Mark Rubey, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 23 of 23

FOUND! Wedding ring at La Jolla Shores Beach San Diego

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

         When I got home on Monday evening, a message was waiting patiently on my recorder. It seems Jeremy’s wedding ring slipped off his finger while at the beach with his wife and child…..the same beach I was at the day before! On Sunday, I found a ring, necklace w/pendant, and an earring at the same beach and area where he lost his the following day! What? is there some sort of jewelry black hole on that beach??

        He was fairly sure of the area in which it was lost and since I was also familiar with that particular beach, We were able to narrow the search area quite a bit just talking on the phone. I felt confident enough that I would be able to hunt for the ring on my own since he had to work the next day and couldn’t be on hand to show me where the X spot was.

         I arrived early the next morning and headed for the search area. There were dozens of surfers out in the waves and dozens more walkers strolling down the beach on the wet hard packed sand at the waters’ edge but only one group of people in the dry sand. Naturally, they were right in the middle of ground zero! You could look a mile in each direction and not see a soul but they chose that particular spot to do their palates or yoga or whatever it was they were doing. They probably thought I was some kind of nut or pervert invading their space when I had the whole beach to do my thing but little did they know what was under their mats.

      I started hunting as far away from them as possible and still be in the probable search area and after a half hour or so they had finished and moved off to enjoy the rest of their day. I finished the area they had coveted and not finding Jeremy’s ring yet, worked my way south another 20 feet or so when it screamed at me to get it out of the sand. Ring and finger have been reunited and another smile generated. My work was done. I gotta keep these Coast Guard guys happy…..never know when I might need THEIR help!

Ring Found at Pacific Beach, Ca.

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

My wife and I went to visit some friends at Pacific Beach last Sunday and naturally, I brought my detector along to try my luck. I donned my gear and started to walk over to the life guard tower to begin my beach hunting when a man named Ray approached me and asked me if I could help find his wedding band that had slipped off his finger. He thought it was in the sand over by the blanket he and his wife were using. I said sure and headed there to take a scan of the area. A nice sound produced nothing but a wadded up clump of foil. After nothing else came to light in that area Ray said that it could be over in the shallow water too. I gave him my card, got a description of the ring (large yellow gold band with a hammered look on the outside), and asked if he was going to be there on the beach for a while. He said yes, so I told him If I found his ring, I’d let him know and headed toward the surf. Before I made it to the wet sand, I got a nice signal from Excalibur and in my first scoop, I see a nice big gold ring! I couldn’t believe that I found it that quick. After giving it a quick once over, it appeared that it wasn’t Ray’s ring as it looked smooth on the outside and had some initials (not his) stamped into the inside surface. No use getting him excited over someone else’s ring so I continued to search the area he defined. After an hour or so, I looked up and saw he and his wife were leaving and they just waved goodbye to me as I continued to hunt the wet sand. I hunted the rest of the afternoon with only some change and a couple of toy cars to show for it but with one nice ring already in my pocket, I was still a happy camper. When I got home and cleaned the ring off a bit (and got my glasses on!) I discovered to my amazement that It did appear to match Ray’s description even though he never said anything about there being initials stamped into it. Since I didn’t have his number, I figured I’d post it on Craig’s List and maybe he would see it or maybe he’d remember to contact me through my Ring Finders card. Sure enough, a couple of days later, my wife gets the call and has him contact me. We arrange to meet and reunite gold with the finger it had been on for the last 18 years. Smiles all around as I learned they were visiting from out of town and were heading home shortly. The trip will be a much more pleasant one now.

Lost Ring at Swami’s Beach in Encinitas, Ca. Found!

