Douglas Owens, Author at The Ring Finders

Received a call on Tuesday regarding a wedding ring that was lost in backyard while playing some baseball with family on Saturday afternoon.

We arranged to meet Wednesday after work and the owner had a very good idea of the area that needed to be searched.

While playing ball his glove was knocked off of his hand and along with it, his wedding band came off also.

The owner had plotted out a very small area for the potential recovery zone and we after expanded his search area by one swings-width, and took about two steps, we found his ring.

It was a quick search, but we were all happy to have been able to recover this ring!

I received a text regarding an engagement ring lost while swimming after a dog that had strayed too far from shore while recovering a tossed ball. The couple had marked the spot where they believed the ring was lost and they dropped a pair of sunglasses in the water near where they believed the ring to be.

After I arrived we grid searched the area for several hours, and recovering the sun glasses, I was having no luck, and sad about their loss, they decided to just head home.

I told them I would stay awhile and expand our search area and as we had gridded the area where they thought the ring would be found, I started a wider grid, around that same area. I went wide, out and around, about deep as I could, but I still had no luck.

On my next turn I stepped in for a bit shallower search, and I recovered a bottle cap. On my very next step, about three hours into this search, I heard that sound I had been hoping for and recovered their beautiful engagement ring.

Back at my car I sent a text to the owners, and told them it sure was a beautiful ring, and I sent this picture.

They responded “Your Kidding”.

I was very happy to have been able to recover this ring!

I received a call this afternoon from the owner of a ring which had been lost just yesterday.

The owner was positive the ring had been lost while seeding and applying a protective straw cover, on their property.

I arrived and the owner walked me through what had happened, very confident where the ring had been lost, and that it would be recovered.

After a short search of the area they had indicated, I heard the strong signal I was hoping for, and recovered a beautiful, gold and amethyst, pinkie ring.

I was happy to help with this ring find, and we were all very happy to get to see it again.

I received a call from a man who thought he had lost his wedding ring while grooming a bed of ivy in his yard the day before.

As I was planning to do some detecting in the afternoon, we arranged to meet in just a couple of hours .

He was confident the ring had probably been pulled from his finger while clearing out some invasive growth from within the ivy while landscaping his property.

He was sad about the loss and upset because his fifteenth wedding anniversary was coming up and these beautiful wedding rings had been custom made by a local jeweler for he and his wife.

This fact turned out to be good for us, because I was able to scan his wife’s ring and knowing they were of the same materials, I felt confident that if the ring was there, I would be able to recover it.

The ivy was quite thick, but his ring was about twice the size of his wife’s, and so I felt it would give a strong signal, and it did.

We were not ten or fifteen minutes into the search and talking together, when I heard a second signal which was right for what I was hoping for.

Though the previous signal was probably just old aluminum, using my pin pointer I was poking around in the ivy for the source of the second signal thinking it could possibly be just another piece of scrap when I saw the ring.

We were both surprised and very happy the search had gone well, when I pulled it out of the ivy.

I love it when I can recover any lost items, and am happy to help, but with this couple’s anniversary coming up, this wedding ring recovery was a really special!

I received an early text regarding a ring lost recently in the front yard of a home. Already having a busy day planned, I told them I would call if I could get away in the afternoon and luckily, I was able to search after 5pm. The family were all at an afternoon football game, but they described the area where they believed the ring should most likely be, and they allowed me to start my search as soon as I got there.  Following their directions, I recovered the ring within about 20 minutes, and so I just sent them a text with a photo of the ring on my detector. Their responding call came quickly, and they were elated! We were lucky and I was glad to have been able to help them.

Having found that first ring, I responded to another texter who wrote that he had lost his wedding ring while assisting a neighbor taking down a large tree. I let the gentleman know that I had been lucky and found the ring I had been searching for, and so I was able to come and search for his ring. When we met, he told me about the work that had been done and he pointed out the areas he believed the ring could possibly be. I was going to start out front, but he said he was pretty sure we should start at his neighbors near where they had cut down the tree, as he had been taking his gloves off and putting them on again all day long. We walked to his neighbors, and the neighbor came out to meet with us and we talked about the size of the tree and the area they had been working, which was significant. Knowing this ring could be anywhere in that fairly large area, I said I would start a grid search of the entire area. The ring owner started walking home and as I turned to get started my detector gave a strong signal, I looked down and right in front of me on the ground was the ring. I quickly snatched it up and showed the neighbor as I started walking along behind the owner with the ring behind my back. The neighbor said out loud “I can’t believe it” and the owner turned and said ‘What?” I held up the ring and he said “What?” and then he focused on my hand and said “You found it? What, did that take like four minutes”. None of us could believe our luck!

