Mike Baker, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 7 of 9

The Ring Finders – Vermont – Client Gave Huge Donation To Local Charity

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

I got a call from our local humane society, Central Vermont Humane Society, they said they just received a huge donation from one of the people that I had helped find a ring for. This is the charity that I give to from any rewards I get. The people I have met on these searches have been such good people and most are pet lovers! Thank you again to all who have helped by donating directly to CVHS or through me.
Happy Halloween, drive carefully!

Category:

Ring Found and Returned Near Middlebury Vermont

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

Long Lost Husband’s Wedding Band Found and Returned to Widow

I had a great day yesterday and I know a lady who’s as happy as can be!

I got a phone call a few weeks ago from the sweetest sounding lady who was broken hearted by losing her husband about 5 years ago and then losing his wedding band about a year later. She was wearing it on a chain around her neck and had switched to wearing it on her thumb. They had a fantastic marriage for over 50 years and seeing the ring on her thumb every day was comforting for her.

She was embarrassed to tell me that she was quite certain that she had accidentally lost it down the toilet. About 3 or 4 years ago her daughter and son decided to give her a Mother’s Day gift by pumping out the septic tank and searching for the ring. They picked a distant corner of her land and pumped it out there on the field. They searched through the sewage with a metal detector. After having no luck searching there, her daughter, being incredibly brave and giving, climbed down into the septic tank and cleaned it completely out while looking for the ring. It wasn’t there. I was so impressed to hear that and really understood how much that ring meant to her mother. They were all very sad and the mother figured she’d never see it again.

A few years after that, her son saw my ad on Craigslist for The Ring Finders service and suggested she give me a try. I went right down the following weekend and comforted her that we would find it. I searched for many hours that day and didn’t find it. I wondered if there was a sewer trap beneath the concrete basement floor where it could be hiding. Her son didn’t think so. I told her I would come back and try searching all her lawns just in case it could be outside somewhere.
So, yesterday I went back again. It was a beautiful day and her home being so far away in the mountains, was just a great place to visit. She has a very close family and some good friends, including a lifelong pen pal who was visiting all the way from Texas. All made it a very fun and relaxing place to do a ring search.

After a couple hours of searching near her driveway, walkways and lawn, I looked up and saw her clothesline in the distance. I searched the ground where she would’ve walked to it, and then under it. Just then her son returned from a doctors appointment and came walking over to watch and visit. He hadn’t stood there for more than a minute when I got a nice tone on the detector. About an inch down in the dirt under the grass I found a paper thin gold colored ring. I held it up saying “is this it? it’s so thin, but it IS gold!”. Her son took it and said “it’s his ring, you found it!”. I got the rush of good feelings as we headed inside to show it to her. She looked at it with disbelief, very stunned, and then the emotions took over. She nearly fainted, then broke down in tears and gave her son and me some great hugs.

When they got married they had given each other matching wedding bands. He wore his every day for 50 years, while logging, woodworking and restoring old houses and antiques. It was worn so thin it was at the point of breaking any minute. When she put the 2 rings together it was quite a sight. I suggested that a jeweler could put them together and mount them to a nice pendant she could wear on her neck. They’re going to look into that.

After that, her son and I went metal detecting at several old sibling’s cellar holes up on the mountain. We also searched the foundation of an old one room schoolhouse on her land. We found where the teacher had “parked” her horse, there were 3 horseshoes there. I also found a partial antique ring at her great great grandparent’s cellar hole. It was in rough shape, missing the stone, but very ornate and she was glad to get that, too.

What an awesome day!!

Please click on my name above for more about this service, my contact information and to read other success stories.

Tags:
Category:

Wedding Band Found in the Grass

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

Got an email a few days ago from a guy who lost his platinum wedding band. Last Winter he was showing his young son how to make and throw snowballs. When they were done, he took his gloves off and shook the snow from them. He saw the ring go flying. He tried to find it then, but couldn’t. So he decided to photograph the area and try searching in the Spring after all the snow was gone. No luck then either. A friend of his loaned him a metal detector, he dug a bunch of trash signals, and still had no luck finding it. He saw my listing on the web and decided to get me to try the search.

