Uncategorized Category | Page 447 of 479 | The Ring Finders

Three weeks ago Christina and her Marine husband Mike were running their dog in the shallow water at Pinconning County  Park about a mile from their home. Whenever they go down to the water with their dog Mike gives Christina his 14K white gold wedding band with 10 diamonds for safe keeping. Christina put it on her finger and forgot about it when she picked up a clump of dirt from the bottom of the lake and threw it for her dog to chase after. Off comes the ring and on goes the computer to search for a ring finder. Being that it was a 2 hour drive I had to make arrangements to visit them the following day. My detecting friend Dave B. and I talked to Christina and she explained where and how she threw the ring, so we set up a grid in the area which was the size of a basketball court. Once into the water we found that you could walk out hundreds of feet and get no deeper than about 3 feet. The problem was that the deeper you got the silt and clay got mushier. When we got a signal and dug we came up with silt and a big clump of clay to add to the problem when we swept the coil the water turned gray from the silt and clay.

After about a three hour search we told Christina and Mike that we could not find it but because Mike had just got out of the Marines and they were both going to school and looking for a job we wanted to help them. They paid me gas money and I told them that we would be back but the next time it was on my dime.

Last Monday, 2 weeks later, we again set up a grid starting from the deepest part where we were told the ring should be and then searching towards shore. We started at 11 am and slowly worked our way to the shore and at about 5 pm 10 feet from shore I got the hit I was looking for and yelled out to Dave “I found it”.

We went to Cristina and Mikes house and presented the ring to a very happy couple. Another long but fruitful day for thringfinders.

   “remember a ring is not always where the person THINKS it was lost”

Ben was out fishing with a buddy on Lake Minnetonka, they noticed a storm rolling in and decided to search for cover. Lake Minnetonka is a very large lake and it’s tough to get to a boat landing or back to your dock in a hurry. They found a dock that was covered and slipped his boat in and waited for the storm to pass. As he was taking off the securing ropes from the boat to the dock, his Platinum Wedding Band popped off his hand and into the lake. Ben borrowed some goggles and dove down to find his ring with no luck. He searched the internet and found the ring finders web site and gave me a call. We met over at the lake the next day and after 10 minutes of scuba – my trusty Excalibur metal detector got that sweet sound of Platinum. It was a beautiful day and a nice 10 to 15 minute boat ride out to the dive site. His wedding ring has only been on his finger for 3 months, glad we got it back on your finger Ben – Take Care and I hope to see you out on the Lake fishing sometime!

DW

Katie called me right from the beach where she had lost both of her rings after taking them off to apply skin lotion (if I only had a dollar everytime this happens, I could buy my own island!). After a frantic search by her and her husband, they found one of the rings but the small platinum band eluded them. I met them a short time later to do what I thought would be a very quick recovery. I should never think that as it just seems to jinx me. They never left the area which was only 8′ squared but that little ring wasn’t ready to show itself that easily. A quick scan told me that there was quite a bit of  junk in the sand too. Unfortunately, small platinum reads the same as foil and other tiny junk sounds so this was going to be a bigger challenge than I originally thought. After moving all their beach gear to the side, I got to work listening to the faintest sounds and removing anything that set the detector off. After about 15 minutes, I got a real faint, scratchy sound and figured it was just a piece of foil and scooped it to get it out of the way. Lo and behold, it was the ring! About 7-8″ down in a pile of sand they they had sifted earlier in their search. It all turned out well as the smile indicates. Glad to meet you and thank you for the reward.

J0sh called me saying that he lost his wedding ring in the dry sand at Mission Beach He, his wife, and child were still there at the beach so that is always a good sign when it comes to a successful search. That beach is hunted daily by many others with detectors so time is always important. I hot footed it down there and within 5 minutes we had the ring back on his finger. It was good to meet you and thank you for the reward!

My family & I went up north Minnesota for our yearly vacation. We stayed at a resort on a lake and after chatting with the owners, we found out that a couple of people had lost there wedding rings while swimming in the beach area many years ago. Luckily I brough my scuba gear and detectors ” I never leave home without them” 😉 I found both missing rings within an hour of searching. These resorts have a lot of returning customers year after year. It just so happened that the owner of one of the rings was actually at the resort and we got to return that ring right away. The resort owners gave me the contact information for the other person who lost their ring and i contacted him. He has booked a stay up at the resort just a couple weeks away. I left the 2nd ring with the resort owners and I have not heard back. Though I am sure the ring made it back to the rightful owner. The owners said it was a great experience having the ring finders up there to find those lost valuable……….Glad we could help out!!!!!!

Take Care,

D.W. Gray

Three weeks ago Ryan C. called me after finding my name as a ring finder on line. His wife Shannon had lost her diamond wedding ring while enjoying an afternoon of boating on Half Moon Lake. They had anchored their boat at a popular party spot on the lake and while standing waste deep in the water she accidently dropped her ring in the lake. The water was clear but the bottom contained a layer of silt from the clay underneath it. They said they would meet us in a designated spot and we could follow them to the lake. We went to the public beach where they picked us up after getting their boat and then going to the spot where the ring was lost.

Shannon showed us about where the ring went off her finger and we, search buddy Dave B. and I proceeded to look for the ring. Every step and swipe of our detector we would kick up the silt and sink over our shoes in the clay. We did a grid search to no avail. After about three hours I told Ryan and Shannon that I was sorry that we couldn’t find the ring but would come back on my dime to look again. Our drive time from my house to the lake is about two hours.

Today Dave B., myself and another friend Chuck R. drove to the side of the lake that we could get to without a boat and start searching for the ring. Little did we know that we had to walk through a forest for a quarter of a mile with our equipment twice. The first time a gentleman walking his dog showed us the trail and walk with us to the right spot. We thanked him and walked back to the car to get our equipment. Did I mention poison ivy? We brought with us some grid markers and proceeded to search, going from the shallow to deeper. It was in the waste deep area where Ryan’s boat was parked the last time that Dave B. came up with a gleaming diamond. After high fiving each other I walked to shore and texted Ryan with a picture of the ring and said “Is this it?”. He happily replied, “yes”. I told him we would meet him at the beach and presented him the ring.

Ryan did not tell Shannon right away that we found the ring and wanted to have their two year old son present it to her, “she freaked”. So now the full moon smiles are bright over Half Moon Lake once again. The pictures say it all.

I received a call from Ken asking me if I could help him find his lost ring. I asked Ken the usual questions, “When did you loose your ring? and What were you doing when you lost it?”  Ken seemed a bit embarrassed about the exact details and finally said that he had actually thrown the ring out the balcony sliding door!  I assured Ken that these things do happen and the most important thing now was to find his missing ring.

Later that same day I met Ken at his home and he showed me the area where the ring was thrown.  After a 20 minute search, the ring was found along the edge of the neighbors sidewalk hiding under a few blades of grass.

Thank you Ken for your generous reward and remember, no matter how you lost it I am here to help!!

Lost something?  Give me a call ASAP!

Mike McInroe with theringfinders.com