Not all ring finds go quite this smoothly, but when they do, it is a pleasure to be able to return these treasures!

I received  a text from a gentleman on Tuesday regarding his wedding ring which he lost a few weeks ago while working in his yard. We set a date to meet today as the ring had already been missing for several weeks.

As we walked and he explained his efforts the day his ring went missing, he was certain where and when he lost it because his security cameras showed he had the ring on when he started his project just before he put on his gloves to get started working, and then when he returned to his porch and removed his glove, the ring was gone.

We walked the area where he was pretty sure this ring had to be and he said he thought that when he removed his glove, that the ring had come off in that area, and that it may have been tossed and even bounced.

He told me that he and his wife and friends had searched for days and even at night with no luck, and he told me he had even used a metal detector to search, showing me some holes he dug while searching, but he’d had no luck.

I was thinking the ring might not be there as the area was relatively small and he had noted he and his friends had already searched it thoroughly, but I was headed to my car to get my gear when I asked him if there was anywhere else that he might have removed his gloves that day. I was thinking about another area I had seen in his yard when he noted that there was one other spot along his walk from the front to the rear of his house, but that it was a long shot, and that he probably should not even mention it.

I said we could hit it first on our way back from my car and he asked if I would mind if he walked along with me as I searched. I told him that he might get tired because every time I bent down to search, he would think that I had found his ring, but that it would probably be a pop tab, beaver tail. or some similar scrap metal and he told me that yes, that he had found a few nails while searching with his metal detector.

When setting up my detector I noted they have underground utilities and that this was going to be a ‘chatty’ search because my detector was really noisy.

Zeroed and balanced as best I could, we started our search and I swear, about three steps into his yard, at the side of his house, right next to his trash cans, the detector reacted to a good strong signal and I figured it was trash of course. I warned him, about it probably being trash, but as I bent using my pin pointer and I almost could not believe it. There pressed into the earth was a rose gold circle

.

We were done! Both of us were amazed, happy, but amazed by our luck. And it was then that I realized that had we not started to work on his long shot, hunch first, that we might have been searching for hours in the wrong area.

We had gotten very lucky!

Speaking of which, GO BENGALS!

I received a text from a young lady who had lost her wedding set while running along some of the most excellent hike/bike trails in Beavercreek, Ohio.

Unfortunately she only just learned of the Ring Finders and she had lost her rings in May, and so they had been missing for over three weeks when she called.

“I was out for a run and lost my wedding rings near the end of May. I called my insurance agent who informed me “I didn’t have the rider/floater for MISPLACED rings, only for robberies and being destroyed in a disaster like a house fire” I couldn’t even make a claim. I cried. I posted for people to be on the lookout for my rings, I searched and searched the path I had been running, with no luck. Weeks later, I found The Ring Finders website and contacted Doug who searched for my ring for about 4.5 Hours! He found it and called me and I cried even more. I am so thankful for him! 💍”

It was a tough search, but had I started where she said she had first noticed the ring had gone missing, I believe I might have found it in 15 minutes… Not knowing what had happened, I decided to start where she last remembered the ring still being in her pocket and I searched the path up and back to where she first noticed hers rings had gone missing. Almost back to the spot where we had started searching, with less than about 100 yards to go, I heard the sound I had been hoping for. I sent her a picture and when we spoke, I said “What about that”.

It was getting late, the shadows were long, and when we spoke she said she could not believe that I was still hunting.

We were both very happy!

I received a call while at work today from a gentleman who found the Ring Finders directory while doing an online search. He was seeking assistance locating a lost wedding ring and since I had been planning a hunt after work and had my gear with me, we arranged to meet when I got off.

