how to find a ring in the sand Tag | Page 7 of 41 | The Ring Finders

Lost wedding ring in the grass, Windermere, Florida….Found and Returned to owner!

  • from Sanford (Florida, United States)
Contact:


Mike McInroe…Metal Detector Specialist…Call ASAP, Anytime…321-363-6029

Andrew was playing ball with his son out on one of the grassy areas in his neighborhood when all of a sudden he felt his wedding ring go flying off of his finger. He immediately stopped and began to search the grass, thinking “How hard can it be to find a white gold ring laying on the grass?”. Soon he had a bunch of kids and a few adults involved in the search and it seemed like his ring just plain disappeared. And much to Andrew’s dismay it soon got dark and they had to give up the search.

That evening Andrew and his wife went on line to look for help and came across theringfinders.com and that gave them some hope! Just knowing that there are actually people “out there” that help people find their lost rings and valuables was a huge encouragement—so Andrew gave me a call.

We arranged to meet early the next morning and as we walked to the grassy area where Andrew lost his ring he explained how he was spinning the ball with two hands and that motion was what caused his ring to go flying. As they showed me where the loss occurred I put out four flags and began to carefully grid search the area with my ATMax metal detector. Knowing that his ring was a medium white gold band I was concentrating on anything showing numbers from large foil in the 30s to the 50s! Numerous targets were scattered here and there, most of them too deep to to be Andrew’s lost wedding ring. A recent ring loss will be a surface target that will sound crisp and clean and register shallow on the depth reading. Thankfully only 8 minutes later, our prayers were answered as the perfect signal sounded off in my headphones and there, barely visible in the grass, was Andrew’s lost wedding ring! I motioned for Andrew and his wife to come over and see what I had found! Lots of smiles and thank you’s were exchanged and a huge relief was obviously taken off of Andrew’s heart and mind.

Lost something recently? Give me a call, text or email ASAP!
Mike McInroe…thankful to be a member of theringfinders.com

A Decade Lost Now Found

  • from South Padre Island (Texas, United States)

Lost Ring Reno Tahoe Michael Price Metal Detecting text ASAP to 316-200-4115 or email miprice73@yahoo.com

While on vacation in Kansas and teaching a friend the in and out of detecting, I was approached by a woman holding a dog, asking if I ever detected on people’s properties.  I told her that, yes, given that we have permission, it is something we would do from time to time.   She then asked if I would be willing to look for a lost brooch.

Well of course I was willing.  I asked where and when it was lost and if she was available now.  Turns out it was lost a decade past and was in the back yard of her house but never could be located.  She had appts that day so we agreed to look for it in two days time.

Two days later I sent her a messaging letting her know I was back in town and was she ready to find her lost piece of jewelry.  After meeting up with her I gathered the particulars about the piece, where and how it was lost.

Setting up my equipment I immediately got busy detecting and soon found some decent signals.  Turns out she had another dog that loved chewing on metal objects so there were many of these ‘decent signals’.

Well, persistence pays off and in the end I was able to locate an object near the surface. Using a pinpointer I was able to determine that it was indeed a surface object and wiped the mud from what turned out to be her brooch.  Unfortunately time had not been kind and the clasp had broken off as well as having a stone fall out   Both were recovered as well and she intends to use it for something or get it repaired

She was delighted to say the least as, while not an expensive piece, it meant a lot to her.  I wasn’t expecting to help find a lost piece on vacation but being in the right place at the right time turned out great for everyone.  

