Arnie lost his 1958 class ring, and read an article about us in the local paper and wondered if we could help him find his lost ring from 4 years ago. Check out the write up below, which includes video of the actual ring hunt … did we find his ring? You’ll have to read it to find out … wait, of course did, why else would I be posting this … check out the size of that ring!
Link to Complete Story:
Direct link to video:
I’m starting to think that Union Civil War General George Meade was not fond of jewelry and his ghost may be playing a role in the amount of lost rings at the Maryland fort that is named in his honor! A few weeks ago I received a call from Dina telling me how her husband lost his wedding ring in their back yard about a year prior. They we certain it was lost back there and because of that I felt confident that I could find it. I’ll let Dina tell the rest of the story in her own words…..
A year ago my hubby lost his wedding ring of 11 years the same week that he was scheduled to ship out to South Korea for a year long Army deployment. He was jumping on our backyard trampoline with our two children when he felt the ring fly off. He had lost some weight since we were married and I had been telling him to get it resized; not that I’m saying I TOLD HIM SO or anything of the kind. The four of us searched the perimeter to no avail. We brought out the child’s metal detector that we already had but it dinged on everything on the ground.
Seven months and many rainy and frigid days later, I gave up on ever finding it and bought him a new ring for Christmas. He wasn’t entirely thrilled with it; he was still attached to the original ring because I had had it engraved inside with a surprise “inside joke” phrase between us.
This April, the year in Korea was finally coming to an end and I figured I’d call in a professional as a last ditch effort before we moved away from Fort Meade the following month. My husband scoffed at the idea of Ringfinders locating his lost band, but I called Jim Wagner. I was immediately impressed at how professional and thorough he was on the phone with his questions and comments. The day he arrived I wasn’t expecting him to find anything, but he was confident and his efforts paid off in about 15 minutes! The ring was lodged in the mud close to the trampoline. My hubby was in such disbelief that he asked me to email him a photo as proof! We are so thankful to Jim for recovering something that had such great sentimental value to us.
Dina and Jason, Fort Meade
I am glad I was successful. This one was a bit more special as I was able to return something to a family that serves and protects our freedom every day.
Recently, we were featured in an article by Doug Moe, a local reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal. The story was about our Ring Finding activities (http://host.madison.com/news/local/columnists/doug-moe/doug-moe-the-man-who-finds-lost-rings/article_3ef64cca-adf5-5735-8399-4f6e440631e0.html). After the article ran, I was contacted by about a dozen people who had lost their wedding ring between 1 and 8 years ago. This was awesome, because a lot of time people just give up looking for their ring. If you have a good idea on where and how you lost your ring, there is probably a pretty good chance it is still there. One of the couples who contacted me was Heather and Ron and this is their ring story.
Three years ago, Heather was preparing for an Easter Egg hunt in her backyard. The weather was just starting to warm up, so she decided it would be nice to have the hunt outside. She first wanted to clean up the dead leaves that were around her shrubs and in her planting beds from the past fall. Heather’s lot backed up to a wooded area, which was a convenient place to throw leaves and other yard waste. It was here that Heather tossed the leaves from her yard.
The next day, she was busy preparing for Easter dinner, when suddenly she realized that her wedding ring of 19 years was missing. She had been so busy getting ready for company that she didn’t focus on the fact that her ring was not on her finger. She felt absolutely sick, but hoped that it would show up. Days passed, but still not ring. She wondered if she had lost it in the house or maybe it fell down the drain? Ron, Heather’s husband, inspected all the traps under the sinks in the house. No ring. Time went on, but still no ring.
Heather thought back to the day she lost it and remembered that the day prior, she was in the backyard raking and cleaning the leaves. She also remembered that she was not wearing any gloves while working in the backyard, and there was a chance the ring could have fallen off while scooping up or tossing the leaves in the woods. They searched the areas she was working, but did not find anything. It’s amazing how a ring can quickly disappear from sight. After about a year of searching and wondering, Heather gave up – accepting the fact that she’d never see her ring again. They went to the jewelry store and picked out a new ring to replace the one missing from her finger.
Fast forward 3 years, and Ron was reading the Sunday paper one winter day. He showed Heather an article about some local “Ring Finders” who had helped others find their lost rings in the area. Ron called me the next day and told me their story. I said we could help, but needed to wait till Spring when the snow had melted and the ground thawed. This past weekend, I happened to be visiting an old family friend on the same side of Madison that Heather and Ron lived. I called Ron and setup a time to come out and take a look.
