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Newlywed Finds Lost Ring in Castle Rock Lake

  • from Madison (Wisconsin, United States)
Contact:

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I am a Newlywed of last August, so my husband and I have been married roughly 11 months. We have been together for over seven years and are best friends. We relocated to the New Lisbon, WI area three years ago and are lucky to live on beautiful Castle Rock Lake. Over The Fourth of July weekend, we had our family visiting from out of town and went over to a little island in the middle of the lake; better known as “Alcatraz”. We were having a blast and hanging out in the water near the north side of the island. We were playing catch and I threw the ball to my sister. Little did I know that I had just flung my diamond ring into the water filled with tons of people and boats! A friend had said, ” I think you just lost your ring” and we all wondered who he was speaking to; until I realized it was me. I went from laughing to frantic as we all searched around the area. Fortunately, he had seen me do it and we knew the area to look around, but to my despair we came up with nothing after an hour. I felt so horrible that I had lost my ring that my husband worked hard for and that we didn’t have insurance. We talked about insuring it for a while and never seemed to get around to it. We ended up packing it up and heading to dinner. I felt like a part of me was missing! It wasn’t the materialism of the ring, but the symbol and thought behind the ring. My husband, Rich, also lost his ring at work a couple weeks before. I just keep thinking, now neither one of us has the ring we were actually married with.  The next day I decided I was going to rent a metal detector and go back out there to see if I could retrieve it. As I searched the sites, I saw that it was roughly $40 a day to rent or around $600 for a decent one, but then it hit me…I had no idea what to do even if I did get one.

I then thought…well Google, you basically have everything I ever would need to know; so maybe you  can tell me if I can hire someone. Bingo. After I plugged in the question a website popped up called; www.TheRingFinders.com. It gave me different people I could contact to help me find my ring and narrow it down by region of the world! Since I am basically an hour from any large city; I figured I would need to look for someone far from me. But, when I looked up areas in Wisconsin; there was a man in the Dells. I clicked on the link and came to Dan Roekle. He had other great success stories and also seemed like a very genuine guy. He also had found a ring in Baraboo with pretty much the same scenario. I was looking for pricing for him to come out; but he only wanted $25 for his expenses and reward if I could spare anything. I was ecstatic. I contacted Dan and within hours had responded and was asking lots of beneficial and professional questions. We went back and forth pretty much all day when he then said I can come out tomorrow if you are available. I couldn’t believe this kind man was giving me his Sunday, willing to drive from the Madison area and seemed so confident we could find it. He basically stated, we do it for the adventure and love helping others out!

The next morning Dan drove up to our lake house with his son Carter, 11, who is his right hand man during these “treasure hunts”. Not only were they very nice, I felt like I had known them for years. We all got on the boat and headed out to the island. My brother in-law met us out there and had the coordinates from his boat GPS that was so helpful to narrow down the area of where we were. It still was an area roughly 100 ft by 70 ft of water that was 3ft to 4 ft in depth. Carter would shift through the sand when Dan would let him now that the metal detector had detected something. They also switched and took turns listening and retrieving during the search which was awesome to see their teamwork. While they searched; Dan taught me about metal detecting as well. Things I would have never known! 1. You need a permit from the DNR in Wisconsin to search any bodies of water and need to let them know specifically what you are looking for. 2. The metal detector has different sensitivity levels that can search for things that are a few inches deep to 6 ft. depending on the setting. 3. Also that as soon as my ring had fallen off, it probably sunk 2 inches right away.

I am glad I didn’t spend money on a metal detector!  It wasn’t the sunniest day and the lake was kind of choppy. I felt so bad and asked if there was something I could do besides narrowing down the search area. Dan just replied no and kept looking. A little more time had passed and I was starting to think I wouldn’t see it again. Then Dan came walking back to me on the boat. I just thought to myself that he was coming to say he was cold and it was a lost cause. He said, “are you sure this is the area”? I said, yes and then he asked what it looked like again. As I started describing the ring…he said you mean like this? I saw my ring was on the tip of his pinky (I have tiny hands) and hugged him and smiled the largest I had in a long while! My husband, family and I were in complete awe! I had not only my ring back, but my faith in people and lost causes. I knew right then and there, this would be a story I tell for the rest of my life.

Dan and Carter were a God send to me. I still shake my head in disbelief at the miracle that they performed that day. They found a ring the size of a nickel in 14,000 acres of water, buried along with 20+ rusty bottle caps and pop tops!  I am so glad that I found him on www.TheRingFinders.com website and that people like him, even exist! So, if you have ever lost something that has been as important to you, put your faith in Dan to find it and you will be amazed as well.

