lost item recovery Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost Phone Recovery in Santa Cruz

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)

A couple days ago Allison contacted me asking for assistance finding her daughter Marcy’s phone that Marcy had lost several days earlier in Pogonip park in Santa Cruz.  They were able to track the phone as it was still sending a GPS signal and I have done a lot of metal detecting in this park due to it’s important place in Santa Cruz history.  Marcy had been back to the site twice already looking for her phone thinking that it would be easy to find given the location it was transmitting, but was getting to the point of hopelessness as she felt it had gotten completely obfuscated by the tall dry grass.

I was reasonably confident in my ability to find the lost phone as the GPS signal narrowed it down to an area of about 100′ radius and I was very familiar with the park.  Typically I prefer the person who lost the item to be with me for the search so that she can advise on specific details on where it was lost, but in this case with the GPS signal still transmitting I was happy to make an attempt on my own.  I let them know that I would get started the following day late in the afternoon and that I would stay in touch to communicate details.

Yesterday I hiked into the site and spent some time reorienting myself based on Marcy’s map she sent and my live Google maps with a pin dropped of where the phone’s location was reporting from.  The night before I had made this map in preparation, since I have experienced situations metal detecting where a map or satellite view of an area looks totally different from how the site looks on the ground.  Curiously I had immediately started finding various items by eye right on the surface… a pair of beat up sunglasses, beer cans, bottles.  So it appeared that a lot of human activity had transpired here.  As I started searching with my metal detector I started finding more items, mostly by eye.  I had even found a junk ring and a small silver earring, at which point I stopped and reached out to Marcy’s father (who was still in communication with Marcy by email) to find out if Marcy had also happened to lose a pair of sunglasses and silver earring.  I wanted to find out if I was close to the location of where the phone had been lost, because the search was taking longer than I anticipated and it was definitely not spot on the coordinates that the phone was reporting.

When Marcy’s father responded that she had not lost these items I realized it was time to start expanding the search to the outer limits of the 100′ radius of the phone’s GPS accuracy.  I told Marcy’s father that I would continue until dark.  It seemed I had been finding everything but Marcy’s phone which was being quite elusive.  But I was confident that it was still there.  Sure enough, not long after this and as I was tracing the absolute edge of the GPS estimate, I finally spotted Marcy’s phone peeking through the tall grass!  It had been just sitting there for several days, totally untouched but till transmitting it’s signal.

In this case a slow and meticulous search was as valuable as a metal detector.  The phone was quite visible, but to find it required a lot of patience and estimation of where it could be based on good information.  I contacted the family and shortly after met up with Marcy’s father to return the phone to her.  We were all very happy to have her phone returned back to her and I was glad that I could be of assistance in their search.

Lost Ring Recovered Minnesota Metal Detecting

  • from Twin Cities Metro (Minnesota, United States)

Raj lost his gold heirloom ring while playing volleyball at a local park.

www.theringfinders.com

Glad I could help out !!

Darrin

Buried Sewer Clean-out’s…Located By Metal Detector!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)

As a member of THE RING FINDERS community, I often get calls for missing items such as; men’s and woman’s rings, earrings, cell phones, and keys.  I even have gotten a number of requests for missing or locating property pins.  I also get to meet a great deal of interesting personalities while on these requests for assistance.  Ken’s story is a little bit different and takes place on a large plot of land.  A few years earlier, he had trenched and ran new sewer lines with a clean-out every 100 feet.  Before burying these lines he capped the clean-outs with a big brass fitting.  The thought was that these large brass caps would be simple to locate with a metal detector should the need arise.

Fast forward to May of this year, Ken purchased a metal detector and fabricated a probe to rediscover his clean-outs.  After several attempts at locating them and hundreds of probes pushed into the ground, I received a request for assistance.

Our First attempts found highly mineralized ground and a lot of debris around our target area.  Usually, I would move to a smaller coil, ground balance, and turn up the target separation on my equinox, however in this application we needed depth to locate what was thought to have been 16″ to 18″ down.  We searched for 2 hours in the hot days sun before concluding our search.  Ken and I had a lot of great conversation but both were disappointed in the result.  I left questioning if I had the depth required to even see our target.

