Thomas lost his ring in about three feet of water at Cemetery Point Beach at Pine View Reservoir near Huntsville, Utah. Of course he was devastated because he loved that ring. I made the hour-and-a half drive and met him at the beach. It took me about an hour, but I was fortunately able to recover the ring for him! I love it when I can return a precious item to its owner!
Thursday afternoon I received an email from Ana in St. Joseph. On the 4th of July, Ana was playing in the water at Silver Beach and noticed her engagement ring was gone. She and her fiance’ were about to insure the ring but lost it before they had the chance. After contacting me and Fred Johnson, the Ring Finder for the Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Hastings areas, we agreed to meet her near the beach that evening. There was severe weather forecast for that evening and we were hoping to find it before the weather turned on us. I met Fred and Ana near the beach but we were unable to find a place to park anywhere near Silver Beach. Fred and I had to park a 1/2 mile from the beach and then walk an additional 1/2 mile south to the spot where Ana had lost the ring. Ana had also borrowed a Garrett AT Pro metal detector to help with the search. After a quick tutorial on how to operate the AT Pro, Ana started detecting near the shoreline while Fred and I started a grid search, Fred working to the south while I worked a grid to the north. After 15 or 20 minutes, in waist deep water, I saw gold and diamonds in my scoop! Ana was so surprised and happy she started to cry. Even the the onlookers on shore cheered. What a beautiful ring and a very happy bride-to-be.
Grand Haven puts on one of the best fireworks displays on the 4th of July anywhere in West Michigan. Thousands of people flock to Grand Haven and the Grand Haven State Park that day. By 11:00 a.m. the Sate Park was full and I was turned away and unable to spend the day detecting at my favorite beach. At 7:00 p.m. Devin, from Detroit, called me from Grand Haven State Park and said he lost the gold charm from his necklace on the volleyball court and asked me to please come find it. I’m thinking there’s no way I’m getting near the State Park this late in the day; the police would already be setting up road blocks and barricades to direct traffic in and out of the waterfront area; but I’m willing to give it a try. After several detours and roadblocks, I was able to get into the State Park about 2 hours before sunset as people left the park and head to the other side of downtown for the fireworks show. After meeting up with Devin at the volleyball courts I see they have a 6′ circle marked out in the sand at one corner of the court where he says he lost the charm. With the very first sweep of my coil I was able to find the charm! Everyone on the court broke out in cheers! Without doubt this was the quickest recovery I’ve ever made 🙂
Found in the yard
070717
Jane & Ellen
Land/stock AT Pro. Land search, items recovered. 2 hours.
My lovely neighbors Jane & Ellen, (and their four footed owners Agi and Riley),had their roof replaced. Although the crew did a careful clean-up, my friends were concerned about missed roofing nails which could hurt the always active, Agi & Riley. I swept through the yard, trying my best to ignore any deeper signals. I spent a couple of hours and found about 40 nails and staples, bits of wire, a drill bit, and some trash. Although I tried to ignore the deeper targets, I couldn’t help it, and I dug a couple of clad coins from 5 or 6 inches down. As you can see in the photo, one of the nails has a square cap. I found that one in the back yard by a swinging bench. Not only was it pretty far from the roof, it was sticking straight up on packed mulch. Anyone (human or dog) who stepped on that would have noticed! I am so happy Jane and Ellen asked me to do this for them. Before, it hadn’t occurred to me that this would be a useful service. Everyone was very appreciative. I even got a thank you card from Agi & Riley!
If I can be of service, the fastest way to get me is by text at 703-598-1435. I will contact you back ASAP.
This ring find began when I got a call from David Sheldon our Maui Ring Finder at about 7PM. He got a call from Kristi on Kailua Beach whose husband Blake lost his Platinum Wedding Band in the sand on the beach. Blake & Kristie and their darling baby Natalie were vacationing from Newport Beach California. David relayed my number to Kristi who called immediately thereafter. Kristi asked if we could meet in the morning and I told her we shouldn’t take that chance because besides Waikiki, Kailua is heavily metal detected. I told her traffic should be light enough that I could be there in less than 40 minutes. She agreed and off I went. With Summer break still going on I made it over in around 25 minutes. I think that’s a record for me! Kailua Beach has a landmark Green grocery store and Kristi said turn in there then call and she would guide me to where they were on the beach. Like clock work I could see Blake waving his hand on the beach so I rolled down my window and he said to park and he would meet me there. I gathered my gear and we all walked down to the lifeguard shack area where Blake was drying himself after a swim when the towel snagged his ring and pulled it off into the sand. I could see that they had been raking the sand for the ring to no avail. Blake said they searched for at least 2 hours. I fired up the Excalibur and started my grid search. On the second leg “BAM” there was Blake’s ring in the scoop. I love clean beaches! Blake was so excited and relieved that I found the ring so fast. They were so appreciative and there were hugs all around. Aloha to Blake & Kristi. Also a big shout out to our fellow ring finder extraordinaire on Maui David Sheldon!
