Gregg Larabel, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 13 of 17

Aaron sent me an email after finding my name through the ring finders website. He was out with friends at one of the most beautiful lakes in the Upper Lower peninsula of Michigan. Aaron and his bride just got married a week before and wanted to spend some time with friends they hadn’t seen in a while. They had just dropped anchor at the beach where boats park and party. While enjoying the hot sun and clear cool blue water Aaron was playing catch with a football and when he caught the ball he felt his black tungsten wedding band fall off his finger. After searching frantically for it in about 3 to 4 feet of water he gave up and when he got home his wife got on the computer to search for a metal detector and theingfinders web site came up.

I talked to Aaron through email then on the phone and agreed to make the 3 hour trip up to Thumb Lake in the Boyne/Gaylord area. The area I was given was just to the right of the swimming area only to find out there was an area of about 2 football fields. I started from the swimming area and headed north and covered at least 1/3rd of the area to no avail I did find a ring but not his. I gave Aaron a call and told him I will be going back up in a couple weeks and would try again. I covered another 3rd of the area and still struck out.

Today I drove up in the morning with my detecting friend Dave B. we started on the last 3rd of the area and in about 20 minutes into the search the ring was found. It was supposed to be one of the last days of warm weather in the North country but it was cloudy and windy. The water was warmer than the air so little time was spent on additional detecting so we headed back South for our last 3 hour trip to find this ring.

I will be presenting the ring to Aaron tomorrow when he gets out of work and post a smiling and happy face.

And now the rest of the story: I talked to Aaron today and got his picture. He didn’t tell his wife that the ring was found and decided to tell her over spaghetti diner and a bottle of wine. “I asked her to help me pick out a bottle of wine. She noticed the ring while we were opening the bottle together. It brought tears to her eyes as she jump up and down crying happy tears” I told him may they both have years together and a lot more happy tears.

 

My brother Jeff has always been an ambassador for me and my ring finding hobby. A letter carrier, who works in the same U. S. Post Office district, lost her ring during a golf outing so he gave me her name and phone number this afternoon. I gave her a call right away and within 2 hours the ring was back on her finger.

Chris S. was at a golf outing with the Letter Carriers MSA golf fundraiser at Deer Run Golf Course in Lowell, MI. Before golfing she took her rings off and sealed them in an envelope for safe keeping. After golfing she put her clubs and shoes in her car and took the envelope and proceeded to walk up to the club house. She said she tore the side of the envelope to open it and when she got to the club house she only had one of her rings. Tracing her steps back to her car to look for the ring came up empty.

This was Sunday and it is now Tuesday, I envisioned golfers walking back and forth from their cars to the club house just like Chris did over the past two days and one of them picking up this gem. I went out anyway as I am THERINGFINDER. I talked to the club house pro and ask if anyone turned in the ring, he said “no”, I told him that I would be out around the parking lot grass by the clubhouse with my detector to search for the ring. The grass was not cut during the three days that the ring was lost so that gave me some hope that the ring could be found. I found the ring after passing over it with my Bounty Hunter Time Ranger getting a “nickel” sound in some deeper grass just off the path to the clubhouse. I informed the clubhouse pro the ring was found and then I called Chris and made arrangements to meet her and reunite her with the ring that she and her jeweler designed.

What was a long shot to me turned out to be a hot shot for Chris. I’m very happy for you Chris!

Last week I found a ring at Millennium Park for Joel H. and he mentioned the recovery to a friend who said she lost her diamond wedding ring last year in Silver Lake and wondered if it could be found after giving her my information Sara D. emailed me and said she lost her wedding band and engagement ring after she put the rings in a chest pocket and applied sunscreen while at her parents home at the lake. Sara was playing with her daughter when she leaned over on the dock and noticed the rings were gone. Sara’s husband Jeff ran his hands through the sandy bottom of about a foot deep water and found the wedding band but could not come up with the engagement ring. A year had past and telling the story to her friend Joel H. she discovered The Ring Finders. With one of the hottest days this year I thought it would be a great day for water detecting. My friend Dave B. and I arrived at the lake home and met Sara and proceeded to work our magic. After about 20 minutes of gridding a small area of the beach and lake the ring was found about 10 feet where the wedding band was lost. It always amazes me how rings are found in a different spot than where they were thought to have been lost. I presented the ring to a VERY happy Sara and suggested that she take it to the jewelry store for a good polishing. Thank you for letting me serve you Sara and Jeff, I love this hobby.

 

Three weeks ago Melissa W. and her husband Dan were visiting her dad in Williamston, MI. His home has a pond on some acreage where the dogs run and play and the family gathers for a warm summer time swim. While swimming in the half acre pond, Melissa was in the deep part of the pond (about 7 to 8 feet deep) when her dog swam by and knocked her rings off her finger. She has swam in Jamaica, in lakes in the Carolina’s and in the river where she lives in Maryland and has never had a problem with her rings coming loose but this was just a freak accident.

Melissa and Dan searched for the rings in the clay bottom pond to no avail. When she went back to Maryland she located the ring finders web page and found my name in the directory. Three weeks have past and Melissa and Dan are about to come back to Michigan from their home in Maryland for the holiday, she gave me a call Thursday Aug 29th and asked for my help. I arranged with my friend who has a Hookah and told her we would be there Saturday morning. There are times when a ring finder needs a little help from his friends and that was now. Chuck R. and Dave B. came to my aid to help dive in the pond. After about an hour of searching the area where Melissa thought it was lost Dave got a hit and found a ring, he knew there were connecting rings so he got another hit about a foot away and recovered the other one. With a raised hand and rings on his pinky finger he walked out of the pond. Melissa put her hands to her mouth in happy amazement and put the rings on her finger. The engagement ring was given to her by her grandmother and the two wedding rings were connected together and interlocked into the engagement ring. So the holiday weekend began with a very happy couple and the family can again go swimming in the pond and the dogs can run on the acreage but this time Melissa’s ring will stay in the house.

It was my pleasure to serve you and thank you for the generous reward. By the way the HOOKAH is an under water breathing apparatus.

Joel H. emailed me Thursday Aug 29 to find out if I could look for a ring that he lost while playing in the water with his 7 year old daughter. Millennium Park is usually off limits for metal detecting so I told him we would have to get permission from the park ranger. Joel made a few calls and Friday morning 8am we were at the park ready to search for his ring. He had pretty much narrowed the search area after loosing his ring he counted the swim buoys and looked back at the beach so he knew where it should be.

I set up some grid markers and began the  search after going from shore to about chest deep a couple of times I got a good signal and took a big scoop of sand and as it was coming to the top I could see a glint of gold as the sand was sifting through my scoop. I picked out the size 13 gold wedding band and asked Joel if that was it. The smile on his face explained it all.

I want to thank Roger and his rangers for allowing us to search the water. As I detect I also pick out any trash from the water and recovered a few pull tabs, bobby pins, a battery and a couple pairs of sunglasses.

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”.