Raymond Jones, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 2 of 3

18K White Gold Earring Found in Warrenton Virginia

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray at MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217 www.mygoldfinder.com

I received a text from my fellow ‘theRingFinders’ detectorist and friend, Rob Ellis. He had received a call from a young lady who lost an earring and he referred the job over to me. Rebecca contacted me shortly afterwards about having lost the circular round back part of her 18K white gold earring, the diamond stud sat in the center. Rebecca was staying at a beautiful Bed & Breakfast located on several acres in Warrenton Virginia with family. While out for a stroll on a gorgeous sunny morning she was carrying her son across the field to the house, when her son grabbed her ear and the earring came flying off.

After I gathered a few more details from Rebecca I got on the road and arrived in Warrenton about an hour later. Once I arrived Rebecca showed me the grassy area that she believed the other part of the earring should be as this was the location when her son grabbed her and she had found the stud on her dress. The area was slightly on a hill, with the area where the earring might be was unmowed, probably to ensure the earring didn’t get chopped up or tossed out by the mower blades.

As the item was pretty small I asked Rebecca if I could have her place the other earring on the ground so I could get a signal reading from it, both with the stud and post, and without. Without the earring and the post the signal was very weak, on the Equinox 800 very low tone 2 I was very concerned I wouldn’t be able to locate this weak of a signal in the taller grass.

I started the search in the grassy areas first, gridding up and down to ensure full coverage. As this B&B location is used for weddings and other events, there was a lots of hits I had to sort through, most were high tones and since I was only looking for this specific low tone range it made it a little easier, but a bit frustrating not to dig those other solid signals!! After a couple of hours in the grass and no luck I decided to start back past the pavilion and in between the large shed and gravel area. and BEHOLD, there it was just waiting to be found hiding slightly under a gravel stone.

When I do recover an item I like to just send the owner a picture text and then wait for their reaction, typically priceless. Rebecca came running out the front door yelling “You found it!?”, at which time I held it high into the air. Rebecca has been reunited with her precious earring and couldn’t have been happier this day.

Rebecca, it was a pleasure meeting you and I’m thrilled I was able to recover your item for you.

God Bless and Keep on Hunting!

 

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ALMOST LOST FOREVER! FOUND TEXAS A&M ’21 CLASS RING IN FOREST STREAM

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray at MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217 www.mygoldfinder.com

I received a text from Trevor this past week about a ring he lost on the outskirts of the Shenandoah National Forest park at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Shenandoah National Park extends along the Blue Ridge Mountains in the U.S. state of Virginia. The Skyline Drive runs its length, and a vast network of trails includes a section of the long-distance Appalachian Trail. Mostly forested, the park features wetlands, waterfalls and rocky peaks like Hawks bill and Old Rag mountains. Shenandoah is home to many bird species, plus deer, squirrels and the elusive black bear.

Trevor explained he was at the park with friends hiking in the area and at the end of the hike they had been playing around near a stream close to the parking area. He was skipping rocks across a small pool of water when his Texas A&M ring went flying off his hand. This is a very remote area with little to no human traffic. I explained I could absolutely work with him on coming out to search fore the ring, however since it may or may not actually be on National Forrest property so I’d have to ensure permissions was received to metal detect.

I made several calls to the National Parks organization, including the Main Parks office, the Lost & Found division and then finally to the Deputy Superintendent, who was very professional, listened to what I had to say, asked a bunch of questions. Actually they were all great to talk to and were hopeful the ring could be found. At first I though this was going to go in the wrong direction after the Deputy Superintendent said he’d have to go to his boss, check on the water impact, environmental and wildlife impacts, etc etc and I thought this is going to either be a long process or a complete denial to search in this area. As we all know, state parks are all typically off limits to metal detecting. Fortunately, Trevor had provided me with the exact GPS coordinates, which once provided it was determined the parking area and about a 1/4 mile in each direction is not part of the State park, but is in fact leased from a lodge company by the State Parks to allow parking for the hikers. I contacted the folks at Grave Lodge and receive permission to conduct the search, WooHoo!!!

