Gregg Larabel, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 13 of 16

I got a text this morning from Tina O. on my way to find a ring in Coloma, MI. The text read “Mother passed on Monday, fathers birthday is tomorrow, he lost his wedding ring last winter”. I texted her back and asked where, in water or land? she told me the ring was lost while changing a truck transmission after a breakdown in a church parking lot. The church location was near my home so when I got back from a successful search in Coloma I called her and met her at the church.

A year had gone by since the loss, snow was plowed and grass was cut. I used my Fisher F75 and searched the grass alongside the parking lot for about 5 parking spaces then I turned and moved over and went back and now on my third three feet wide swing I got a faint signal so I used my Garrett Pin Pointer and got a good signal. This was a well manicured lawn so I didn’t want to dig too much so I dug a small hole and 2 inches down there it was. Tina and I gave each other a big hug and she looked at me in amazement and tears in her eyes said, thank you.

I took a picture of the ring and the shaded location by the church. After taking Tina’s picture I asked her to go home and take a picture of Troy holding the ring. This is a great birthday gift to a good man who has recently lost the woman of his life. I hope this will be a small returned token to remember a loving relationship that started so long ago.

I received an email from Meghan Q. that her husband lost his wedding ring while visiting her mothers cottage at Paw Paw Lake in Southwest Michigan last Sunday. He was swimming and playing some catch football  with his brother-in-law when he noticed his ring was gone. “Sadly it was his grandfather’s ring and my husband was beside himself for having lost it” says Meghan. “It’s just a simple gold band – not worth too much money but the sentimental value is priceless to him”. I got back to Meghan right away and told her I could go down Wednesday and search for the ring. She said there wouldn’t be anyone there but go ahead and if you find it give her a call. Meghan and Tim live and work in Illinois so I kept in telephone contact that Wed. morning. I searched in the area by the dock where they were swimming for about 4 hours with no luck. I gave Meghan a call and told her I would be back on Thursday to try again and bring my search partner Dave B. for help.

Tim was there this morning when we arrived and we started searching about 10AM in an expanded grid pattern from the previous day. He showed us how he threw the ball and we preceded to search. After 3 hours of searching to no avail I went back around the dock area and got a strong signal and put down my scoop in the area and when I brought it up I saw a glint of gold and knew I had “Juice”. (I can’t believe I’m using a term from that crazy DIGGERS show). I looked at the ring and saw that it was more than a “simple gold band”, it was a wide gold and heavy band that would have upset me too if I had lost it.

Changing into dry clothes, putting our gear away, taking some pictures and shaking Tim’s hand we smiled a bit and texted Meghan, who is a school teacher, to tell her the good news. In the words of Chris Turner “I love my job”. Two rings in two days, 450 miles and off to find another tomorrow.

Pat S. sent  me an email last Saturday Aug 24 saying that he was in Traverse City, MI visiting his mom and went swimming in Long Lake. While playing football his 14K wedding band with 8 diamonds came off his finger and sank into the sandy bottom. After looking for it with no luck he decided to go on line and found “theringfinders” website and found my name. I contacted Pat and told him I could go up Tuesday Aug 27. Pat was visiting from Tennessee and was going back on Sunday that week so he gave me his address and phone number and his moms address and phone number.

We drove the 150 miles one way from Grand Rapids, MI to Traverse City at 7am this morning. When we left Grand Rapids it was raining quite hard and when we arrived it was just sprinkling. We got our equipment on and grabbed our scoops and headed out to the area that Pat had said he lost his ring. I walked along the narrow dock that made up a boundary for the swimming area and about 10 feet from the deepest corner and about 4 feet down a good signal was heard and the first scoop was the ring.

We continued to search the swimming area and found a few coins and then the sky opened up with a torrent of rain and thunder so our successful hunt came to an end. I called Pat and told him I found the ring and would take it over to his mom’s house. He was very happy as was his mother and the picture shows it. Mom had a picture taken with the ring then promptly mailed it to her son pictured after receiving it with a big smile.

Tuesday I was contacted by Josh P. about his fiancée’s lost engagement ring, as I was on my way up to Traverse City, MI I was unable to help him until today. His fiancée gave him her ring before she washed her hands and he put it in his pocket for safe keeping. He was on his way back to their apartment when he crossed a 20 foot wide thicket filled with pricker bushes and tree branches and felt something hit his leg and soon discovered he had a hole in his pocket. The ring fell out just before he exited the thicket and he thought it was lost for good. After looking for a while he went to the internet and found my name through the ringfinders directory and immediately gave me a call.

