Uncategorized Category | Page 566 of 582 | The Ring Finders

    Randy called me on a Sunday morning and said his son had lost his wedding ring in the sand on Fiesta Island. It seems the son removed the ring to apply tape to his hands in preparation for playing ball and …..well you know the rest. They searched and searched, Randy even used a sifter and methodically gridded the most likely area to no avail. I started my search pattern at one end of the area and about a half hour (and 20 pull tabs! ) later, I had his ring in my hand. It was just outside the area Randy had sifted. Since his son was still playing ball in a tournament, I wasn’t able to get a photo of him holding the ring but gave it to Randy for a reunion later. Here’s the ring anyway….

While metal detecting in four feet of water with about one foot waves at Grand Haven State Park, Michigan, I found a class ring from Davenport University class of 2005. We were on a hunt with our metal detecting club (Wolverine Research and Recovery Club) and I showed the ring to the members and said tomorrow I will be on Craigslist and Facebook to find the owner. When I got home that evening I went to Facebook and found several Mike Harders but only one from the area in Middleville, MI. I friend-ed Mike and asked him if he graduated from DU. He messaged me back and after answering several questions I found he was the  owner of the class ring.

Mike was skipping a ball with his nephew  in Lake Michigan when he noticed the ball and another splash, the other splash was his ring. He has lost weight due to Parkinsons that he has and as an Air Force veteran is 100% disabled. Mike graduated from DU in 2005 with a degree in Computer Engineering and shortly before his moms death she gave him the money for his ring. It has a lot of sentimental value to him and when he told his sister that someone  had recovered his ring that sat down and cried.

As a retired Air Force veteran myself  it was very special to meet Mike face to face and hand over the ring to him.

Forty minutes after Brian Ingle lost his wedding ring, he was on line looking for smeone to find it, finding “theringfinders” he looked in the directory at Michigan and found my name. Brian immediately got on the telephone asking me to come out and find his wedding ring. I told him I could be out the next morning.

Brian, Kelsey (who is 7 months pregnant with their first child) and his mother and father in-law were staying at Brians parents cottage on Crystal Lake and decided to play water volleyball. They have a net set up in 3 to 4 feet of water with a sandy bottom, it was ideal for detector hunting. Kelsey told him to be careful not to loose his ring while playing volleyball but as luck would have it, his ring came off. He showed us where it must be and that he didn’t hit the ball hard because it was just  family funtime in the water.

My brother Doug and I set up a grid search of the volleyball court, him taking one side and I the other. After finishing one way with no results we started the other grid search going perpendicular in the court. Two hours had passed with no results however we did clean out several screws, bolts, bottlecaps and coins. We decided to go several feet outside the court to no avail, than lunch. From 9:30am to 3:00pm we searched. I decided to go way outside the box and there it was on the opposite side of the court where Brian thought it was on.

Brian and Kelsey were smiling and a very happy couple bing reunited with his ring. The couple is from Fairborn, Ohio and Kelsey’s parents were visiting from Cincinatti, Ohio. We showed them some Pure Michigan hospitality.