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Silver Ring Lost While at Work – Found in Kerikeri Orchard

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Just after sunrise this morning I was meeting Sinead at a local commercial orchard near Kerikeri, with the objective of finding her silver ring lost the previous day.
She had taken it off and put it a pouch with her phone while planting new vines. But later in the day, discovered it had disappeared.

Fortunately she had a good idea of which rows it would be in, although a dedicated group of fellow workers on hands and knees had failed to find it yesterday.
On arrival at the block, deep in the orchard, Sinead recounted how she had taken her ring off and put it in the pouch with her phone at the start of work.

We started the search in the row where she had taken the phone out of the pouch to answer a call.

Going was very tough with lots of chatter from buried offcuts, wire staples and similar chaff that you find on any established commercial site, however the ring would (should) be a good signal and I was able to move reasonably fast.
As the coil wiped the dew off the grass it gave an excellent indicator that I was getting 100% coverage. Who needs GPS!

First row finished after about 45 minutes with only a couple of too-close-to-call possibles investigated.

We moved onto the second row, I was suddenly now conscious that this orchard covered several square kilometres…

Sinead mentioned that she noticed she had dropped her headphones here…or maybe that row over there – I took her word for it, they all looked the same to me!
I started in the area where the headphones were found, nothing. Opened the search a bit wider and…a good repeatable signal.
I parted the grass and saw the silver edge of the ring pressed into the topsoil.
Leaving it there, I beckoned to Sinead to come over.
“Oh, Wow!”, as she excitedly picked up her ring from where it fell and put it back on her finger.

 

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Lost Gold Signet Ring in the Sea at Russell – Found After Three Years of Searching!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Three years ago, Connor was swimming at Long Beach near Russell and he felt his gold signet ring slip off his finger.
This was a one-off piece, well sort of, as each of the family had one made with the family crest embossed into it. Effectively irreplaceable.

I met with Connor at the time and spent some hours looking for it in the surf and on the beach, however came back empty handed.

It was highly unlikely a casual detectorist had found it in such a short time, so it had to have gone deep with the sand movement.
It became a thorn in my side, knowing it was there…
Any time I was in Russell since then, I had a look at the beach – Some days the sea and sand were favourable so I spent a few more hours looking. As I do with any outstanding recovery.
Other days, there was obviously a lot of deep sand overburden, so any attempt wouldn’t be productive.
About three weeks ago, I stopped by as had become habit (bordering on obsession) whenever I was on the peninsula.
I saw a very shallow and subtle shift in the beach contour so I kitted up.
The first hole produced a very old and white-oxidised lead sinker, this looked promising – but had someone else beaten me to it with the ring?
Second signal was a clean low tone, but very faint. I dug the scoop in deep, but the signal remained in the hole.
Second scoop took me down to around 40cm deep, the hole was silent so whatever it was, was in the scoop.
Expecting another sinker, I shook the sand out of the scoop in the water, looked in and there was a beautiful orangey-yellow of gold, just starting to get that water-aged tone.

Three years… and fifteen days, after it had been lost.

I emailed Connor that night with a photo. His reply was that of amazement, disbelief, and lots of exclamation marks.

Today he drove up from Auckland, and I handed his family ring back to him, smiles and handshakes aplenty.

I sat in the car afterwards, and put a line through his entry in my little black book and wrote, with immense satisfaction,

“FOUND! 11/02/21”

 

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Ring Lost in Surf at Whangarei – Found after Four Days

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Merryn was having a swim at Whangaumu Bay near Whangarei in New Zealand when she felt her wedding ring slip off the finger. The water was too murky to see it, and it would have buried itself in the fluid sand instantly anyway.
It was with a heavy heart she walked away from it.
Shortly after, Merryn happened across a detecting mate of mine and mentioned it to him. Steve wasn’t able to help as it was a marine recovery – but he knew I could as an experienced ringfinder, and passed on Merryns details.
Four days after the loss, I arrived at Whangaumu with a rough verbal guide as to where it was, to get me started until Merryn was able to get there and pinpoint the spot.
I walked the dry sand above the high tide line looking for evidence of where she had been, and spotted two old towel marks in the sand. Must be the spot and I started work.
After a couple of hours being slapped and dunked by the surf, Merryn arrived and confirmed I was in the right place, but the towel marks weren’t hers! It was pure coincidence or human behaviour unconsciously picking the same spot for whatever reason!
The surf was quite dumpy with a lot of sand flowing down the beach. I told Merryn that in these conditions with the four day head start, odds were getting slim. She had to leave to go to another commitment so after watching anxiously for several minutes, left me to it.
Thirty minutes after she had driven away, I picked up a deep tone. Fanned the sand away with my feet and looked down through the suspended sediment to see the outline of her ring in the deep crater.
I scooped it, switched off the machine and headed straight back to the car to TXT her that her ring was now secured 🙂
This morning, I met with her to hand back her freshly polished ring…
Then promptly headed off to find another one nearby, this one lost in the sea five weeks ago.
That one was also saved and will be reunited with the owner in a couple of weeks. Watch this space 🙂
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iPhone se Found on Random Hunt at Matauri Bay – Traced and Returned