My detecting partner Dave B. and I got to Josh’s apartment around 10:30am and began to unload our detectors. No sooner did we have our detectors on and a good ring sound rang out and in the tall grass under the prickers we found the white gold diamond ring. Josh’s fiancée wasn’t there but he promised to send me a picture of her holding the ring. Josh was a very happy guy and was getting a new pair of pants without holes.

I first heard about a man, Dick L., who lost his retirement ring that he received from Oldsmobile after working there 39 years, while doing some yard work either at his church or his home. It was a year ago and his granddaughter, Lindsey, wanted to make it right for him so she hunted around for another ring just like the one he lost and then surprise him at a family gathering. A TV reporter from her town found out about the ring and the presentation to her grandfather and put the story on TV. For the first time in his 83 years he was speechless brought on by the caring act of his granddaughter and getting a likeness of his ring back.

I saw the story on Fox 17 and thought to myself I can find that ring. I called the TV reporter and asked her if I could contact Dick L. to see if I could find the original ring, she was so excited about the possibilities of finding it that she called Dick and he agreed to meet with me. Today my detecting friend Dave B. and I went to Portland after finding another ring for a gentleman that morning. We met with Dick and he took us over to the church where he had done some fencing and yard work last summer. He explained how he took a dirt pile and spread it out, filled in some holes and then sifted some of the dirt to take home and add to his lawn. A year ago the summer was very hot and his front lawn needed seeding and top dirt added to it to help out an almost dying lawn. After digging, raking and detecting for over 3 hours at the church we decided to take a look at Dick’s front yard. This summer the yard was very green and well manicured. An area not larger than 25′ by 50′ we started a grid search where he said he added top soil. In less than 5 minutes the ring was found setting in a small divot covered by some dead grass. How the ring escaped the eyes of it’s owner for a year and repeated mowing’s is amazing.

Dick’s granddaughter, Lindsey, accompanied us on both site searches and became a little teary eyed after the find knowing her grandfather was reunited with his original ring and Dick was again speechless for a moment. Lindsey contacted the TV station and they were able to get a reporter and cameraman out for the follow-up story. It became a nice lawn party with Dick’s wife, Lindsey, their other daughter and several neighbors driving by wondering what all the commotion was with the TV reporters doing there.

The funny thing is I told Dick this was going to be my 32nd story and he said that is my old football number “32”. It was this Irishman’s lucky day. By tomorrow this small town of Portland, MI will know “the rest of the story”.

During the last week of July Renee, a mother of a 6 year old son and a new 7 week old who displayed her ring on her big toe, called me from finding my name on the ring finders directory. She had been visiting her sister in Holland, MI and went down to a little beach at Holland Township Park. The water that day was very rough with 3 to 4 foot waves so Renee just stood by the shore and played with her 6 year old son splashing in the water. As she bent over to touch the water her diamond ring fell off. The wedding band and diamond were connected together so it was a little heavier than just one ring and went under the water and sand very quickly with the rough water.

I went out the park the next day but the water was still rough and was hard to find a target let alone dig for it, so I told a teary eyed Renee that I would be back when the water was calm. I went back in a few days but was still unable to find it. I promised Renee that I had a network of detectorist  that would help. I put out a blast email and several people went out over the next couple of weeks to no avail. Then at a chance meeting a friend Dave B. met another detectorist at Lowes and told him the story about the ring and where it was supposed to be. Dave V. went out that night and found the ring. I have been detecting for 40 years and should have known that when the lake is rough and stormy the water rises and when it is calm the water recedes. Dave V. looked in the sand about 2 feet from shore and about 8″ down there it was, waiting for over 4 weeks to be found.

A call went out to Renee’s Marine husband, Teo, letting him know we found her ring and wanted to present it to her. In a couple of days they were going to a Marine family picnic at a park in my town and decided that would be a good place to present it. A video of the presentation was made and there were plenty of hugs and tears including mine. What a rewarding experience to return something that meant so much to a young couple. Semper Fi.