Laura H.

 

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Lost Ring Found at Devil’s Lake State Park – Baraboo, WI

  • from Madison (Wisconsin, United States)
Contact:

Ring Found at Devil's Lake State Park

It was my 3 year anniversary, and my wife and I were celebrating at Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin.   We hit the beach, and I decided to play some catch with a football.   I noticed that my tungsten carbide ring was a little loose on one of the throws, and I probably should have taken it off, but I didn’t.  On the very next throw I looked down and my ring was gone.  I wasn’t sure if it flew off on the throw, or fell off when I put my hand down.  I was sick to my stomach.  There were a number of people on the beach that day, so we rounded up 6-7 of them to help look for my ring.  However, after a long search, nothing turned up.  I thought for sure I would never see my ring again.

I called around trying to find a metal detector to rent that could be used in the water, but after calling a number of places … no luck.  I turned to Google and found the www.TheRingFinders.com website.  I contacted one of the members on the directory, but after a couple of emails back and forth, communication stopped and he didn’t seem interested in helping.  I then reached out to Dan, and he responded almost immediately.  Unfortunately, he was out of town on vacation, but he kept in touch and said he would help out if he could.  He lives in the Madison area, so I was impressed he was willing to drive close to an hour just to help me out. On Father’s Day weekend, he made the trip up to Devil’s Lake to search for my ring.

Dan asked tons of good questions to get an idea on the location, what I was doing at the time, how deep in the water I was, where I was standing and what my ring looked like.  He then performed the search on his own along with his 11 year old son, which I thought was cool.  He said after 2 hours, a handful of bottle caps, pop tops, $0.39 cents in change … he was about to give up and then got a promising hit on his metal detector – my ring.  Dan later called me and told me the entire story, I couldn’t believe it – he had found my ring.   Later that day we met at the park and he handed the ring back to me.  My wife and I both fought back tears, what am amazing feeling.  My wife and I can’t thank you enough Dan and Carter for finding and returning my ring!

Jonathan P.

06-14-2014

 

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Tungsten Carbide Ring                                              Devil’s Lake State Park Beach

 

 

 

 

Lost Ring Posted on Madison Craigslist Website Found in Backyard

  • from Madison (Wisconsin, United States)
Contact:

Date: May 26, 2013

I had taken a week of vacation in order to complete various projects around the house, as well as tend to my gardening.  Midweek just as I was heading out the door to run some errands, I realized my wedding ring was not on my finger.  I quickly checked my pockets and it was not there, however I proceeded to run my errands.  Upon returning home, I looked in the two most likely places and unfortunately it was not in either spot.   I am a creature of habit and will put my ring in my pocket if I am putting on hand lotion, etc.  My husband quickly pointed out that the shorts I was wearing had a hole in one pocket.  We scoured the house for days looking high and low.  We even cleared out all of the closets to check the floors, but sadly we found nothing.  I was convinced I had lost my ring inside the house, but my husband thought it had fallen out of my pocket while I was gardening on my day off.  After a couple of days, we decided to post an ad in the “Lost and Found” section on www.Craigslist.com as a last resort.  That’s how we found Dan.  He quickly responded to the ad offering to help.  Since we had already searched the entire inside of the house, we thought it was worth a shot for Dan to come over and search our backyard with his metal detector.

I met Dan at our home on Saturday morning along with his young son.  He was very professional and it was clear that they had done this together many times.  I was impressed with the way he was using this task to teach his son the skills of metal detecting, as well as the importance of helping out others.  Together they swept the front yard and found quite a few coins, but no ring.  They did a very thorough search of both the front and the back yard, but initially did not find the ring.  The entire time they never gave up, and then suddenly Dan called me over … he had found my ring in the lawn along the side of the house.   I don’t know how many times we might have walked past it in the days since it was lost, but it was found.

I am very cautious when responding to an ad from Craigslist, but through the back and forth email with Dan to setup the appointment, I felt comfortable meeting him at our home on my own.  He was professional and very respectful of the fact that I had lost something very dear.  I cannot thank him enough and can only give him a glowing reference.

Thanks again,

Jean K.

 

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Lost Wedding Ring in Trophy Club, Tx while digging a trench in his yard!

