Another successful return and another happy person!
I Was contacted this afternoon because Elaina could not find her keys that someone had buried on the beach. After arriving at the location and beginning to search she had her keys back in just a few minutes! Also got to clean up the environment a bit. First Target was a fork. Ouch! Glad someone did not step on it. Be careful out there..
October 4, 2022
Hurricane Ian had been making its way northward keeping the Hyannis sky dark and misty. But a daily walk through the woods Avery and Bigelow made their way peacefully until an exposed root tripped up Avery. In the incident a ring left Avery’s finger an landed in the overgrowth along the pathway. The ring was Avery’s mother’s and is only one of very few pieces of jewelry that Avery wears.
Looking for help via a rental business that rented a detector. A call to J&E Enterprise was answered and Avery was given a phone number and was told Rick is the one that could help. Unfortunately, I was at a doctor’s appointment and did not return the call for a couple of hours. In that time Avery had rented a detector and was back in the woods searching for the lost ring. Rentals usually do not come with detailed operation notes. Most detectors take several hours of practice before one can become proficient in its use. Even locating an object on the surface can be a daunting task.
When I returned the call, Avery was in the woods and said she would welcome any help I may give. About a half hour later I was involved in the search. The area was littered with very old and rusty cans, and other debris. Many trash signals and not one that was worth digging or keeping. After two hours we left the woods as the sun had set, it was time to give up for the evening.
The next morning, I replace my mid-sized detector coil with a small 4-inch coil that would allow better separation of the pieces of trash. Another hour past and I was re-searching over the original area Avery had heard a signal the night before. I was able to determine several distinct targets, all were too deep to be the ring but might be masking a small ring. Therefore, I started to remove each target one by one and had a total of 4 shotgun cases and a long rifle casing. But no ring. As another aid, I tossed a similar ring with a visible string attached to see just how far a ring might travel and then restarted searching from that point.
Oddly enough, I was very close to the area the four shotgun shells were dug. Ah, another signal this time about two inches away, with a detector indicating a surface target. I reached down, moved a few leaves and there the ring was laying, but not for long. I picked it up, turned off the detector and headed back to the car before the rain intensified. A call to Avery and we made a meeting point. Twenty minutes later her ring had been placed on the pinkie finger and there was a wonderful smile on Avery’s face, not to say the one on my face was any less wonderful.
It is always amazing how an object is lost and in the case of a lost ring in the woods that a person can travel miles, search a vast area full of trash, put a 4-inch coil over a 1-inch ring, hear a signal among all others, then make a conscious decision to stop detecting and do a visual search to ultimately find the ring. Knowing one’s equipment, persistence and determination and yes, luck all helped in making the loss into A Happy Ending.
A friend on Facebook sent me a listing of a Gold chain with a diamond butterfly lost that had 3 rings on it at the beach. After reaching out to Alyssa, she finally got back to me after a few days. We chatted about what I do and how it was lost. She had mentioned that for me not to bother to travel so far because she said a couple of other guys had searched high and low for them to no avail. We agreed that maybe someone had seen them on the sand and possibly picked them up.
I again reached out about four days later and told Alyssa that when I got over that way I would check the area in question and went over that day again. I asked if she had gone into the water, she replied no just to the waters edge. She did mention that she walked up to the bathing houses on her way out that day.
Two month’s had gone by. It was honestly haunting me, to know that such a precious set of rings and a gold butterfly chain was just possibly sitting in the sand without no one looking for them any longer. I keep a list of NON found things on my desk. I looked at that note everyday. I decided to make the trip yesterday. I searched the area in question for an hour, I was almost up to the parking lot, but still in the path sand area, when I got that familiar low tone. I dug down, and out popped a Gold ring, still didn’t look familiar. I checked the hole and another low tone, and again out popped two more gold rings and they were attached to a beautiful gold diamond butterfly chain. Now I was smiling. I knew I had Alyssa’s precious rings. The best part is that she had not even known that I went to look for them.
I contacted her again through Facebook and I am happy to say she is reunited with them once again. Never give up, in this case keeping notes and persistence paid off. On a side note to the story, Shawn was off the hook, he apparently was the one who had them in his shirt, and dropped them. Congratulations Alyssa on your return. Sincerely Leighton
Vancouver Ring Finder Chris Turner- Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost your ring?… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP Anytime 778-838-3463
I got a phone call from a young man who lost a special pendant with his name on it, he lost it at a picture and put golf course at Central Park in Burnaby. His gold chain got caught on his golf bag and broke the clasp and he lost a gold cross and his gold pendant. He remembered this happen at the 14th hole but didn’t realize it had broken until he got to the 16th hole when he felt his chain fall off his neck, he looked around and went back to the 15th hole where he teed off and found his gold cross by a bench but he couldn’t find the pendant with the name ”Marshall” on it.
