found ring Tag | Page 29 of 33 | The Ring Finders

Lost Ring … Del Mar Beach, CA.. In Surf at High Tide

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)

Saturday – July 20, 2013     I received a call from Kathleen in Del Mar, CA. after she found my number on ” The RingFinders ” website.  She and her husband Jeff had been to the beach a couple days before at 6:30pm, which was about high tide.  Jeff was boogie boarding in the surf when he took a big wave and when he recovered from a wipeout he was missing his wedding band. While  talking with with Kathleen, I explained that it is a difficult search, because the detector can only detect ring size metal to a depth of 6″ to 8″ inches. Depending on surf conditions the sand can move more than a foot of sand in one tide. Kathleen gave me good directions, which made it easier to start hunting.

I drove to the location, arriving about 12 am. two hours before low tide. Setting up a grid search of 75 yards parallel to the beach. After five passes towards the receding tide I got my first and only signal.. There it was and I knew right away it was Jeff’s ring. It was just about 5″ or 6″ inches deep. I had been slowly swinging the detector for about 30 minutes overlaping each swing as not to miss a ringsize area. Missing a 3 inch area could make a 30 minute search turn into hours of hunting. I always tell people that I’m searching for, ” Just don’t watch me work, because it will drive a normal person crazy” It’s a slow and methodical process.

I text Kathleen a photo of the ring and asked her to call. She immediately called back with an excited voice. We set up a meeting and Jeff was outside his home waiting at 1 am when I drove up. I handed him his ring and he told me how he lost it. He is vacationing from Louisiana and is not familiar with westcoast surf.  Jeff said the wave picked him up smashing him under the water. When he came up he had sand in every orfice. Then he noticed the missing ring.  He just knew it was gone forever and probably half way to Hawaii by now.  He explained to me,  how he had told all his friends about his surfing experience and the loss of his ring. I only wish I could tell Jeff’s story the way he told it.  Now he can tell them a better story. ” The Recovery of his ring”   It was a pleasure to meet Jeff and talk to his wife on the phone and I am realizing that there are so many nice people in this world.. I love helping people with a skill that has taken me many years of experience and research to learn.. ( And Lots of Luck )

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Lost Ring… Bolsa Chica State Beach, CA… In Surf

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)

Monday   7-15-13

I got a call this afternoon at 4pm from Joshua. He had been at Bolsa Chica State Beach last Friday 7-12-13.  Between 9 and 9:30 pm. Friday night he was in the surf about knee deep water when he felt his ring slip off into the water. I was able to get good directions from Josh and I calculated the approximate tide conditions at the time he lost the ring. The tide was about 3 ft high when he lost it. There had been 6 high tides of 4 to 4.5 ft during the 3 days sense losing the ring. I decided to try catching the falling tide this evening it will be 1.7ft at 10pm.  I started at 6 pm.

This beach has soft sand and slopes at a steep angle. It also has a lot of black sand that makes it a challenge for metal detecting. I wasn’t about to go into the wet surf as long as the tide was still going out and my past finds have been fairly close to where they were dropped. While waiting for the tide to fall I went away from the main search area. At 8:15pm..  Bam ! I got a signal and it was Josh’s ring , 7 inches deep..  The ring was 50 yards south of where it was dropped, but did not seem to wash down into the lower surf. Basically it just got pushed 50 yards south. I sent a photo of the ring to Josh and we set up a meeting to return his ring. He told me the ring was very sentimental because, he had bought in Jerusalem, Israel several years ago on vacation.

I was nice to meet Josh and I’m glad to be able to return his ring.. I had to stay possitive because 3 days in the surf is tuff. The waves and the sand change by the hour and 8 or 9 inches is more or less the limit of most metal detectors for ring sized objects.

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Found Lost Wedding Ring in Lake Wilson in Weatherford,Tx

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
Contact:

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We got a call from the gentleman above late on a Friday afternoon.  Said he had fallen out of a boat on a small private lake in Weatherford,Tx and wondered if we would come try to find it.  I said we would be happy to but it would have to wait a week as were on our way to the airport to leave for vacation in Cancun for a few days.  I loved his response, he said “well it ain’t going nowhere”.  We agreed I would call him in a week when we returned.

As promised we called the following week and spoke with John about his ring, he explained that he and a friend were coming in from fishing on a small boat, he had stood up just at the moment his friend decided to pull the boat up a little higher on the bank.  When that happen, John lost his footing and fell into the lake.  He said he could feel his wedding band slipping off but could do nothing about it.  The waters edge was slippery and covered in algae and dropped off about 5-6ft in depth.