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
Contact:

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On Sunday afternoon we got a call from a gentleman who had lost his wedding ring.  He had been working all day in his yard digging a trench to relieve some standing water.  After completing the several hour project he realized his wedding ring was gone.  He and his family search for 2 hours and had no luck.  He found “The Ring Finders” website and gave us a call.   We spent about 20 minutes covering the area which was crazy with signals due to a power line running under his backyard.  I decided to re-check the trench with full descrimination, looking only for gold.  I got a hit near the end of the 15ft trench about 6 inches down.  As  I bent down and used my pinpointer through the mud and water in the trench I saw a glint of GOLD in the hole.  The wedding ring was stuck in the wall of the trench about 4-6 inches down.  I turn and ask the homeowner,  I said, “I have a questions for you” “would you like to have this back and I handed him his ring“.

He and his wife were so excited they could not believe we found it… they kept saying “you guys are good, you guys are so good“.  The wife came out and gave us hug… it was another successful hunt for the “Dallas Ring Finders”.

Don & Ellen

Lost Ring in Fitchburg Backyard Playing Football – Don’t Rent a Metal Detector, Rent a Ring Finder!

  • from Madison (Wisconsin, United States)
Contact:

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I often talk about my adventures as a Ring Finder with people at work.  Like most people, they love hearing the stories of lost rings, both wedding rings and engagement rings, being found and returned to their owners.  Every ring has a story and is so much more than just a piece of jewelry.  One day, Jason stops over and tells me that a friend of his lost his ring in his backyard.  He wanted to know if it was ok to give him my contact information.  He also wanted to know what I charged.  I explained that I ask for a small fee to cover gas and my time, and then a discretionary reward – whatever the person can afford and thinks is appropriate for the service we provide.

A couple of days had passed, and I hadn’t heard anything from Jason’s friend.  I asked if he had found the lost ring.  Jason said he had not, and would remind him to give me a call.  Jason had heard all of my stories and knew that we could probably find the ring pretty easy.  His friend Ryan was playing football with his kids in his backyard in Fitchburg.  On one throw, he actually felt and saw his wedding ring fly off and land on the ground.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find it.  In my experience, what typically happens when someone begins to look for their lost ring, is that they inadvertently step on it – pushing it into the ground.  No matter how hard you look with your eyes, you’ll never find it.

Another week passed, and I again asked Jason if Ryan had found his ring.  He said that he had not, and this time just sent Ryan a text message and included me on it.  I responded directly to Ryan that we could come out that night and take a look.  He responded almost immediately and we agreed on a time to head over after work.  As I typically do, I brought my kids along who love metal detecting and ring hunting.  I talked with Ryan before beginning the hunt.  He explained how he had lost the ring and that he was determined to find it himself.  He had told his kids that if they found his ring, they could have ice cream as a reward.  Funny, right?   He also had thoughts of renting a metal detector, but wasn’t sure he would know how to operate it. I explained that he made a good decision to not rent a metal detector.  I’ve heard countless stories of people renting a metal detector and getting excited the first time it goes off.  However, a typical home owner would be shocked how much junk is hidden under your yard.

I will never forget this hunt, because it was, and still currently stands, as our fastest recovery to date.  Ryan pointed to the area that he was standing when he threw the football, and literally within 3 mins we had a signal.  We could not see the ring with our eyes, and had to use a small shovel to pry up the ground … out popped Ryan’s ring.  He was in disbelief, as was his wife … Ryan said, “You’ve got to be kidding me” probably 4-5 times.   It took longer to take our picture and post it to Facebook than it took for us to find his lost ring!

Remember, don’t rent a metal detector, rent a Ring Finder!

Lost Ring Pasadena, Texas (Recovered)

  • from Sugar Land (Texas, United States)

 Lost Ring Pasedena, Texas (Recovered)

 I received a call Wednesday from Jennifer who had located me on www.theringfinders.com she was looking for someone to help her find her mother’s lost wedding ring.

Jennifer reported her mother Barbara had lost her ring in the front yard of her residence while tending to the front lawn and flower beds. Jennifer said her mother was pretty sure she lost her wedding ring of 20 years while working in the yard today.

I asked Jennifer a few more questions about the area to be searched and recommended she tell her mom not to mow the front lawn.

Final arrangements were discussed and plans were made for Friday morning.

Jennifer called me back a few minutes after our conversation ended; reportin her mother’s lawn service had  cut the grass Wednesday afternoon. I told Jennifer we will hope for the best, and if the ring is in the yard I would find it.

I made the trip out to Pasadena this morning and meet with Barbara and was shown the areas in the yard where she believed she may have lost her ring.

Barbara returned inside of her residence while I searched the front yard and flower beds. About 15 minutes in, a good solid signal with a depth rate of one inch, I knew I was on the ring.