Trevor and I coordinated to be at the park location during the week. It was about a 2 hours drive thorugh very scenic and remote roads to the area. I arrived shortly before Trevor and immediately got to work, as the water was ice cold, not deep, but very cold so I donned by wetsuit and put on my gloves, grabbed the Equinox 800 and started to scan various areas of the creek and embankments. Once Trevor arrived shortly afterwards we talked about how he lost the ring and their (girlfriend and other friends) thoughts on which direction it may have gone. I got back to going through the creek, gridding in some fashion and also checked several areas of the embankments, no luck yet. After about 2 hours I asked Trevor to skip some rocks for me again and as he did I watched his right hand very closely to determine the possible path the ring would have gone…. and this was the key clue that lead to the find…I immediately went to the far side of the creek to our left, went into a shallow pool area next to the large bolder, then worked my way back, up and down along the embankment for about 20 feet… and there I got the hit! At the base of the embankment, scattered across the edge, a line of some 5-10 pound rocks with heavy moss and in between one rock and the sediment the ring was already about 1/4 to 1/2 deep in the sediment (similar to fish tank gravel). I’ll have to say I was little surprised that in only 2-3 days the ring had already settled down this far, though it is a heavy ring. I’m so glad Trevor contacted me and I was able to recover his Texas A&M ring, otherwise I truly believe that due to the remoteness of the area, the sediment type and soon to be high levels of current within the stream, this ring would have been lost to time, if not forever!

Congratulations Trevor and God Bless.

Keep on Hunting!!

 

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Lost Platinum Ring Found in Goose Creek, Middleburg Virginia

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray at MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217

www.mygoldfinder.com

I recently received a call from a customer, Chris from Arlington Virginia. He provided a brief description of his situation and asked if it was something I could assist him with, I said “absolutely I can help”.  Chris had taken a short Saturday trip to Northern Virginia to do some fly fishing with a friend. They had picked a beautiful area in Loudoun County, specially Middleburg, Virginia. As Chris was fishing and moving through the creek he had stumbled hands first into the water. He had hit with such force that his left hand was in a lot of pain which caused him to start shaking his hand vigorously to alleviate some of the pain. After returning to his vehicle a short while later is when he realized the ring was gone. As with most of us these days with teleworking we arranged to meet on the following Saturday. With no rain in the forecast we both agreed the water levels should more than likely stay low and calm, that was the hope.

Chris was fishing in a small section of Goose Creek, which is a 53.9-mile-long tributary of the Potomac River, somewhat adjacent to the Goodstone Inn. After a very scenic drive through large sections of horse ranch country, even had to stop once for a few horses and several dozen hounds on the road,  we met on along the roadside of the creek. As we had to trek the path to the spot where he had been fishing Chris donned his waders and I slipped on my wetsuit, a little overkill on my part for a creek, but you never know when you’ll hit a drop off.

Once we reached the area Chris identified where he had fallen I did a quick scan in the running water portion first, then more specifically where he indicated. Within less than 5 minutes the ring came up easily out of the mud and leaves. Chris was astonished it was found so quickly and extremely excited to see his ring again. Jokingly, Chris’ friend had believed the ring was gone forever and that we wouldn’t find it. Always keep hope!!

 

Chris, glad I could help return your wedding ring!

God Bless

Ray

 

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Lost 14K White Gold Wedding Band, Found Afton Virginia (Charlottesville)

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray at MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217 www.mygoldfinder.com

While vacationing in Ocean City Maryland this past week I received a call from a customer who was trying to locate his wife’s 14K white gold wedding band with diamonds. As I wasn’t due to arrive back in Leesburg until the next day we coordinated for me to make the 2 1/2 hour trip to his home in Afton on Sunday. Stephan did borrow a friend’s metal detector and gave it a valiant attempt, but he was not able to locate the ring.

On Sunday I traveled to Stephan’s home in Afton Virginia..West of Charlottesville, a gorgeous drive through some very scenic mountain areas in Southern Virginia.

Once I arrived Stephan gave me a brief story of how the ring was lost and possibly where he thought it might be. I started my search close to the house hoping the ring wasn’t too far away, we moved a small wood pile out of the way so I could get a nice pathway cleared and I conducted a grid search across the front yard several times, only hitting mostly iron/trash items. There was also a lot of interference in the area n ext to the house so I had to change the frequency settings on the Equinox 800 down to 20khz to get a cleaner signal. After not locating the ring near the home I expanded my search to a field across a small gravel driveway in front of their home. I did three wide grid passes, each about 30/40 yards in length in the field and on the third line hit a nice bang tone of 8 on the detector, as most know this is typically a white gold range. As I knelt down and moved the tall grass out of the way the beautiful white gold ring showed itself to be saved.

 

As I was getting up from the ground, Stephan was coming out of the house. I raised my hand with the ring and he yelled, “you found it!?” …and came running across the front yard, injured leg or not he was trying to run as fast as he could to see the ring. Stephan was so elated that he gave me a big bear hug, this is saying a lot for a guy his size!!