He search for a while but it was getting too dark so he packed it up went home, he remembered seeing a story about John Cryer who lost his ring here in Vancouver and that’s how he found TheRingFinders. We talked about the chances of finding this pendent but he couldn’t meet me there in the morning to show me his movements because he had to work. I knew it was three holes 14,15 and 16 so I got out there first thing in the morning and walked around to see if I could eyeball the gold pendent, I felt it should’ve just set up somewhere and easily been spotted. However two hours grid searching and I could not find his pendant.
I packed it up reached out to Marshall and asked if we can meet the next day, he arranged to meet me after his work this way I was able to see exactly what he could remember and where he may have been off the course. That being said I was very curious to search the area with my Metal Detector where he found the gold cross, as it made sense to me if one fell the other one should be close bye. After a few minutes at the 15th hole I got a 4-5 in a bit of loose dirt and grass I moved it with my foot inside a beautiful colour of gold and his name. I was able to surprise marsha and so happy to get back that pendant that was a gift from his late grandmother. These are such sentimental items that can never be replaced and it was an honour to be able to help continue that story for the showman.
Vancouver Ring Finder Chris Turner- Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost your ring?… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP Anytime 778-838-3463 I have the best job in the world, I love helping people more than anything I’ve ever done in my lifetime. I get to make people smile, I get to hear their stories of what their ring/lost items mean to them and how happy it makes them feel when I find it.
Jake called me at 7:30AM as I was getting ready for work and asked if I could help find his lost car keys. I asked a bit about the location, not far from me, but I was just getting ready for work. (Yeah, some of still work, lol) Since I know a couple other RingFinders work the beaches pretty exclusively, I asked if he could contact one of them, and he said he did, but they were not available to help.
They keys were for an older truck he was restoring, and only had the one set. He had lost them earlier the previous evening and had been there all evening and even stayed the night with a rake, searching and raking the sand to find them!
Since it sounded like he knew the approximate location, I figured it was an easy find (Never is, so I should just take that out of my vocabulary!) and said “I’m not going to leave you hanging, be there shortly!”
Headed down, and met him 2o minutes later, and found it was a big area where he had been raking for hundreds of yards! Basically, somewhere between the parking lot and the shore, in a 50-Yard-wide swath and also they were on a huge sand wall at the beach as well. He also had his truck towed out of the lot so had to pay for that!
I searched over an hour in grid formation with my Equinox 800 and 15″ coil. Found about $1:30 in change, but no keys, and it was getting hot! Looking at it on Google Maps, it was about 24,000 Square Feet of area to search!
I decided to search the large sand wall which was steep, and searched the top of it then walking parallel to it several feet down the bank, I found them!
Jake was over on the beach further still raking away, so I headed over and said “Man, I just can’t do that sand wall, it’s so steep and I am beat!” he said well, I guess they must be somewhere further, I will keep raking, and then I said “Unless they look like these?” He was so happy and amazed I found them!
So rewarding to have found them and was able to go into work a little late, but with a smile and sense of accomplishment to start my day and his!
Brooke contacted me even though she was in Nashville and I was in Chattanooga. There are two ring finders in the Nashville area, but neither of them were available. I agreed to go, even though it was about a two-and-a-half-hour drive for me. She had lost a gold pendant while she was competing in a charity event at a local golf course. The pendent was from her late grandfather, so it had a lot of sentimental value. I left early enough from the Chattanooga area to get there by 6:00AM so we could get started before the course opened. That event was a sack race. They were not on the fairways, but in the grass off to the side. I’m not familiar with the course layout, but I think it was off to the side of tee box #10 where they had the sack race. Brooke had previously gotten permission from the course manager. The first thing I did was scan the edges of the cart paths, and it was not there, except for a square pull-tab. Yep, those are everywhere we go. Fortunately, someone had taken a video clip of the sack race, and I could clearly see she had the pendent on during the race. But more importantly, I could use that to hone in on where the race took place. From the viewpoint of the video there were several small trees on the left background. In the left foreground there was a grassy hill that had been scalped on the top by the mowers. On the right very edge of the screen I saw a homeowner’s metal fence that was bordering his back yard. So, using those landmarks I was able to pinpoint exactly where the sack race took place. Most of the grass there was short enough to see the pendent if you walked close to it. Some of the grass was tall enough to hide an object that small, so that’s where I focused my detecting first. While I was scanning the taller grass, Brooke asked if there was anything she could do. I said most of this grass is short enough that you could most likely see it if you walked right over it. So, knowing exactly where the race had taken place, I had started scanning around halfway to the finish line where the taller grass was, and Brooke started walking ahead of me near the finish line where the shorter grass was. After around twenty minutes or so, I saw Brooke lean over and pick something up, she said, “I found it!” It was visible if you walked right over it, so someone else could have seen it before we got there. Fortunately, it was still there.
