lost jewelry oregon Tag | The Ring Finders

Gold and diamond wedding ring lost off a high balcony, five months ago

  • from Oregon City (Oregon, United States)
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In August 2024, I got a message from Shawn asking if I could come locate his white gold wedding ring.

He told me he was doing some carpentry work at Dagney’s house in Portland. He went out on the deck to brush off some sawdust and saw his wedding ring fly off his finger and drop into the brush far below.

I knew the area, and how steep the hillside was, but agreed to come take a look.

I arrived at the beautiful home on the butte, and Shawn explained what happened. The balcony was about four stories above a steep slope covered in blackberry brambles. I had him toss a stand-in ring (made from copper tubing) with a section of pink ribbon, where he thought the ring landed. It immediately disappeared into the blackberries.

Dagney and I went down the long stairway to under the house and saw that you couldn’t see the ground through the brush, so you couldn’t tell how steep the area was, or even where the ground was.

I reluctantly told Shawn and Dagney that I did not think I could safely get the the area the ring should be, and both were clearly disappointed, but understood. Before leaving, I told them I would be willing to come back and try again. Since the ring was not going anywhere, I asked them to contact me once some of the greenery had died back.

Fast forward five months. I received a message from Dagney, with a photo of the hillside. It looked better, so we set-up a time for me to return. Having had some time to develope a plan, I loaded a gas trimmer with a brush-cutter blade, long handle and hand clippers, a machete, gloves, good boots, and my Minelab Manticore.

When I arrived about 9:30, I met with Shawn and Dagney again. I had Shawn go over the details of how the ring was lost, and point out where he thought it landed. I explained my plan was to cut a path into the general area and locate the copper ring with ribbon he had dropped 5 months ago, then expand the search from there.

I hauled all the gear down the stairs and started. I cut my way close to the suspected area, then opened up a space to work. Not wanting to risk hitting the ring with cutter blade, I would chop back the upper section of the blackberries, use the clippers to get closer to the ground, then go over the area with the metal detector. I got a few promissing hits, which turned out to be trash, much to the dismay of Shawn and Dagney who were watching from above. A little further up the hill, I found the copper ring/ribbon thing. I held it up for Shawn to see. I started clearing brush to my left for about 10 feet, detecting every few feet with no luck. I went back and started moving right. Within 2 feet, I got a clean tone from the Manticore and knew it had to be what I was looking for. I went in with the pinpointer and….nothing!? Thinking I was crazy, I used the clippers to trim some more brambles, and there in the dirt was the ring! I looked up the the balcony to share the news, but nobody was there. I snapped a couple photos, and began packing up my gear. As I was doing that, Dagney looked over the balcony and told me Shawn had an appointment and had left. I told her it was pointless for me to keep searching for the ring, and I would be up to explain in a few minutes.

I hauled everything back up the stairs and piled it by my truck. Dagney opened the door, I went inside and told her the reason it was pointless to continue looking was because I found it, holding it up for her. She nearly fell to her knees telling me how happy she was Shawn would get his ring back. Sweaty me got a big hug..

Took a touch more then 5 months waiting, and 4 1/2 hours of work, but ring reunited……

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Wedding ring lost in Oregon Construction site

  • from Oregon City (Oregon, United States)
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A few weeks ago, I received a message from Caleb asking if I could help find his lost wedding ring. He  was spreading hay over the construction site for erosion control, and during the process, his ring came off. He told me he had narrowed the area to about a 10′ radius, but had not been able to find it himself.

I asked him how confident he was the ring was on the lot, and he said he was “very confident” and certain it was in a limited area, since he felt it come off. We agreed to meet at the lot the next afternoon, thinking since it was a fairly small area, it would be a quick search.

I arrived and met Caleb, and he showed me the section of the lot where he was sure the ring had slipped off. He said he had just finished spreading the hay around by hand, shook his hands, and felt the ring come off. I fired-up the Manticore and began the search. Being an active construction site, there were a number of targets coming up. Each time I stopped to double check a signal, Caleb come over and start moving the hay. I explained to him the VDI numbers were wrong, as was the tone from the detector, or the target was too deep.

After spending more then a hour in that small area, I expanded the search to the left, right, and behind where he had been standing, thinking the ring may have flown off in a different direction. Caleb was still sure it was in that area, and he was sifting through the hay by hand. I loaned him a pin-pointer to use in his search. After we passed two hours, I told him I felt sure the ring was not in that area. We walked around the lot a bit and I had him explain again what he was doing. He said he hauled the bales of hay onto the lot, pulled it apart, and threw the hay across the bare ground. He was sure he had the ring on when he started, and it was gone when he finished, but he was second guessing where it came off. We agreed the ring could actually be anywhere on the lot, or in the shed where the hay was stored. It was getting later in the afternoon, and the temperature was dropping. I told him I would come back in the morning and search the entire lot.

I arrived and began again, but Caleb had to be working at a different location. I started on the same side of the lot, covering the same area, then down into hole around the foundation. About 3/4th of the way down the eastside of the lot in my expanded seach area, the detector gave out that beautiful, clean tone. About two inches down in the hay was Caleb’s ring.

I let him know I had found it (not where he thought it was), and since he was working, I marked the spot I found it, and told him where I would stash the ring for him to pick-up a little later. No smiling recovery pic, but did take some of the location and ring.

 

 

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Lost Gold Wedding Ring Found in Tigard, Oregon

  • from Oregon City (Oregon, United States)
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I received a text from Kyle saying he had lost his gold wedding ring in his front lawn several days ago. He and his wife had tried several different approaches to locate it, but had no luck. He said he had found me on Ring Finders, and asked if I would be willing to come help him out. I told him I could be there the next morning, and we were set.

I arrived and met Kyle, who showed me the area he suspected the ring had departed his finger. On the day in question, we had some heavy rains in our area. As he was moving the trash bin to the curb, he stopped to shake out a tree limb that was being weighed down by all the water. When he let go, the limb snapped-up and he felt it catch on his ring. The area had a nice, thick lawn, which about 3″ tall. Kyle went back in the house to work, telling me to give him a yell if I needed anything, and I pulled ot the AT Gold and started under the tree. I immediately got an interesting hit, but it seemed too deep and scratchy for a gold ring, so I moved on. I started an East-West grid across the lawn. After my second pass, I just had to go back to the signal under the tree. I had to cut a small plug and about an inch down, there it was…a AA battery. Back to the grid.

Right away I heard another good one just on the edge of the lawn. Scraping away dirt I didn’t see anything, but the pinpointer told me there was something there. I pealed back the sod and pulled out a  bent, copper bracelet that had been there a long time. Not being what I was after, I set it aside and moved on. Maybe two steps further and I heard that golden tone. Sweep from the other direction and knew. Pulled apart the grass and there it was. About a 25 min. search.

Us Ring Finders are always looking for interesting ways to return folks lost items, so I called Kyle thru the window, asking him how big the ring he had lost was. He came outside, saying he thought it was something like a size 12. I held up the braclet-thing and said, “So, it’s not this big then?” We had a chuckle and talked about the item, then I pointed to the ring in the grass, asking him “Or is it more like this?” He seemed genuinely suprised to see his ring again and said he ‘Could just hug’ me. We went with a hardy handshake.

Nothing better than these expressions!

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