Michael Van Tassell, Author at The Ring Finders

Lost Gold Wedding Band Found- Ogden Utah

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It was late in the evening and Lee was working to get some vegetation planted on his slope behind his house to prevent erosion. He only had an hour of sun left so he was hurrying as fast as he could. After finishing, he went to wash his hands and notice his gold wedding ring that he had been wearing for the last 37.5 years was missing. He reached out me for help but I was traveling for work at the time. His neighbor offered to come search the area with his metal detector but was unsuccessful. We made plans for me to come search when I was back in town and upon arriving at his house, he showed me the area to search. I dare say it took all of about 4 minutes to get a signal that turned out to be his ring! As you can see by the picture, Lee & his dog were happy to see the ring again! Check out the full recovery on Youtube!

 

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Lost Titanium Wedding Ring Found- Salem, Utah

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I received a call from a man who was working construction near Salem, Utah. They were putting in a large underground pipe system and his hands got dirty so he went to wash them off. While he was doing that, he put his beautiful titanium ring with turquois inlay in his vest pocket. After returning to work, he realized he never put his ring back on and upon checking his pocket, it was gone. They searched the area with a metal detector and for a last resort he reached out to me for help. They were about to fill in that section of the pipe system so I knew I had very little time.

When I arrived, the recent warm weather turned the area into a very muddy construction site. I searched all over the area he thought it could be and then I went down into the area that they dug out. I cleared some trash from the area to ensure I could get all the signals. Fortunately, right next to the valve where he was working, I found his beautiful ring. His wife had joined him that day and they had just barely returned from getting food when I was able to surprise both of them with the ring. Check out their reactions on my YouTube Channel!

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Lost Set of Keys Found After Heavy Snow- Midway, Utah

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After a very heavy snow storm at the start of 2024, I received a call regarding a pair of lost keys. He was at work and due to the storm was going to stay the night. While he was unloading his stuff from his car, he lost his only set of car keys walking from his car to his room. During the night, over 24 inches dropped and by morning, the crew was out shoveling the snow from the street where he parked his car. To get a locksmith to come and make a new key was going to cost a fortune so when his wife  reached out me, I dropped everything to go look for it. It was hard because keys can ring up like iron and with the snow crew moving snow around, there were huge piles of snow everywhere. After a solid 2.5 hours and just as I was about give up, I got a signal on the other side of a pile of snow. It turned out to be his keys. The snow was so deep, I was up to my waist trying to get to it. So happy I was able to get the lost keys back and he was able to get home to his family. Check out the full video on YouTube-

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Lost Wedding Ring Up Big Cottonwood Canyon- Found

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This was actually my last recovery of 2023. I received a call from a couple that was visiting from Florida. They were finalizing all their wedding plans and were preparing to fly back to Florida to get married on New Year’s Eve. They went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to take pictures when he realized his ring was missing. It was a beautiful silver ring with an opal stone.

We made plans to meet the following day to search the area where they had taken pictures. He provided me with some very good intel on possible areas to search. They were staying at a relative’s house about an hour away so I was able to get to the  location before they did and I quickly started to search. The snow was not deep and since silver is usually such a high tone, I quickly focused on signals in that range. In about 5 minutes, I had located the ring! They pulled up and I was able to surprise him with the ring! It’s always awesome to see the stress go away when presenting that lost item to someone. They sent me pictures of them getting married just a few days later! Congrats on a beautiful wedding! Check out the full adventure below!

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Lost Wedding Ring with Blue Sapphire Near Salt Lake City, Utah- Found

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I received a text message late at night. Steve was waving to his neighbors when his wedding ring came flying off due to the cold weather. The stone in the ring was a blue sapphire that he and his husband purchased when they adopted their son from Cambodia nearly 22 years ago. We made plans to meet the next day to search in the snow and withing 68 seconds, I was able to locate and return his precious ring. Could be one of the fastest recoveries I have ever had!!! Check out the Youtube video below to see the whole adventure!

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Lost Wedding Ring Found After 17 Months in the River near Richfield, Utah

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Back in the summer, I was tagged in a post of Facebook regarding a lost titanium wedding ring that was lost while tubing the river in July of 2022. As he was exiting the river, he reached out to grab the only rock that was above the water line at the time and his ring slid off his finger. His wife posted the story and location of where he lost it and over the several months, many local detectorists went looking for it. I started to do a lot of research on the river trying to compare the water levels to the day he lost it to when it would be a good time to go looking for it. The location was about a 2 hour drive from my house so I wanted to make sure the conditions would be best to locate it. I reached out to a local adventure guide service in the area and they gave me the data on the river and when historically it’s at its lowest point. His wife was hopeful that one day the ring would make it back to them and so I reached out to her letting her know I was going to go search for it and the research I had done.