I packed up my gear and knocked on the front door a few minutes later. Barbara called out, come on in. As I made my way to the living area of the house I heard Barbara say “you couldn’t find it”?

I held out my hand and presented Barbara her missing wedding ring which resulted in some big hugs and smiles.

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 Thanks,

John Volek

www.theringfinders.com/john.volek

 

Equipment Used:

Minelab CTX3030

White’s TRX Pinpointer

 The TRX is looking really good performance wise and performed well on its first field use.

Lost Ring Found in Snow Bank – Middleton, WI

  • from Madison (Wisconsin, United States)
Contact:

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I got a call from Brian, who was referred to me from Jean, a woman I had helped out the previous year. She had lost her ring in her backyard while gardening. When she had heard that her friend Brian had lost his ring, she immediately told him to give me a call.   The day was January 6, 2014. The temperature was -17 degrees, with a -41 degree wind chill. Let’s just say it was cold. My son and daughter were home from school, due to the historically low wind chills. After I got off the phone with Brian, my wife said – “You’re not actually going to go look for it in this weather, are you”? Well, Brian was in Middleton, which is my home town, so it wasn’t much of a drive. She just shook her head. We brought our metal detector along, but it was simply too cold to do the hunt. We were able to get the story on how he lost his ring, as well as a general idea on the search area.

Earlier in the week, Brian was over at a neighbor’s house for dinner. Shortly afterwards, he became sick to his stomach and said he had to return home, which was about 4-5 houses away. Unfortunately, Brian did not make it home. He threw up shortly after leaving, stumbled and fell into a snow bank. He said the next thing he remembered is waking up in his own bed, but he had no idea how he got there. After he woke up, he asked where his wedding ring was – it was not on his finger. He figured someone had taken it off while helping him up to his bed. However, no one had removed the ring and no one knew where it was. He thought back to the night before and remembered that he was not wearing gloves when he walked over to his neighbor’s house. His best guess was that it had slipped off when he passed out in the snow bank.

The next day, Brian had attempted to shift through the snow himself looking for his ring, but had no luck. As a last resort, Brian like so many others, rented a metal detector with hopes of locating it. However, after hours of frustration he gave up. You see, using a metal detector isn’t overly difficult, but figuring out what all the beeps and tones mean is something that takes practice and a lot of patience. You wouldn’t believe all the metal junk that is buried in the ground.

Once the weather had warmed up a little (literally back up to 0 degrees – the winter in WI that year was one of the worst), my son and I returned to Brian’s neighborhood to begin our search. Brian had given us a general area to search. We could see the piles of snow that he had searched through already. After about an hour of searching, we had nothing.   It was cold, and we were about to call it quits when I told my son, “5 more minutes”. Well, it only took 2 and we had a strong signal. A couple scoops of snow and right there staring back at us was Brian’s shiny tungsten carbide wedding ring.

Carter and I got a quick picture with our find, and then handed it back to Brian. He still couldn’t believe that we found it, because he had search and searched on his own. He figured someone had picked it up and he would never see it again. Brian gave us a nice reward, which went toward two nice hot glasses of hot chocolate!

 

Brian S.

01-06-2014

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Tungsten Carbide Ring                                             Snow Bank

Lost 3 Ring Wedding Set Raking Leaves in Backyard, in Cedar Hill,Tx

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
Contact:

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We received a call from Christine about 3pm on Sunday afternoon.  She got our name and number from a friend she had told that she had lost her wedding set of 3 rings.

Christine lives on about a acre of land, she had gone out to the back of the property to help her husband bag up some leaves that he had been raking together.  They worked together for about a hour and finished up and carried the bags of leaves up to the garage about a half acre away.   That was when she realized that her Wedding Set (3 rings) was missing.  In a panic, she and her husband looked all over the yard, they dumped the leaf bags out but did not see anything.  They spent several hours looking with no luck.   Later in the day while talking with her friend, she told her about the lost rings.  Her friend said, wait a minute I heard about this website of people who find rings.  She Googled and found “The Ring Finders” website and called Christine back and gave her our number.