When we met, he and his wife explained that they had been preparing to take their rings for cleaning and while heading to their car his wife accidently dropped hers on their front walk. Luckily, they were able to track the flight of the engagement ring and they found it just off the walk in their front lawn. They had however, lost sight of the wedding ring but assumed it too would be located close by. After searching late into the evening on hands an knees, even with the help of friends and neighbors, they were frustrated to have been unable to locate it.

After spending about an hour detecting, and gridding a relatively small area, I too was disappointed and frustrated at not having found what I thought should have been an easy to locate ring. Running out of ideas, I decided to search the cracks and edges of their walk by hand because the metal in and under their concrete walk had been setting off my detector which may have caused me to miss the signal the ring gave. On hands an knees, I went down one side of the walk to the street and then started back at the drop site down the other side. I was getting worried because the search area was small and I had not yet located the ring, when about half way to the street I found the ring, it was standing upright alongside walk.

If I was worried, I think because it had taken me so long to locate the ring, that the couple were both shocked and surprised when I finally did locate it.

I was happy to be able to return this ring to this couple, but afterward to learn that having done so, their marriage could continue, made it even more worthwhile!

I received a call from a young woman on a beautiful spring Monday afternoon and she told me how she had been enjoying her visit to the Magnolia Grove, but had somehow lost her car keys. I happened to have my detector with me, and so we planned that I would meet her later that day, after work. Arriving, I tuned my detector, and she began walking me through the grove, as she had been doing earlier that day.

The young woman told me she felt the keys were lost in a specific area and I worked through it with her several times while she was there, expecting her keys to be lying atop the ground and easily located. Afterward, she returned home and I again searched that area several times and then extended my search grid to cover the entire grove. About two and one half hours later, I shared the sad news with her, that I had been unable to locate her keys for her.

Several days later, just by chance, I had a another key search schedule change and so I contacted this young lady to learn if she had located her keys yet and she said she had not. There had been several good rain showers this afternoon and so I felt my detecting might be enhanced. I changed my detector settings, retuned, and started again in the same area that she had originally indicated she felt her keys would be located.

Within less than thirty minutes, I heard a good strong signal but I did not see her keys. I stooped and checked with my pin-pointer and still, no keys. I rose to continue my search and checking that signal again, even though I still did not see the keys atop the ground, I saw that there was some grass and leaf cover in this area. Stooping to check again, I noticed a small depression which I had not seen before. There were leaves covering it and within it, and so I quickly swiped through it with my fingers and had started to rise again when I stopped. I had noted the depression was deeper than I had thought it was and also, I thought I might have felt something that could have been the tip of a key. Pressing deeper into the hole with my pin-pointer, this time I got a signal, and as I started clearing out more of the leaves and debris, there they were!

Though it had been a tough and disappointing, initial search, I did enjoy the beauty of the Arboretum and the fragrance of the Magnolias.

Today however, everything was even more satisfying, because I was able to locate this young lady’s keys, and I believe she too was pleased and surprised when I texted her a picture of them.

Received a call while at lunch on Friday, from a gentleman who explained he was distraught because he had lost a ring his father had given him. He had been wearing the ring for years and while working around his home and yard all the day before, the gentleman was certain he had lost his ring somewhere on his property. He was hoping to cut his lawn on Saturday and so we agreed to meet after work because I just happened to have my gear with me.

He explained to me that he used to detect himself and had considered renting a detector and searching for the ring himself, but he was worried about a bad hip and after finding the Ring Finders web site and reading about some of our successes, he decided to give me a call.

When I arrived, we walked the areas he felt where we would most likely find his ring and I got to work gridding those areas. After about forty five minutes or so I had covered those most probable areas and so we broadened the search areas and I continued my gridding. I was down to the short rows, and starting to get worried as I was completing a full circle around his home when I widened my search zone and got the signal I had been hoping for. It was getting dark, but the last rays of the sunset glinted off of the ring when I looked down and I was so happy to have found it.

When I went up to his door I could see he was sad to see no ring in my hand and so I showed him some of the junk that I had found and then told him that near a downspout out back I found this. I held out his ring and his face lit up with surprise and we hugged and I think that he may have been even happier than I was to be able to return his father’s ring to him!

These are the moments that make being a ring finder most worthwhile!