John found “The Ring Finders” website and located us.

Ellen & I drove 75 miles to the spot on the highway to meet John and have him and buddy lead us back on the dirt roads to where the lake was.  I set up my gear and went into the lake, it was amazing how deep it got so close to the shore.  John told me while I was in the water that he had used swimming pool cleaning poles to try and drag the ring up on shore and he also had a friend bring out his metal detector but no luck finding the ring.  I spent maybe 20 minutes in the water getting a feel for the area where John thought the ring would be.  I was getting lots of hits on my detector and using my water scoop was very difficult in the muddy bottoms.   As I went to change hands with my equipment my detector passed over a flat rock covered in algae  and my Garrett AT Pro went off loudly so I knew something was there.  I reached over with my hand and felt along the top of the rock and there was John’s wedding ring.  My wife and John had been talking along the bank and I said “hey John would you like to have your ring back?” and held up his gold wedding band .   He was flabbergasted, he said over and over “I thought I would never see it again”.  These reactions are what make this so much fun.

My wife was filming with her IPhone and began to ask John some questions.  He said this was the first time this ring had been off his finger in 57 YEARS.  He buddy then said, ‘tell them what you did’.  John replied with a sheepish grin, “I did not tell my wife”  he said I have a friend who owns a Pawn Shop who got him a temporary wedding ban to wear until we could hopefully find his ring.  We laugh and laughed.  Then John said…. “I wonder if the Pawn Shop with take the other ring back”.

It was a wonderful day.

Another great find for “The Ring Finders”

Don & Ellen Wilson

 

Found Wedding Ring in Trophy Club,Texas

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
Contact:

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We received a call from a lady who said “thank God I reached you”I have a lost ring for you to find.  I said OK and ask for the details.  She described it as a Men’s gold wedding ban.  I ask her where is was lost and she said in her backyard.  I ask as I always do, “are you sure that’s where you lost it” and she said she was positive.

I said OK then we can find it, then I asked the most important question.  How was the ring lost, what was he doing when he lost it……. there was a long silence and she said “I know it’s there because I threw it there”.  I said that was no problem and we would drive the 28 miles to Trophy Club,Tx around 7pm to let the heat go down, it was 101 degrees warm.

We arrived at a beautiful home, got our equipment out, the lady kindly showed us where she was when she threw the ring and then my wife her re-inact the event (this is a must we have learned).  We spent maybe 20 minutes detecting the yard and there was a lot of underground trash.  We knew the ring would “Hit Hard” on our detectors because it had only been 3 days since it was lost and men’s wedding bands are typically large in size.

We were correct in our assumptions and the Ring was returned for another happy customer for “The Ring Finders”.

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Don & Ellen – The Dallas Ring Finders”

PS…. the husband was in counseling while we were looking for the ring.

 

Wedding Set Lost on Day of Anniversary at Rehoboth Beach: Found

  • from Lewes (Delaware, United States)
Contact:

Michael OMalley Ring Recovery 001Michael OMalley Ring Recovery 002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I received a phone call at 7:30 am on May 27th 2013 regarding a Platinum Wedding  set that had been lost the day before on May 26th 2013 in the sand at Rehoboth Beach, Del. The story was that the couple were celebrating their wedding anniversary on May 26th and that they were at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The owner had taken her rings off and placed them in her lap in order to put suntan lotion on the couples child. Forgetting that she had placed the rings in her lap she stood up and the rings fell into the sand. There were attempts made to recover the rings by sifting the sand, but the rings were not to be found. Upon getting the phone call I arrived at the beach about an hour later only to find that the beach had been raked by the city workers using a tractor and a sand rake. My fear was that the rings had either been gobbled up by the sand rake or that they had been carried in an unknown direction down the beach by the sand rake. I began my search in an area that was pointed out by the ring owners husband with negative results. I then adjusted the area of my search due to the husband believing that they had been closer to the water than he originally thought. The husband left the beach in order to help his wife pack as they were to leave to go back  home on this day, I told him that I would call him with the results of the search. The husband had’nt made it back to his parked car before I recovered the 1kt diamond Platinum ring right in the area where I began my second search. I called him and told him that he might want to come back down to the beach which he did and at that time I returned the recovered ring to him. I then conducted a spiral search from the area that the diamond ring was found and I failed to locate the wedding band. I then searched north of that same location without recovering the band. Then a search of the area to the south of the recovered diamond ring resulted in the recovery of the wedding band sixty feet south of where the diamond was recovered. It appeared that the sand rake had moved the wedding band from the area of where it had been dropped. I actually saw several of the small diamonds on the wedding band glistening in the sunshine before my metal detector passed over top of it. A small portion of the top of the wedding band was exposed just above its hiding place in the sand. The wedding band was recovered and returned to its rightful owner. Another anniversary saved by the Ringfinders!

