Uncategorized Category | Page 356 of 479 | The Ring Finders

June 20th to 24th found South Milwaukee residents, Tim and Ashley, camped out at the Ford Festival Park near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. They were taking in the Country USA Music Festival for 2017 attended by some 40,000 people. Unfortunately, rain had turned the campsites into a muddy mire. Then on Friday night the toss of a frisbee sent Ashley’s engagement ring flying off her finger into the drizzling darkness. The next morning the couple purchased a metal detector from the local WalMart but found nothing other than debris from countless campers over the years. The chances of extracting a petite gold ring from the tramped mud and accumulation of beer cans, pull tabs, foil wrappers and other metalic remains, bordered on impossible.

On Monday following I received an email from Ashley asking if I could help. Once on location I was the recipient of the kind cooperation and assistance of Ford Festival security employee, Robert, who secured permission to search and who provided a most helpful map of the individual campsites and Tim and Ashley’s site number 1724—ground zero. But after an ever widening three-hours of painstaking investigation through rubbish and mud, further hunting seemed futile. Even with a carefully calibrated state-of-the art XP Deus metal detector the little ring eluded my best efforts. Perhaps someone had already found it, I thought to myself.

I had mentally decided to call off the search and break the sad news to Tim and Ashley that I was not successful. But then on my way back to the car a signal in my headphones prompted further investigation. It came from the remains of a large mud puddle in the roadway. Countless vehicles had driven through it. After digging and removing several bits of aluminum foil, a golf-ball sized clump of mud emitted both a promising tone and the appropriate conductivity numbers for white gold. Probing further, a flash of metal caught my eye. There, squished into the clod was Ashley’s ring! Amazingly it was no worse for wear considering its abuse from the tires of so many vehicles.

Tim and Ashley, I’m so delighted for you both to have found your ring! And thank you for your generous reward.

If you or someone you know has lost a ring, contact me. I and my colleagues at The Ring Finders are happily available to assist.

TESTIMONIAL:

“We thought the ring was gone forever and that the website [theringfinders.com] was a scam, but Paul proved us wrong within a matter of hours. We will forever be grateful and keeping his number on file!”

Ashley

Gregg Larabel, my fellow ringfinder, got a call from Derek whose fiancee (Brooke) lost her engagement ring in the woods behind her apartment while looking for her cat.  She had put her ring in her jacket pocket before entering the woods, and after returning with the cat she found her pocket empty.  After Brooke gave us the story we marked off an area approximately 60ft x 60ft where she went in the woods.  The terrain dropped off sharply there, and the floor of the woods was covered with matted leaves and brush, making for tough searching.   After 2 hours we called in a friend, Dan B, to help us.  It was getting late and the three of us decided to give it one last shot before calling it a day and planning a return trip.  I walked down the hill into the woods and began searching about 20ft beyond the borders we had set up.  I got a good signal, took a closer look, and there was the ring lying in plain sight, right on top of the matted leaves.  To put it mildly, Derek and Brooke were ecstatic and can now concentrate on the upcoming wedding and reminisce in their later years of the day she lost her ring and the day it was found.

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

Heather had lost her wedding ring while at a day camp near the St. Criox river. She works with children who are dealing with epilepsy. While watching the kids play a game, she removed her wedding ring to apply suntan lotion. That’s the last time she can remember having her ring. She was telling a friend about her situation, luckily her friend had heard of the ring finders web site from a post on face-book. Heather brought up “theringfinders” and called me for help. I met her at the camp site and we discussed a plan of action for the search. It only took about 2 minutes and the ring was back on her finger 🙂 – So glad I could help you out Heather, and thank you for your work with the kids!

Darrin ~