The day I went to search for the ring, the river was lower and moving slower than the day he lost it so I was hopeful that it could be found. Last winter season produced the largest runoff Utah had ever seen on record so my theory was that the ring would be near the rock he reached out for unless the runoff took it down stream. The area was under a small bridge so I knew there would be a lot trash in the area. When I got to the river, I focused in and around two large rocks that I had determined would have been sticking out of the river when he was there. I removed several pieces of trash and then got a faint signal under a large rock just two feet from the rock in question. I couldn’t reach under it so I had to move the 2.5 foot rock out of the way. Sure enough it was a ring!!! The post said there was an engraving inside the ring that read “Julie’s Dave”. The ring was black from being in the river but it matched the description. Not knowing if it was the correct ring, I search for a little longer in the area but nothing else was found. When I got home, I cleaned the ring and to my astonishment, I saw the engraving and confirmed it was the lost ring that had been in the river for 17 months. I reached out to her and later that week met up and returned the ring! What an amazing experience! Check out the video below to see how it all came together!

 

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Lost 3 Karat Wedding Ring near Alpine, Utah- Found

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I received a call from a woman that had been looking for her lost wedding ring for over two months in her backyard. As the story goes, her niece likes to play with her ring when she comes over and so as she was walking to sit down in a chair in the backyard, she gave her niece the ring. As she got to the chair, the ring was already missing. Concerned that her niece might have ingested the ring, they took her to the hospital to do x-rays. The X-rays came back negative so they started the search in the backyard. The distance walked was only 20-30 feet and in just those few seconds, the ring was gone! They had everyone looking for it and at one point used a detector themselves to try to locate it. The ring had a 2 karat center stone diamond that they got while traveling through Israel. There was also a ring of diamonds around the center stone that looked like a sun with about 1 karat of diamonds.

When I got there, She showed me the area and I started to search. For some reason, my detector had not charged and the battery light was already blinking indicating I had probably less then 5-7 minutes. I quickly started to search for low tones ranging from 8-13 on the detector as that is usually where most thin gold rings will show up. On my 3rd signal, just barely a foot from where she said she started to walk, I found her beautiful ring that had been missing for over 2 months. Check out the video below to see her reaction when I surprised her with the ring!

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Lost Wedding Ring Found After a Year at the Bottom of the Lake- Provo, Utah

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I received a call from a woman who had lost her wedding ring in Utah lake. The only issue was that she lost it in August of 2022 when the lake was 47% full. With the great snow year we had here in Utah, the lake is currently 87% full. She was walking on the rocks when she made a quick move to catch herself and the ring flew off her finger into the water. Utah lake is a shallow lake and because of that, the visibility is less than 6 inches. I decided since I would not be able to see in the water to set my discrimination on my minelab equinox to only get signals from 9-13. I used a couple of rocks for markers from where she sent me pictures of where she was standing. I tried my best to grid back and forth picking up a few lead sinkers and then I finally got a decent hit on the detector. I took my glove off to feel for the item and immediately realized it was a ring. Could it be her ring? After returning to the surface I looked down and sure enough it was!

After almost 14 months at the bottom of the lake, It is back where it belongs! So happy for you Melanie and thanks for reaching out to me!

 

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Another Apple Watch Proactively Returned to Owner- Utah

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I have spent almost 10 hours under the water looking for a lost ring for a gentleman who lost it the day after he got married. Every time I have dove in the area, I have found other items to return. So far I have returned two apple watches and an iphone 13 from that location. On my last dive, I found 7 apple watches in the area but only 3 would turn on after being dried out for a week in a bag of rice. Of the three, only one had medical ID information which lead me to the owner who lived out of state. I love proactive recoveries cause most people have given up ever seeing their items again. She was so grateful to me for reaching out and sending her lost item as she was preparing to buy another apple watch!

Make sure to fill out your medical ID info on your wearables, you may never know when it might come back to you!

Full video of the recovery and return:

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After 51 Days in the Lake, Found Owner of Apple Watch Ultra Near Kamas, Utah

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After my last post where I dove down to find a lost apple watch and came back with 10 total apple watches, I started to dry them all out and see which ones would charge. Now the thing with apple watches is that if they have a medical ID info or are not locked, I can usually find the owner. I have returned 3 proactively over the last year. After drying them out for almost a week, only 3 powered back on and only one had the medical ID information. I was able to find the contact information and reached out with a short clip from my dive and letting them know I had found their apple watch. I was surprised to find out that the apple watch in question had been in the water for 51 days!!! It was an apple watch ultra and was lost while on a backpacking trip in the mountains. He had tried to find someone that would scuba dive to find it but gave up hope. It was so awesome to meet up with him and return it! Please check out the second half of the video to see this happy reunion!

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