 

Stephan and his wife were ecstatic to have the ring returned and I couldn’t be happier to bring this joy back to them and have the matching set back together.

God Bless and Happy Hunting

Ray

 

 

 

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Lost Platinum Wedding Ring, Found in Pratts, Virginia

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray at MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217

I received a call from Melissa, asking if I could assist with locating her husband’s platinum wedding ring. The ring had been lost since August 2020 and between then and now time Melissa and Jonathan had purchased a metal detector and attempted to located the ring themselves, with no luck unfortunately.

The story of how the ring was lost started with a stroll along a path on their property by Jonathan and his children, upon arriving at the top of a small hill his children were attacked by a swarm of bees, with one of them having bees all over his head. Jonathan was frantically swatting the bees away from his son(s) when the ring went flying off his finger, and to the best of his recollection it went towards the wooded tree line. Fortunately, his children were fine but the ring was lost….and so my recovery efforts begin…..

I coordinated with Melissa and we set a date for me to come out to conduct a search of the area Jonathan believed the ring had come off. There is a wooded section, only about 40 yards wide by probably another 40 yards deep, but it was thick with vines and brush, along with years of metal debris as the property used to be an older farm. I started my initial search around the top of the wooded section hoping the ring had not actually gone into the thicket of this mess, but after about 45 minutes I was headed straight into the woods. It was tough going, due to the vines and brush you really couldn’t use a larger coil to swing, nor did the 6″ coil work too well in the thicket areas. At times I was on my belly reaching in just to get the coil to do a moderate sweep of the thick areas. Long story short, I was drenched in sweat and dirt, no luck on the ring. After several hours and with the intense heat of the day I decided to call it for the day.

I decided ask Rob, a friend of mine from theRingFinders, Rob Ellis if he was interested in oing me on the hunt and he jumped at the chance to get his Equinox 800 out as well. Rob and I have worked together in the past and it was always a lot of fun teaming with him so decided a Navy (me) and Marine (Rob) team could absolutely get the job done!!

Rob and I met on Sunday at the customers property, talked to Jonathan again about the details of how the ring was lost. Rob and I came up with a quick search strategy before getting started and we broke out two grassy sections in front of the wood line. I used flags to line up my grid and Rob had his rope line on a tethered wheel to lay his grid out. We were almost side by side at this point..There is also a large fire pit area near where we were conducting our search so I was immediately pounded with lots of trash, slow picking… but part of the job.

Within less than an hour I hear Rob say “I found it!” I was like… what? He said “I found it!!”, I was so surprised and there ii was just feet from where I searched the day before. Rob asked that I make the post as we teamed on the second visit on this recovery effort.

We had Jonathan come over to see where his ring was located and he was slightly shocked at the location as he was so sure it went towards the woods. Jonathan and Melissa were overjoyed to have his ring back and couldn’t have been happier.

theRingFinders: ‘teamwork’ is a true recipe for successful recoveries.

 

God Bless

Ray

 

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Beautiful 14K Rose Gold Ring Lost, Found in Berryville, VA.

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray at MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217

I received a call from Brandon on Thursday asking if I could help him find his 14K Rose Gold wedding band which was lost on his property in Berryville, Virginia. Brandon stated he bought a metal detector and attempted to locate the ring himself, even searching at night with a flash light in hand, but no luck.  As with most detectorists we know you sometimes have to get through a lot of trash in order to find the treasure and the trash was what Brandon was finding unfortunately. After getting a few details on when it was lost and approximate area on the property where he believed it may be located we arranged for me to come out on Friday morning. Since he was not going to be able to be there to meet me I had to initiate the search on what details I had and the pictures he sent me to come up with a search strategy.

I started my search to the left of his home and closer to the wood line which is where he believed it would be located. After about 90 minutes and a pound of debris, other than the woods itself, I felt I covered the backyard area pretty well. Before I took on the search of the large area of bushy woods I though I’d give the grassy area closer to the house and attach shed a quick grid search.

…after about 30 minutes….there she was, one of the prettiest colors of rose gold I’ve seen shining brightly and just waiting to get backs to it’s owner. I contacted Brandon via a text by sending him a photo of his ring, he was ecstatic at knowing his ring was found and would soon be back on his finger.

Glad I could reunite you with your ring Brandon….

God Bless

Ray

 

 

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Lost White Gold Engagement Ring in Shenandoah River, Found Charles Town West Virginia

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray at MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217.

