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

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.

My detecting partner Dave B. and I were out today at Holland State Park detecting in both the water and the sand. It was a cloudy day and the rain had just stopped so the beach was empty of bathers. While I was in the water Dave started gridding an area in the sand and came across a Samsung S5 cellphone. The signal on his AT Pro indicated junk and he was not going to dig but dug anyway and about 4 inches down there was the phone. We continued to hunt for another hour or so and went back into Grand Rapids to find the owner. We stopped at a T mobile office as that was the service provider. Because of privacy matters they could not give us a name but told us the subscriber lives in Florida.They took my name and number and said the party would get in touch with me. About 2 hours after I got home I got a call from Anthony M. he ask “do you have my phone” and I told him the story and he said he was at the park Sunday and it fell out of his pocket and couldn’t find it in the sand. We agreed to meet him at his house tonight after he got out of work and exchange the phone.

Dave and myself met Anthony at his house  and he was very happy to get his phone back. He explained that his sister in Florida has the plan and he is on it, that cleared up the mystery of the Florida connection. We thought that maybe the person who lost the phone was vacationing at the State Park.

Here is a picture of Anthony and the phone.

Got a call Sunday from Roger R. telling me his niece, Kim C., lost her white gold diamond ring in the lake while throwing a basketball during a fun filled day  of festivities in the water. When you look at the picture below you will see that Roger and his wife Kathy have a swimming area designed for big, fun parties. My partner Dave B. and myself took the 2 1/2 hour drive to their house and got our wet suits on and entered the water on an overcast Monday and started our search. We got several hits on the way out to the basketball hoop that was set up to play water ball. Roger told us that he had searched with a snorkel for hours around the hoop and other places in the swim area only to give up and call me. Our target area was around the hoop and about 15 minutes into the search Dave B. pulled up the ring with his AT Pro. We continued to search while slowly walking up to the beach and asked Roger if he had some coffee we would like to give it a rest for a bit. In the meantime we gave him what we found. Dave B. handed him one at a time a dime, penny, a nickel, a quarter, another penny and Roger said “wow” there’s a lot of change out there. I then started the same thing with a handful of change and a needle and bottle cap. Roger, looking a little down with nothing to show other than change I said “Oh there is this too” and I put the ring in his hand and he was stunned. He could not believe we found it after all the searching he went through. We took some pictures and he sent them to his niece then we went up for that cup of coffee. After some great conversation with Roger, a retired special ed school teacher, we took a ride around the lake in his pontoon boat and then packed up and went home.

We stopped to eat on the way home and got a text while at the restaurant from Roger saying that Kim got the pictures and was so happy she said “she would do anything 4 you both”. The smiles, coffee, conversation, and a boat ride around the lake was reward enough. This service of theringfinders is the most rewarding job I have ever done in my 40 years of detecting. Thank you Chris Turner for your foresight with theringfinders.

Kim was not available for a picture so when I receive it I will edit this post

 

 

Ben S. called me today while I was watching my grandson, Chase, win the Junior Gold Bowling Championship at Westgate Bowl in Comstock Park, MI.

Ben who lives in Fort Wayne, IN, was visiting his grand parents who live in Kalamazoo, MI and they spent the day at Oval Beach in Saugatuck, MI. Ben was passing a ball to his brother while standing in 3 feet of water when all of a sudden the ball and his Tungsten wedding band went sailing. Ben was aware of the location of the ring and was able to give me a good description as to where it went into the water. The fresh water lake was relatively calm and cool so there were a lot of beach goers there, I figured it would be a nice day to search.

After about 10 minutes in the water I found a silver ring but not Ben’s so I carried on and the next hit was Ben’s Tungsten wedding band. I have included a picture of Ben’s ring and the small silver ring that I found just before his ring. Ben was not there but will receive his ring next Saturday so I will edit this story with a picture of him and the ring.

Ben’s aunt Ellen and nephew showed up today to pick up his ring for him so I thought I would add to the travels of his ring. I asked her to give me a pic of Ben when he receives the ring so another posting will be coming with the end of the ring travels complete. After 3 weeks of traveling around Michigan and Indiana, the ring has finally been given to Ben and here is his picture.