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Not all recoveries are planned, some are random exercises in detective work.
I was working Matauri Bay beach doing a casual hunt before work this morning, when I dug an iPhone SE. Usually phones are no more than fancy spirit levels when they come out of the tide but this one was a recent loss and showed potential to be able to at least allow the owner to salvage their photos and contacts.

I headed off to work a bit early in order to put the phone through intensive care, quick rinse in fresh water, dried it off and delicately picked the sand out of the charging port. Firing it up, it flickered to life, complained about flat battery and shut down. It lives! Hopefully I could now reunite the owner with their rather expensive phone.

While I charged it, I swapped the sim out into my phone to discover a couple of missed calls which occurred after loss and looked promising leads.

Dropped the sim back into the found phone and sent a text to both numbers from my one explaining the situation and asking if they had a name I could follow up…and waited.
On the off-chance it had been dropped by a camper at the adjacent holiday park, I phoned the office to enquire if anyone had lost a phone recently.
“Yes, a white iPhone”, “Well, I have found it!” – A cheer is heard in the background at the other end of the line. I arranged to drop it off after work.

It seems Nakita had dropped it a couple of days previously, the fact it had survived at least three tides was a testament to the quality of the phone as it had lain under the sand at about the half-tide mark spending quite a few hours underwater at each high tide.
A family member gratefully accepted it on behalf, and I headed home.

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Ring lost in sea at Long Beach, Russell – Found by Ringfinders

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Emeralds and Diamonds, oh my…..
Got a call yesterday from Grant that his wife had lost her ring in the sea at Oneroa/Long Beach in Russell 8-10 days ago. Fortunately the seas had been favourable since the loss, so there was a very good chance of a successful recovery.
I met Grant and Sarah on site (always increases the odds greatly if you can meet me) and as I kitted up, they marked out their best guess as to where ‘X’ marked the spot. As the tide was still falling, I did the easy bit on the wet sand first – just in case…
Alas, it was not to be and I had to head into the water, which was still surprisingly cool! I had been searching in waist deep water for a short time when I got a promising tone – on the second scoopful, the hole was silent and I washed the sand out of the scoop to be greeted with a beautiful ring sitting in the bottom. Job done 🙂 I was going to call Grant and let him know I had something for him, when he turned up with Sarah, who gave me a big hug, despite me still being soaking wet 😁
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Gold Earring Lost in Sand at Whangaroa, Found and Returned.

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

I got a call late last night from Sophie, asking if I was able to find a lost gold earring in the sand.

She had been playing volleyball on the beach at Tauranga Bay near Whangaroa in the Far North of New Zealand, and at some stage in the rough and tumble the earring was lost into the sand. A fellow camper at the Tauranga Bay campsite had heard of or witnessed my successful recovery of a lost engagement ring there just a couple of days ago. It was a simple matter to track down The Ringfinders to save the day (well, night)

It was just about low tide when she phoned, dinner could wait but time and tide waits for no-one, it was 50km away and night searches in the water aren’t fun. I threw the water kit in the car and headed off.

They had left the net up so I could see where they had been playing, but the giveaway was the parallel lines and grubbing about of what looked like a group of people doing a shoulder to shoulder contact search through the sand. It was just on sunset when I started and worked the court area and the principle traffic area back towards the camp.  I became aware of an audience in the dark, comfortably seated and watching what must be the most boring spectator event ever!  However they were to disappointed as the only two targets found were a hair clip and a 10c piece.  Confident I had cleared the site, it was either deep or not in the indicated area.

After confirming clothing etc had been checked to make sure it hadn’t been caught up, I said I would return in the morning with a deeper coil.

Up at 4am to drive back to the beach. Aside from a few torches of bleary-eyed campers stumbling around the campsite it was just me and my detector.  I re-ran the original grid, picking up some deeper junk targets before widening the search area.   I dropped over the change in contour where the waves had lapped on last nights high tide and off to the outside of one corner of the original grid I picked up a quiet ‘double-thud’ of a circular object – but could be an old can pulltab down deep.

Yes, it was deep, nearly 30cm down, but it wasn’t a pulltab as my fingers closed on the familiar shape of a sand-filled ring in the dark. Verified in the headlamp, and Job Done!

I scratched a message to Sophie in the sand: “FOUND IT! Back at 4pm” and headed off to work.

