Gregg Larabel, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 10 of 16

Rick Magyar a fellow Ring Finder called me the other day and asked for help finding a lost ring in the Grand River. What had happened is Cory V. had received a 14k gold wedding band from his grandfather who had passed away a week before. This ring was going to be used in Cory’s upcoming wedding. Cory and some friends where in the Grand River enjoying themselves on a hot summer day when just before getting out of the water he felt the ring slide off his finger. The river was about 2 to 3 feet deep with weeds and about 6 inches of mud. Rick had been out on a hunt previously and was  unable to locate the ring so he called on my help. When we arrived at the river we met Pam who’s house they were at when the ring was lost. We went down to the river and proceeded to search. While I went out about 4 feet from shore Rick was looking closer to shore than where he looked before. Rick got a hit and Dave B. verified the hit with his AT Pro, because of the muck Dave let Rick use his underwater pointer and after Rick grabbed a handful of muck the pointer continued beeping as he pulled it up to search. There it was mixed in with a handful of black mud gleaming slightly in the sunlight.

We took the ring up to Pam and she called Cory who lives out of town it turned out to be a happy day for all involved. We asked that Cory send us a close up picture holding his ring for our Book of Smiles. So watch for an update to this story in the next couple of weeks.

 Rick M on the left

Pam in the middle

Gregg L on the right

You have to keep an open mind when looking for a ring. Carl M. said he had his ring in the bottom of his kayak and forgot about it when he took the kayak out of the water. Carl called me while I was in Tennessee and I told him I could make it out there in a couple of days. Seeing that the ring was lost in a private swimming area I was not too concerned about someone else finding it. He said it was by the dock where he pull the kayak out. He figured it must have fallen out when it was turned over in about 3 feet of water and carried across the yard to the condo. After searching everywhere on the grass and in the kayak and not finding it he thought it’s time for the internet. Finding me on the Ring Finders the search began. I have built a team of detectorist my brother Doug, Dave Boyer (a soon to be Ring Finder in the Holland and South Haven market) and myself. Doug and Dave spent about an hour looking in the water which had large cement slabs with deep cracks and rocky bottom. Checked the lawn between the dock and condo and came up empty. Finding rings takes a lot of detective work and elimination. The water and grass was checked the only thing left was to look at the kayak one more time. The kayak was rolled over on it’s top and the ring fell out. Lessen learned, “always start from where the ring was last seen”.

“Before the sunset twice the ring will be found” that was my goal. The ring was lost Saturday afternoon the sun set and Sunday before the sun set again the ring was found. I got an email from Jennifer K. while at a family gathering 70 miles away from the Park. I called Jennifer right away and she said they were at the beach celebrating the future marriage of a friend. While laying on the beach she applied some sunblock then went down to the water, up to her waist, to cool off. She noticed her ring on her right hand was coming off and adjusted it then noticed her wedding ring was gone.

Fortunately for her a friend took a picture of all of them on their blankets. So that gave us, (Tom Townsend, Dave B. and myself), a reference as to where to look. Jennifer contacted both Tom Townsend and myself from the Ring Finders directory. I called up my detecting partner to meet me at the Park because I was 70 miles away. Before I got to the Park both Tom and Dave entered the water between the buoy reference that Jennifer had given us and checked up to waist deep water. When I arrived Tom was on a grid South of the referenced area and Dave started gridding North to South over the referenced area and I started my grid going East and West from the referenced area to the water. After I arrived it was about 30 minutes of gridding and Dave and I met almost at the same spot and there it was right where it was suspected of coming off.

After the ring was found, Dave went home and Tom and I entered the water to see if we could find some more rings. The first signal Tom got was a nice men’s Titanium wedding band.  The night ended as the sun set for the second time since the ring was lost and a call was made to Jennifer that her ring was found. We made arrangements for her to pick it up the next day when we will get a picture of her for our book of smiles.

Bryan S. called me Thursday and was looking for someone to help find his wedding ring that was lost while playing Nerf football on a sandbar at Walnut Lake. He explained that it was a private lake and that is where a lot of the boaters drop anchor and swim and play games. It is about 3 feet deep with an inch of silt and a clay base. He had marked the spot within a few feet of where the ring came off so it would be easier to locate. I told Bryan that I was going out of town Saturday but probably could get there in a week. He was concerned that the other boaters would disturb the area during the coming weekend. After rearranging my schedule and getting my brother Doug and my other detecting partner, Dave B. onboard to make the 2 1/2 hour trip across state, I texted Bryan and told him we will be there Friday morning at 11am.

