Christine was helping her dad pull a boat into the slip. With her keys in hand, the task of maneuvering the boat dislodged the keys from her grip. I took my gopro to the recovery. I hope you enjoy the video
James and Meagan were walking on the bridge at the Riverwalk in Wilmington, DE when his ring slipped off his hand and landed in the marsh. The couple, who was just married three weeks ago, searched for the ring for a few hours with no luck. . I met the couple at the Riverwalk and found the band four inches deep in the mud after a quick search.
August 30, 2023: Luke Berube was overloaded with work and called me to help him out by taking on a search/recovery of a lost car key. As RingFinders do, I answered the call setup a time for a search. Also as usual my detecting partner, Leighton Harrington, was contacted to go on the search as two detectors can make for a faster and more complete search for a lost object. His company also makes for a more enjoyable ride to and from the detecting site. The weather forecast for rain and wind did not deter our effort.
It seams Cal had a great time on the beach and his enthusiasm did not stop until he reached his car at the end of the day. He was lucky enough to have a spare key but his mother was adamant about finding the key that was lost somewhere between the beach and car, more than likely in the sandy path going over the dune.
Several family and friends searched for the key even using a rake over the entire path. The key was not found. What was found was a link to TheRingFinders.com and a call was made. Now two days after the loss, the detecting search was on. The path was nice clean, soft sand, a pleasure to walk on and dig in. After two trash targets I had a large signal and it was deep according to my detector’s ID screen. After four scoops, I was about to give up but instead I took another slow sweep and then a pinpoint reading. With that information I placed my scoop and stood on it to get to a depth of 8 inches. Lifting the scoop in a sweeping arc, I saw a little blue flash. It was the quick disconnect and attached to it was the missing key.
It was difficult to comprehend how the key got so deep in the sand. Best theory is that the foot traffic, raking action, along with blowing sand over the past two days caused the key to be so deep in the sand.
It was a pleasure meeting Cal’s father and relating a few stories. Cal was at the terminal waiting on the arrival of his girl friend. As we ended up with thanks and good-byes a drizzle started to fall and then the rain came. Perfect timing to a perfect return.
“BE THE REASON SOMEONE SMILES TODAY”
Steve is a Lawnmowing Contractor who, after finishing a job returned to his truck only to find his keys had vanished.
He throughly searched the property, and even lifted two storm drain covers and fished around in the ooze with a rake to try and find them, with no luck.
Reluctantly he arranged to have his truck and mowing gear towed home.
On phoning the Automobile Association the AA chap had seen my other recent key recovery from the side of the highway and recommended that Steve contact me, not having considered the metal detecting aspect of recoveries Steve was quickly on the phone.
Despite being an hour and a half away, I drove down straight from work to sort his troubles.
Steve took me through where he had been – and showed me the two drain gratings right where he had been fussing around the truck…
With some careful questions, I was able to put the drains right at the bottom of the list, although I had the waterproof remote camera and the nitrile gloves onboard, just in case!
I started the systematic grid of the garden, I could tell Steve was watching me with a funny look. The keys would have stood out easily on the manicured lawn, however the secret to success is to have a method, and stick to it rigidly. Nothing would be worse than having a no-find and starting to second guess where you may have missed them.
The formality of searching the back lawn was over very quickly. I started around the edges where shrubs overhung the grass, progressively crossing areas off and working my way towards the front yard – and those drains…
Then I got a good signal from under a bush on the other side of the path, I peered under and there they were.
Job done, the keys were exchanged for a good handshake and I headed off on the long trip home.
I received a call today from Neda at about 1:00PM from the Bay Area asking if I could help her friend Pasha find his Mercedes Key. I asked where he lost it and she explained he was visiting family here in Yorba Linda and was running yesterday at Yorba Park, when he crossed a stream on the rocks, slipped and bashed his knee on the rocks in the stream! He got up, a little shaken, but continued on around his run and stopped a few times at benches along the way to rest. As he headed back the his new Mercedes in the lot, he felt his pocket and was sure his keys were there, however, he only had his earbuds, and not his FOB! After re-tracing his steps untill 11PM last night, could not find the key and FOB.
He returned this morning with his mother, and they searched in the water, along his path and every bench he stopped at with no luck. He had to have his new Mercedes towed to the local dealer the night before and was facing an expensive and lenghty process to get a new key and have it programmed for his car.
He was very lucky Neda had researched lost keys and found the TheRingFinders.com and me!
I arrived there at 1:30PM and met Pasha and his mother there, both very nice people, and as we walked across the park trials to the spot where he crossed the stream and he explained what happened. It was now very hot in the park and took about 10-15 minutes to get to the spot.
I brought my Equinox 800 and a couple spare FOB’s of my own just to get an idea of the signal I might expect to see.
I scanned in the water a minute, used my pinpointer to find a signal in the mud but was junk. I swung over to where he had hit his knee and got a similar jumpy signal and then used my pinpointer and immediatly saw the FOB under water in the leaves and mud. I pulled it up in my hand without him seeing it and asked him if it was going to be a big inconvenience to lose it and he explained how much they cost and trouble he already went through, and I handed him his key! He and his mother were overjoyed! It took just maybe 5 minutes to find it, and they had searched that same rock by hand several times and didn’t find it. This was a big relief to Pasha who now could go and pick up his car without more expense of getting a new key made!
It makes my day to return things, and I am happy I could help Pasha and Neda (and Mom) with this return.
Jennifer’s Lost Key
Dog Sitter’s Client’s D.C. House
My searches don’t just deal with rings, and rings, and more rings! But every so often, I get the special phone call to conduct a search for a lost key or set of keys.
