Paul Humphreys, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 11 of 13

Peter Wakefield Jackson is internationally known for his lustrous career as a potter—the craft of making ceramic wares by hand on a potter’s wheel. Together with Megan, his bride of 24 years, Peter lives on a 17-acre farm outside Cambridge, Wisconsin. In addition to the pottery studio in the farm’s century-old outbuildings the property is home to Megan’s 2 horses, Annie and Mo, which she uses for equine-assisted therapy.

On November 8th, 2016, the day of the USA Presidential election, Peter removed his 24-karat gold wedding band and a malachite-inlaid silver ring from his fingers so as not to risk scratching several unfired pieces he was handling while loading them into a kiln.

The gold band was an heirloom from Megan’s side of the family. It once belonged to her great uncle Nathan Kawin, a dapper young man who received it from his bride, Lottie Goldstein on their wedding day on January 5th 1885 in Chicago. Inside the gold band is the inscription, “NK to LG”.

Due to a previous scare with losing his rings by putting them loose in his pocket, Peter always put a twist-tie around the two rings for added security. It would be the last he would see of them. Later that night, after a full day’s activity, the rings were nowhere to be found.

I received an email from Peter asking for my assistance. He had written a meticulous chronology of his activities on the day of the loss. The remarkable detail was evidence of the huge sentimental value Peter’s rings held, especially the 132-year-old family heirloom. But the chances of finding the twist-tied pair bordered on impossible.

On a 17-acre hobby farm the likelihoods of where the rings might have escaped Peter’s pocket seemed never-ending. On the day of the loss he had fed horses, installed a feeder, made numerous trips to his kiln, retrieved tools from his workshop and had driven to town and back on 2 occasions. The rings could be anywhere, lost in town, shipped out with a pottery order, maybe even ingested by Annie or Mo—perish the thought!

My 40-plus years metal-detecting experience kept telling me to decline the search and not get Peter’s hopes up. But I could sense the earnestness in Peter’s email; perhaps I could help to bring a sense of closure to his loss knowing he had done all he could to find them. Conducting the search, however, would be a long shot, a very long shot.

On May 25th 2017, six months after the ill-fated, twist-tied rings went missing, I arrived at the Wakefield Studio to begin the search. My strategy was to try and eliminate the outdoor areas. After a couple hours, it seemed all the more certain that the rings would never be seen again. But it was while searching the horse corral that a high-silver signal on my XP Deus detector warranted investigation. Probing deep into the manure, mud and water, a glint of metal caught my eye. It was Peter’s rings—still twisted together as when Peter tucked them into his pocket 6-months before!

Just how the rings ended up in the middle of the horse corral will remain a mystery. One thing is for sure this happy find will go down in my books as a ring-find with a twist!

Rejoicing with you both, Peter and Megan! May the story of your rings continue for many happy years to come! And thank you for your kind gift; the hand-thrown Wakefield Studio pottery pieces will be treasured for the extra special memory they hold.

If you or someone you know has lost a ring or other piece of sentimental jewelry, don’t give up! Peter didn’t. And his persistence paid off.

Contact The Ring Finders today for a metal-detecting specialist near you.

TESTIMONY

“I can recommend Paul without reservation to anyone who has lost a wedding ring. From our first communications, I could tell he had a sincere and honest approach to solving such a puzzle. It was a pleasure to work with him, and I could not be happier that he was able to find my long lost rings!” Peter – Cambridge, WI

Memorial Day Weekend turned to disappointment when Valerie’s wedding ring flew off her finger while playing ball with her husband, Mike and daughter. It seemed to land somewhere in the thick grass behind their newly acquired home in Fontana, Wisconsin. Despite searching for many hours on their knees, the ring eluded discovery.

A phone call from Valerie on Monday, May 29th, set in motion a quick one-hour drive to the Lake Geneva district not far from the Illinois State border. Upon arrival, she escorted me to the location where a wooden stake marked ground zero; the place she was standing when the ring left her hand. Additionally, Mike had spray painted a square perimeter line on the ground to indicate the area where the couple had concentrated their search efforts. From a recovery standpoint, this couple had done everything right but still was not able to recover it.

It wasn’t long before a promising signal showed on my monitor. The numbers displayed were consistent with Valerie’s wedding band. Then began a systematic parting of the green blades but the ring’s hiding place was no match for technology and 40-plus years metal-detecting experience. A flash of metal betrayed its presence.

Valerie, I am so glad we were able to get your ring back on your finger where it belongs; may its story continue for many, many happy years. And thank you for your kind reward.