Lost ring at Coronado found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Stephen and his family were visiting from out of town and spent the day at the beach in Coronado. He had removed his wedding ring before going into the water and left it there were they were sitting in the dry sand. At the end of the day, the belongings were gathered and the ring ended up MIA. I got the call the next day and got the particulars on what type of ring, a photo of the ring, and approximately where they were sitting via a Google map, since they had already gone home a couple of hours north of me and couldn’t show me the exact spot personally. Over a Sunday night and a Monday morning, there usually are several people who detect that beach, but, the area where they were sitting wasn’t right in the most common area, so, there was still a chance it was still there. I headed over after all the crowds had left for the day and took a guess as to where to start. I actually started a bit north of where ground zero was supposed to be and was going to work my way south. When I got the the area, I noticed that the beach grooming machine had gone through the place. Yikes, another strike against a successful search. I turned on my light to take a closer look at the sand, and realized that they just ran the big rake through there, and not the sifter. Good! That made me a bit more confident.  I made about three 20 foot passes and got my 4th solid 14 on my Equinox. The previous 3 were pull tabs, as usual, but, this 4th one was Stephens ring! This search could have taken hours, but, sometimes you just get lucky! I sent a photo of the ring to Stephen and he was overjoyed that it was found and he could actually wear it again. Now it’s up to the USPS to do it’s job getting his ring home safe and sound. Thank you for the reward Stephen.

Lost cross at Pacific Beach found.

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Reuben called me saying that he had just lost a cross off his necklace while running on the beach in the wet sand, on the slope and in the shallow water.  It was right around high tide when he called, and I was just about to eat some dinner, so, I asked Reuben if he could hang around down there a while so I could gulp down some groceries and let the tide go out a bit. He agreed, and we met at a spot at the north end of the search area around 9:45pm. He explained to me that he headed south from there and was running in a zigzag pattern from the water’s edge to the top of the slope, kind of dodging the surf as it surged in and out. I then asked how far he ran until he noticed it was gone. Well, he had a selfie that he took, at the spot we were standing, showing that he had the cross at that point. He then said that he started running from there and headed south for a good 5 minutes! Whoa, that was going to be a HUGE search area. After more Q&A we decided the most likely area was toward the other end of his run when he discovered it gone after he had jumped over a pile of kelp, but, frankly, it could be anywhere along the way. Ok, let’s start walking to that spot. I figured I’d go ahead and turn on my detector and sweep a bit while we went. I just picked a straight line on the slope about half way between the water and the top of the slope. We walked, and we walked, and we walked some more. Found a few piles of kelp, search all around them, and continued on. I hadn’t gotten one signal thus far. I asked how much further he ran, and he pointed down the beach some more. I was about to say that this was going to be a waste of time as this search area was now almost 1/4 mile long and approaching the edge of Mission Beach (the next beach south), and that I was going to have to get a lot more help to cover all this sand, when we approached another pile of kelp. Searched all around it and continued on a little ways more, when I got my first signal of the entire way. A nice solid 11 on my Equinox. One scoop and Reuben spotted his gold cross (a family heirloom that he got from his father) in the pile of wet sand I just dumped. Talk about dumb luck! We both should have bought lottery tickets right then and there. I’m not sure who was more amazed, but, we both counted our blessings on this one! That potential search area was the largest one I had ever had and would have taken me over a week to completely cover it by myself. We found it in an incredible 20-25 minutes. A pleasure to meet you Reuben and thank you for the reward.

Lost ring at Ocean Beach dog beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Bryan just went down to the water to rinse sand off his hands. He returned to where has was camped in the dry sand and when he shook the remaining water off his hands his precious gold ring he got in Dubai flew off into the sand too. He sifted around with his fingers for a while without success. I got the call and told him I’d be right down. After battling the traffic to get there, I arrived just before sunset and walked out to  the search area where Bryan waved me over to where he was. He moved his blanket out of the way, 10 seconds and two swings later, I get a solid 17 signal on my Equinox just out of the area he had searched with his fingers. I asked if he would like to pick up his ring, or, would he like me to do it. I took one scoop and held it up for him to grab. He took a photo of it in the scoop, pulled it out, and put it back on his finger.  A happy Bryan can now head home. A pleasure to meet you and thank you for the reward.

Lost engagement ring, Pensacola – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)

What better way to transition into fall than one last ring return on a Volleyball court. I had just returned home when I got a call from my buddy Charlie who is out in CA. He had received a call from a friend of his named Joey who had in turn gotten a call from his wife Nicole and she was in a panic. Nicole had been playing Volleyball with her daughter at a local park and looked down to notice that her wedding ring and her engagement ring were no longer on her hand. This is about the time the panic had ensued and I think everyone will agree that it was totally justified. Luckily Charlie is a great guy and rather than telling Joey that he was out of town, he tracked me down and put us in touch. We were running out of daylight so I loaded up as fast as possible and called Joey to tell him that I could help and get an idea where to go. I pulled in the park and although there were lots of people there enjoying the playground equipment I had no doubt who I was looking for. As soon as I pulled my gear out, a big group of ladies and young people started waving me down. I noticed that they all had makeshift seines and colanders and I wondered which one was Nicole. Then I noticed the lady who was crying and I knew I had found her. I immediately introduced myself and told her not to worry that I was totally going to help her. She told me that I didn’t understand, they had searched everywhere that it could be with the strainers and they had even found the wedding band but she feared the engagement ring might be anywhere in the park and she was distraught. I asked her if they had been there the entire time and they said yes. I tried again to reassure her as I explained what I was doing and started my grid pattern. I made about one pass but as I was talking to her I could see she was in agony so I decided to take a different approach. I told her to tell me where she had found the gold band, she told me that they had already looked there and I told her to humor me. She did and I asked her if they changed sides at all and she said no. Lastly, I asked her if she wore her band closest to her heart and she said yes. I took a step towards the way I thought the ring first off her hand would fly and I said, “watch this” with a big smile. I went about two steps and got a good tone. I don’t think she realized I had something until I kneeled down with my pinpointer and then stood up saying, “Does it look like this?”  She broke down in tears and I was reminded why I love doing this so much. Congratulations Nicole and Joey. Thank you very much for trusting me to help you. God Bless!  💍

Rose gold Star ring lost at South Beach Miami Beach , Florida… found and returned to the owner.

  • from North Miami Beach (Florida, United States)

Rose  gold Star ring lost at South Beach Miami Beach , Florida… found and returned to the owner

I was Metal Detecting on South Beach Miami Beach , Florida When a woman approached me and asked me to help her find a ring that her husband lost a few moments earlier. I immediately found it and returned it to them within 10 minutes.

 

Lost Phone at Ocean Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Keanna spent the day at the dog beach in Ocean Beach with friends, both human and furry. Sometime during her stay, her phone came up missing. She and her friends sifted through the sand trying to find it, but, we know the results of that effort…..nada. After an online search with her friend Kristen’s phone, The Ring Finders website came up and my info. Kristen contacted me on her phone asking for help. Being early afternoon on a Labor Day weekend, trying to make to their location right away would be almost impossible, so, since they planned on being there for a while, I told them I’d come later in the day when people started to leave the beach and I would actually be able to drive to the beach and find a parking spot. I arrived a bit after sunset and met up with Kristen in the parking lot. We trekked over to the area where the phone was lost, and where I met Keanna and the gang. Maybe a minute went by on my search and I get a fairly deep and large signal on my detector. Not wanting to accidentally damage her phone, I used my pin pointer to probe into the sand for the target. I wasn’t surprised to find her phone, as this was the signal I expected, but, I was surprised that it was 8-10 inches deep. We guessed that with the dogs digging and other activities around the camp that it must have ended up in a hole that got covered. The phone was still up and working, so, a happy Keanna and her friends could head home after a long day at the beach. Pleasure meeting you all and thank you for the reward.

Lost Ring, Perdido Beach – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)


