bay area bleeper Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost unique white gold ring with diamond…Found at Baker Beach!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

I contacted Debra early on Wednesday after reviewing a Craigslist post about a lost white gold ring with a diamond.  She had been on Baker Beach when the ring went missing and after talking with her I could tell that it was troubling her.

I sent her a link to THERINGFINDERS.COM site and agreed to search for the ring the following Saturday.  She agreed and was very thankful for my offer.  Later that evening my good friend Jes Muse, founder of The Bay Area Bleepers (check it out) sent over the post suggesting that I perform the search as she would be out of town.

I woke up at 4:30 Saturday morning, packed my gear, and made the hour drive to the coast.  When I arrived, there were few people on the beach and at one point I shared the beach with no one but three coyotes.  The fog was thick, so much so that it fell like rain and the sand had a thin wet layer on top.  I opened up a photo that Debra was kind enough to mark up of the area that would become the search zone.  The detecting was difficult with seemingly never ending targets hid beneath my grid pattern.  I cleared handfuls of trash from the beach as I searched.  And then, a ring!  Sadly not the ring I was there for, but a happy consolation.

After about two hours of searching, I decided to call Debra and give her an update and to get a better account of where she might have been.  As it turned out, I was working away from where she had been and after a 20 yard course correction and pockets full of trash, I hit an 8-9 VDI (visual display indicator) that sounded very promising on the equinox. In one scoop I had the item, but it had not revealed itself.  I’m happy to announce, WE MADE THE RECOVERY!!!

The exciting part was yet to come.  I took a few photographs of the ring and the beach and sent them on to Debra.  The next thing I did was gave her a call and when she answered I simply asked if she had gotten my photos.  She admitted she had not but went straight to them.  That is when I got my payout!!!  She was so extremely excited that I could feel it through the phone.  It’s a feeling like no other.

   

After our celebration over the phone, I agreed to drop off the ring on my way home.  She lived along the route I would travel home and I was excited to get to meet her.  I quickly packed the gear and 45 minutes later the ring was back with Mrs. Debra.

It takes a lot of trust for someone to disclose a bunch of details about their missing valuables, especially when they are so sentimental.  Thank you Debra for putting your trust in me to assist you in the recovery of your unique and beautiful ring and for your generosity!  It was a pleasure to meet you and I wish you the very best in your future!

   

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

Lost 14K Diamond Wedding Band…Found at Baker Beach!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

Luis and I walked down the beach and into the tidal zone.  He stuck a stick in the sand and said, “I was standing right here.  I threw the football in that direction and felt the ring come off.  I saw it in my peripheral vision for a brief moment, then it was gone!” And so the search was on!

Three days earlier the event took place and he had made a number of attempts to find his 14K white gold ring with inset diamonds.  He even posted a Lost and Found ad on Craigslist to seek out help.  It was at this time I got involved by sending him a link to THERINGFINDERS.COM site and offering up assistance. Up until then, the only correspondence had been through an email and a few short text messages.  He later admitted to being a bit skeptical that the ring could be recovered.  I, however, was packed and ready for the hour long trip to the coast knowing that the next day a storm would hit the area decreasing the chances of a positive outcome.  Having a meeting for work and little confidence that the ring could be located, Luis text me to call off the search effort.  I text him back.  “Don’t give up just yet…unless someone else found it, it is still there!”

Those words changed the course of the search and breathed new energy into Luis.  We spoke for a few minutes on the phone and we were back on track to meet up an hour later that evening.

We set up a grid of the area just in front of the placed stick.  I worked East-West from the shore to the water first.  I armed Luis with a pin-pointer and he meticulously scanned the area directly in front of the stick. I had completed the grid and decided to turn and work North-South while also expanding the grid.  I was less than 12 feet to the right of the stick Luis had placed.  This was the area that the ring should have been, but had not been discovered on the East-West grid.  I got a perfect signal about 6 to 8 inches down.  A perfect 10 VDI for the Nox 800 in Beach 1.  Moments later Luis and I were giving each other a high-five…  We had MADE THE RECOVERY!

It was almost sunset, the wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping.  The moments after the recovery were exciting and it was beautiful at the beach.  We talked and celebrated a bit before returning to the car to head home.

Luis had done a number of things that contributed to a successful recovery.  When the ring came off, he didn’t immediately panic.  He and his friend took notice of their surroundings and Luis, after 3 days, was able to put me less than 12 feet from the ring despite an enormous beach. The other thing that was critical was to seek help.  Luis has stated several times that the right equipment in the right hands was the recipe for success.  Thank you Luis for trusting in me and my process.  It was great to meet you and I wish you the very best in the future!

Luis moments after the recovery!

The ring back in it’s correct place.

The custom 14K white gold band with inset diamonds

A beautiful setting for the recovery!

Working the Grid in front of the placed stick!

A happy couple with both their custom matching rings!

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

Now offering Metal Detecting, Video Endoscope, and Magnet Fishing services!

AMAZING…14K wedding band lost for 25 years…RECOVERED!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)

Bay Area Ring Finders: Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590 

Almost 25 years ago, a gentleman working in his yard in Oakland, CA lost his 14K yellow gold wedding band.  The family searched, but never recovered the ring.  In 2008 this same gentleman, a beloved father and husband, lost his life to cancer.  May he rest in peace!