I received a text this past Monday 11th from a wife. She said her husband had lost his wedding band in the backyard about a month ago while cleaning out a pool skimmer trap. She was searching the internet and came across www.theringfinders.com where she found my contact information. I made the trip to Calhoun that afternoon and met up with her. She said her husband was still at work, but should be there pretty soon. She said they had actually purchased a metal detector for themselves, but no luck in finding the ring. When Alfred got home he was showing me how he lost his ring cleaning the skimmer with his left hand and throwing the trash over the chain link fence with an underhand motion. He said he felt the ring leave his hand but didn’t see where it went. With that underhand throwing motion I immediately figured the ring had gone over and into the brushy area behind the fence. I eliminated the grass and the plant bed first of course, but no luck. With the chain link fence there I couldn’t get close to it at all without sending my detector into an overload condition. So that part would have to be searched by hand if I didn’t find the ring back in the brush. I started back behind the fence, (poison ivy there too), as well as a snake, but didn’t get a good look at it, it was leaving the area. I started from the right side and went left directly at the back of the fence. The second pass was from the left back to the right, on a steep slope. Of course I was finding bits of metal trash, we all do. On the third pass from right to left I got to right where I figured the ring could have gone with that underhanded throw. The first thing I found there was a rusted bottle cap, then about three feet away I got two signals on my CTX. A strong 12:40 showing four inches, but literally inches away from that signal was another one, a strong 12:28 showing one inch. I hadn’t seen it yet, but that 12:28 at one inch brought a grin to my face. I stooped over and under my coil I saw a faint hint of something shining back at me. I snapped a picture of it before I moved it, and you can barely catch a glimpse of something out of place under the layer of leaves. The 12:40 signal turned out to be a toy car. The search took about 1.5 hours.
I received a call from Mike on Tuesday 28th and he said he had lost his gold signet ring in his backyard several years ago. He said they were moving and the ring was a gift from his wife and he really wanted to find it before they moved. We made arrangements for Wednesday afternoon. Around four years ago he had been clearing brush in the backyard and towards the end of the day he noticed his ring was gone. They had been piling the brush next to the street on the side yard, so that’s where I started my search. I really didn’t think the ring would be there, but I had to eliminate that area of possibility. The huge problem I had to deal with was underground power lines next to the street, (around 14 KV), and it was really messing with my detector. I had to go very slow in that area until I got far enough away that my detector started to settle down a little. After a little over an hour I finally eliminated the side yard. The back of the house had a pretty steep slope that was covered in pine straw mulch. I know from experience that pine straw on a slope can be very slippery. He had mentioned that he had slipped a couple of times on that slope, but didn’t remember exactly where that happened. That’s where I focused my attention next, and after I looked at it more carefully, towards the corner of the house the slope wasn’t quite as steep, so I figured anybody coming through that area would would pick that spot. As I got halfway down the slope I got a consistent 12:20 on my CTX, and it was shallow, (showing one inch). If you’re looking for a gold ring that’s a very good signal. I brushed the straw away and didn’t see anything visible, but my pinpointer said there was something there just under the surface. I brushed the soil a little with my fingers and saw the corner of a gold rim showing through! I called Mike over, as he was just about to go back in the house. His wife came out and she was elated! She said she figured it was gone and never to be found again. I think I was as excited as they were, because that was a tough search having to deal with the underground power lines. Knowing your machine, and asking the right questions makes all the difference. The entire search took around two hours.
Lost a ring?
Don’t wait to call!
215-850-0188
I received a call from Tim about his wife, Regina’s, wedding band that was lost in the sand in North Wildwood, NJ. He explained that the ring was in his pocket and must have fell out when he pulled his keys out. Shortly after my arrival and a quick search with my metal detector, the wedding band was found! It was another awesome day on the beach and it felt great to hear Regina comment that I helped “save the vacation.” Now the ring is safely back on her finger, and the family can continue to relax and enjoy the rest of the week!
Check out my website for more info and stories! https://ringfinderssouthjersey.com