Sometimes everything comes together and no matter how lost something is, it’s just bound to be found. That was the case for this young lady on the beach yesterday afternoon who had lost a very important ring. It was already very late after work but I decided to hit the beach anyway. I had already gone to one parking area but after I walked all the way to the water I realized that I left my battery in the car. I walked all the way out and decided that I should head down the beach a bit because of a storm that was on the way. When I got there I decided to turn towards the rain cloud so that if I got caught in the storm, I would have the wind at my back running to the car. All of these things seemed to innocently transpire all to have BrieOcea come running up to me after only about five minutes on the beach. She asked if I was holding a metal detector and she looked hopeful when I told her I was. I asked her if she had lost something and she replied that she had dropped a ring that had been in her family for generations. I told her that I would be glad to take a look and asked her what the ring was made out of and when she lost it. She said it had almost been a week and that she thought it was silver. I think she saw me start to lose some confidence because she quickly assured me that it was a very small area. I asked her a little more about the ring and she said that there was a large black stone with a diamond in it. I made a note to dig everything because while possible, especially on older rings, diamonds are usually not on silver. I started gridding back and forth and it wasn’t long before she came over and said that her boyfriend had called from the condo and told her that we were slightly in the wrong spot. I made the adjustment and went back to the search. I found a coin or two and got my hopes up. Then I got a signal that could be trash but I knew it could also be gold. I went ahead and dug it because of my earlier thoughts about the diamond. I am very glad that I did because I pulled out a beautiful gold ring with a black stone and a diamond in it. When I called her over, she placed it back on her finger and she was just thrilled. She mentioned that she had made up her mind to not worry and let things work themselves out. When I told her the events that led me to her she said God must have sent me her way. Indeed!  I am so very glad that I could help reunite you with such a special ring. 😃

Lost Engagement Ring Recovered Western Wisconsin in Apple River.

  • from Chisago City (Minnesota, United States)

I received a phone call from the mother of a friend of a gal that had lost her ring in the Apple River. For those that are unfamiliar with the Apple River, its about a 3.6-mile meandering river through the Wisconsin countryside. It has a couple of tubing companies that rent out tubes and will bring you back following your floating adventure.  The summer weekends are always busy with floaters from all around.  When floating it is always possible to drop something along the way.

Its not uncommon for people to get separated from some their possessions while enjoying a leisurely float down the river. If what you have lost floats you might be able to recover it quickly. Many people wear sandals and one gets knocked off, you can yell to a buddy to grab it or keep and eye on it and you will be able to recover it. Other times people may drop jewelry and not know where on the river it came off.  When I received a phone call saying that a person had dropped a ring, I thought it would be almost impossible to find without a known location. Even with a location it is exceedingly difficult to find something like a ring.  I mentioned to the mother that without a known location there is no way to find it.

Later the next night, I received another call, this time from Colton the fiancé of the Maria that had lost the ring. He said that he did have a known location and it happened to be where everyone gets out of the river following the ride. In the process of getting off the tube trying to get her feet under herself with the current and slippery submerged boulders under foot, she saw the ring slip off her finger and fall into the river.  She was also trying to stay upright while catching some tipping coolers and contents.   That night the group of friends ran to a local store and bought some snorkels and masks. They searched well into the night without finding the ring.  That’s when they looked up Ring Finders and came across several of the Ring Finders in the area.  They did call Ring Finder Darrin Gray. Darrin has been in Ring Finders the longest and has the recoveries to prove it.  This one was further away for Darrin and he suggested them to call me Paul Nolan being closer to the location of the missing ring.  I must give a shout out to the Minnesota Ring Finders and Darrin in particular; he works very well with the other Ring Finders in the area to help facilitate successful recoveries.

I arranged to meet Colton, Maria’s fiancé out on site to go over the particulars about the location for this recovery.  I started out getting acquainted with the flow of the river and trying to determine how far out she was into the river.  In the middle of the river the current is much swifter and moving quite a bit faster than near the edges. So the difference in 8-10 feet makes a huge difference on where the ring would end up on the bottom.

I jumped in with my Garrett AT Pro metal detector in hand and my pro point pin pointer.  Both are water resistant up to about 10 feet.  I start out generally making a primary search of that covers the area most likely to have the lost item.  In this case there were all kinds of obstacles that were going to make things much more challenging. The current, other tubers coming down tied together in a big flotillas. The river is about 3-4 feet deep with a lot of large boulders hidden underwater. These boulders are covered with a slippery surface so walking in the river becomes incredibly challenging. Searching between the scattered rocks and with small debris from years of floaters like, rivets from jeans, bathing suit zippers, pop tops, and parts to glasses scattered about. All these metallic objects set off a metal detector. So I worked the area from a semi standing position, slipping and falling many times trying to locate the ring. My chins and legs where getting banged up by slipping on rocks.  I think I spent 4-5 hours out on site the first day.  The only reason I left that night was it was getting dark and I was the only one left. I decided it was just too dangerous being alone. So I packed it up for the night.

