Gregg Larabel, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 14 of 16

Last year I visited Sandy after she called me about her lost silver necklace in the blueberry patch. I had success in finding it. I gave Sandy my card incase she needed my services again. Well I got a call from Sandy yesterday telling me she lost her garage door opener while cutting her grass and dumping the clippings in some tall weeds to the side of her garage. She and a friend looked for it the day she lost it but didn’t have any luck. I told Sandy I would be out around 1pm the next day but gave her a call this morning and asked if I could come out earlier due to a pending storm, she said come on over. My detector friend Dave and myself headed over for the 12 mile trip and started to look for the opener. Sandy had to go get her dog and would return in about an hour. She was hardly out of the drive when Dave’s detector went off and there it was. I gave the opener to her husband who is recouping from hip surgery and he said “thank you” and told me Sandy would send me a check. Another great adventure doing a job I love to do.

Lost while throwing out grass clippings.

A most unusual request was made to me to help find a broken discharge water line coming from a sump pump in a 100+ year old home.

The line extended about 200 feet coming out of the basement and then made a 90 degree turn out to a drainage ditch. The owner Cody and his wife Jennifer

bought the house 2 months ago when they moved from Tennessee. They didn’t have any trouble until the recent rains that caused some flooding.

Cody ran a metal spring steel snake from the house to a point about 200 feet then stopped, he then tried it from the ditch to about 100 feet and was stopped again.

With the snake still in the pipe from the house my detector friend Dave B. and I followed it out to about the spot the snake stopped.

We dug a trench about 6 feet long and 3 feet deep hoping to find the PVC pipe to no avail. We then dug holes from the ditch following the sunken pipe every

6 feet until we found the 90 degree turn just 6 inches from our original trench. Not finding any clog at the 90 degree joint we started digging toward the

house and there was the collapse in the line. This all took about 3 hours and Cody and Jennifer P. were very happy that we could help them.

For our time and reward we asked if we could detect their yard of some 100 plus years old.

I got a call last week from Obi who lives in Muskegon, MI. He and his fiancee were in their back yard horsing around in the snow. Prior to them playing in the snow Obi’s fiancee gave him her ring which needed resizing. He put it in his pocket and together they enjoyed the new fallen snow. It was a small back yard and when they started to go into the house he felt in his pocket and said the ring was gone. Obi had a metal detector junior and tried to find the ring but couldn’t. The next day he went out and rented a better detector to no avail. There is a septic tank cover near where he lost it and the detector kept peeping.

Obi looked on line for “find my lost ring” and came across www.theringfinders.com he then looked in the directory and found my name. With a lot of things going on during the week and being it wasn’t lost in a public area I told Obi I would be out Sunday Feb 24.

My brother Doug and I searched the 50′ by 75′ back yard and could not get a signal on the ring. We cleared all the snow off the septic tank area and check the snow with no luck. Since the loss there has been about 6 to 10 inches of snowfall which made hunting a little harder because the snow was very heavy.

Obi gave me money for gas and I told him my next trip after a thaw was on me. I assured his fiancee not to worry we will find it.

Now that the winter months are upon us and the snow is here, accidents occur with rings lost throwing snowballs, taking gloves off pulling off rings in the snow,

cleaning your car and off comes the ring, etc. There are many stories out there but I can help you find your lost treasure. I have 40 years of experience finding

lost treasurers. I live in Grand Rapids, MI and can travel anywhere you need me.

I  charge for gas expense depending on the distance traveled and if the item is found I would accept a reward.

    Call me at 616 406-6653 or email: gelarabel@sbcglobal.net

Brian Bierenga with ring back on finger

I received an email today from a  friend, Vickie J. ,who works where I used to work. She  knew that I metal detected and retired just to go detecting.  A co-worker mentioned to her that her husband had lost a lot of weight and was doing some yard work and lost his wedding ring as it was very loose. She told Rhiannon B. about me. I called Vickie after receiving the email and then decided to message Rhiannon on FB. Before you know it between 2:30PM when I received the email and 5:30PM when I went to their home, the ring was back on Brian’s finger.

