On April 19, 2020, I went to Johnston to search for Mike’s wedding ring, while maintaining social distancing and wearing a mask. A friend, who I had recovered a ring for previously, referred Mike to me. He lost the ring in his back yard while doing yard work. He was upset that he had lost such a sentimental item. After searching for 4 hours, Mike was ready to throw in the towel. At that same time, I located the ring. Mike and his family were thrilled!
March 24th, 2020. Matt called me about a lost wedding band. He had made healthy life style changes and lost over 50 pounds since last summer. Matt didn’t remember the ring falling off, but reasoned the most likely place in his backyard while he was mulching. The 30 minute drive was surreal with so few cars on the road. It would normally have taken me up to an hour on a normal day.
Matt showed me a 10 x 20 foot area of the yard wet with leaf mulch and mud.
I changed into my boots and geared up with my AT Max, ready to get dirty. In a well-defined search area, I like to start from one side and work my way across. I turned on and calibrated my AT Max and started to sweep the left edge. My first sweep resulted in a clear signal in the gold range! I dug into the muck about 5 inches, and there it was.
Although I did very little work, Matt insisted I accept his generous reward, a portion of which went to Fisher House. He was extremely happy, but preferred not to have his “smile” taken for the Book of Smiles.
Stephen was doing some yard work and putting much in his planters around his house. During the preparations for this project he went to his local Home Depot to purchase several bags of wood mulch which he loaded into the back of his SUV. Upon arriving home he unloaded the vehicle and proceeded to spread and rake the mulch around the planters. When done he went inside clean up he noticed that his wedding band was missing. Considering that there were four mulch beds with many square feet of mulch spread he knew that his chances finding his ring were next to nill.
Stephen started to search the web when he came upon my profile on The Ring Finders and he called me. We made plans for me to come to his house a little later that day to preform the search. Upon my arrival Stephen showed me around and described his pattern of work and how he spread the mulch by hand. I put my detector together and began my search I searched the whole mulch areas and found nothing. I then grabbed another detector and searched again with the same results as the previous search. There was metal yard edging around the mulch areas that would not allow for me to get closer than 3″ – 4″ from it so our next step was to remove that yard edging (which of course meant that it would need to be re-installed). But before we removed the yard edging I asked to search his car. He stated that he had already searched the car a couple of times. Within a couple of minutes of me starting my search of his car I found his ring. He was very surprised that his ring was in the car.
Ring recovered March 17, 2020
When Renee called me I could immediately tell by the tone and stress in her voice that she had lost something and needed help. I listened to her explain how she lost her heirloom engagement ring down by their dock and how she and her husband had looked and looked and in frustration finally decided to call someone for help. So after hearing her story I assured her that her ring was there and I would try my very best to find it for her.
I packed up my car with all the essentials…my ATMax metal detector, pro pointer, scoop, floating sifter, flags, extra batteries, etc and headed to Renee’s home. I am always very excited when an opportunity comes along to help someone and I try my hardest to think of anything and everything that I could possibly need to help me in searching and finding someone’s lost ring.
An hour later I pulled up to Renee’s beautiful home and was met by a lovely young lady with tear stained face who was none other than dear Renee. I followed her around to the back of her house and down to the dock area where I could see that a bunch of fresh dirt was pushed here and there and also a few of the boards from the boardwalk were taken up as well. Renee explained how she had pulled some weeds from the shallow water and thought maybe her engagement ring had come off in the water somehow. After pulling a few weeds she proceeded to move some boards from along side of the boardwalk area. One of the boards was covered in fire ants and as she picked up the board the ants began crawling all over her hands and her immediate reaction was to throw the board and shake her hands free of the ants before they could start biting her. And that flinging and shaking action made her rings go flying off of her finger. Thankfully her wedding ring landed on the boardwalk in front of her but her platinum, heirloom, engagement ring was nowhere to be found…it just disappeared! She let out a scream and frantically started to look through the grass and along side the boardwalk and in the fresh dirt. Her husband even bought a low end metal detector and searched the area but came up empty handed. In desperation Renee decided to go online and look for “Help me find my ring” and up came theringfinders.com and one of my stories. She was given hope as she read a few of the posts and thought maybe I could help find her lost ring.