Later that morning I got a TXT from Sophie who had seen the message and was overjoyed at the retrieval of her lost earring.  By 4pm, it was back in her hands (to be put safely away with the other one for the remainder of their holiday)

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Silver ring lost in sea, quickly returned in Paihia

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Jess was swimming at Paihia, in Northland, NZ when she felt the large silver ring slip off her finger.Her boyfriend tracked me down via a web search and I arranged to meet them at the next low tide.
The beach had largely emptied after the New Year holiday-makers so I was able to run a comprehensive grid without hindrance of sunbathers/swimmers or inquisitive children.
As the search area started to open up from their ‘Lost here’ best guess, and with the pouch slowly filling with metallic chaff and the occassional toy car I started to consider other options and second guess myself.

Had it been picked up by an eagle-eyed passer by as the tide dropped? Had I missed it with one slightly lazy swipe of the coil?
Despite these niggles, I stuck to the grid and started out into the water. It had started raining, so I was already wet and with the beach being actively dragged down by the ebbing waves I needed to work this area as best I could before the shells etc buried it if it was out there.

After about three or four passes out to the edge of the actively mobile sand, I got a faint silver tone. Wave surge made it difficult to accurately fix the position, and it was still in the hole after the first scoopful came out. I briefly glimpsed it as it settled in the slurry of shell and sand. This is where you can lose a ring down deep if not careful.  The scoop went in again, well under the ring and heaved the contents out. Hole checked and clear. I had it.

Jess and Johnny were already making their way down the beach towards me as I held the ring up… And the sun started to come out.

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Diamonds lost in sand, found within two minutes

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Sarah was enjoying the summer with her family at Taupo Bay, a lovely ocean beach in the north of New Zealand.
Taking her gold and diamond wedding ring off to apply sunscreen to her son before a swim, it wasn’t until she got back to where she was staying that she realised the ring was now absent.
Fortunately, I had only recently posted in the local community Facebook page trying to find the owner of a couple of silver rings located during a casual hunt there, Sarah saw this and contacted me.
I met her on site the following day and she went through the what’s and where’s surrounding the loss of her wedding ring, indicating where the group had been spread out. A scoop hole nearby didn’t bode well, but this is a game of inches and there was a good chance a casual detector had missed it.

Kids had since excavated a massive crater in the beach in the two days after Sarahs visit, and I was fully expecting to have to return here and manhandle a few hundred kilos of sand back into the hole to get to the original beach surface under the pile of sand around it…
Luck was with me today though, another dozen paces and I got a nice “dig me” tone.
The scoop went in, I emptied it across the surface, and a line of diamonds wrapped in wet sand twinkled in the early evening sun.
Sarah was overjoyed –  and check out the cheesy grin on her son  🙂

 

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Gold and Diamond Ring Lost at Kerikeri, New Zealand – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Barrys wife was swimming and playing with her grand-daughter in the sea in the Bay of Islands, NZ, last night.
As she went to do a handstand she felt her precious gold and diamond ring slip off her finger and into the cloudy water.

Instantly lost…

Fabricated from her mothers jewellery, she was understandably very distraught – returning with a torch that night to search for the lost ring.
Again she tried, at sunrise this morning, she was back with a mask and snorkel – but to no avail.

Shortly afterwards, Barry found me through a web search for ring recoveries, finding lost rings and metal detectors and gave me a call.
As luck would have it, it was just approaching low tide and I was only 30min away so threw the kit in the wagon and headed out.
On arrival, I saw she was standing diligently at ‘Spot X’. I went through the backstory of how she lost the ring, state of tide, depth of water, whether she was on shingle, sand or silt underfoot etc and started to work the grid.

Starting in the water, I worked back and forth along the beach. Ploughing my way through the many trash signals, digging a few that were too close to call. Eventually I emerged onto the beach and continued up past the depth she had indicated (Assume Nothing, Believe No-One, Check Everything)

There was evidence of recent detecting with scoop holes in the water and backfilled holes on the beach, as expected at this time of year with the influx of holidaymakers, although they were unlikely to have been created in the short period between time of loss and my arrival.

Initial search area was eventually cleared with no result, I discussed the search with them and we shifted slightly to one side towards where they had come down onto the beach.
Seconds into the new area, less than a metre outside the original grid boundary(!)  I caught the ring, tucked snugly into the gravel about 2-3 inches down – To an ecstatic cheer from it’s owner…and I went home to finish my lunch 🙂

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Ready to find your ring!

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)
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Hi, my name is Tim Blank. I’m new to The Ring Finders but have been metal detecting since 2009.  I am super excited for the opportunity to help find your lost belongings. I’ve been asked by a few people in the past to help find there lost rings, and its always a pleasure to see the smiles on their faces when you give back to them what they thought was lost forever!   And that’s why I joined The Ring Finders.

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