I stewed about the issues we had faced for a couple of days and decided I needed another shot.  I utilized the money I received from our previous search to supplement the purchase of a new larger coil.  I turned my target separation down to 1 to achieve maximum depth and power and on Saturday I returned to the field.  Ken had located some older photos that proved we were indeed in the right area.  We gave it another shot and we found a target and probed…nothing!  Found a target and probed…nothing!  Our third and best target we probed…it was an area we had probed during the previous search…suddenly Ken hit something!  We both smiled, hopeful that the search was indeed over.  We both grabbed a shovel and began to dig and at just about 20″ in depth we located the first brass clean-out cap.  I think we were both equal part excited and equal part relieved.

Afterwards, we marked out 100′ up hill in the direction the sewer pipes traveled and began again.

Thank you Ken!  I enjoyed our conversations and the opportunity to work on a different project than those I typically perform.  I learned some valuable knowledge and procured new equipment to continue helping others.

The first clean-out located at 20″ of depth

15″ coil utilized to locate the target

Our field as seen from above

100′ uphill to the second location

The newly stubbed-up clean-out with marker!

Follow on Instagram for more photos and stories!

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

Lost Brass In The Tall Grass University of WA

  • from Mercer Island (Washington, United States)

   

SeattleRingHunter Lost Item Recovery Specialist LAND & SCUBA Call 206-618-8194 ASAP

Watch the SeattleRingHunter recover a set of lost keys from the tall grass.

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March 2023 a gentleman called asking for assistance in searching for his lost keys. He had been walking the night before and stumbled on the curb after crossing the street. He fell to the ground into some tall grass bushes that fortunately cushion his fall so he didn’t sustain any injuries.  However after walking down the sidewalk a few moments later he checked his coat pocket and noticed his keys were no longer with him. The grass being very tall easily obscured the keys from view making his visual search unsuccessful. 

When I met the gentleman on site we reconstructed the chain of events allowing me to identify the drop zone. After a few quick passes of my metal detector I was able to quickly recover his keys beneath a patch  of tall grass. He was very much appreciative to have them back in his hands and quite shocked how quickly they were located after having spent quite some time searching two separate areas. I told him not to be disappointed on his efforts as this happens all the time. By working with an experienced Lost Item Recovery Specialist its not only our technology that we bring but our years of experience in having worked and studied so many of these lost item cases. With this experience we have developed a keen since in asking the correct investigative questions that tend to guide us many times to the best areas to focus our physical search efforts.

Before he went on his way two suggestions were offered to mitigate a future reoccurrence. I suggested he find a clip of any kind and secure the key ring to his clothing or pack. Also the by adding an Apple AirTag tracker to his key chain since he has an iPhone would be extremely beneficial.  A very nice guy and I believe he will secure his keys moving forward. We are happy he was not injured in his fall and wish him all the best. 

Watch the video to see how quickly this lost set of keys was located from the tall grass.

Be sure to like, share and subscribe to my videos. By sharing these videos on your social media it really helps to get the word out about our amazing Ring Finders all across the country.

If you have lost an item of value reach out to me directly for a quick chat so I can formulate a recovery plan for you!

https://TheRingFinders.com/Jeff.Morgan/

http://www.SeattleRingHunter.com

CALL 206-618-8194

YouTube: #SeattleRingHunter

iPhone 13 Lake Drop 50 Feet 10 Days No Damage Lake Sammamish

  • from Mercer Island (Washington, United States)

   

SeattleRingHunter Lost Item Recovery Specialist LAND & SCUBA Call 206-618-8194 ASAP

Watch the SeattleRingHunter recover an iPhone 13 from fifty feet after ten days from Lake Sammamish.

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May 2022 I receive a call from Max after having found my Lake Sammamish YouTube recovery videos. He told me he was on a paddle board with his younger sister and they had just lost his iPhone 13 in the lake! 

“Can you help me? , he asked me.

I responded with a few questions of my own. I asked if he had any land marks next to him in the water where the phone was lost such as dock, tree or a piling. I also ask how far out from shore he was?