Gold and Diamond Rings recovered in Centreville, Virginia!

  • from Baltimore (Maryland, United States)
Contact:

The streak continues! 100% success in recovery since I became a search member of The Ring Finders! This time the lost items were in Centreville, Va. About 90 minutes from my residence. I got a call from David this past Saturday. I could hear the concern and panic in his voice, but luckily he contacted me immediately and gave a very accurate account of what he was doing and where he suspected he lost the rings. Because of that, along with the help of my buddy Lance, we have yet another successful recovery to add to the list.. I’ll let David tell you how things went down in his own words.

 

I had just finished cutting the lawn at my home in Centreville, VA, trying to beat the rain showers that were slated to move into my Northern Virginia location later that evening, when I realized that my Grandfather’s diamond ring and my wedding band of 30 years were missing from the little finger of my right hand where I wore them both. (This because of late life weight gain!)   I was certain that they must have come off while I was emptying the lawn mower cuttings into plastic bags.  However, after a careful search of three bags of clippings,  and repeated searches of my yard, I could not locate the rings.  When I told a neighbor what had happened and that I was considering buying a metal detector he suggested I hire a “Ring Finder” to come a search my yard for the rings.  I had never heard of such a thing, but a quick online search took me to the Ring Finders web site @ http://theringfinders.com/   The closest ring finder to my location was Jim Wagner of Pasadena, MD.   I called his number and told him about my situation.  He was very personable and wanted to help me, but he wasn’t sure if he could get to my until the following weekend, however he said he would check with a friend of his to see if he could help me sooner.  The prospect of living with my loss for a week without doing anything was worrisome to me so I decided to purchase an inexpensive metal detector and give it a shot myself.  Fortunately, Jim called me back the next day and said he could come and assist me that very afternoon.  This was very encouraging to me as my attempts to use the metal detector I had purchased were not yielding the desired results.  Jim and his partner Lance arrived at my location within a couple of hours of his call and began to search immediately.  Jim had told me in our previous phone conversation, (and as you can see on his web page), that he has a 100% success rate.  I found that statement to be very encouraging, however, I couldn’t help but thinking that I would be the one to break his streak!  As they began to search my front yard, I went around back to put my dog in the house as she was barking hysterically.  After putting my dog in the house, I was about to make a call to my wife and let her know that the Ring Finders were here and searching when there was a knock at my front door.  When I opened it, there stood Jim and Lance, my rings in hand!  It literally took them less than 5 minutes to find them!  I can’t tell you how amazed and appreciative I was!  These guys are good at what they do!  So if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, don’t despair, just call the Ring Finders!  I give them my highest recommendation.

Thanks David for the endorsement! I’m glad the rings are back where they belong!

Lance with a very happy David!

Lance with a very happy David!

So glad we were able to find these for David.

So glad we were able to find these for David.

 

Found Ring

  • from Sugar Land (Texas, United States)

 Spent a few hours working a local park after a slow month of service calls. The following items were found including this nice ring.  

 

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Finds

 

 

 

Fireman Looses Grandfathers Wedding Band while Fighting Brush Fire, Fort Worth,Texas – Found!

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
Contact:

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Fort Worth,Texas Fire Fighter Looses Grandfathers Wedding Ring in while Fighting Brush Fire!

On Friday afternoon we received a call from a Fort Worth fire fighter.  He said that he and his crew had been fighting a brush/fence fire behind a home where a woman had thrown out some 2-day old fireplace coals.  The coals had set the compost pile and fence and part of the yards of 2 homes on fire.  He said his buddy had lost his Grandfathers ring which he now wears as a Wedding Ring.  It was 3pm on Friday afternoon, they were 52 miles away across Dallas & Fort Worth and 5pm Friday afternoon traffic was a major contention.  I knew it would take a minimum of 2 hours to drive there so I asked if we could come on Saturday due to traffic, but the young firefighter had panic in voice and ask us to please come.