Today was an awesome Fall day, perfect for a ride and a search. The foliage was still very nice where he lived. I got there, he showed me the area and I got to work. After checking many signals and digging a few, I got the nice loud “pop” on my detector that sure sounded like a man’s heavy ring. I moved the grass and saw the rim of a ring! It had been stepped on and pushed into the dirt, but it was still in perfect condition. He was very happy, and me too!

Please click on my name above for more about this service, my contact information and to read other success stories.

Tags:
Category:

Engagement Ring Found In Lamoille River

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

This story has such a happy ending, I had to post it, even though I didn’t find her ring.

About 3-1/2 weeks ago I got a call from a guy who’s wife had lost her engagement ring while rafting on a Northern Vermont river with friends. They hit a rough spot of water and she fell in. She knew immediately that she lost it, but the water was too fast and deep to look for it. The next day there was even more rain which made conditions worsen.

So, the following weekend was going to be our first attempt. I gathered together all my diving equipment, underwater lights, masks, snorkels, wetsuit, flippers, etc. I brought extras so anyone that wanted to, could join me. I also brought my shallow water detector and my deep water detector. Each attempt somebody accompanied me because I’ve always believed in swimming using the “buddy system” for safety. That day the water was still very deep, fast and cold. I could only search a small portion of the area and had to quit. When we left, I noticed she was crying. I felt terrible, but knew we had to wait and try again when the conditions were better.

The next week was sunny and dry all week, so we tried it again that weekend. I was able to stay in the water for a couple hours, but again had no luck. There were lots of rocks to look under and between. There also was one really deep stretch, that I thought the ring might have settled into, but I wasn’t able search that very thoroughly, as I could only stay down for about 30 seconds at a time. He said he had a friend who had scuba air tanks and could search with us on the next weekend.

Last week was another hot and dry week, so the river stayed nice and low and warmed up a lot. So, today her husband, the friend with the deep diving equipment and I met there at noon when the sun was high! We all searched for about 1-1/2 hours, when her husband shouted out “I found it”! He had been searching so hard, and without even using a wetsuit. Very tough and determined! I was so glad the ring was found, and it was cool that he found it, adding to the sentimental meaning of the ring.

After he called her with the good news, he asked if he could give me something for my travels. I told him that it would be nice if he just gave a donation to our local humane society. Central Vermont Humane Society is my favorite charity. He told me that his family has a foundation from which each year they donate several thousand dollars to various charities. He said he would pick our humane society to donate to this year. Wow!!! A double happy ending!

Please click on my name above for more about this service, my contact information and to read other success stories.

Tags:
Category:

Lost Ring Recovered from Brush Pile

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

A couple days ago I got an email from a woman who’s husband had lost his ring while tree pruning in their yard. it was a very long drive, but I had the whole day and the weather was great. When I got there they showed me where he had been trimming a tree and throwing the branches over the back bank, into the woods. I learned that he and a friend had searched the year before, moving a lot of debris and using a basic metal detector, with no luck. He had pretty much given up hope of ever seeing it again. But she hadn’t! She saw my ad and decided to give The Ring Finders a try.

Unfortunately there were many challenges involved with this hunt. At first I was discouraged, but decided to do an all day hunt if necessary. The people who had lived there before them had dumped all kinds of scrap metal, cable, wires and metal fencing right in the same area. Also, there was some poison ivy to watch out for. There was so much metal, my first detector I tried was having a tough time, lots of signals going off with no repeatable patterns. So, I got out one of my other machines, fine tuned it, and got to work. I found as much scrap metal as I could and put it off to the side and searched for about an hour and a half. I went back to the tree and detected there and down the path to the dumping site. No luck. They were very confident that it had to be over the bank and in the woods, so I went back there and started moving piles of branches and detecting under them. I got a nice signal, got out my pinpointer and pushed the leaves to the side. There it was! I was so happy for them!

Afterwards we visited for awhile, they showed me their dirt bikes, snowmobiles and a really cool old muscle car! I love motorheads! I used to be one, getting old now 🙂

Please click on my name above for more about this service, my contact information and to read other success stories.

