Lost engagement ring, Kissimmee, Fl…..Found and Returned!
Larry called me from their vacation apartment down by the Disney area and asked if I could help him and his wife, Danielle, find her lost diamond engagement ring. Apparently they were out late the night before and while walking back to their room, Danielle had taken all her jewelry off and handed everything to Larry. After entering the apartment Larry put all the jewelry on the dining table and they then retired for the night. The next morning they got up later than normal and eventually Danielle went to collect her jewelry and to her horror, she could not find her diamond engagement ring! They immediately retraced their steps from the previous night and by this time it was around 12:00 noon. They looked for a couple of hours and that is what led them to contact me, thru theringfinders.
I packed up my gear and an hour and a half later met Larry and Danielle and began my sidewalk and bushes search. For the next three and a half hours I scoured the bushes with my metal detector and probed my pro pointer into every nook and cranny and no ring! It was just nowhere to be found. As I put my detector away I tried to console Larry and I encouraged him to make up some posters and put them on the palm trees along the area where they had walked. We said our goodbyes and I headed for home and I must admit I was a bit discouraged not being able to find Danielle’s ring.
A couple of days later I was looking on line and thought I would check out “Craigslist Orlando” and see if anything was posted in the “lost and found” section. As I scrolled down I noticed a post labeled “Found engagement ring, Kissimmee” posted on the same day I was called by Larry and my heart skipped a beat! Could it be?? I fired a text to Larry and directed him to the post and in my heart I was praying this would be the miracle they needed. (You see, Larry and Danielle originally had a small zirconium in her ring and just recently had it replaced with a rather beautiful, large diamond and they had applied for insurance on the ring but the paper work was not yet completed.) Apparently the person who made the post had actually found Danielle’s ring in the early morning as they were heading to Universal Studios and she kept it safe all day. On her return to their apartment that night she saw a security guard and turned the ring over to him, trusting that he would take it to the proper “Lost and Found” at the resort main office. Larry called the main office over the next 3 days and each time he was told that no ring fitting that description had been turned in. Sadly Larry and Danielle had to return home to Pennsylvania but he continued to call. The frustrating thing was knowing that the ring had been turned over to “trusting hands” and then not being able to locate it. Finally Larry suggested that the “authorities” be informed and “Bingo!!!” The lost and found people called a half hour later to say they had located Danielle’s ring and she could pick it up. I offered to pick it up and mail it to them but Danielle insisted in flying to Orlando and picking it up in person. The following Saturday we met Danielle and had the pleasure of seeing the sheer joy on Danielle’s face and to experience an amazing moment in her life. It truly was an honor to meet Larry and Danielle and to have a part in helping them get their ring back!
Lost your ring? Call, text or e-mail ASAP! Mike McInroe…..grateful to be a member of theringfinders.com
Ron was just finishing up eating his sandwich when he bit into a piece of gristle. As he turned to throw it out across the back of his truck and into the bushes he felt his ring go flying off along with the piece of gristle. He even heard his ring ping off the edge of the truck bed but he was not able to actually see which direction it went. Ron figured the ring must have gone quite a distance because of the force he used when he threw the small piece of gristle. When I arrived I asked Ron to show me where the “fling of the ring” took place and from there I was able to get a good idea as to what sort of search I was in for. Looking for a lost article, and especially a lost ring, gets me excited and is a real challenge that I thoroughly enjoy. And I could tell that Ron was very anxious for me to find his lost ring so I set about searching out into the neighbors yard and worked my way towards where the truck had been parked. There were various types of shrubs and ornamental bushes and a low thick form of ground cover. A perfect place for a ring to hide. About 20 minutes into the search I got a smooth steady tone that pinpointed easily with a depth of two inches in the ivy ground cover. Ron’s lost ring was found and it was a beauty! Thanks Ron for calling me and allowing me to be the one to locate your lost ring. A visit to the jeweler will help keep that ring on your finger my friend!
Dr. Greg emailed me on Saturday afternoon to see if I was available to help him find his lost wedding ring in his back yard. So we made arrangements to meet the next day to conduct a thorough search. Upon arriving I was told that the family had searched for three days with a low end metal detector. Gregg and his wife have been married for 25 years and a couple of their children were letting me know that I really needed to find their father’s lost ring, so that they, (the parents) could continue to be married again. Cute, hey? Apparently one of the boys had gotten a small drone stuck in one of the large oak trees and Greg was using a soccer ball to try and knock the drone free of the branches. He was throwing the ball straight up with force, using a two handed under throw and after a couple of throws he suddenly felt his ring go flying. Thankfully I had a test ring with a small piece of brightly colored ribbon attached to it and I asked Greg to do a couple of test throws. This gave us a good indication of the direction I needed to begin my search. It wasn’t long until I got a great shallow signal in the thick grass and sure enough there was Greg’s lost wedding ring. (I was using my Whites DFX metal detector in the Prospecting Mode, as there was allot of electrical interference and the usual Coin and Jewelry Mode was way to noisy.) It was a real pleasure to help Greg and his family and I hope he is able to get the ring resized so as not to loose it again!
While visiting with good friends in Springfield, Illinois, I mentioned that I had my metal detector in the car and would be willing to look for anything they might have lost in their yard over the years. They remembered one special ring that was lost 15 years ago during a touch football game. Apparently the youth group from their church would come out and play games, have bonfires and spend the evening on the farm. Our friends kids always enjoyed playing games and their son, Kurt in particular, would set up a small area to play football. The youth group leaders would join the kids as they played and on that fateful day, Crista, felt her rings fly off of her hand as she went to catch the football. Everyone immediately stopped playing and they began searching for her two lost rings in the thick grass. Moments later one of the teens found her engagement ring but the small gold wedding ring was no where to be found. This particular ring was a family heirloom that was handed down to Crista from her grandmother. The lost ring was never found and they gave up hope of ever seeing it again. Over the years the ring slowly sank into the thick grass and damp soil but being made of gold, it never tarnished or corroded. Fifteen years later I was given the opportunity to search for this long lost ring. I set up 4 corner flags and started my grid search pattern. Being as the ring was rather thin, I figured I needed to dig every signal that sounded even close to what a small gold ring would sound like. Three hours later I dug a quiet repeatable signal and there in my pile of dirt I say the glint of gold! And sure enough it was Crista’s lost ring!
Last Friday Amanda called me from San Antonio, Texas with a very special request. She explained that her mother Liz, who lives in Port Orange, Florida had just lost a very expensive diamond earring! Two days earlier Mrs Liz had an invitation to eat lunch at a friends house and before heading out the door she decided to wear her beautiful earrings that were a gift to her from her husband Tom, 14 years ago. They had a wonderful time visiting their friend and after a delicious meal Mr. Tom and Mrs. Liz headed for home. Immediately after arriving home Mrs. Liz went to her bedroom to remove her special diamond earrings and to her dismay one of them was missing. And the search began! They looked everywhere and could not find it. And she decided to call her daughter Amanda in San Antonio for some advice. Amanda went right to work searching for some help for her distraught mother and after typing “Metal Detector Rental Orlando” into her phone she found theringfinders and one of my search and recovery stories. The call was made and the next day I met Amanda’s parents. Mr. Tom and Mrs. Liz said they had the other earring in a small plastic bag so I could get a reading with my metal detector, but unfortunately the bag got misplaced or thrown out that morning and we had a frantic 30 minute search—emptying garbage bags and crawling all over the house. Thankfully Mr. Tom finally found it in the thrown out newspaper bin!! Before heading to the neighbors house I searched the car, the garage and basically the whole house with my flashlight and then we headed to the friends house.
Wednesday night I received a call from Chris asking if I could possibly help him find his lost wedding ring! He went on to explain that he and his family had just flown into Orlando earlier that day and after they settled into their rooms they thought it was a perfect evening for a little game of catch the football! And then it all came to a sudden halt when Chris felt his ring come off of his finger. He and his family searched frantically for his ring but the St. Augustine grass had seemed to swallow it up.
While out searching the rough surf for a large gold necklace, I was getting tired and thirsty and decided to take a short break. As I sat there relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean, a man approached me and explained his dilemma. Two weeks earlier, Teddy had been walking on the beach and towards the end of his walk he noticed a bunch of garbage in an area of the soft sand and decided he would do the noble thing and pick up the trash and deposit it where it belonged…..in the garbage can! Earlier in his walk, he had been fiddling with his ring and for some “unknown” reason he slipped the ring onto his pinkie finger, where it was a tad loose.
Daytona Beach, Florida is a great place to enjoy the Atlantic Ocean. There are miles and miles of beaches, more sand than one can imagine and refreshing, warm salty water to play and swim in until your heart is very content! Unless of course you happen to lose your wedding ring. And that is exactly what happened to Bart on August 18th, 2018 while playing catch with a football in knee deep water with his young son. They immediately stopped playing and scoured the sandy bottom, desperate to find his lost ring. Unfortunately his ring had simply vanished.
Marcia called me on Saturday wanting to know if I was available to help her look for her lost rings. While she and her husband were enjoying swimming in the ocean they got to talking about getting tan lines and Marcia wanted to see if under her rings she had any tan lines. She was in waist deep water at the time and she pulled her rings only slightly down her finger to see if she had any of those dreaded “tan lines” and then the unimaginable happened. Her rings simply slid the rest of the way down her finger and into the churning surf. She could not believe what had just happened. She and her husband frantically began searching the water but her rings just seemed to vanish.
In November of 2017, Jerry was visiting his brother and wife in the Ormond Beach, Florida area and was in a bit of a hurry as he packed up his car to head north for the long drive home. And in his hurry he forgot that he had set his phone on the top of the car! Here is Jerry’s account. “My phone survived a brief thrill ride on top of my car before sliding off onto the shoulder of the road, where it survived a couple of cold and lonely nights before you, Mike, came to the rescue. I tried to hire someone from Craigslist for an “Odd Job” but nobody was interested. The day before I contacted Mike, I asked a local police officer to go out where the signal was still pinging and have a look around. It’s a work phone and they probably wouldn’t have charged me for it but I had some video on there of my daughters last Tae Kwon Do belt test that I didn’t want to lose. Glad I thought of metal detectors and glad I discovered you (and theringfinders.com)! Thanks again! Jerry O.”