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

On Monday, a lady named Allison called and asked if I could find her platinum/diamond ring that she lost in the surf at Swami’s beach in Encinitas, Ca. I told her I’d give it my best shot and we arranged to meet that evening. My wife and I took the 1/2 hour drive and arrived about 6:30 to find Allison already there with her daugher in tow. She explained how she took her daughter into the surf the previous afternoon and felt it slip from her finger as they played in the shallow water. The ring was quickly covered and she couldn’t find it. She had a pretty good idea as to location so I started my search in the middle of “ground zero” and worked my way each way of that. After an hour or so of parallel passes from dry sand to 3 feet deep water and nothing to show but one piece of scrap metal, I decided to work a pattern the other way and search parallel to the beach instead. I started in the deepest water I planned on searching and at the end of one pass I got a nice clear signal. As the surf calmed and water cleared between waves, I spotted half a ring jutting out of the sandy bottom and as I reached for it, a wave rolled through and obscured my vision again. I tried grabbing for it several times only to have it slip through my fingers with each wave that passed. After pinpointing it again, I made another grab for it and had it in my hand when a larger wave hit me and gave me a good drenching. I managed to hang on to it this time and was able to look it over to verify it matched the photo of Allison’s ring that she had showed me earlier. Heading back to the beach where the women were waiting, it was hard to keep a straight face as I displayed it on my little finger! Smiles all around as Allison made a phone call to share the good news.

Gold wedding ring found in Carlsbad

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

My First gig as a member of The Ring Finders started with a call from a man named Gama, who lost his wedding ring in some straw.

He was setting up a stage inside a large tent where a school play was to take place when his ring came off while spreading the straw around. Though he and his co-workers looked for it, it was the proverbial needle (ring) in a haystack.

I arrived at the school before Gama but was able to talk to one of his co-workers who knew the general area in which the ring was lost. After a few minutes and only one junk target I received a solid “gold ring” sound and found it just under the surface.

I headed back to my truck and waited for Gama to arrive, after a few minutes the co-worker saw me sitting in my truck and came over to see why. I showed him that I found the ring and he couldn’t believe I found it so quickly.

Phone calls were made which kinda ruined the surprised but a happy Gama was the result none the less.

Here’s the wayward circle…

No worse for wear

Lost Ring Found… After 35 Years

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Hello, my name is Mark Rubey and I’m an enthusiastic new member of The Ring Finders. I think recovering people’s lost treasures is a great way to make use of my 40 years of metal detecting experience.

I’ve already recovered untold numbers of items before joining this forum but The Ring Finders makes it more likely to reunite owners with what they’ve lost. If you have lost something in a public place, such as the beach, park, school ground, etc, call me as soon as you can to help assure we find the item before someone else does.

If you lost something on private property, there is usually much less urgency in it’s recovery (other than helping you sleep at night!) One important thing to remember is that the less that is done to change the terrain, the better.

If your item was just dropped, it will be within a couple of inches of the top of the ground. If you start digging or moving soil or sand around, you might accidentally bury the item deeper than most metal detectors can reach.

Also, if you lost something in grass or similar, DON’T MOW! Lawn mower blades can destroy your jewelry. The only exception to this is deep weeds or brush where a detector can’t be easily used. In this case, a string type “weed whacker” might be needed to make detecting easier. Call first to be sure however.Most items are not permanently lost but merely haven’t been found yet. To illustrate this is my first blog entry.

While visiting friends and new relatives in Minnesota (with my detector of course!) my wife’s uncle Bob related a story about a lost ring he had given his daughter Diane. He had personally made the ring out of a dime so it had special meaning to Diane. When Diane lost the ring in the front yard, she was heart broken but even though she searched and searched, she couldn’t find it.

After hearing my detector stories and successes, Bob asked if I thought I could find it and Oh, and by the way, it was lost 35 years ago! I told him I’d sure give it a good try and that as long as the ground hadn’t been rototilled or replaced, that it should still be there….just a little further down than if it had just been dropped.

He assured me that it hadn’t so I was off on the hunt and hoped to live up to my billing. Well, I searched that yard for hours and was just about to admit defeat (and have to eat all my words about how great a treasure finder I was) when I got a weak signal only 3 feet from the front door.

Sure enough after removing a plug of grass and some dirt, at about 4-5 inches down, out popped the ring! Smiles and hugs all around and my wife’s choice for a husband started looking better all the time! Here’s Diane and her ring…..

Diane's ring

Ring lost for 35 years found with metal detector!Another happy reunion!

Another happy reunion!