I went back out again the next day changing my approach slightly and brought goggles and a handheld pin pointer but now I switched over to a secondary search. This is a more methodical search of a grid area. You start out with 4×4 blocks and you search it and move over and search the next 4×4 grid. One trick I did was to turn off all other metal from what I was looking for. So knowing I was looking for a Gold ring turned all the other metals off and was running a very tight band. I did this for about 3 hours when my gear started getting waterlogged.  A little water seeps in past some rubber o-rings and causes your equipment to become erratic. I also broke the plastic armrest on the detector fighting the current was putting so much pressure of the armrest. Adapting to the changing environment I spent the next 3 hours diving with goggles searching between rocks a looking in all the places that a ring might get lodged in. I had searched and area about 18’ x 40’ with some very strong current over half the area. Still nothing. I packed it in for the day and would go home and heal my legs and figure a way to modify the equipment to best work for the environment I was searching.  So I dried everything out and went to work on making a new much shorter handle. I also switched to a smaller coil “the end of the detector that picks up the metal signal” The smaller coil allows me to separate out multiple targets that are close together.  With the newly designed detector in hand I went back out for a third time. The detector with the shorter handle worked out OK. I could read the detector while operating it, it could be shortened a little more.

At this point you change again to searching the grid with all discrimination turned off and pick everything within reason. When you get a hit of a target you can read some information on the detector like type of metal, and how deep it is. If it is 4-5 inches down with a hard base you can rule those out. But if it is close to the surface you may have to dig those.  I again worked for about 4+ hours and came up with nothing. This last day of searching was on a Monday morning when fewer people would be out. When I did show up I was met in the parking lot by a guy that had been around while I was searching. Only this time he was is in a wet suit with mask and snorkel. He had been searching for the ring and was telling me that it was not there…

A lot of people were finding out about the lost ring from various sources. This is not a good thing.  You just never know if someone had come out and found the ring on you.  About this time all kinds of questions start entering your head, was the ring really lost in this area? Did someone else find it? How am I missing it? Is it an equipment setup issue.

I heard from the Darrin and we were consulting about maybe having him come out with dive gear and search using scuba. I had also heard that Maria and her father were going to go out and searching for it on Wednesday. So I planned on meeting up with them on site and give this another go with information from the person that lost the ring. When I arrived Maria and her father were on site in the river with wet suits metal detector and snorkel and masks.  I brought out a another ring and had Maria drop the ring in the same location and follow the ring. We did tie it off with some lite fishing line to help follow it to a resting place.

After locating the ring – Now this is where I had the search, so again I methodically started going over the area and picking everything that came up. The more targets that I removed the better it is.  After about an hour and half I was picking up targets that needed to have hand sized rocks moved away to get to those targets. It also had about 3 inches of sand on the bottom. With the water current moving past you could wave your hand over the sand and could get it to wash away.  After clearing an area I would move 3-4 feet and do it again. First wave the detector over the area and find locations of targets then go try and locate each target. The last target I waved my hand and thought I had seen a pop top pull tab circle. Whoa,  it was to shinny for that waved my hand past it again and there was a shinny ring laying on the bottom of the river. Was this a bling ring that had been tossed earlier by Maria and her dad? Was this the ring we were looking for? I popped up and asked her father, he was trying to look at it and tried to take it off my finger still in the river. I clinched down and said not until we get to shore. Maria had meet us at the shore and could not believe what she saw. It was her ring. The ring held a lot of sentimental value being it held her grandmothers diamond that could not be replaced.   She was in shock. What a happy reunion. She gave me a big hug. So thankful.  I didn’t have my camera with because I didn’t want it stolen while I was in the water. So I asked that they send me a couple of photos later, and I would let them enjoy the moment.  Maria was on the phone right away “ I cant believe he found it”  That was music to my ears as I turned and walked back to my car gear in hand. Some finds are very fast, and some take time. This one was one of the most challenging finds I have ever had.