Uncategorized Category | Page 391 of 504 | The Ring Finders

A football toss in the deep end of the swimming area near Big Foot Beach State Park on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, proved fatal for Josh Johnson’s titanium wedding ring. He felt it leave his hand but was helpless to grab it before it slipped beneath the lake’s surface. The water’s visibility was poor which made recovery next to impossible. A resident of Chicago, Josh had to leave for home the next day minus the ring on his finger. He despaired at the thought of it being lost forever. That’s when he discovered the ring finder’s directory of metal-detecting specialists online.

I received an email from Josh asking if I might do a search. Arriving at the location very early in the morning on the following Tuesday, I began a methodical search in the 5-foot deep swimming area. Just about an hour later, I heard the telltale pitch of titanium in my waterproof headphones. As the water filtered out of the sand scoop, Josh’s ring appeared as if greatly relieved to see the light of day once again.

When I arrived home, I carefully wrapped the ring in a padded envelope and mailed it on its way to one very relieved owner.

Mission accomplished! Josh, I’m so glad for the opportunity to find and return your ring. May its story continue for many years.

TESTIMONIAL

“Paul was a life saver! When I felt the ring come off my hand in the lake, I thought for sure it was gone forever. After my friends and I searched for over an hour as best we could in the sand below and came up empty, I had no hopes of ever finding my ring again. I count my lucky stars that I found Paul and within an hour after sending him an email, he had his plans in place to find my ring. In less than 24 hours, my ring was recovered and I breathed a huge sigh of relief! I live in Chicago, so Paul even went the extra mile to carefully ship my ring back to me, after traveling to Lake Geneva and gearing up to go underwater to help locate my missing ring. I can’t say enough how great this whole experience was…well, I mean…losing the ring in the first place wasn’t great, but Paul sure was! 🙂 Thanks again Paul!!”

The Ring Finders have a great network of detectors. Dave Boyer received a call from John B. about his wife, Elizabeth, loosing her wedding rings. Dave was not available so he called me and asked if I could help out this couple. John and Elizabeth are from the Chicago area and are staying in a cottage, on Big Crooked lake, with their family for a couple weeks. During the beginning of their stay Elizabeth was in the water at just above waist depth, as she turned around in the water with her hands down in the water her engagement and wedding ring (welded together) slipped off her finger. She was devastated and spent the last few days sifting through the water before they discovered the Ring Finders on Google.

I called John immediately after hearing from Dave and set up a time this morning to come out to the cottage. After introductions I put my swimsuit on and entered the water. The lake was clear with sandy bottom. as I walked out to waist deep water I got a good signal and pulled up a spoon, moving a little deeper to chest height I noticed it was getting deeper with a sharp drop off, that is when I hoped that I would get a signal soon, I did and it was a good ring sound but found it a little deeper than it should have been. I looked in my scoop and there was a beautiful sight I put it in my pouch and headed back to shore while detecting another signal it was a pull tab. I proceeded to shore and asked John if he wanted a spoon, a pull tab or a ring? In his amazement he yelled up the stairs to Elizabeth “he found it”! I wish I could capture the expressions on the faces of my people when the ring is recovered, they are priceless. 

Everyone including Grandma can now enjoy the rest of their stay in Pure Michigan. A great shout out to the RING FINDERS network.

I received a call from my Ringfinder partner, Dave Boyer, he got a call from another Ringfinder, Chuck Raison, who was out of town and couldn’t help Hayley L. find her lost ring. After collecting Hayley’s information about her ring Dave told her we would be at her cottage Sunday morning.

Hayley was attending a family reunion and Hayley, Adam V. (her fiancee) and a group of the guest took the pontoon boat out to Dog bone Island (Shaped like a dog bone). While enjoying the warm weather  and beautiful clear lake water Hayley stepped into the deeper water about 5′ and when she stretched her arms out and down into the water she felt her engagement ring slip off her finger and over the drop off to deeper water about 7′ or 8′. Hayley’s tears raised the water level on the lake about 1″. It was devastating to her because when Adam proposed to her with that ring, her grandfather was there to witness the engagement, he has since passed away.

When we arrived we met the family; mother, father, brothers, sisters, children, aunts, uncles and the dog. (a beautiful Italian family with hugs and handshakes). Getting down to business we gathered our gear and put it on the pontoon and headed out to the island. Dave being the 6’+ guy that he is entered the deeper water and immediately got a signal using our homemade Super Scoop for deep water recovery. I made a sweep over the signal area and came up with a hoop earring. I then started to drag the scoop in the area that Hayley was standing. One scoop nothing, two scoops nothing, three scoops nothing and on the fourth scoop removing the clay and debris at the bottom of the scoop there it was. I took it out and lifted it up to Hayley’s hand and she began to cry this time with happy tears. Adam gave her a big hug. Hand shakes and hugs began all over again with happiness all around.