When we pulled up, we were greeted by Ellie, the family dog. Kylie, my daughter, enjoyed playing with Ellie … and I think Ellie enjoyed playing with Kylie too. Carter, my son, and I immediately started the search. We first scanned the planting area where Heather was working in 3 years ago. Amazingly, we found nothing. Typically around the perimeter of the house, we find a fair amount of junk left over from building projects or a recent roofing job – but there was nothing (which is awesome). So, we moved to the area where Heather had tossed the leaves. Almost immediately, we got a good strong and consistent signal. Carter scratched away the soil and we could quickly see the edge of a ring start to appear. The ring had been lost for 3 years, and after only about 5 mins we had found it!
I called Heather back out and distracted her with a “question”, when she turned around, she saw me holding up her ring. She was shocked. I don’t think she would ever had guessed that we would find her ring that quickly. After a couple of seconds, she let out a loud scream and jumped up and down with joy. This is my favorite part of Ring Hunting … the reveal. I love the reaction and expressions on people’s faces when we pull something out of the ground, that just seconds earlier, had been lost forever.
Thank you Ron and Heather for the generous reward. We will donate a portion of the reward to Carter and Kylie’s school, as we do with all rewards. We will then use the remainder to purchase some additional “test rings”. We have a couple of rings that we’ve found and have not been able to return. These prove very valuable when first starting a hunt. If we can get a similar ring and drop it in the same environment, it helps us tune our machines and focus on what signals to look for.
Remember, even if it’s been years – there is still hope that your ring can be found.
Every ring has a story, what’s yours?
I received an email from Al on Easter Sunday. I was up at my sister’s house in La Crosse, so I wasn’t able to call Al back right away. I did exchange some emails back and forth to ensure that this wasn’t a recent loss, as timing is so important when attempting to find a lost ring. The quicker you can get our on site, the higher likelihood you have of finding your lost ring.
The next day Al and I finally connected via phone. Al explained that the ring was a men’s gold ring, with a black onyx center stone with diamonds along the side. He had received the ring as recognition for 25 years of service from a local insurance company. Al explained that he was out mowing his lawn on his riding mower. Behind Al’s lot is a common greenway, which he frequently mows and maintains – almost like part of his own yard. He approached a set of trees which hadn’t been trimmed recently – so the branches hung down low. In order to mow around the tree, Al had to raise up the branches with his hand as he passed under the tree on his mower. While doing this, one of the small braches hooked around his ring and when he let go of the branch, the ring was ripped from his finger and flung off into the grass. He stopped his mower, got off and got a leaf rake. He raked the entire area, hoping to stir up the ring. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find anything.
A year passed, and Al always wondered if his ring was still out there. One day, he was reading the Sunday paper and came across a story by Doug Moe, a local reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal. The story was about our Ring Finding activities (http://host.madison.com/news/local/columnists/doug-moe/doug-moe-the-man-who-finds-lost-rings/article_3ef64cca-adf5-5735-8399-4f6e440631e0.html). Al read the story and wondered if I would be able to find his ring he lost the previous year. Al had always thought about renting a metal detector, but was worried he wouldn’t know how to work it. Al did the right thing by calling us. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of people renting a metal detector – only to become completely frustrated after only a couple of mins.
I told Al I would need to check with my wife to see what our plans were, and we tentatively planned to get together over the weekend. After hearing Al’s story, I knew that I would be able to find his ring. If you know the exact area and moment you lost your ring – someone with a metal detector will find it, almost 100% of the time (unless someone else finds it first J).
After hanging up the phone with Al, I talked with my wife and the weekend was free. Only problem was it looked like rain for the next 7 days. If you read my other stories, you’ll know that I metal detector with my two kids. I told them the story about Al’s ring, and they started to get excited. You see, we had been on 3 previous hunts where we did not find the ring we were looking for. We are scheduled to go back on all three, as they were all lost between 1 and 8 years ago, and we haven’t given up yet. Al’s ring sounded to me like a slam dunk. Unfortunately, it was Monday night and the UW Badgers were playing for the National Championship against Duke – first time since 1941. We have season tickets and love Badger Basketball. Tipoff was a little after 8:00 … it was 5:45. I looked at the kids and said, “Maybe we just go out and take a look at the site and see what we find?” They were totally on board, and we were all excited to break our dry streak. We jumped in the van.
Al only lived about 15 mins away, however, as we pulled into his driveway it started to rain. Argh. We decided to give it a shot anyways, and headed to the backyard. Al explained how he lost again, and we started to search the area. We got some hits right away, but all turned out to be junk. You’d be surprised how much junk is buried in your backyard. I always tell people not to get discouraged when we don’t find their ring right away, and we assured Al that we’d keep looking until we found it. I widened the search area around the tree, not knowing how far that branch might have flung the ring. After about 20 mins, my daughter says to me, “That tree over there looks a lot like this tree.” I’m not sure if Al heard her or not, but a min later he said, “Maybe it was closer to that tree.” Sure enough, after moving over … the very first hit we got was Al’s ring – about an inch below the grass.