Bryan was very pleased that we could make it as he had called another Ring Finder in Detroit but he didn’t have water equipment. Traci S., Bryan’s wife, thought the ring was a lost cause because they went out with a snorkel and hunted for several hours with no success.

Friday morning we packed our gear and headed East to Bloomfield Hills. When we arrived we met Bryan and showed us the private beach he docks his pontoon at and jumped aboard for the short trip across the beautiful picturesque lake that you only find in “Pure Michigan”. Bryan had marked the spot with a big log sticking up out of the water so we got into the waist deep clear water and in about 10 minutes we produced “juice!” and Bryans palladium wedding ring was back on his finger and we headed back to shore.

Because it only took a few minutes to find the ring Bryan invited us to detect some of the beach to see what we could find. We detected for 30 more minutes and gave the life guards the few coins we found and headed back to Grand Rapids, MI.

It’s funny Thursday night I opened a fortune cookie that we had left over from Chinese a couple of days before and it said “Something exciting was going to happen to you on Friday”. I guess it was finding the ring or maybe it was finally meeting Bannan Max the side car motor cycle riding boxer that I always see in passing but never met until today.

While reading on Facebook I saw a post with my name on it. A friend referred my services to a man who lost his wedding ring three weeks ago while cleaning his pool. I messaged Dawn K. the wife of Dan K. and offered to come out and help find his ring. Dawn K. sent a message back to tell me a neighbor had a detector and was going to try to find it and if he couldn’t she would message me back. They also wanted to check around the house at some places that it could be. A day later Dawn K. messaged me and said she would like me to come out and search for the ring.

My brother Doug and I arrived at the house and introduced ourselves to Dawn and then got down to work. The usual questions were asked what, where, when, how. I first checked the leaves in the trash that came of the pool cover and found them to be clean. Then walked around the house and Dawn showed me where she threw leaves in the woods from the pool cover and then checked leaf piles around the pool that were left over from the pool cleaning. After three weeks of resting under some leaves by the pool the ring gave us a signal and said “you found me!”

We walked around to the front of the house where Dan and Dawn were standing and presented the ring. Needless to say the smiles came out and Dan couldn’t believe we found it so soon or at all. Dan was talking to some customers who also were very impressed and showed them the ring. It was time to get a picture of the ring and of Dan and Dawn for our book of smiles.

“The day was cold and dark and dreary”, I’ve always wanted to say these words from Longfellow’s poem, “Rainy Days” and today was fitting. Ray S. called me yesterday an said he lost his wedding band while taking out his garbage container. He had snow on his hands and when he shook them off his ring went flying off into the grass. Ray searched through the Oak leaf covered grass but could not find it. A friend had told him about THERINFINDERS so he looked us up and found one of my associates not home and then called me. I have made several trips to the East side of our state over the past 4 years. Ray told me the story and I told him I would be out the next morning, weather permitting. I started the 140 mile trip with wet streets and blowing snow but by the time I got to Ray’s house it was just dark and dreary. Getting my Fisher F75 out, I started a grid search using the area that Ray thought his ring should be. I started down the edge of the drive about 30 feet then back up and over 3 feet. After about 10 feet into my second leg I got a 56 on my detector scale and there it was, pushed down into the wet dirt, I pulled up his ring. Ray must have stepped on the ring while looking for it and the only way it would have been found is with a metal detector. Ray went into the house to show his wife, Alex, that he got his ring back. Alex ran out of the house and gave me a big hug and said thank you. It was a pleasure helping out Ray and Alex and brighten up that Dark and Dreary day.

Jeff called me last week to tell me his son Aaron, lost his 2015 Hopkins H.S. class ring while feeding the ducks at Heritage Park pond. When he was preparing to throw some bread his ring fell off into the water. The water is about 5 feet deep with about 2 feet of muck. I told Jeff that because of the depth and muck it would be impossible for me to wade into the water and use my detector, so I told him I would consider another method and get back to him. Several years ago I made a scoop from an old flat snow shovel and some 1/4 in fencing. It was designed to drag along the bottom of a lake and sift the sand for rings and things. My detecting partner came up with a 12 foot handle made out of PVC pipe to put on it.

Saturday we went out to Heritage Park and tried our scoop out. Going on information from Jeff, he said his son threw out some bread underhand about 5 feet and into the water. After scooping several feet in about a 12 x 10 foot area the scoop worked very well but we came up with nothing but weeds. The scoop worked as well as we thought it would. I called Jeff and told him we didn’t have any luck. A few minutes later I got a call from Jeff’s son telling me the ring bounced on the deck and then went in the water. That changed things and we went back today to search along the base of the deck and after about 5 scoops we came up with the ring. It is so important to get a good set of events leading up to the item being lost.

