Uncategorized Category | Page 445 of 584 | The Ring Finders

On March 21st, I received an email from a person named Kate, who had lost a vintage silver ring last summer while wilderness camping near the two-hearted river in Upper Michigan. It was her grandmother’s ring, and her fiance had been wearing it on a chain around his neck for seven years. They planned on getting married soon, and needed the ring to design their wedding bands. I explained that the trip would be pretty far, but she offered to pay expenses. Finally, we heard the snow melted there, so decided to leave. My detectorist friend, Brian,  and I drove there last Friday. Brian did the driving because his vehicle has better climate control and he can see deer better. We drove, and drove, and drove. It was about 500 miles, plus an extra 60-mile trip to get a park pass from the State DNR Park office, plus kind of getting lost a few times because GPS, two phones, and a few maps all said different things. Finally, we found the camp site coordinates on Brian’s portable GPS, hiked a ways to it, and he found the ring! We celebrated with a couple of Yuengling beers. Taquamenon Falls was amazing, and the campsite was pretty cool, too. 

On Saturday, May 26th, 2018, Brad contacted me to say he had lost his wedding band at a popular sandbar while throwing a football with his family.   He called a friend who metal detects, who lived too far away to drive, but recommended me.   I tried to find someone who would be at the lake, but nobody was available.  So, I quick popped in the car and drove about 75 miles to the cottage.  The entire family rode out to the sand bar with me to witness the search.  They were all very nice, though worried it might never be found.  Luckily, they had marked the spot using GPS on a cell phone, so we knew we were close.  Well, maybe not, as opinions differed as to which direction the 14k ring had flown.  Gold can grow wings when it catches on a football!   After about 20 minutes of pattern searching, a handful of pop tabs and a few coins, I heard what I thought was another pop tab signal in my AT Pro Headphones.  A beautiful wedding band with inlaid diamonds appeared in the scoop, and Brad plucked it out with a big smile!   His finger needed that ring back on it after 21 years!   It was well-worth the drive to make Brad and his wife happy! 

Drew and Kristin were out boating with friends yesterday and stopped in the sandy shallow area of Gun Lake to play in the water.  After horsing around for awhile, Drew noticed his ring was missing.  They had just been married in October of last year, and this ring was very special to both of them.  Thankfully, before they left the lake they had the great good sense to use plastic bags to mark the trees at either end of the area to search.  When Gregg Larabel, my fellow Ringfinder and I met them at the lake early this morning, those bags left no doubt about where to search.  In about 30 minutes this huge gold ring showed up in my scoop.  After a very sad and stressful evening Drew and Kristin had their smiles back again.                                                                                                                                                               

I got a text from my friend Jay N. who’s friend lost his wedding ring while boating at a local lake. I went out the next morning with my Ring Finder friend, Dave Boyer. After meeting Drew L. and his wife Kristin they pointed us in the area and in about 20 minutes with Dave and I doing a grid search, Dave came up with this beauty of a ring.

This is is why I love what I do!  When Chelsea called from another state, I knew she was skeptical that I could not only find her rings here in FL but also return them.  She explained that she had dropped both the diamond engagement ring and the diamond encrusted band from her Tacori wedding ring set on the beach while visiting Navarre.  I knew what these rings meant to her both financially as well as emotionally and I could only imagine what was going through her mind.  I couldn’t wait to see the smile on her face when I found them.  Chelsea was on a huge beach and as is common, she was not sure where she lost them.  She didn’t even know if they were in the Gulf or the dry sand.  She also mentioned that they had purchased a metal detector and gone back another day and scoured the area with no luck.  I reassured her that I had a few tricks up my sleeve and a couple of top of the line machines that could find her rings much deeper than the machine she purchased.  She began to feel better and I asked my questions I needed to know so that I could start my search.  I had to put in quite a bit of work on this one because of the size of the area but ultimately I was able to find both rings and put them back on her finger.  As you can see from the picture, her husband Jason was just as thrilled as she was.  I am so glad that I was able to find these for you.  Thank you Chelsea and Jason for trusting me.

Got a call from a lady whose daughter had lost a ring in the yard.  The woman had received the ring when she was a child and cherished it for years and had recently passed it on to her young daughter.  The daughter was playing in the sprinklers in the front yard and came running in when momma called – Her daughter flung her hands in the air and immediately felt the ring fly off.  The parents spent many hours looking through the tall grass without success.  I was happy to come by and look.  She described it as a very small gold ring.  Well, it was the smallest ring I’ve ever seen!  Gold rings aren’t always easy to find as they show up as the either the pull tab off a drink can or a piece of foil like from a gum wrapper.  This ring rang up as barely a 1 (from 1-100 on my machine) and barely made a slight fuzzy sound but I looked down and saw a slight glimmer – there it was!  So happy to have been able to reunite the ring to the woman.  Sorry, the picture it so blurry but it was so small and the lighting was not the best.

The evening of May 20th ended on a sad note for Milwaukee residents, Preston and Johannah St. John. Johannah’s wedding rings took flight into the night behind their new home, disappearing into the thick foliage. The means whereby the rings went airborne shall remain shrouded in mystery or just left to the imagination of the reader. Despite crawling on hands and knees, Preston and Johannah could not find their love tokens—the rings seemed lost forever.

A quick search on the Internet pointed Johannah to a fellow Ring Finder in the region. He contacted me with the details the next morning and after a quick phone call a search was arranged that evening.

As luck would have it, rain fell in torrents all day, turning the ground into a soggy mess. But just as I pulled into the St. John’s driveway the clouds seemed to sense the urgency of the hour, took pity on us all and turned their showers elsewhere. The search was made all the more challenging by the presence of iron trash and a large cast iron pipe buried in the ground. To ferret out the signals of small gold rings amidst a ferrous cacophony made me glad for my discerning XP Deus detector. Soon the first ring, a fine band, came to light. A half hour later and some 30 feet away, the solitaire similarly cried uncle.

I was making my way back to the car when Johannah appeared. Her body language and facial expression betrayed fast-fading hope. At first I played the part of a futile search but then her pained disappointment was too much for me. I opened my hand to reveal, first the solitaire, and then the band. Tears and a hug followed. Gotta love this hobby.

Thanks, Preston and Johannah, for letting me recover your rings! As for just how they took flight… that shall remain our secret.