This call originally started off with a call from the customer’s best friend Laura. After the initial call with Laura I was not able to reach the customer back and found that she had contacted another specialist, Brian Rudolph. After an initial search Brian had referred the customer back to me and I arranged to meet the customer, Lacie, this past Sunday at Moulton Park in West Virginia along the Shenandoah River. Before arranging to go to the site I contacted a friend of mine, Rob Ellis, who is also a recovery specialist on theRingFinders network to see if he’d like to join me as I didn’t know how involved this water search was going to be. Rob is a great underwater gridding specialist and I knew I could use his help on this one.

The customer, Lacie had been wearing her late husband’s grandmother’s white gold engagement ring, so the monumental importance of locating and returning this ring to Lacie was not lost to Rob and I, we had to find this ring.

Lost ring in Shenandoah West Virginia river

On Sunday Rob and I arrived early at Moulton Park along the Shenandoah River and met the customer to gather more details of the lost ring. Lacie stated she had been in the water approximately 20-30 yards from the bank and was heading into towards the shoreline, as she got closer she got caught up on some underwater tree debris and tripped enough to where when she was trying to get her balance the ring slid off her finger, she could actually see the ring going down in the water and attempted to grab it while it sank, but no luck. This would have been about 10-20 feet from the shoreline, a small area so Rob and I suspected we should be able to locate it easily. Well….nothing is ever as easy as you think it’s going to be.

Originally we thought this might be a search that required dive gear so we both brought everything needed for a longer dive time, 2 tanks each. But since the water level was low we only had to search in 2-3′ of water level, snorkeling was the best option in this case. The river was not fast moving, almost no current at all since there was no recent rainfall. As soon as we entered the water you sank into the deep mud, in some areas up to 1-2 feet thick. Rob and I spent 7 hours on Sunday, pulled approx. 20-25 lbs of debris out of a 10′ x 10′ area of the search, so much trash!! Rob did an exhaustive solid circular grid within the area we believed Lacie and dropped the ring. But alas, no ring located on this trip.

I followed up with another short search the next day for about 2.5 hours, focusing again within the target area the customer believed she had lost the ring and while pulling out more trash than I care to think about…still no luck with locating the ring, very frustrating!

There was only going to be a day or so before the area was hit with some significant thunderstorms so I wanted to give it one more try before the week was out and the river became too challenging with the high waters. Rob was also planning on meeting me for this final trip of the week. I unloaded my gear, donned the wetsuit and gloves, turned on the Equinox 800 detector and entered the water to the left side of an old tree hugging the river bank, as the detector was on already I immediately started a sweep right at the bank’s edge………within 60 seconds of being in the water I got a hit within 1-2 feet from the bank, more trash??!! Or so I thought…I reached down with the pinpointer, located a target then as I have done 100 times already I slowly pulled up a large fist full of mud…the pinpointer was still pinging away at whatever was in my palm. As I slowly cleared away the mud, and in the bright morning sunshine, arose this sparkling white gold colored engagement ring, and I knew this was the ring Lacie had lost. Moral, never give up and always expect that a lost object may not be where you think it should be. How the ring went from 10-15 yards away to 1-2′ from the bank we’ll never know.

Out of muddy depths comes this beauty

I sent Lacie a photo of the ring from my phone and immediately got a response, OMG!! Within 5 minutes Lacie was at the site to greet me and see her ring returned. She was so joyfully excited with tears running down her face and shaking almost uncontrollably. Lacie was so ecstatic to have this memory back in her possession, it meant to so much to her. This is theRingFinders goal, to bring happiness and joy with a special object returned!

White Gold Engagement Ring Returned to Lacie

Lacie,… Rob and I were so very pleased to be able to help bring some small joy into your life during this difficult time.

God Bless
Ray

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Lost Gold Cross Pendant w/Birthstones, Found in Bristow, Virginia

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray @ MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217.

I received a text from a couple, John and Amy in Bristow, Virginia. Amy had been doing some gardening in the back yard and as she walked around the side of the house she realized her chain was dangling from her neck, but the gold cross charm was missing. After searching for hours they placed a notice on their community website asking if anyone had the ability to assist. One of the neighbors suggested they reach out to theRingFinders.

I’m about 45 minutes from their location so I was able to head early after work the next day to do a recovery search with the hopes of finding it quickly as the area was not too large. Once I arrived Amy gave me the rundown of what she was doing and where she walked, so  initially conducted a quick search in the grassy area where she realized the charm was gone. No hits in this area so I decided to go right to the garden bed in the hopes it fell into the mulch/soil she was seeding for green beans and carrots. As I was working the bed, Amy was literally a foot and a half away from me and shouted, “I found it!! While watching me she happen to look down near her feet and there it was just laying in the grass. Great Karma, lucky find and glad to see her smile so big. Amy’s had the cross for 20 years and it holds the birthstones of each of her children, a very treasured item to say the least.

Gold Cross pendant with Birthstones

God Bless and happy Hunting!!

 

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Lost Wedding Band in Bristow Virginia Yard, Found in Bushes

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call Ray @ MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217.

I received a text message early Saturday morning from Todd in Bristow, Virginia requesting my assistance in locating his yellow gold wedding band which was lost somewhere in his backyard the night before. Todd has been enjoying the beautiful weather we’ve been having these past few days here on the East coast; spending time cleaning up the yard, doing some trimming of the bushes and vines, doing a general cleanup and hanging around his hammock. At some point during the evening he realized his ring was no longer on his finger, like many men including myself we tend to ‘feel’ the ring constantly as a nature of habit and that’s when he noticed it was gone. He spent several hours at night looking for the ring, unfortunately with no luck. As many customer tend to do he almost was tempted to purchase a metal detector himself, I’m glad he called me instead! Most if not all of the customers I’ve met who have purchased a lower end detector were not successful in finding their treasure as the unit may not have been sufficient to isolate the ring from many other hits, and new customers tend to not have the experience to fully utilize the detector’s features.

I arrived at Todd’s beautiful home in the early part of the afternoon, then after a brief description of his ‘yard’ activities I initially started a quick sweep to see if I could get a hit. With the quick sweep not showing any significant results I started a more detailed grid of different sections of the yard, still no ring. The yard was not significantly large, but was broken up into nice little sectional areas; hammock area, birdbath, stone walk, bush areas. After hitting most areas several times I started to focus on the bush areas next t the fence which also had heavy vines growing on them. I borrowed a rake and cleaned most of the leaves and debris from the bush bedding area and still after a few grid searches no good hits.

I was then laying on the ground running the detectors further in to reach past the heavier bushes that’s when there was something sparking as bright as the ring from Lord of Rings, there was Todd’s beautiful golden wedding band. Even with a detector it would have been difficult to get a hit on this one as it was positioned between two closely nestled bushes. Sometimes you just have to get dirty! Todd was so excited to see his ring back and immediately placed in on his finger, hopefully never to come off again.

Great customer, thank you Todd for using theRingFinders network.

 

Gold Wedding Band found in Bristow Virginia back yard.

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Lost Gold Engagement Ring, Found in Snow in Bluemont, Virginia

  • from Leesburg (Virginia, United States)
Contact:

Call MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217.

I received a call from Katlyn on Monday evening stating she had lost her engagement ring while out building snowmen and sledding in her back yard. Her husband, Tony, was going to use a borrowed detector and some help from a friend to see if they could recover the ring that night and if  he didn’t have any luck would ask me come out the next day. Unfortunately, they did not have any luck finding Katlyn’s ring so we arranged for me to come out the next day.

Upon arriving at Katlyn and Tony’s home I noticed the large area to the left of the property where I presumed the ring had been lost, it was quite large, but I wasn’t daunted by the challenge for this recovery. Tony gave me a quick rundown of the activities and shortly I went to work. I setup a flag grid pattern across an approximate 50 yard by 50 yard area then started to conduct a slow search within each grind pattern. I extended my searches slightly on each grid section just to get some additional ground covered, but after almost two hours no luck in finding the ring; lots of junk metal and shell casings. So at this point I initiated a search beyond the first major grid section to see if the ring had possibly been thrown in another area. After about another 15 minutes I picked up a strong hit at the top of the grid and after moving a little snow there shining just under the surface in the snow was Katlyn’s beautiful engagement ring.

As I turned towards the house Katlyn was at the back door watching and I held the ring up high as my sign it was found. She immediately opened the door and with excitement in her voice yelled across the field, “You found it!??” Katlyn was just overwhelmed with emotion that she was reunited with her recently received engagement ring (Tony gave it to her in July of this year) and with tears of joy and a beautiful smile she gave me the biggest hug of gratitude.

It’s always these special moments that make our work so worthwhile!  Tony and Katlyn are a wonderful young couple and I’m just honored they called me and I was able to ensure their Holiday season was one to remember.

 

 

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