How can you say ‘no’ to a Fire Fighter?  It took us nearly 3 hours to get there due to the heavy traffic.

He was waiting for us when we arrived and explained that he had been inside the backyard of the home and was knocking out the burning fence slats with the palm of his hand while fighting the fire.   He knew exactly where he was standing (in the wet, smelly compost pile) when it came off, and it was lightly raining… Get the picture?, pretty much a yuck site.

With a desperate customer, our Garrett equipment and rubber boots we went to work.  Thinking the ring flew off some distance into the field behind the home, we searched everywhere.  Eliminating nails, iron, junk, etc. doing everything we could to find the ring.   After an hour it was starting to get dark and everyone was loosing hope my wife went back into the backyard and began slowly going through the compost pile with her detector and pinpointer.  Understand this compost pile was about 18-inches thick and 5-ft by 5-ft  in size.  It was soaking wet from the fire being put out, burnt from catching on fire and wet burned trash just really stinks. But this is what the fireman was standing on when he was knocking out the burning fence slats.  I was coming into the backyard to help her when I heard her yell out “I Found It”, the fireman was standing right there when she found his ring, he was so excited.  He kept saying “you guys are awesome, you guys are awesome, unbelievable!, wait till I tell the guys back at the station!”.

This was by far our dirtiest  hunt, but one of our most rewarding.

Our Firefighters across this country will run into a burning home or building for us without thinking twice about it, the least we can do is work through muck to find a wedding ring for them.

This was a very emotional find for us and we are so glad to be part of “The Ring Finders”.

Till next time, detectors ON!

Don & Ellen

Palladium Wedding Found in Double Oak, Texas

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
Contact:

 

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We got a call from a wonderful lady that said her husband (a pilot) had lost his ring while working in their front yard.  He was standing in a culvert ditch tossing some large rocks from one side of the driveway to the other and felt his ring slid off; he said he heard it “tink” twice but never saw it land.  He and his family searched for months looking for the ring without luck. He bought a cheap metal detector himself  but without success, his father-in-law came over with another detector but had no luck either.  Months past and his wife was playing around on the internet and found “The Ring Finders” website and called us.

We arrived and met with the couple, I truly think the husband felt is was a lost cause.  The ring had be lost for over 6 months. With the snowy/wet weather we have had this year he felt it was lost forever.

My wife & I got our Garrett Detectors and went to searching; we checked everywhere the husband said he thought is might be but had no luck.  So we went back over to where he stated he had been standing originally when he lost the ring.   The ditch was knee deep in leaves, trash, mud and an 18-inch metal pipe that went under their driveway.   After scanning over that area many times we decided everything had to come out of the ditch due to way too many hits on trash.  So on our hands and knees we began to pull out all the leaves and junk using our Garrett pinpointers to check every handful of trash for the ring.  After a short time I saw something shiny and I told my wife “I Got It”.  There stuck in the mud, 5-8 inches down in the muck, right where the husband had been standing throwing the rocks was his ring.  The “Tinking Sound” he heard must have been the ring hitting the metal culvert not the driveway as he thought.  The ring was in great shape.

And for the fun part, we went up to the door and rang the bell, the wife came to the door and she said “No Luck Huh” and we just smiled and I open my hand revealing her husbands “Palladium Wedding Ring”, she said “Oh my gosh, let me go get him”  he was thrilled and we had “Another Successful Hunt for the the Dallas Ring Finders”.

God I love this hobby!

Till next time, detectors ON!

Don & Ellen

Irvine, CA. Lost Diamond Wedding Ring Recoverd

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)

Thursday , Jan.10 at about 4:30pm, I recieved a call from Daisy telling me she had lost a diamond wedding ring. She had lost it the week before while playing with friends on a grass slope. They had spent several days searching for the ring with no suceess. I was able to meet her and her husband about an hour and 30 minutes later and it was already dark. I felt it was important to have them show me the location and explain what she was doing when she lost it. After meeting them and seeing the area (100 x 75 ft.) I thought I would try a couple hours. Daisy and Wonjoon offered to hold the flashlight and my coffee. It was a very trashy site with lots of pulltabs, bottle caps and other metallic items which made it a difficult seach. After about 2 hours we eyeballed the ring just before my dectector coil passed over it.  “They were so happy and so was I”  It is so rewarding to be able to help locate misplaced (not lost) valuables.

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