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Three weeks ago Christina and her Marine husband Mike were running their dog in the shallow water at Pinconning County  Park about a mile from their home. Whenever they go down to the water with their dog Mike gives Christina his 14K white gold wedding band with 10 diamonds for safe keeping. Christina put it on her finger and forgot about it when she picked up a clump of dirt from the bottom of the lake and threw it for her dog to chase after. Off comes the ring and on goes the computer to search for a ring finder. Being that it was a 2 hour drive I had to make arrangements to visit them the following day. My detecting friend Dave B. and I talked to Christina and she explained where and how she threw the ring, so we set up a grid in the area which was the size of a basketball court. Once into the water we found that you could walk out hundreds of feet and get no deeper than about 3 feet. The problem was that the deeper you got the silt and clay got mushier. When we got a signal and dug we came up with silt and a big clump of clay to add to the problem when we swept the coil the water turned gray from the silt and clay.

After about a three hour search we told Christina and Mike that we could not find it but because Mike had just got out of the Marines and they were both going to school and looking for a job we wanted to help them. They paid me gas money and I told them that we would be back but the next time it was on my dime.

Last Monday, 2 weeks later, we again set up a grid starting from the deepest part where we were told the ring should be and then searching towards shore. We started at 11 am and slowly worked our way to the shore and at about 5 pm 10 feet from shore I got the hit I was looking for and yelled out to Dave “I found it”.

We went to Cristina and Mikes house and presented the ring to a very happy couple. Another long but fruitful day for thringfinders.

   “remember a ring is not always where the person THINKS it was lost”

Three weeks ago Ryan C. called me after finding my name as a ring finder on line. His wife Shannon had lost her diamond wedding ring while enjoying an afternoon of boating on Half Moon Lake. They had anchored their boat at a popular party spot on the lake and while standing waste deep in the water she accidently dropped her ring in the lake. The water was clear but the bottom contained a layer of silt from the clay underneath it. They said they would meet us in a designated spot and we could follow them to the lake. We went to the public beach where they picked us up after getting their boat and then going to the spot where the ring was lost.

Shannon showed us about where the ring went off her finger and we, search buddy Dave B. and I proceeded to look for the ring. Every step and swipe of our detector we would kick up the silt and sink over our shoes in the clay. We did a grid search to no avail. After about three hours I told Ryan and Shannon that I was sorry that we couldn’t find the ring but would come back on my dime to look again. Our drive time from my house to the lake is about two hours.

Today Dave B., myself and another friend Chuck R. drove to the side of the lake that we could get to without a boat and start searching for the ring. Little did we know that we had to walk through a forest for a quarter of a mile with our equipment twice. The first time a gentleman walking his dog showed us the trail and walk with us to the right spot. We thanked him and walked back to the car to get our equipment. Did I mention poison ivy? We brought with us some grid markers and proceeded to search, going from the shallow to deeper. It was in the waste deep area where Ryan’s boat was parked the last time that Dave B. came up with a gleaming diamond. After high fiving each other I walked to shore and texted Ryan with a picture of the ring and said “Is this it?”. He happily replied, “yes”. I told him we would meet him at the beach and presented him the ring.

Ryan did not tell Shannon right away that we found the ring and wanted to have their two year old son present it to her, “she freaked”. So now the full moon smiles are bright over Half Moon Lake once again. The pictures say it all.

While staying for the weekend in Gaylord, MI for my grandsons baseball tournament I got a call from Mark D. who was staying in Leland, MI on vacation from Washington DC. He was at the beach on Monday and while wiping sun screen off his hands his wedding band catapulted off his finger into the sand. After looking for hours he went back to where he was staying and started searching on line for someone to find his ring. On Friday he came across THERINGFINDERS and gave me a call. It was about 4pm Friday evening when I got the call and told him it was a coincidence that I was in Northern Michigan and could get there in about an hour and a half, so off I went.

When I reached his address on Manitou Trail I followed him to the beach. I got my Bounty Hunter Time Ranger out and walked the short path to the beach. At 6pm there where still a lot  of people on the beach and right where we wanted to hunt they were making a fire to roast marshmallows. I joking told them they would have to move as there was a ring buried under their fire. Mark pointed out where he was approximately standing and I started a grid search. I covered about a 50 x 20 foot area and couldn’t find it. I went in the opposite direction to the other side of the fire and came up with a nickel and believe it or not a 1962 silver quarter in the same scoop. I went another 10 feet and there it was. I lifted it up and showed Mark and everyone on the beach started clapping.

Mark told me after finding the ring that it was custom made for him and was a very heavy platinum band, then he said “this is the tenth time I have lost this ring” I suggested that he have his telephone number engraved inside of it.

The hunt took less than 30 minutes so after Mark took care of my gas expense we took some pictures and he told me he would send me a copy of the video he took while I was looking for the ring.

Another happy ending as I said to myself, “I love my job”.