Al was relieved to have the ring back on his finger, his wife also was surprised we were able to find it … and even in the rain! We quickly returned home to watch Bucky play a heck of a game, but came up short in the end.
Thanks for the reward Al and so glad we were able to get that ring back on your finger.
On 3/29/15 , I was contacted by a Mr. Michael C. about his wedding ring he had lost while playing with his Dogs in his back yard.. We discussed the lost ring and all the details of where he had lost it and how.. After speaking to him I agreed to meet him the next day on 3/30/15 to do the search and find his ring.. I assured him it would be a easy search and I would be able to find his ring pretty quick since he was sure of the area he lost it in.. We had agreed to meet between 6:00pm & 6:30pm , 0n 3/30/15..
But the next day before I was to go out to do the search, I had decided since I had time before meeting him that I would go metal detecting in the woods first to pass some time before I had to meet him.. Thats when I had a problem of my own , I was about a mile back in the woods detecting and when it came time to head back to my truck so I could meet Mr. Michael C. to do his search I had relized I lost my truck keys in the woods somewhere.. This was a problem since I could not go anywhere with out my keys and I could not call him to let him know what happened since I locked my phone in my truck and could not get in to call anyone.. I search the woods again for my keys and decided to walk home when I could not find them.. When I finally got home , I emailed Mr. Michael C. late that night to let him know what had happened and to apologize for not being able to make it to do the search.. The next morning on 3/31/15, I had a friend give me a ride back to my truck with a spare set of keys so i could pick my truck up.. That same day I had spoke to Mr. Michael C. again since I had my phone again and truck back.. He was very understanding as to what happened and we agreeded to meet that day between 4pm & 4:30pm.. When I got there it was around 4pm and I met with Mr. Michael C. about ten minutes later when he had got there.. He walked me through what he was doing when he lost his ring and I even got to meet his 2 dogs he was playing with when he lost the ring.. I showed him the equipment I was going to use and explained this search would not take long as i was going to be able to find it fast using my long range electroscope called the Regulator.. I began my search using the Regulator long range electroscope and instantly got a hit on a line of bearing to search.. I grabbed my metal detector and in less then 3 minutes I had found his ring.. I was happy to have helped him out and he was very happy to have it back.. I also want to thank him for the generous reward he offered.. That much of a reward was not neccesary because I was not used to getting that much for a reward.. Its not about the amount of the reward I am offered that gives me pleasure in helping others out.. My reward is the pleasure I get when I see the smiles on a persons face when I return their lost item back to them..
Thank goodness for Ring Finders and good people. Luke was eager to drive 45 mins to come look for my ring and he was equal parts professional, friendly, and caring. I had never met Luke before but a Google search brought me to his Ring Finders page.
Visibility was less than 4 inches and it was amazing that he was able to find my ring considering the conditions he described above, not to mention the ring sat on the bottom in the muck and slime for 7 days before I had a day off to go out there. The lake bottom is littered with old cans, bottles, coins, etc and I was actually getting fairly discouraged after sitting on the dock for 1.5 hours or so, getting sun burnt and feeling bad about my lost wedding band. Luke was positive the whole time and like he said, after taking a 15 minute break to regroup, he picked up the signal and somehow got it back to the shallows, basically working blind, without dropping it. At first I was in disbelief and I think he celebrated more than me for the first few seconds! The people on the public dock 10 yards away must have thought we were crazy jumping up and down and high-fiving, hooping and hollering. When we told them what the commotion was about, they were yelling too! It was a great time.
You can bet I’ll be recommending Luke’s services to anyone in the Spokane/CDA area that needs this type of help. Couldn’t have asked for a nicer guy to work with. Good work! (and thanks for getting my wife off my back!)
On 3/10/15 , I was at a friend of a friends place helping to find a lost class ring a lady named Melody lost over 30 years ago when I made an unexpected Discovery. Hers the story of the find..