Brian had bagged three big bags of leaves to be thrown out the next day. When I messaged them on FB I told them not to throw out any bags until I check them. I got out my Bounty Hunter metal detector and check bag one and two with no alerts, checking bag three I got a great signal then emptied a few leaves and there it was.

Brian is a teacher at Mattawan High School and I’m sure will have some good news for his students tomorrow.

Margaret V. and Mother

On July 4th Jon B. son-in-law of Steve V. was up visiting his wifes family at Wall Lake, North of Delton, MI. While playing in the swim area with his children he noticed his ring was missing. After searching the area he was unable to find it and mentioned it to Steve, soon the vacation was over and Jon and his family headed back to Houston, TX. To add insult to injury they totaled their car on the way back home.

A month later a metal detecting friend, Dave Moyer, was approached by a Steve while Dave was metal detecting on a school playground. He asked him if he could search the water for a lost ring. After giving the man his card he got a call about a month later and was asked to come out to the lake and look for the ring. Dave asked me to come along and help because he had not searched any deep water and knew I did a lot of water searches.

Dave and I went out to Wall Lake just North of Delton, MI. It was a nice Fall day about 68 degrees and the water was still warm from the summer months. After spending a few minutes preparing our gear and entering the water I found the ring after 3 sweeps with my CZ21 detector. We continued to search the swim area, as we would normally do, to remove any junk such as nails, pull tabs, dock bolts and anything else that could hurt someone swimming.

Steve’s mom was visiting his grandmother who owns the home on the lake and was watching us look for the ring and they had their doubts that it would be found. Finding the ring added a bright side to an awful finish to a summer vacation for Jon and his family.

I would like to post an email that I received from a very happy man who got his ring back. Thanks to one of our newest members of theringfinders, Ryan Cole.

Brian and Gregg after the ring rescue.

Brian, his wife Laura, family and friends were vacationing at a cottage at Houghton Lake, MI. On Saturday afternoon, less than 3 hours into the vacation, he was playing catch with a football in the lake and his platinum ring slipped off his finger in about 3 feet of water. He thought it would be easy to find and grabbed a mask and search the water for about two hours then gave up. He thought it was lost for good. Feeling terrible because “he loved his ring, he wore it every day for 11 years without taking it off.” It cost $1,100 but the sentimental value far exceeds its actual worth and to him was irreplaceable. He thought about it all night.On Sunday morning, Brian turned on his IPad and typed “lost ring water Michigan” into a Bing Search engine and followed the link to theringfinders blog. He found me in Grand Rapids, MI and left a message at about 9:30 Sunday morning. I had just got out of church and noticed a call so about 20 minutes after his message I called him back. My brother Doug and I were planning on going up to the Upper Peninsula to find another ring so I told Brian we would detour up to Houghton Lake to search for his ring. We got up to the cottage about 1:30PM changed into our suits, got our gear and began the search, in less than 30 minutes I found his ring. He said “it was an amazing sound to hear me say, does this look like your ring”.

    After some pictures, handshakes and smiles we headed on up North. Thank you for the generous reward, I was our pleasure to put a smile back on your face.

While metal detecting in four feet of water with about one foot waves at Grand Haven State Park, Michigan, I found a class ring from Davenport University class of 2005. We were on a hunt with our metal detecting club (Wolverine Research and Recovery Club) and I showed the ring to the members and said tomorrow I will be on Craigslist and Facebook to find the owner. When I got home that evening I went to Facebook and found several Mike Harders but only one from the area in Middleville, MI. I friend-ed Mike and asked him if he graduated from DU. He messaged me back and after answering several questions I found he was the  owner of the class ring.

Mike was skipping a ball with his nephew  in Lake Michigan when he noticed the ball and another splash, the other splash was his ring. He has lost weight due to Parkinsons that he has and as an Air Force veteran is 100% disabled. Mike graduated from DU in 2005 with a degree in Computer Engineering and shortly before his moms death she gave him the money for his ring. It has a lot of sentimental value to him and when he told his sister that someone  had recovered his ring that sat down and cried.

As a retired Air Force veteran myself  it was very special to meet Mike face to face and hand over the ring to him.