So I began by scanning Renee’s platinum wedding ring with my Garrett ATMax metal detector to get an idea of the numbers and type of signal I needed to listen for. There were allot of junk targets here and there and most of the items registered too deep in the ground to be her ring. Recently lost rings will normally give a good, sharp, clean signal and will only be an inch or two deep in the grass at the most. Unless of course they get stepped on or are laying on edge somehow. I always check out any signal that registers even close to what I am looking for because many times pull tabs, nickels and pieces of aluminum can sound just like a ladies ring. 20 minutes later I got a really nice, shallow, repeatable signal in the thick grass at the edge of a large Bald Cypress tree and there was Renee’s lost engagement ring. I held it up and said, “Hey, hey, hey!!” and Renee could not get to me fast enough to claim her precious lost ring! What a relief and joy spread across Renee’s face!
It was an honor to help Renee and her husband and hopefully her ring will continue to last for many more years.
Lost a ring or something valuable? Or maybe you would like to know what is hidden in your yard or whatever happened to Grampa’s buried coins? Give me a call?
Mike McInroe…glad to be a part of theringfinders.com
Rob Ellis: Underwater Ring Recovery Specialist. Call or text 703-598-1435
November 19th, 2019
John, who recently returned from an overseas deployment, had lost a lot of weight. He was fishing on his farm pond with a young friend. While helping his friend remove a fish from his line, John’s Virginia Tech ring slipped off. As you can see from the photo, this is a treasured reminder of his beloved alma mater and he rarely took it off his finger. John had the foresight to immediately take note of where he was when the ring fell off.
Due to other obligations, it took a several weeks before Mrs. E and I could make the trip to Tappahannock. After a two hour drive we met John and his friend Billy. We immediately bonded with these awesome patriotic Virginians.
John decided to drain half the water out of the pond. He and his friends developed an ingenious method and spent many hours nursing the home-made pump. The depth was about 15 feet lower when we arrived. John and Billy placed a ladder so I could get safely get in and out of the water. John also launched his boat to give me a platform from which to work. I’m so grateful for his ingenuity and thoughtfulness.
Setting up in the woods
Half Drained & Boat
The pond had steep sides, zero visibility, and is over 25 feet deep. John and Billy helped me get my SCUBA gear into the boat and I snorkeled over to the opposite bank. As you can see from the photos, there were tangled branches interfering with the potential search site. I explored the area around, under, and through the tangle as best I could using my Excalibur detector.
To search in the water under the tangle I realized we would have to remove the branches. I decided to search the bank before undertaking the difficult task of removing the branches. It was a slippery, but there was little trash and the search went quickly. It felt wonderful to hear that beautiful tone when I located the ring and dug it up from the mud.
John’s help in draining the pond and putting me so close to the drop was extremely helpful. His generous reward was much appreciated and I donated a portion to Fisher House.
For help to recover your item, please text or call 703-598-1435
16 years ago a young sea-goer’s wedding band was pulled off his finger while trying to secure a friend’s boat to a buoy. Searching the surrounding seaweed covered area was unsuccessful in locating the ring. It was to remain hidden for the next 16 years.
While detecting, enjoying my hobby, and avoiding the Corvid-19 virus I found a wedding band with the initials of T.L.F. and a date of 1989 inscribed on the inside of the band. As usual, as I have never been able to find the owner of a wedding band with that information, I was about to put the ring into my pouch for safe keeping when I noticed a name on a large mooring buoy about four feet from me. The name began with an “F”. Could there be a connection between the “F” in the ring and the “F” on the buoy? I had to do some web searching when I got home.