My friend James told me of a lady friend of his named Melody who had lost a gold class Ring over 30 years ago at her home site. I went out there on 3/10/15 to see if I could help her find it using my ATgold metal detector. As I was searching for her lost ring I made an unexpected recovery which was unexpected to her as well.. I had been searching for awhile with no luck when I got a really good strong signal.. I dug the target and out pop a ring made of gold, At first I thought I found her ring but when I looked closer at the ring I noticed it was not a class ring but it was a gold U.S, Army / Airborn Ring.. I showed it to Melody and to her suprise she reconized it was her dads ring who had passed away in 2011.. She did not even know the ring was lost so it was a great suprise to see it again.. I searched the rest of the day for her ring but did not find it.. But I will be going back to search again.. Even though I did not find Melody’s Ring , I did find her dads lost ring whiched made her very happy..
A few weeks ago I received a call from Tim explaining how his wife lost her engagement ring. He went on to say while she was almost positive it came off while walking their dogs down the driveway. The driveway, which was a good 100 yards or so long, was bordered the entire length on one side by wooded area. She believed it came off in a specific area where she recalled the dogs getting wrapped around some brush, but did not rule out any of the driveway due to the frigid temperatures that day. We made arrangements to meet the next day and Tim and Tara went over the area with me that he described the day before. I’ll let Tara tell you in her own words how things went down, but on a side note to my detecting colleagues….this was actually tough one to find! Reason is that although the ring was on the surface, there ended up being a piece of old “soda can” aluminum directly under the ring about 2 inches down! This means nothing to most of you who read this, but to us metal detecting geeks this spells trouble! A piece of “trash” like this so close to the target(in this case the ring!) acts like a shield to obtaining the “good” signal we would be looking for when searching for gold and/or platinum. I mention this in the event you are looking for something that should “sound” specific in your headphones and you have no luck. I suggest you take a break, regroup and come at the situation in a different manner. It sure paid off for me…….and for Tim and Tara!
“I came home from work and walked my dogs as usual. The only difference that day was the bitter cold temperature outside. I came in from my walk and noticed my engagement ring fell off (my fingers shrunk in the cold weather) I tried to retrace my steps but the area to cover was overwhelming, it was getting dark, and leaves were piled high. I panicked and called Home Depot & Ace Hardware trying to rent a metal detector. No one in the Severna Park area rented them-only sold, and they were thousands of dollars. I Googled “metal detector help severna park” and The Ring Finders popped up. We called and Jim scheduled to come over the very next morning at 6:30am (even though he was leaving for vacation that morning). Jim arrived and told me to stop and think, and walk him through my steps. We walked up and down the street and didn’t find anything. My husband and I had to leave for work, and Jim said he would try and stay a few more minutes. He explained if he didn’t find it, he would come back another day to search. My husband and I were preparing for the worst and discussed calling the insurance company.. when mid sentence we got a call from Jim! HE FOUND MY RING! Tears poured down my face! We met to pick it up and I immediately hugged him! Jim is an amazing man! We are so happy we called the site! Jim told us if it was out there, he would find it! He wasn’t going to give up on us! So I want to tell you if you are reading this because you lost something and you want it back CALL JIM NOW!”
– Tara & Tim
Severna Park MD
New Years Eve I received a call from Milton’s father, Mr. Mark, asking if he could borrow my metal detector to find his son’s lost ring?!! I explained that I normally do not loan out my detector but I would be more than willing to come over and look for his son’s ring. It took just a few minutes to walk over to Mr. Mark’s apartment and their I met Milton and his little family and listened to his story.
Milton said his ring was sort of loose to start with and he normally does not wear it, but since they were on vacation he decided to leave it on. It was a beautiful warm day (compared to the rest of the country!) and Milton was on the driveway playing ball with his two kids. At one point he began throwing the ball straight up, with two hands, and on his final and hardest throw he felt his ring go flying just as he released the ball. He did not hear it hit the concrete so figured it must have landed somewhere in the grass. So they began to search all the grass along the driveway and even used a rake hoping to expose the ring.
As I listened to Milton explain the details I felt very confident that we could find his ring somewhere in the grass. So I began grid searching.
After an hour or so and no ring I began to think maybe the ring landed on the roof and rolled off in another area. Still no luck. It was getting dark so I assured them that I would be back the next day.
Later that evening I remembered what Chris Turner said about using a test ring to narrow down the search area. So in my collection of old rings I have an assortment of copper rings used for plumbing that work great for test throws. Very similar to rings in size and weight.
So, New Years Day I met Milton and we did a few test throws. Sure enough the first throw landed in the grass and then the 2nd throw landed further and closer to the building. There were 3 foot high bushes along the front so I did a very thorough search of each bush and sure enough, there hiding at the base of one of the bushes was Milton’s ring!
Have something hiding that you just cannot find? Maybe I can help!
Mike McInroe
Very nice article run in the Wisconsin State Journal about a recent find, as well as some other past finds.