He told me he could see the homes but nothing in the water around him as a landmark. These were not good answers and it seems some what hopeless to me from the initial responses but I have learned to continue pressing for critical details anyway. I told him Lake Sammamish gets deep quick and the phone might be flooded. He informed me that it was in a waterproof bag. It broke loose from his sister’s neck and sunk to the bottom of the lake.

I had a bit of hope that maybe the phone would be dry but how to know the drop zone was still a mystery.

He also said he had a photo of where they were when the phone was lost.  He txted the photo to me but it was not specific enough to support a dive. 

I asked how the photo was taken? His response to me by surprise that he had the whole incident on his GoPro video.

Turned out he had thirteen minutes of total footage and the iPhone drop was clearly at the seven minute mark.

I thought for a bit longer and asked what version GoPro was used?

He responded, “GoPro Version 8.”

My confidence level started to warm up quickly as I asked the $1,000 question of the day.  Did you have the GPS enabled, turned on?

He checked and said yes the GPS was ON!

At this moment my confidence level was about to boil. If this turned out to be true I would be willing to dive for the phone. I had him upload the footage to my Google share drive so I could inspect the data with my own eyes. I could hardly contain myself what if we actually have a full video account of the incident with embedded GPS data. I was anxious as the video file was downloaded to my computer.

When I played the video for the first time I was pleased to see the high definition footage of the complete incident. The instant the phone broke free from her neck as he pulled her onto the paddle board we can actually hear the lanyard clip break and at this instant my confidence level was spiking.

I found an appropriate software application and applied some gauges to the video displaying all the critical data. After watching the video a second time with live GPS data on the screen my confidence level for this recovery reached a full rolling boil! At this moment I knew we had all we needed to dive on this mission with a very solid opportunity of a recovery not based on luck and chance but founded on solid technical skills and process.

We could have not ask for anything better. Even the fact that the GoPro had been running for several minutes was an absolute blessing allowing the GPS to have a solid lock on several satellites for optimum accuracy. 

Here is the video…

Watch this episode of the Seattle Ring Hunter to see how we unwind this riddle of yet another iPhone lake drop.

Be sure to like, share and subscribe to my videos. By sharing these videos on your social media it really helps to get the word out about our amazing Ring Finders all across the country.

If you have lost an item of value reach out to me directly for a quick chat so I can formulate a recovery plan for you!

https://TheRingFinders.com/Jeff.Morgan/

http://www.SeattleRingHunter.com

CALL 206-618-8194

YouTube: #SeattleRingHunter

New Years Eve 2022 Girls Lost Moms Gold Wedding Band In Snow Auburn WA

  • from Mercer Island (Washington, United States)

  

SeattleRingHunter Lost Item Recovery Specialist LAND & SCUBA Call 206-618-8194 ASAP

Watch the SeattleRingHunter recover mom’s lost wedding ring in the snow on New Years Eve 2022

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December 2021 Kathy contacted me on New Years Eve explaining that she and her friend, Nancy, had been out in their neighborhood park and lost a very important ring. The two girls had been showing off a hand full of rings to the camera with a beautiful snow white back drop when they noticed one very important ring was now missing. It just happened to be Kathy’s mother’s gold wedding ring!

They had lost the ring earlier in the day. The good news I had was that I live just up the hill from them and I could swing by on my way home that evening to perform the search. When I arrived the temperatures had dropped quite a bit making for quite the challenge. The standard GoPro batteries don’t like sub freezing temperatures and the fingers as get a little slow as well but I endured the temporary bit of discomfort and got the search accomplished.

Watch this video to see the exciting conclusion to mom’s lost gold wedding band in the snow!

Be sure to like, share and subscribe to my videos. By sharing these videos on your social media it really helps get the word out about our amazing Ring Finders all across the nation.

If you lost an item of value reach out to me directly for a quick chat so I can formulate a recovery plan for you!

https://TheRingFinders.com/Jeff.Morgan/

http://www.SeattleRingHunter.com

CALL 206-618-8194

YouTube: #SeattleRingHunter