Tags:
Category:

Property Markers Found In Vermont

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

I’ve been pretty busy with other types of searches lately, not just jewelry. A few weeks ago an older gentleman called me after he learned I search for things with metal detectors. His daughter had just had a large cedar fence installed on her side and back lawn. She was second guessing herself about whether she had told the fence installers the correct borders of her property. She thought there was a possibility that the side fence might be partially on her neighbor’s property. They figured it would cost a bundle to hire a surveyor, and may take some time to get it done. So, they called me to see if I could find the lines. I went right up that weekend to try to locate the markers. They helped me by providing the deed and helping me measure back from the street right of ways. After about an hour we found all 3 of the markers that indicated where the back and side of her property was. The good news was that the side she was worried about was fine, it was about 3′ inside her line. The bad news was that about 1/2 of the back section of fence was on the other neighbors land. We all knew that the fence installers would charge a lot to come back and move the fencing. So, I offered to go back and do it for her. A couple weeks later I went back and removed 2 of the side sections and moved the other 7 sections back onto her property.
They were the nicest people, offering me water food and help. They were from the Southwest and that Southern Hospitality was great!

Please click on my name above for more about this service, my contact information and to read other success stories.

Tags:
Category:

Ring Found on Recreation Field near Burlington Vermont

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

I was contacted by a woman who lost her ring a few days ago. It was a very special ring to her, her parents had given her the ring over 20 years ago, it had her birthstone in it. She wears it every day, only taking it off to play soccer. Unfortunately, she was taking it off on her way across a soccer field, and dropped it in the grass. Her game was about to start, so she memorized the location and decided to look for it after the game was over. Having no luck, and about to go out of state, she decided to call me for help. She had heard of my service (The Ring Finders) from some friends that I had found car keys for. She was going to wait until she got home from her trip so she could help me search, but I suggested that I search right away so that the chances of us finding it, before someone else did, would be better. So, I went up the very next evening. She emailed a very detailed drawing of where she had lost the ring. It’s a good thing because there are over 6 soccer fields in that recreation area! Within about an hour I found it, and messaged a picture to her. She was so relieved, and could enjoy her trip. When she returned, I gave it back and she put it back on immediately, saying it felt so good to be back where it belonged.

Please click on my name above for more about this service, my contact information and to read other success stories.

Tags:
Category:

Found Keys In Burlington VT

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

This is my Winter for finding keys for people!
Got a call last night from a woman in Burlington who had lost keys to both their cars and the house. She was shoveling after a huge snowstorm and later realized her keys were missing. She searched all her pockets, the car, all through the house and in the snow as much as she could. I went up tonight after work and began by surface scanning all the snowbanks, and got no good signals. Then I got out my all-plastic shovel and we started digging through all the snow piles. She would dig and I would scan each shovel full. After about an hour, I could sense that she was getting discouraged and getting a sore back. So, I started digging, and she scanned. We were nearing the end of digging out all the piles when we found the keys. What a scream of relief! Those keys were going to cost a bunch of money. Now they have around $800 to spend on their 3 year old daughter, instead of buying 2 car keys!
Another awesome search ending!

Tags:
Category:

Lost Key Chain Found In Northern Vermont

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

Got a call and email from someone very distressed today. He had lost his key chain in the snow while plowing and gathering wood. His home is in one of Vermont’s northernmost towns. They have so much snow up there!
There were keys and fobs on it for their late model Cooper and Volkswagen, company trucks and buildings and others. It would’ve cost around $1,000 to replace them(including towing and reprogramming). Wow, keys are so expensive these days!
I went right up and we began to search. I got a faint signal, probably some old fence wire, then got a real loud signal. He dug down in the snow and there they were. What a huge chain, about a dozen keys!
I then got to meet his wife and all their dogs. A great trip, we were all very happy!

Tags:
Category:

Car Key Found In The Snow In Montpelier Vermont

  • from Barre (Vermont, United States)
Contact:

Got a call a couple hours ago from a young man in Montpelier, Vt. He had been out for a walk yesterday with his dog and was pretty sure he lost his car keys then. Since his walk the snowplows had come and piled up the snow. He worked hard shoveling through the snow and had no luck finding it. He and his Mom had recently bought a 2013 car and it only came with one key. They checked into getting another one and was told they would have to have to car towed to the dealership first, and then it would cost $300 to have another key made! So, they thought about buying a metal detector and found to buy a decent one would cost much more than having a key made. So, he looked online and found my detecting service. I went right over. He was out there in the freezing rain with his shovel, spreading the snow out. His Mom helped search too. After about 3/4 of an hour, I found it right near the front doorstep. We were all very happy to see it! It was a fun search and we had a nice visit.

Tags:
Category: