Matthew Harding, Author at The Ring Finders

Lost Wedding Ring Found in Lancaster PA

  • from Lancaster (Pennsylvania, United States)
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Over the weekend, I was contacted to help a gentleman find his lost wedding ring. When I arrived at the home I was told the story how how the ring came to be missing.

“I was raking and bagging leaves, it wasn’t until hours later I realized it was GONE”

the gentleman explained. I asked him to recreate the event having him kneel down where he was bagging the leaves even having him take me to the bagged leaves themselves to really narrow down the search area.

He pointed out a 20×20 foot area that he thought it was as he stated that he thought he saw something fall into the pile when he was bagging but did not think twice about it. I began a formal grid search of the area after about an hour of searching I expanded it to about 40x40foot. Another hour went by, no ring to be found.

Starting to get frustrated, I decided that I was going to find that ring so I started to search out the entire front yard. As I made my way down the yard I reached the end of the drive. DING DING DING a solid signal! I bent down and in the grass a beautiful 14k white gold ring. This was at least 50′ from where the suspected search area was.

I played it cool and continued to “search” for the ring until I got to the house. I had the homeowner come out asking him if there was any area around the garden that it could have been lost. As he was looking away I pulled it out.

There it was, that amazing startled/disbelief/happy/excited look that we love to see.

I was so happy to be able to be a part of this rings story and return to its owner.

Be sure to check out the video of this find coming soon to my YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWHtLdQLJwT-hHa8GBxxeSA

 

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RING FOUND! After a year lost in Lancaster PA

  • from Lancaster (Pennsylvania, United States)
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As the newly appointed Secretary for the Lancaster Research and Recovery club I spent some time reviewing our clubs Facebook page. I came across a gentleman inquiring about a lost ring. This was a very sentimental Mothers day gift from her children with each of their birthstones and I was told that another person came to look and had no luck.
The owner said that while they were gardening they shook their hands and saw and heard the ring fly off and hit the brick house. After about an hour of searching the garden, down a window well and the whole area where it was known to be lost,  I was about to call it a day.
At that point I took a step back and thought what if the ring did not hit the bricks and ricochet down but….. up….. I visualized the path that the ring could have taken… one swing over the area….. solid target in the rings tone and VDI (equinox800 13/14) range, shallow, could this be it!?

carefully slicing a small plug well around the area, not even an inch down,  glistened the beautiful shine of the ring with all birthstones still intact.

as always… I love short song the owners and asked her to come out and point to the area again…while back was turned I held up the ring waiting for that loss of breath, eyes open wide, speechless look…. And boy did I get it (never gets old).

I am so happy to be a part of this rings story back to the owner and hopefully passed down for generations. And Always think outside of the box when searching for lost things!

Ring out of the ground after a years nap

Read the rest of this entry »

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LOST RING FOUND! in Lancaster County PA!!

  • from Lancaster (Pennsylvania, United States)
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The world truly does work in mysterious ways. This past weekend in PA was the real first taste of summer weather that he have had. I knew all weekend I wanted to get out to some permissions to do some metal detecting. However, as life sometimes does, I was caught up at home helping with some “honey-do” things as well as yard work. I was a little disappointed that I did not get out but I am always trying to stay present and not let things get to me. As it would happen around 9:45pm Sunday night I received a text message regarding a lost ring. Now I was already in bed with my eyes shut, but something made me look at my phone to get the text. I felt that this was a sign, that whatever power may be had placed this opportunity in front of me.

I set up to help find the ring the next day, which I found out was a Childs ring that was given to them as an engagement gift since their parents had gotten engaged.  As a step father myself I knew that this ring HAD TO BE FOUND and I was not going to give up until every inch of that yard was searched. The homeowners were super accommodating and gave me a very good layout of the yard. A garden, and a playset with about 100 feet in between was the search area. I started with the garden, which turned to take more time due to all the weed guard iron stakes.  No ring. I started to line out the yard working my way to the playset, with no luck. Where was this thing?, as rain clouds moved in my determination surely increased as finding this ring was now my sole mission in life (haha).

I made my way back towards the garden following my lines, luckily this was a new build and the ground trash was very minimal. Reaching the end of that pass I got a banger of a tone, super solid, my stomach dropped as did I with my pin pointer. Pealing back the grass I saw it, that shimmering metal (white gold). Now my mind instantly went to, “how am I gonna surprise them with it?”

I slipped the ring around the top part of my finger, called the lady out side to “question” if her daughter had been in the mulched garden. In doing so I pointed to the area, flashing the ring, and then…… the magical moment that makes all this worth it. SHE SAW IT! her eyes, smile, and “thankgoodness” nervous laugh said it all.

This ring was lost about 6 weeks ago and the the area “searched” thoroughly. The yard was also mowed several times (weph!! no blade marks).

I really believe that this adventure and the story of the ring was placed in front of me for a reason and I am so thankful that I was able to help.

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Lost Ring in Lancaster PA…FOUND!

  • from Lancaster (Pennsylvania, United States)
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Earlier this week, I received a call from a gentleman who had lost his 14k white gold wedding band while building a fire pit oasis in his back yard. A MONTH AGO! In our initial phone conversation he explained that while trimming some shrubs around the pit and throwing scraps into a pile, his ring flew off. The gentleman told me that over the last month he recruited friends and family to help look for the ring but with no luck. He stated that he would go out in the early morning before his two little children woke up, and paced the ground around the area which he felt it could have been, again with no luck in finding his wedding band. He mentioned that he even rented a cheap metal detector but without knowing settings and the intricacies of the machine his hope was slowly fading that he would ever locate the ring. His wife told him that she was going to get him another one for Christmas but he said he could not let it go and went to the internet to see about getting someone to help.

I empathized with him. The feeling of knowing that something with so much meaning has to be right there but not being able to find it is so frustrating. I told him that I would be happy to come by and help to locate the ring the following morning.

I arrived at the location and the homeowner pointed me in the direction of the lost ring. I had the homeowner re-enact what he felt had happened several times. Each time asking questions and challenging some of his perceived memory of what happened. Since a month had gone by, it can be very easy to formulate details that may not have actually occurred or that are altered a bit. We came up with a 20’x20’ search area which there could be a strong possibility of finding the ring. In this area was a row of hedges, a dirt pile and an overgrown brush. Not the worse area, but certainly not the best searching environment.

At this point his family came out to watch. As I started to swing the detector over the ground and all the “beeps” started, I heard his children asking questions about what I was doing. For me, keeping that spark for adventure spark alive for kiddos is very important and in any other time (pandemic-less) I would have had them help in ‘THE GREAT RING SEARCH’. It was so awesome to overhear as I was waist deep in a bush that she wanted a metal detector when she got older.

As I worked around the area I was finding the usual bottle caps, nails, left over construction material, and the ever present foil. About 30 min into the search, while off to the side of the dirt pile I got a solid surface tone and went in with the pin pointer for a closer look. I moved the taller grasses aside and scraped back some leaves and then…..a ring…and on the inside….14k. I could not believe it! It was off to the far side of the possible search area (which happens more often times than not).

 

You don’t always get to see someone genuinely smile, but today, I did, and the gentleman got his wedding band back. After the find, I found out that he was a VA physician and with the year we have had, it made seeing this smile absolutely priceless.

 

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