Michael Van Tassell, Author at The Ring Finders

Lost Wedding Ring Up Big Cottonwood Canyon- Found

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!

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

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!

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

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!

 

Lost 3 Karat Wedding Ring near Alpine, Utah- Found

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!

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

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!

 

Another Apple Watch Proactively Returned to Owner- Utah

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:

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

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!

Lost Apple Watch in the Lake Near Kamas, Utah- Found

I received a call from a gentleman who had just lost his apple watch that day in a lake above Kamas, Utah. The lakes in the area are well over 10,000 feet elevation making the water extremely cold. After seeing a few videos and explaining where to look, I made the 1.5 hr drive to the location. I then had to hike about a mile to get to the lake with over 60 lbs of equipment to dive. After getting set up, I could see that the clouds were rolling in so I decided to get in and get out as fast as possible. I was looking for a white band apple watch so it should stick out. Well it just so happened I stumbled into an apple watch graveyard cause after about 20 minutes, I came up with 10 apple watches, 2 sun glasses, and 2 other watches. Fortunately one of the 10 apple watches was his!!!

Later that night, we were able to meet up and after a stressful 24 hours, he had his apple watch back on his wrist! Hopefully I can find a few of the owners to the other 9 apple watches!

Full Video on Youtube:

Massive 3+ Karat Diamond Ring lost in Alpine, Utah- Found

On Saturday, I was heading to run some errands with my 2 year old when I received a call regarding a lost diamond wedding ring. While babysitting a neighbor’s puppy, She went out into the yard to do some yardwork and took off her rings. After finishing, she went back to where she had put down her rings and could only find the wedding band. She went back inside to review the security camera footage and saw that the puppy had gone over to where she had put down the rings and immediately thought the puppy had swallowed the ring. In a panic she rushed the puppy over to the vet to have x-rays done. When the x-rays came back negative, she searched all night around the backyard for the ring but was unsuccessful. She even borrowed a metal detector from a neighbor but still no sign of the ring.

Since I typically have my detector in the car for situations like this one, I quickly drove over there to see if I could help. I met her and her sister and went over the area of where potentially it was lost. They were so kind to bring out some toys and watch over my son while I detected the grass. Fortunately, It took only about 10 minutes to locate the beautiful 3 Karat diamond ring. As you can see by the video below, everyone was very happy! Enjoy!

 

Lost Cell Phone in 40 Feet of Water Above Heber, Utah- Found

I received a call regarding a lost iphone at the bottom of a lake above Heber Utah. While celebrating their wedding anniversary, they decided to take a canoe around the lake. The lake was located in the Uintah mountains which was above 7800 feet elevation. While out on the canoe, a bee flew around her and since she is allergic to bees, she went to swat the bee away and her iphone fell out into the water. Cell phones can be easily replaced but what can’t be is the photos and memories that are on them. She hadn’t backed up her iphone is over a year so with the loss of cell phone, the stress of losing all those fun memories came with it. Also the newer model cell phones seem to be a little more water resistant so I knew if I could get up their quickly, there was a good chance the phone could still work.

I made the 100 mile drive the next day and met Patricia and her family near where the cell phone was lost. We had to hike a fair way to get to the location and carrying all the dive gear and detectors was quiet a journey. The water was also very cold due to the high elevation and recent run off from the winter. They were told it was about 25-30 feet of water so I geared up and used my Air Buddy dive system to get down to the bottom. The bottom was full of dead branches and bushes and probably only had 1-3 feet of visibility on the bottom which is not uncommon for around here. I dove for about 30 minutes and then came up to let the sediment at the bottom of the lake settle down. On my second dive, I went a little further down (35-40 feet) and as I was cruising along the bottom detecting, I could see the edge of what looked like a cell phone sticking out of the sediment. Sure enough it was  the iphone! I quickly returned to the surface and presented the phone back to Patricia who was so happy to see it. 48 hours later, I received an update from her that after sitting in a bag of rice, the phone did manage to charge back up. She was able to get all those great memories back and I couldn’t be happier for her and her family!