It was about 3pm when Christine called and she lived 41 miles from us.  I told her we would be there in about and hour & a half.  We needed to hurry as I was concerned it would get dark and it was already quite cold, and the darkness would only make it colder.   We arrived and got our 2 Garrett AT Pros and Pinpointers out then Christine walked us to the back of the acre of property.  She showed us all the places she walked and was helping her husband with the leaves.   Ellen and I chatted about what area we would grid off visually and began to detect.   Within 10 minutes I hear Ellen say “Here’s One”,  I joined her as we looked through about 4-6 inches of leaves in a pile but nothing else rang up on the detectors.   I told Ellen to keep looking and I ask Christine to show me the bags of leaves, my thinking was that if one ring was in the pile of leaves that they had been bagging then it was likely the other rings would be in the bags of leaves near the garage.   I began to scan the full plastic bags of leaves with my detector and got 3 very light hits.   I kept scanning but nothing else hit so I backed up to the bag with something metal inside.   I tore a small hole in the bag and began to stick my Pinpointer into the bag.  As I got a signal, I used my hand to begin pulling out whatever the metal was.  1st hit was piece of wire, the second was a metal screw and the 3rd hit I could not see it.  Finally I saw a glint of Gold in the bag.  I began to smile but had to fight the leaves to find it, and finally the smallest of the 3 rings rings was found.   Christine was standing right beside me and could not believe I found it.  Now the only ring missing was the most expensive, the diamond solitaire with several small diamonds around the band.   After determining that nothing else was in the 4-5 bags of leaves, I walked back to the rear of the property and told Ellen that I had found one but that one was still missing.  She had been working out visual grid and I went back and started back over the grid working the opposite direction.   I made several passes checking every 2inch or less hit that I got regardless of the type of signal.  Then I got a shaky 44-46 hit that was very weak,  as I was checking everything I almost kept going but thank goodness I did not.  I reached down and moved the leaves and grass and there it was, the diamond solitaire twinkled at me.  I reached down and picked it up and ask Christine, “Would this make you Happy!”  She and her husband were so excited and grateful.  It is so much fun to see the reaction of our customers when we are successful.

So 3 rings, 1 in the leaf pile, 1 in a trash bag a 1/2 acre away and one in the grass 5-6 feet away from the 1st one.

Another successful hunt for “The Ring Finders”.

Don & Ellen Wilson – Dallas/Ft Worth

Lost Texas A&M Class Ring Woodlands, Texas (Recovered)

  • from Sugar Land (Texas, United States)

12/04/2013

Hi John,

I work for The Woodlands Township in The Woodlands and I supervise the
boathouse next to the woodlands mall. Today at work, my worst nightmare
happened. I went to shake someone’s hand and they pulled my ring off and it
bounced off the dock into the lake. It is about 4.5 to 5 ft deep where it fell
in and it is in probably a 5 by 5 ft area next to the dock.

I found you online at www.theringfinders.com when I was looking for metal

detector rentals. Is there ANY way you can help me with this. My ring is/was easily

my most prized possession.

Please, if you get a chance I would love to hear back from you with any help
you might be able to offer me.

Thanks in advance,

Kyle

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I met Kyle this morning at the Woodlands Boat House and  Kyle gave me a first hand

account of how the ring was lost and where he believed it landed in the water.

The job appeared easy from the top side, I was thinking, I’ll jump in this tropical warm

blue water, grab the ring and job complete.

Well the water wasn’t tropical or warm and the bottom of the dock was concrete with

apparently a lot of re-enforced re-bar. I found the ring, lots of luck on this job. I was

thinking to myself, Kyle you just witnessed an early Christmas Miracle 🙂

I was really happy for him, It was clear from the beginning the Ring was very important to him.

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Kyle was nice enough to grab a shot of the recovery

 

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Kyle with a big thumbs up.

 

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Nice Ring

 

It was a good day

John

 

Equipment used on this Recovery:

Minelab Excalibur II

 

Lost my Texas Aggie College Ring while Toilet Papering a friend’s home!

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
Contact:

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We got a email from a young man who on Saturday evening was having some innocent fun with friends and lost his Texas Aggie College Ring.   I responded quickly to the email and called the man and we chatted about where the ring was lost, what kind of ring it was, and the address where the ring was lost.   He told me that Saturday evening he had been playing football in the front yard of a friend’s  home and his ring flew off and he could not find it in the thick grass.

We set a time for us come out, this was 3 days after he lost the ring.  He was there to meet us.  I ask him to show us where he was standing and how he threw the football.  He looked at us and said well the truth is we were here “Toilet Papering” my friends home and then he pointed up!  We looked up and the trees still had toilet paper waving around.  I told him I thought it was great he could have that kind of fun, we had a nice laugh and began to search.  It did not take long before Ellen hollered “Is This Your Ring!”,  he jogged over to where she was and was so excited.  Ellen is 2 for 2 on our last hunts! It is so great to be able to enjoy this hobby with my spouse of 39 years.

Another successful hunt for The Ring Finders!

Don & Ellen Wilson – The Dallas Ring Finders!