Lost Stud Earring in Wilmington DE found by Dave Milsted




Gabriel contacted me via the RingFinders directory regarding his lost high school graduation ring. Apparently 6 months prior he had been playing with his new puppy in his back yard and while throwing a ball he felt his prized gold class ring fly off his hand. He and his family spent an entire day searching for it on their hands and knees. After an exhaustive search he finally gave up and figured it was a goner. I guess he couldn’t stop thinking about it because he googled for metal detecting help and it led him to the Ringfinders and me! Gabriel was at work the day I arrived to search so I met his father, Hector, in the backyard. He was very familiar with the details of where the loss occurred and pointed me in the right direction. The great thing was that Gabriel is a twin and his father had his twin brother’s identical class ring. I was able to scan the available ring with my Minelab Equinox 800 detector so I could laser focus on just those #s when searching for the lost ring. The available ring rang up as a solid 20-21…so I set my detector to specifically focus on those #s. Well….30 seconds into the search I received a solid 20-21 signal. I bent down with my pinpointer and sure enough the target is just poking through the level of the dirt beneath the grass…with a hint of gold. I called Hector over and we dug very gently with our hands and with laughter, joy and surprise we revealed Gabriel’s lost ring! Hector immediately called Gabriel to put him on speaker phone and tell him the good news. Not sure if I ever heard anyone so happy!


I got a call from a couple on their Honeymoon saying they lost their wedding ring. I said that I would be happy to help find it . I immediately got ready and left to the beach location they were at. The waves were 2-3 feet high. but I went into the water anyway to find their ring. but unfortunately the waves beat me the first day. I was rescheduling for Friday but they called Thursday wanting me to go out Thursday even though the waves were still high. I finally gave in and agreed to make another attempt. I was not successful for about three hours . I was getting ready to give up. then at the last moment I got a target.. and it was their ring . I was so happy that I could help them find their ring. They now could completely relax and enjoy their honeymoon in peace.

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.
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.
Adam gave me a call yesterday telling me that last winter while walking down the back alley by his work he slipped and fell and when brushing himself off he lost his wedding ring. He tried finding it but no luck. Rented a detector in the summer and still no luck. I’m pleased to say that after about 45 minutes I found his ring and returned it to him.

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! 💍
Jason and his wife spent four hours on Emerald Isle Beach enjoying a great September day. Body surfing the ocean, throwing football and playing in the sand. 
Upon returning to their car Jason noticed his wedding ring was missing. That evening, his wife called Emerald Isle Metal Detecting and arrangements were made to search the following day. I brought Justin to help search the beach. After searching for a few minutes, I decided a larger coil would be better in the wet sand so I headed to the truck. Upon my return I see Justin walking towards me and I knew it was either he had equipment problems or found the lost ring. I was very pleased he had found the ring in minutes of the beginning of his search. The wife and kids were there to accept the ring and we were very thankful and the kids were very polite from the start! If only all searches went this well!

Vieri called me a week ago asking if I could locate his grandfathers ring which he lost on the farm, the ring is very sentimental and it was imperative that the ring was back on his finger.
We agreed to meet today! Vieri told me there could be two possible area which the ring could be he told me he had walked down to the pond and put the boat in the water, I did a complete search of the area No ring! then Vieri said the other place was where he was burning brush in the firepit which he had lots of brush to burn he also mentioned he had no gloves on while he was throwing the brush into the firepit I searched the area where the pile of brush was No ring then I checked the firepit then out of the ashes pops out his grandfathers ring. I told Vieri to take it to a professional Jeweler their specialized equipment and products will be able to safely and effectively restore the ring to original condition! (fingers crossed).
Vieri was so grateful that the ring was found.
Another happy client!