I searched Zillow for street names in the area, the town assessor’s online data base, and other personal information locators for a family name beginning with an “F” and contact information. The search first lead me to a disconnected phone number, several distant possibilities, and a Trust Fund name and finally to a Financial Group, its name was Odyssey. The name was exciting enough, I had to contact them. Of course the financial specialist, Kim, could not give me any information, other than she knew the family. Do to the privacy laws Kim could only promise me she would inquire of someone in the family that may be able to help and have them contact me. A call came back from Kim with bad news…no one with the initials of T.L.F. was know to the contacted family members. Well I tried. But…wait…
About an hour later I received another call, this time it was from Trish. Yes…Trish had some information, but the owner’s initials were not T.L.F. as they were not the owner’s initials, they were an abbreviation for True Love Forever. The owner, Brian, was and still is a close friend of Trish. An arrangement was made for the return of a long missing wedding band. The return sequence of leading to a wedding band’s return was a first for me, all thanks to a coincidence, hunch and the internet.
October 8th, 2019, Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort
I was on a family vacation trying out my Fisher Gold Bug 2 on the dry sand when Alma and Gene approached me. I removed my headphones and was asked “Does that thing really work? Do you think it could find a diamond ring?” I introduced myself, explained how I was a Ringfinder, and offered to help them recover their ring.
They told how they lost a brand new ring the day before. Alma felt the ring fly off while playing volleyball and that really narrowed down the area. They searched through the sand for several hours over two days, and were almost ready to give-up.
Within a few minutes, I located the ring under the net.
It was one of the highlights of my vacation!!
For help to recover your item, please text or call 703-598-1435
Mark lost his wedding band while splitting wood in his backyard this past weekend. He removed his gloves a few times during the process and thought the ring must have come off that way. He searched the area for a few hours and even went as far as to disassemble the cord of wood to look for it. I received a call from his wife Lindsay yesterday who told me about the situation, and we planned to meet today. After a few passes with the Equinox, I found the ring in the soil under a pile of leaves. The ring is now back where it belongs!
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215-850-0188
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Theresa and her husband had just finished up with a wonderful visit from their kids. It was dark outside as the kids and grandkids pulled away from the house and Theresa walked out the front door and down the side walk a few steps to wave goodbye. (Apparently Theresa has lost some weight in the last few months and her rings were just a bit loose on her finger.) And as she continued to wave goodbye, all of a sudden, she felt her diamond engagement ring come off of her finger. Stunned, she let out a cry and immediately began looking in the bushes and thru the mulch hoping to find it. Her kids stopped and returned to the house to help look and no matter how hard they tried…they just could not find her lost ring…even after two hours. They even used a small metal detector and it made lots of strange noises and led to more frustration rather than actually helping. And the later it got, the less hope they had of finding Theresa’s lost ring.
A quick google search led Theresa to theringfinders.com and that gave her hope. And after a brief call I made arrangements to meet and conduct a thorough search the very next day and upon meeting Theresa and hearing her story I felt quite confident that her lost engagement ring could be found.
I searched the larger side of the sidewalk for twenty minutes, with my Garrett ATMax metal detector, where Theresa felt her ring had most likely fallen off and into the bushes and still no ring. I even had her try on two test rings and both times the rings flew off in a small area. After 25 minutes on my hands and knees and no ring, I said, “I wonder if it flew off in the other direction?” And sure enough, there behind her, next to a flower pot buried under two inches of mulch was Theresa’s beautiful diamond engagement ring!
It was an honor to help Theresa and to find her lost ring and return it to where it belongs. Have you lost something recently?
Call, email or text me, ASAP!
Mike McInroe….ready member of theringfinders.com
Nice Ring and happy family
Received a call for a ring lost in a garden area. He was certain it had fallen off in a 10*10 area. They met July 4th and he proposed the next day. After a one year engagement they were married. Now married for a year. This ring was not only expensive, but he tells me the sentimental value was priceless.
In this search area power lines were just above and there was tons of interference. My detector selected a quiet channel and the hunt began.
Filled with nails in one part made it nearly impossible to hunt. After about an hour of grid searching I was certain the detector would not find it so switched to a ground hunt crawling over the area with my pin pointer. It took about 20 minutes and I found it.
Always a nice surprise to find the ring and the relief and happiness it brought was a great reward. He also gave me a nice reward for my efforts.
A great hunt and a great family. Thanks for the call out.