Jennifer is a professional dog sitter in the Washington D.C. area. She checked out a directory online called The Ring Finders and then contacted me early on a Sunday in late March to see if I could search for a key that she lost while taking one of her client’s dogs out for a daily walk in Rock Creek Park in the District of Columbia. 
This key was not just any key! It belonged to her client’s house who owned the dog that she was taking out that night in which it got lost! Not good! Especially because all of the locks pertaining to this key would have to be replaced if it was not recovered! Expensive indeed! There was also another serious factor. Jennifer mentioned to me the urgency of finding the lost key because there had been a number of auto thefts in recent days and weeks in the neighborhood. If the key fell into the wrong hands, this could put her client’s family at risk for a break-in! Again, not good at all!
So, I immediately made my way into the District in the early evenin hours. Meeting Jennifer and her fiance’ was a real pleasure! They were just as committed to the search as I was about to embark upon. The two of them searched all throughout the evening, the night before, and neither one of them had any luck in retrieving the key. That’s why I was called in to help out.
I explained to the engaged couple that our job was to find the key together and that it didn’t matter who ends up finding it! We just needed to get it back! I find that just my presence and abilities to find lost things, re-motivates the one who lost the item to partner up and make a new determination to get their prized possession back!
As a team, we set off to the park and retraced Jennifer’s steps as best as possible to conduct the search. I probably spent a good 30 minutes metal detecting various parts of the park where Jennifer had walked the dog, before heading down a hill, along a path that took us towards a road at the bottom of that park section. I was pretty confident that the key was definitely not in the areas that we searched.
Jennifer’s fiance’, Edward, carefully looked to the left of the path that started to wind around a bend, while I detected along the right side of the walkway. No more than a couple of minutes had passed, (just as I had been encouraging the couple that the key could turn up in the very spot that they had looked over multiple times) when Edward excitedly announced that HE FOUND THE KEY! We were all elated! I was so happy for the lovely couple!
This story is an example of an item that was found as a result of us all working as a team and not just “handing over the keys” to the metal detectorist to solve the mystery! In this case, they actually said that they wouldn’t have returned down to the lower section of the park (because they had already searched and searched the spot where the key was actually found and to no avail over and over again), had it not been for me having to search in the lower regions of the park path. So, we all played a part! They unnecessarily apologized to me for sending me to the search when it turned out that one of them ended up retrieving the key. I explained to them that I truly meant what I said earlier when I shared that this was to be a team effort! I stood behind my words because it’s not about who finds the lost item, but rather it’s about getting that item back! And in this case, time really was of the essence!
Jennifer contacted her clients with the fabulous news, which brought such relief to their minds, and then we headed back towards our cars at the entrance to the park.
This recovery of the key was a story of team work! It didn’t get any better with the outcome! I even had enough time that evening (it was 8pm by that point), to pick up a pizza, and drive to 2.5 hours to Philadelphia through the night to bring a birthday cake to my son, Danny, who turned twenty-one years old on this 31st of March! I had just celebrated with him on Friday through this Sunday, 1am this morning, because he finally became legal! I didn’t want him to go to bed at the tail end of his birthday without some more cake! (He is in his third year of college at the time that this story is written). It was a fantastic day and night all around!
I told Edward that he was the hero that night in spotting the key! I also told him that this was great practice for him in regards to their future marriage! I said with a smile, “There will be a whole lot more opportunities, Edward! A whole lot more!” We all laughed while Jennifer hugged her best friend and hero of the night!
Check out the video of my search for the key with Jennifer and Edward!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
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THE LITTLE THINGS CAN BE VERY IMPORTANT TOO
We got a desperate call from a woman whose church group had helped organize a concert here on the Big Island – and one of the church’s parishioners had lent his car to the concert’s head performer.
The performer had a few hours to kill before his first concert so went to one of our local beaches. As he went back to get ready for his first performance, he suddenly realized his key – and the only key to the car – had been lost in the sand.
He looked for the lost key and finally had to ask to be picked up or miss the concert!
Some of the church members went to the beach the next morning to search for the key with rakes, carefully combing the sand in the area the musician had been.
After three hours they looked online and we got the call – and went immediately to the beach to join them in the hunt.
The site where the key was lost was quite small and had been scoured with rake marks. I searched the area for about 15 minutes with my Excalibur II metal detector, finding wire, fishing weights – and then hit a big target in the sand.
The car key materialized in my scoop as the sand strained out of it. 
A key is such a small thing, but finding it saved the congregation from having to hire a tow truck to come to this remote spot and re-key the ignition.
We were happy to help – and remembered that sometimes the most valuable things are often what seem of least value – until they’re not!
So I got an email notification about a comment on my rent a metal detector blog post. When I read the comment, it was from a man name Cameron. He had the lovely task of digging out his cars that were buried in snow. While he was moving the snow around, a friendly man came by with a plow and helped him clear his drive way. Little did Cameron know that when he was putting some chains on his wife’s car his keys had fallen out. Like wise the friendly man who was plowing didn’t know he was pushing around Cameron’s keys. So for five days Cameron and his wife tried to find these keys. Cameron borrowed two metal detectors, he watch a ton of metal detecting videos, and then found The Ring Finders. When I got to Cameron’s house I started searching where Cameron and his wife had not shoveled or sifted the snow. After not finding the keys anywhere around his house I was told by Cameron to look by this truck where the friendly man with a plow had made his first pile of snow. In that pile was Cameron’s keys, just a shovels throw away from a five foot tall pile of snow that him and his wife had sifted through. Its a miracle that they were not destroyed by the plow.
the lost keys
Cherished and valuable rings and jewelry get lost! They can be recovered. If you lost a ring or a piece of jewelry even your car keys I can find them! Just a phone call away (215)-850-0188!
I am just a phone call away in the Philadelphia,
Delaware, Bucks & Montgomery Counties!