto’s on the beach if anybody had turned in a lost watch, no luck there.  So on Tuesday evening she entered a “lost watch” post on Craigslist and 3 hours later I saw that post and emailed her right away.  She said she was right in front of Noto’s when she lost the watch, and I told her I would search for it early in the morning.  Melinda was sure somebody had seen the watch in the sand and had picked it up.  I was more concerned that, after 3 days, another metal detecting person had already found the watch.  But we were both wrong.  At 6:30AM Wednesday morning I was on the beach, and found the watch in about 30 minutes by gridding the area right in front of Noto’s.  She stopped at my house today and picked up the prize.  One happy lady that made my day too.

I received a phone call from sisters Carissa and Ashley asking for help in finding their Mom’s lost ring in South Haven.  Larry and Kathy rented a cabin on Lake Michigan for the coming week, and invited their daughters and their families to join them.  Enjoying the scenery out on the deck, the sisters asked Mom to show them her new ring.  In doing so the ring slipped through fingers, hit the wooden deck and disappeared.  After renting a metal detector and finding only a few coins, the family decided to call me for help.  Gregg Larabel and I hopped in the car right away and headed south for the search.  On arriving at the cabin the family showed us the area and detailed how the ring was lost.  Luckily we had about 3 to 4 feet of space under the deck to work in, and lots of nice beach sand to search in.  After searching directly below the picnic table we moved out further, and several feet from the table I got a good signal on my metal detector.  Using the Pinpointer to sweep over that area made the ring pop into view.  Their Grandson was watching us and yelled out “they found it”!  Needless to say the whole family was ecstatic on finding the ring.  After a few pictures we headed for home knowing we had started their vacation off on a better note.                                            

I got a call from Steve, saying he lost his gold chain in Lake Michigan 5 days ago at the beach at Tunnel Park.  Fellow Ringfinder Gregg Larabel and I drove out there with the idea that his chain had already been found, or was now too deep to find after 5 days of pounding from big waves on the big lake.  But Steve’s son met us at the park and gave us good directions on where to look.   He said Steve was about waist deep in the water when he lost the chain.  We set up a couple of poles (markers) out into the water and started to grid the chosen spot.  In about 5 minutes I got a good signal but it turned out to be a tungsten ring.  In another 5 minutes I got a faint signal and I decided I had better dig this one.   One deep scoop and the sun shining off this gold chain nearly blinded me!  I whispered to Gregg and he came over and took a look into my scoop.  I gave Jose, Steve’s son, a thumbs up and he and his daughter came charging down the dunes to confirm the prize.  Jose said we should take it to Steve because he was in town at work.  A short trip to Steve’s job site and we laid the chain in his hand.  He had almost given up hope of ever seeing the chain again.  It never gets old presenting the prize back where it belongs.  We beat the Big Lady this time and she did not swallow this chain.                                                                                                     

Chris and Courtney were enjoying a 4th of July weekend at Tad and Jaime’s home on Beadle Lake, which included  volleyball in the lake.  Chris was in knee-deep water when he reached up with his left hand to stop the ball.  As the ball hit his hand he felt his wedding ring come off.

Because the ball ended up out of bounds on the lawn, Chris  believed his ring must be right near that same area — which was behind him.  Gregg Larabel and I arrived the very next day and started searching that entire area of the volleyball court and lawn area.  We were concerned that the iron seawall, which ran the length of the court, would interfere with the metal detector readings if the ring had landed close to either side of the seawall.

After searching Chris’ side of the net and the adjacent grass area with no results, I went to the other side of the net on the chance that his hand had been moving forward when the ring came off.  About six feet beyond the net I found his ring.  It’s amazing where these rings turn up sometimes.  In the heat of the battle, (or a volleyball match) a man never knows his own strength.  The whole family was relieved the ring was found and they can continue to enjoy the holiday weekend on a good note.  It is such a pleasure for Gregg and for me to meet such nice people.  And we both thrive on finding the treasure!

Got a call today from Dave E., requesting help in finding a couple of boundary markers for his yard.  He just bought this new house in January and now he has plans to add some shrubbery and a privacy screen for his hot tub and really needs to know the exact boundaries of his property.  I called my ringfinder fellow hunter, Gregg Larabel, and he and I drove out to Dave’s house today.  One side of Dave’s property was marked on the road pavement with the estimated boundary.  We measured in 33 feet from the center of the road and found the first marker with really no trouble.  The next step was to find the marker in the very back of his corner lot.  In the picture with Dave you can see the neighbors play area/slide for their kids and Dave’s boundary marker is just to the left of that play area.  We had a little trouble finding that marker, finding a sprinkler head first and then the play area had a steel edging around it.  Finally found the steel rod but the yellow cap was missing on this rod.  The third corner steel boundary marker was sticking out of the ground already, so now he knows the exact area of his corner lot.  After some good stories back and forth we  parted our ways with another good job done.