TESTIMONY

“Thank you so much for your quick response to my call and for finding my wedding band immediately. I can’t express how much I appreciate your willingness to travel, on a holiday, to my home 45 minutes away, to help me find it. Thanks again” Valerie – Fontana, WI

Sunday, May 8th was not a good day for Lori Cox, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Life had thrown some nasty curve balls at her recently but when she lost her precious engagement ring, it was like the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Despite her best search efforts, the ring eluded discovery.

Thinking she would investigate the rental of a metal detector, an online search immediately directed her to The Ring Finders website and subsequently to my metal detecting services. Would I help? I could sense the desperation in Lori’s quivering voice on the phone.

The circumstances surrounding her loss were somewhat vague, thus I wasn’t too optimistic about locating it. But I felt compelled to give it my best try, if for no reason but Lori’s peace of mind. After all, it is times like these we humans are glad for even the small kindnesses of others.

During the drive to Fond du Lac, I mulled over a search strategy. Two large dogs (gorgeous ones I might add) in residence meant checking their bags of poop, this since canines have been known to swallow rings. And since it was not known whether the ring was lost outside in the backyard or inside the house, I determined to concentrate my 40-plus years detecting experience on the outside areas and first eliminate those. Lastly, a house search would involve a forensic-style review of the areas Lori had checked, eliminating one room at a time.

Later, while I was outside eliminating square inches of backyard, Lori was busy inside eliminating square inches of floor and furnishings—its called teamwork! I had almost completed the outside search when Lori suddenly appeared. She was holding up her ring! It was all she could do to speak she was so choked with emotion. As it turned out the ring had fallen down behind a seat cushion of a chair in the family room.

Lori, your ring doesn’t weigh much, but its discovery sure lifted a huge emotional load off your shoulders! I am so glad you found it! Thank you for allowing me to have a small part in encouraging you and giving you hope.

Wisconsin’s, Whistling Straits Golf Course on the picturesque shores of Lake Michigan, was host to the 2015 PGA Championship. But it became the unintended host to Joey Piatek’s wedding ring on April 29, 2017.

As was his habit, Joey removed his ring before playing, slipping it into a zipped pocket on his golf bag for safekeeping. He realized it was missing as he was leaving the course. Where could it have gone? Joey’s heart sank when he remembered his caddie, on two occasions, turning the bag upside down to retrieve the cover for his putter after it had fallen inside. Had the ring fallen out then?

Joey immediately returned to the course from the parking lot and searched using his iPhone flashlight in the dark. To make matters worse, it began raining. His efforts were unsuccessful. He tried looking again the next morning but again, the ring seemed to have vanished.

Joey’s bride of a year and half, Michelle, was in New York attending the wedding shower of a friend when she received the news. Being a nurse anesthetist, she immediately went into problem-solving mode—perhaps Joey could rent a metal detector. A quick search on the Internet brought up The Ring Finders directory of metal detecting specialists. It peaked her interest; she never realized such a service existed. It gave a glimmer of hope! And so Michelle encouraged Joey to contact me.

I received Joey’s email and made arrangements to conduct the search the following morning. Since Joey lived in Chicago, Illinois, I had him text me a Google earth satellite map of the golf course showing pins at the two locations where the golf bag had been turned upside down. Technology is wonderful!

Unfortunately, a thorough search of the two marked areas failed to turn up the ring–perhaps someone had already found it. My 40-plus years experience however, prompted me to widen the search area. Sure enough, on the gravel pathway leading up to the 10th Hole, I heard a familiar tone in my headset. The conductivity numbers showing on my XP Deus control screen were consistent with 14 Karat gold. It was Joey’s ring!

Barely visible with the naked eye, the love token was pretty much buried. It had been stepped on or run over by a club car but was not worse for wear considering. I took a photo to show it peaking out from among the pebbles as if embarrassed by the ordeal. Can you spot it?

Joey and Michelle drove up from Chicago a week later. It was such a joy to return the ring in person and to visit with this delightful couple. It seems they have been telling all their friends and family members about their experience with The Ring Finders and with my services here in southwest Wisconsin. Thank you both for the privilege of helping to recover your ring and for your kind reward.

Joey, may your ring’s happy-ending story continue for many, many years to come!

This lost-and-now-found wedding band will go down in my book of smiles as ‘The Valentine’s Ring.’