When we got back to the cottage breakfast was waiting for us and introductions were made again and some lasting memories were made after a very fun but traumatic weekend.

What a beautiful family and very rewarding to have the pleasure of meeting them all including Titan the dog. Another beautiful day will be spent in October when Adam and Hayley become husband and wife.

I received an email from Dave Boyer, my Ring Finder partner, that he got a notice of a lost wedding ring in Hess Lake. Adam D. was visiting his friends cottage last week and took a boat ride to another part of the lake where the lake bottom is sandy and all the boaters park their boats to swim and party. While swimming in, what he remembered was, waist deep water Adam felt his ring come off. Several people searched for it but the sandy bottom absorbed the ring instantly.

Dave and I made the one hour drive North to look for the ring and found a very nice part of the lake to grid off an area where we thought the ring might be but only came up with a few coins, bottle caps and 1 random gold ring. I called Adam to get a better idea of the area of where he lost his ring because the sandbar is the size of a football field. From his directions we needed to go deeper out in the lake about chest deep water and parallel to a diving platform.

We took another 1 hour drive North and after about 10 minutes in the water I found the white gold wedding band with the inscription “Love always”. We searched for about 2 hours trying to find another lost ring but the guy wasn’t sure if that is where he lost it.

Adam and his family were camping for a week and when they got home I went over to Adam’s house and met his 2 boys and his wife Lani. Adam and Lani were very happy to have the ring back on his finger and thanked God for it’s return.

An old ring finder buddy of mine stopped back in town after moving to Texas for work. Scott & I headed out to Lake Minnetonka for a search of a family heirloom gold ring that was lost while swimming. Glad to have Scott along as he pulled the ring after a couple hour search. Suzy was so happy to have her ring back where it belongs. Congrats Suzy and a big Thanks to Scott for the help!

Darrin

 

 

Zack was working on his boat lift canopy, when his wedding ring popped off his finger (Zack recently lost weight) and into the lake. He could actually see the ring in the water. As he tried to retrieve it, the muck stirred up and the ring was gone. Zack figured it was gone forever. Approx. 1 year later, Zack’s wife Colleen was reading the paper and saw an article on the ring finders. She gave me a call and we set up a day for the scuba search. The lake had no visibility and the muck and weeds were thick. I searched the area for 15 minutes or so, pulling out cans and trash. It was a tough search because the boat lift and dock are made of metal and this was interfering with my detector. I was just about to give up when I got one more hit and to my relief, it was a Gold Band :).

So glad I could help you out Zack & Colleen, it was nice chatting with you and thanks for the homemade cookies. Very tasty after a tough dive!

Darrin

A game of tackle football in knee-deep water ended on a down note when Oshkosh Wisconsin resident, Chandler, came up without his wedding ring. Everybody began searching but only a few coins were found; the ring had vanished. Compared to Lake Winnebago’s 215 square miles, a man’s wedding band is a small item indeed. A couple days later I received an email from Brooke, Chandler’s wife, asking if I would be willing to conduct a search. I agreed to drive up on Friday afternoon, an hour and a half from where I live in Waukesha.

Upon arrival I was warmly greeted by ‘Goose’, Chandler’s Italian Spinone. The centuries-old breed is renown for its bird-hunting prowess and for having human-like eyes that seemingly search deep into the crevices of one’s soul. Too bad he wasn’t trained to sniff out rings in water, I mused.

Chandler had his boat ready and so we soon arrived at the sandy shore where he thought the ring went missing. We searched for about 3 hours but were forced to abandon our efforts when a storm suddenly loomed threateningly on the horizon. We boated for cover even as the winds began churning the surface of Wisconsin’s largest inland lake.

A couple days later, on Sunday, July 23rd, my wife, Kathleen, and I headed northward once again to finish the search. I received kind permission to access the lake from ‘John’ the landowner whose house backed onto to the shore where Chandler’s ring was believed to be lost. John was most gracious!

After about 3 hours of scanning the sandy lake bottom the signal I was looking for showed up on my XP Deus detector. Moments later I extracted Chadler’s ring from a mass of zebra mussel shells in my scoop. The smile on the faces of Chandler and Brooke tell the rest of the story!

TESTIMONY:

“My husband and I are beyond thrilled with Paul Humphrey’s dedicated search to finding my husband’s wedding band in Lake Winnebago. Paul went above and beyond our expectations, coming back a second time to scour the area that he wasn’t able to search the first time around. As far as customer service goes, Paul gets our highest accolades. Thank you again Paul for generously donating your time to find my husband’s wedding band!” Brooke – Oshkosh, WI