Received a request from Jon K asking for help in finding a ring for his good friend Krissie from Chicago. Krissie and her fiance were vacationing at Jon’s cottage over the holiday and keeping cool by playing catch with a tennis ball in about 4 ft of water. On one throw she felt her ring fly off and did not see where it landed. Considering the 4 to 6 inches of silt on the bottom of the lake, their chances of finding that ring were near zero.
Jon and his friend met me at the cottage and gave me the story of how Krissie had lost the ring. I started to grid the search area and each time I got a signal, Jon, wearing mask and snorkel, would dive down and retrieve the item for me – much easier with the thick silt on the bottom than using a water scoop. With only some bottle caps and other junk found we decided to call Krissie to see if she could give us any more details on where the ring might have been lost. She said her fiance was standing next to an underwater tie down for a boat, and she was about 30 feet away throwing the ball to him. That information was key to giving us a more specific area to search. I soon got a high tone signal and I gave Jon the sign that this one had to be it. I marked the spot with the wood handle end of my water scoop and Jon dove down with the pin-pointer to locate the target. He came up with the ring in his hand and a big smile on his face.
With a few hoots and hollers for the neighbors watching us and a few pictures we ended the day on a high note for everyone. When I got home I had already received a heart felt thank you voicemail from Krissie. She said she bought that ring at Tiffany’s about 12 years ago, has worn it daily since then, and it means the world to her.
After finding the rings in the James river, I had some interesting calls. For example, one call was a woman who wanted me to help her find an expensive ring she lost somewhere on her property. It could be “anywhere on the grounds, or even flushed down the toilet”. She couldn’t remember what she did with it, because she was “pretty drunk and angry”. If the school year hadn’t started, I might have tried to help her, but I declined and suggested she call some other Ringfinders in the area. Other calls were either out of the area or during a critical time at work and I couldn’t get there fast enough.
If I can be of service, the fastest way to get me is by text at 703-598-1435. I will contact you back ASAP.
Justin was photographing another couple on the beach for some wedding album shots, when a rogue wave blasted through and knocked him off his feet and pushed him onto some rocks. In trying to keep his feet and save his expensive camera gear, his wedding ring came off. Finding it in that soft sand they have at that beach was impossible without a metal detector. When I received the call, I was skeptical it could even be found, but, was more than willing to try. That is one of the worst beaches in our area to make a water recovery. It has a heavy surge, large shore break waves, steep drop off, and sand so soft and loose, that it’s almost like quicksand. He sent me a photo of the site of the loss. I arrived the next morning at 4:30am to take advantage of the minus tide. I had the photo on my phone to use so I could match up the area. Unfortunately, it was real foggy that morning and hard to tell the exact area in the dark and fog. I saw a couple of features that looked like a match and began my search. After over an hour of gridding, no ring. In fact, no good targets of any kind. Not surprising at that beach. Once it started to get light from the approaching dawn, I looked again at the photo and then realized that I wasn’t in the right area. I finally determined the correct spot and started a 2nd grid. Still no luck. a few pieces of scrap aluminum and that was it. Nothing more to do but give him the bad news. It was still pretty early, so, I decided to move down the beach to an area where I had good luck in the past. I headed about 200 feet south and started hunting for fun. I liked to hunt the cracks up on the rocks and cliff. stuff falls into them all the time. While up on a ledge checking some cracks I got a good signal in some loose sand. It was only a couple of inches deep, so, easy to make a recovery. What do you know, it was a ring that matched Justin’s description! His was a fairly common tungsten carbide, so, I wasn’t positive that it was his, but, I was hopeful. I got to looking and it was a long way from where he took this photo. After contacting him later, he told me that he was using a telescopic lens and that he was a lot further back from what it looked like in the photo! He wanted to come and look at it to be sure, but, I was pretty certain at that point. Sure enough it was a perfect fit. Glad I could help Justin.
Aloha. I was called out to search for a ring lost while helping save an elderly male from drowning. Seemed like he was having a heart attack while snorkeling a little ways from shore. I met with Brandon the very next morning to search, about 2 hours into search No Luck. I went back late that evening to search the dry sand, No Luck. I went back a 3rd time the next morning to search deeper water. About 1 hour and in 5 feet of water ring found! No charge on this one. Help Me, Help You! Malama Pono
Chanel discovered her 2 carat diamond engagement ring was missing off her finger at 11pm. thinking back to earlier in the day, she knew she had it after a swim in the bay at about 3:30pm. She couldn’t remember anything in particular that she did in between those times that would cause the ring to come off except for shaking her towel to remove some sand. The location where she had camped on the beach was relatively small, but, no ring was found after I completely gridded that area. After some more Q&A, she mentioned that she had also been in her house and had washed her daughter’s hair in the bathtub. Aha, that sounded like a likely place to check. While that was being checked, I expanded the search area on the beach. After an hour, I called off the search. While walking back to my truck, I pass right by her house. I stopped and knocked on the door to tell them the bad news, and found out that they had just found the ring while searching the babies bassinet! I didn’t find it, but, I like to think I helped by eliminating one possible area and getting them thinking about other possible areas.