I say this because, the ring’s owner, Todd, became engaged to Suzie on a very happy Valentine’s Day in 2010. Subsequently, exactly seven years later, on Valentine’s Day, 2017, Todd’s love-token emerged from the icy darkness of a Wisconsin snow pile. It was as though the ring was most anxious to celebrate the warmth and glow of the occasion all over again. But I’m getting ahead of my story.

Two months earlier, the ring vanished from Todd’s finger as he was clearing the snow off his car. Together the couple shoveled a wide area around their vehicle. They even set the shoveled snow to one side and sifted through it by hand. It was a race to find it before the inevitable snowplow arrived.

Questions ricocheted in their minds. Had the ring fallen off their vehicle as they drove away? Had a passerby picked it up? Or had the snowplow already done its nasty deed? Or was the ring already cocooned inside the ten to twelve foot high mound of snow at the end of the parking lot? These unanswered questions only served to deepen the sick feeling in Todd and Suzie’s stomachs, the kind that accompanies the loss of something personal—precious.

Having found my name on The Ring Finders website, Todd reached out to me a few days later. Would I be willing to search for his ring? The cold was especially brutal that evening as I applied my 40-plus years of metal detecting experience to the task at hand. But it was to no avail. The only remaining hope was that maybe, just maybe the ring was somewhere in the gigantic snow pile. If so, it would have to wait until spring thaw.

In the weeks to follow I kept an eye on similar snow mounds where I live. As they slowly melted I returned at intervals to check the one where Todd’s ring had been lost. But as I climbed over the pile with my detector, all was quiet in my headset, ominously quiet. “Ring,” I asked out loud, “where are you hiding?”

The morning sun shone warm and promising on Valentine’s Day. I noticed a trickle of water leaking out from beneath a snow pile not far from my house and knew it was time to take another drive. As I pulled my vehicle up to the now-much-smaller mound, a pair of Canada geese stood guard. They took turns honking their displeasure at my disturbing their morning solace.

Keeping a wary eye on the unpredictable duo, I traced my way around the retreating perimeter scanning for any sign of a wedding band. Then a glimmer caught my eye! And now, as Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster for ABC Radio Networks used to say, “You know the rest of the story.”

Suzie stopped by to pick up Todd’s ring just a few hours ago. As it turns out, Todd was traveling on Valentine’s Day. And so Suzie is looking forward to surprising him with a most-special Valentine’s gift—-again!

The text message from Mequon, Wisconsin, resident Adam Korte, read in part, “Lost my ring in my yard. Looked myself with a cheap metal detector with no luck. Wondering if you would be interested in taking a crack at it?”

Within a few hours I arrived on location and received a first-hand chronology of the events leading up to Adam’s loss. Winterizing his family’s swimming pool Adam flipped the water off his hands in the chill weather. As he did so, he felt his wedding band leave his finger, glancing off his fingernail as it left. Then it just disappeared.

Adam and his 9-year-old son spent the better part of a week searching the area without success. They even tried using a metal detector but the machine set up such a howl it proved frustrating; the ground acted like it was full of metal.

A systematic grid search with my XP Deus metal detector did not reveal the ring’s whereabouts. But there was clearly a large metallic object buried in the frozen ground in the vicinity where the ring disappeared, what we metal-detecting specialists fondly call, “a big and ugly.” It could have been a metal culvert or an old car engine. Whatever it was, my detector coil was picking it up even at waist high. It is situations like this that new metal-detecting technology really shines. I was able to reduce the sensitivity and make adjustments that allowed me to isolate signals in the very narrow range of Adam’s 14K white gold ring. Soon a distinct signal could be heard amidst all the noise. Brushing away the top bits of soil and leaves a razor thin, shiny, circle appeared—it was the ring!

So glad for the opportunity to help recover your wedding band, Adam! Now Santa won’t have to bring a new one for Christmas!

Newly-married, Germantown resident, Gary Tanker, finished cutting his grass and was washing up at his kitchen sink when he realized his tantalum wedding band was missing! Wikipedia describes tantalum as “a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion-resistant.” Only very recently has this metal been used for making jewelry. Despite my nearly 40+ years experience, this was my first search for a ring made from this rare metal; I was unsure just where on the conductivity scale my XP Deus detector would register tantalum. In addition, Gary’s home sat on a half-acre lot—where would we begin?

Gary had spent every spare moment on his knees combing through the grass and leaves. He even used a simple metal detector acquired and used as a child—all without success; the ground, to his dismay, was full of metal! It was then he discovered The Ring Finders Internet directory of metal-detecting specialists and reached out to me. I was out of the country at the time but we arranged to meet soon after my arrival home.