Fast forward to July 2023, fellow ring finder and friend Jes Muse from THERINGFINDERS.COM requests that I cover a call out she had received.  Jes is recovering from a recent surgery and I wish her a successful and speedy recovery.  She sent all the pertinent information for me to reach out to Mr. Limon regarding his fathers lost ring.

After a brief conversation, it was decided that 7-18-2023 at 3pm we would meet at his childhood home.  This home is on the market to be sold and this week would likely be the last opportunity to search for the long gone wedding band.  We met on the street and he showed me the area we would be working,  a small terraced hillside that once was covered in ivy at the front of the home.  The hillside had since been reworked and the ivy removed, being replaced with mulch.

I set up my Equinox 800 and anchored in at the corner of the hillside and grid from bottom to top, right to left facing the hill.  The very first signal was perfect… a VDI (visual discrimination indicator of 16 in both directions….heart break as we pulled an odd brass like fitting.  We continued the grid search systematically removing every target we found.  Then, mid-slope almost exactly where Mr. Limon recalled his father telling him it was lost all those years ago…WE MADE THE RECOVERY!!!!

The signal was not as perfect as I had hoped, but may have been partially masked by another metal object or maybe laid in an awkward position .  The VDI was 18, 19, 20 at 4″ deep and I dug a large plug as to not damage anything below. There, in the spoils of the plug, was the 14K wedding band that went missing almost 25 years earlier.

After recovering the ring, Mr. Limon was kind enough to share all the details I have included above.  He and his family were also most generous in sending me some very emotion evoking photos later that evening.  Thank you very kindly for entrusting me with the search for this very precious piece of your family history and I’m very happy that it will continue to tell a very exciting new story.

The cleaned 14K gold wedding band that rested nearly 25 years in the ground.

Photographed with her late husbands wedding band after 25 years lost in the yard.

Mr. Limon with the fresh recovery of the ring.

Metal detecting the slope where the ring had been lost nearly 25 years earlier.

Bay Area Ring Finders: Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590 

Platinum in Pacifica

  • from Pacifica (California, United States)

It was on Day 10 of me having Covid that I received a call to help this couple find the husband’s wedding ring. Despite having cabin fever, I tried passing the call off to my buddy Brendon, but he was at a friend’s BBQ so I took a home Covid test, saw that I was FINALLY testing negative, and decided to take a shot at finding this ring.
The owner had been out on the beach with his dog and the ring slipped off as he tried to distract the dog from the washed-up dead bird just a few feet away.

I found the ring pretty quickly, which is good because I was still fighting the Covid-related exhaustion. It felt great to be out of the house, in the fresh air, and to be able to return the ring to it’s owner. His wife was definitely happy. He was one of those guys that doesn’t show a lot of emotion, though he was surprised at where I found it and how deep.

Plat ring

Another Busy Sunday Afternoon!

  • from Pacifica (California, United States)

For reasons that are probably easy to figure out, the weekends can be very busy for Ring Finders like us. This past Sunday was no exception for me. I received two calls within 5 minutes of each other. I had someone working on my house and it was almost dinner time so I sent the first caller to my buddy Brendon. When the second call came in, knowing Brendon would already be on the first call, I asked the woman if I could call her back. I checked with my contractor, and my wife, and decided I could probably make it out to find the second caller’s ring.

Forty minutes later I found myself at Baker Beach once again!
I swear, the sand there just SUCKS rings in like quicksand.

I met these clients on the beach after parking my car. I reviewed with them what they were doing when they lost it and where they thought it might have gone. Within a few short minutes, I had found the ring!

If only all of our ring finds were this easy and quick!

 

Baker Beach 8/28/22

Ring from Husband!

  • from Pacifica (California, United States)

This woman called me crying. She had lost a ring that her husband, who had been incarcerated, had given her. He received the ring from his uncle so it was a family heirloom of sorts. She and her two sons were out at Baker Beach (yep, Baker Beach again!) and the ring, which is too large for her fingers, flew off into the sand. They had all tried to find it. The beach was cold and very windy. They weren’t dressed for the weather having driven down from out of the city. One of her sons had gone to the car because he was freezing by the time I arrived. The sun was setting so we had to get to work quickly. I can hunt in the dark but the police kick you out of there at sundown. I traversed this section of beach three or four times and she started to lose faith. I told her I wouldn’t give up and she shouldn’t either and then I finally hit on the signal. Tears of sadness turned to tears of joy!

Ring Found!

It’s not just RINGS that we can find!

  • from Pacifica (California, United States)

We can find anything metal and when I got a call from a woman who was visiting old friends from out of town and lost her COMPANY cell phone on the beach the night before, I knew I had to get out there to help her.
She thought she knew where she lost it but she had looked there herself already. I asked her to show me the path she traveled and sure enough we found it in less than 5 minutes!

Lost Phone!

Lost at the Beach!

Found Olympic Ring!

  • from Pacifica (California, United States)

After a marriage proposal on the beach, an Olympian lost a ring commemorating her participation as the first female to represent Puerto Rico in Rowing on their Olympic team. Her fiance found me here on The Ringfinders and I went to find locate it. Baker Beach is Federally regulated so we aren’t allowed to detect there normally but going on a quest to find a lost ring?! I was going to get it done no matter what.

And I did!

Found Olympic Ring

V. Toro’s Olympic ring from the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Video short here https://youtu.be/x2bUdwwQMSM