Aaron’s dad is going to surprise him on A’s birthday on Nov 10. Today happens to be my 70th birthday and I consider this to be a birthday gift, I love finding rings for people.

I was called by Kelli C. Friday asking me to find her ring that was lost last spring while doing some yard work. I told her we (Me, Dave B and my brother Doug) would be out Saturday morning to search for her ring. She had mentioned that her yard was 3 acres and her house was over 100 years old and that anything we found besides the ring we could keep.

We arrived at the house at 10:30 and met Jim C., Kelli’s husband, Jim explained that Kelli was up north buying chickens at a poultry festival. Kelli, now known as the chicken lady, raises chickens for pets and eggs with a few ducks added in. We began detecting the yard which Kelli marked for us where she thought the ring might be. The grounds were peppered with aluminum nuggets, like they were melted into balls and other junk metal pieces. We searched for about an hour and a half before Kelli got home then we introduced ourselves while she unloaded the 3 new chickens she bought. I had the privilege of holding 2 of them and taking them to the pen. They were like petting an angora kitten, very soft and silky and loved to be held. (see picture). We searched for another couple of hours, for as old as the house was there was very little coins found and nothing old. We turned everything over to Kelli. My brother Doug did find a pair of sterling silver ice tongs that Kelli lost 4 years ago and that was the find of the day and made Kelli very happy. Meeting Jim and Kelli was a real privilege, they are a great couple. Maybe we will come out for another search but the 2 1/2 hour trip makes it hard to arrange.  I will put this on my list of “needs to be found at another time”.

 

 

Wow! what a find today. I not only found the ring for Todd S. but got a steak dinner out of the deal. I was called by a fellow Ring Finder, Tom Townsend, who originally got the call but because of his work schedule could not make the search. I called Kimm, Todd’s sister-in-law, around 5PM and after talking to her made arrangements to go down to South Haven, MI at 9AM the next morning. The weather at the moment was warm and the big lake was very calm so I decided to make the 50 mile trip right away that evening. I called my detecting partner, Dave B., and we got our gear together and got down to South Haven about 6:30PM giving us a good 2 hours to hunt before sunset.

We met Kimm and Todd’s wife Jennifer and their other sister Melissa and the kids at the lake and they directed us to the spot and there in the lake was Todd who had goggles and a snorkel and had been in the water for over 5 hours looking for his ring. Dave and I began our search using a grid method and in about 20 minutes I got a good signal on my CZ21, I scooped up the sand and there it was a beautiful platinum ring with 7 diamonds. Todd was about 3 feet from me and I raised my hand with the ring and got a big bear hug from him. It was a very emotional moment from a giant of a man. After some happy faces and pictures taken, even by tourist, we were invited to dinner at their vacation home down the street.

After everyone went back to the house Dave and I searched the water for a little while as the Lake was calm and the weather was great. We changed into our dry clothes and went to Todd’s vacation home and met the rest of the family. This was an Italian family from Pingree Grove, IL and when they get together it is a meal that was meant for a king. We had Filet Mignon and all the trimmings. Kimm had grown most of the salad items from her 4000 square foot garden. With the meal and great conversation, that lasted late into the evening, we wrapped up a great search event and headed back to Grand Rapids. Thank you Tom T. for the referral.

I got a call from Katina G. this morning asking me to find her ring that she had lost. The call was a message on my phone so after playing some phone tag with Tim G., her husband, we finally connected and he gave me the story. I met Tim and Katina tonight with their have 2 small children and a new born baby. Tim works at the site where the ring was lost in the front yard of the building. They had looked for it for a while with no luck so Katina went on to Google and found the ring finders and after reading some of my stories decided to give me a call. I had been moving for a friend all day and told her I would go out after 5PM. I talked to Tim and he gave me an address of the mailbox the ring was near and being familiar with the area I proceeded to the spot. I got out my detector and started to grid a grassy area along the street. It had rained and I saw a sewer along the curb and running water in the gutter. I was afraid that it may have fallen in the street and went down the sewer, just then I got a 52 reading on my Fisher F75 and under a clump of grass about a foot from the curb was her ring.

I called Tim and asked how we could meet and he happened to be going to a meeting with the family and would meet me at the spot where I found it. 20 minutes later I met Katina, Tim and the family giving them my card and taking some pictures we went on our way. What a beautiful couple and family, finding the ring for them and making them happy made me happy. An end to a great day.