When I finally pulled up at the Tanker residence, the sun had fully set. Temperatures were plummeting and strong winter-like winds bit through our clothes. With flashlights in hand we began a systematic search. Metal detecting, in its simplest form is a process of eliminating where the lost item is not. And in the case of a wedding ring, this involves eliminating one square inch at a time.

After nearly two hours we moved our search to the rear of the house where I remembered Gary explaining how he had brushed aside low branches of an apple tree while operating his lawn tractor. It made sense to first check out where those branches may have caught his ring. It was the right decision. Within moments a pronounced signal in the high sliver range registered on my detector. The clear outline of Gary’s ring became visible after sweeping away some grass and leaves. I gave Gary the thrill of extracting his ring from where it lay pressed deeply into the ground.

So glad for the opportunity to help recover your tantalum ring, Gary!

Nicholus Hockers felt the heavy platinum ring leave his finger as he swam to his family’s boat dock on a warm summer evening on Silver Lake, Wisconsin. His heart sank to the muddy depths along with the cherished token. He had only received it from his bride a few weeks before. Now it was gone. How could he face her with such news!

I received phone call from Nicholus a few days later on August 26, 2016. He discovered The Ring Finders website and saw my name listed as a metal-detecting specialist in the area. Could I perform a search for his ring?

Most Wisconsin lakes are shallow but have a pudding like bottom into which objects disappear, never to see the light of day again. But Nicholus’s description gave me confidence that he knew quite precisely where the ring had left his finger. It was a long-shot but worth a try.

My wife, Kathleen, and I arrived at Silver Lake late in the afternoon. I use a Minelab Excalibur, an underwater detector used by SCUBA divers around the world. It has served me well for a number of years and was my machine of choice for this search. I needed every advantage.

The bottom of the lake fell off sharply at the point where Nicholus felt the ring leave his finger. This meant working in chin deep water. The remains of what seemed to be an old cast-iron pipe in the same vicinity interfered with other signals. But after about a half hour of searching, the ring appeared in my sieve amidst a cluster of shells, mud and roots. Mission accomplished!

Thanks, Nicholus, for the opportunity to recover your ring. May its story continue for many, many happy years together!

A family photo session at the historical Covered Bridge Park near Cedarburg, Wisconsin ended on a frantic note when Shannon Lennox discovered that his wedding ring was missing. The park is a big place! The ring could have fallen off anywhere, including the river over which they had walked on a bridge with their busy children in tow.

I met up with Shannon late in the afternoon of October 18th. A preliminary search in the areas where he and his family had posed for the photographer failed to locate the lost ring. By this time it was dark and Shannon drove home to put his children to bed. I continued for a few more hours searching perimeter areas not previously covered. One location was particularly inundated with metal trash, making the cacophony of signals almost impossible to decipher. This and the taller grass combined to militate against technology and my best efforts.

Finally, I tried one more adjustment, that of reducing my XP Deus detector’s sensitivity by nearly half and by sweeping the detectors coil higher than usual over the grass. This eliminated most of the buried trash signals and allowed only those objects on the surface to register. It wasn’t long before a clear gold-ring number shone through the darkness. Carefully dividing the grass beneath revealed the gold wedding band, complete with its ‘ROMANS 12’ biblical inscription, a life chapter that serves to guide Shannon’s Christian life as a husband, father and friend.

The twins were not yet settled when I rang Shannon’s doorbell a short while later. Wide-eyed disbelief was written all over his face when I presented him with his cherished ring. Such moments have always been my favorite!

Vicky* heard the earing as it landed on the family’s boat dock. Then there was silence. The sickening realization that her earing was now at the bottom of Big Cedar Lake prompted a frantic search for her prized gold and silver jewelry piece. She knew it couldn’t have gone far but all efforts to retrieve it from the lake bottom proved fruitless.

I received a call from Vicky who subsequently discovered The Ring Finders directory on the Internet. Soon, my wife, Kathleen and I were on our way to Big Cedar Lake and to Vicky’s lovely home. She accompanied us to the dock and described the moments when she felt the earing drop.

Before entering the Lake, I carefully scanned the bottom with an underwater detector made by an Australian company, Minelab. The Excalibur, as it is called, is the tool of choice for many SCUBA divers worldwide. Detecting from the dock helped not to disturb the bottom unnecessarily. Almost immediately, a promising signal came from a location barely a meter out from the dock. Within minutes, the signal proved to be that of Vicky’s earing!

* Vicky, not her real name, preferred not to be identified or to have her photo published.