Lost Gold/Diamond Ring in Chattanooga-Found
This lady had lost her gold and diamond ring in her yard on the day before, during a family event. I found the ring in less than 30 minutes about 4-5 feet from the edge of the driveway.
This lady had lost her gold and diamond ring in her yard on the day before, during a family event. I found the ring in less than 30 minutes about 4-5 feet from the edge of the driveway.
Lindsey & Mike were on the Emerald Isle Beach with their son and 2 dogs. Mike placed his wedding band in a bag before heading into the water. Between the fun on the beach, playing with their son and the dogs, the bag holding the ring was moved and the ring fell out unbeknownst to the young couple. After leaving the beach, Mike asked Lindsey for his ring and she had thought he had already taken it from the bag.
I was on my way later that day to recover another ring in the opposite direction. After some communications between Lindsey and I, I headed to the beach location the next day with a friend to search. The beach was crowded, of course, for a Saturday and this made some of the areas I suspected the ring to be located unavailable. After some time and expanding the search area, Mike’s ring was found at the top of a slope very close to being washed into the ocean. I took a picture as soon as possible and sent it on the Lindsey. We met the following day for the return.
Lori & Herb were fishing in a favorite location on the Surf City beach. This place was extra special to Lori as she had placed a few of her mother’s ashes in this location last year on her mother’s birthday July 13th. Her mother had plans to visit Surf City but unfortunately, due to her health wasn’t able to travel to this very nice town. Lori had always loved her mother’s ring growing up and when her mother passed away, Lori informed me it was the only item she wanted to hold onto as a keepsake of her mother and her parents 54 years of marriage.
While fishing the coastline just before sunset, Lori had went down to the water’s edge to wash her hands after baiting a hook. The surf came in and her mother’s cherished ring slid off and buried into the sand. Lori frantically tried to dig it back out of the beach sand. Herb advised her it may not be a good idea as the movement could cause it to sink more or even be tossed to another location. Herb followed a local Metal Detecting group on social media and immediately posted a plea for help. My friend Justin saw this post just a couple of minutes afterwards and informed me to contact Herb ASAP. Herb was amazed at how fast we contacted him and both Justin and I headed in their direction. Fortunately, the tide was going out, so I knew we’d find the ring in the wet sand. Upon arrival, Herb & Lori wisely marked the area with a glow in the dark stick since the sun had already set. We began a search and my 1st target was a solid 12-07 on my Minelab CTX-3030. One scoop into the sand and my Garrett Pro-Pointer AT sounded off on a golf ball size clump of sand. It was then, I noticed the white gold peeking out. I grabbed the whole piece and placed into Lori’s hands. She didn’t seem to believe what she was seeing as her mother’s ring was once more back in her possession. Lori’s was filled with emotion and relief! We had a very enjoyable conversation afterwards an as it was getting late, we parted ways. I hope to see them on the beach again soon.
I received a Call from Deborah she had lost here rental car key in the grass after parking her car and going for lunch. I told her I would meet her. I was a very small area of lawn so I setup and searched the area with no luck finding the Key. I asked Deborah if she check the police department, and she said no that she didn’t think about it.
On my drive home after, I happen to drive by the police department. I stop and ask if they had any keys turn in the reception desk showed the keys they had and one was a single key that looked like a rental key with an id tag. I took picture of the key and sent it to Deborah and called her she confirmed the key was match. I agreed to meet her at the Toyota dealership to return the key to her.
In her own words via text Valerie was desperate and distraught when she reached out to me to help find her missing diamond engagement ring. She lost it in the front yard of her Wilmington, DE home…she actually lost both her wedding band and engagement ring but was able to find the band after frantic hours of searching. She spent hours searching for the white gold, diamond engagement ring before finding me in the Ring Finder Directory. She texted me and I called her right away…told her I could be there that afternoon. She was stuck at work till 9 pm but said her daughter, Kylie, would be there and could assist me. When I got to her home I called Valerie and asked where she was in the yard when she lost her rings…she told me sort of in the middle…maybe to the left of the front door. The grass was a bit high and bushy so I could see how it would be difficult to find the ring without a metal detector. Anyway 60 seconds later and maybe 5-6 sweeps of my machine I got the all-to-familiar surface gold tone on my machine! Bent down…parted the grass…and there was her beautiful ring! I had knocked on the door to introduce myself to Kylie when I first arrived….now I was knocking on the door again 3 minutes later to hand her her mom’s ring! She was very happy I was able to find and return her mom’s lost ring. I understand Valerie did some screaming at work when she heard the news! Always fun and rewarding when you can come through for nice people!
Needless to say we were both as excited as we could be because poor Ashley had been waiting 9 years for this ring and she deserved a better resolution than a lost engagement ring! Ashley did the right thing and got ahold of me as soon as she could and we didn’t have to fight the tides or other detectorists to recover her ring. I’m retired so I’m available at 805-290-5009 to hunt day or night to get you back your ring, bracelet, pendant, keys or even a phone.
(June 16) After a trip to Martha’s Vineyard to find and return an earring, finding a drone, finding the owner of a wedding band that had been lost for a year it was time to work on returning the drone. The drone was in good condition less one missing propeller. I removed the battery and found a memory card. I cleaned off the contact and inserted the card into my computer. Bingo! Pictures and videos from 2019 to the day before I found drone. From the media I determined the owner’s car registration number and home state along with the resort he was staying at. With that information in hand, I went to the resort. First, I searched the parking lot as I remember seeing a red Subaru when I was making my previous return of a wedding band the day before. Dang, wrong registration plate, but I did see a Mercedes with a very similar plate number, and it was from Vermont.
The front desk was reluctant to give me any information and rightly so, I understand about privacy laws etc. So, I left them the information and my card. I also left some information on the windshield of the Mercedes before leaving to search for a lost hearing aid, which I did not find. I will go back and re-search the area with a different detector in hope for a better outcome. While I was on the search, the owner of the drone, Hank, called and we set up a time to meet and make the return.
Hank had been flying his drone at dusk when it took its AI a bit too far, banking hard left and downward, fast. This was the second time for the wayward drone to do something unexpected. This time its undesirable landing area was salt water. Hank tried to retrieve the drone but lost sight of it and could not find it nor did he find it the next day. That might have been because I had already found it.
The outcome was the best that could have happened, if nothing else Hank has the media memories from flights of the drone over the past 3 years. Is it time to back-up your memories? Something Hank and I will think of doing during this coming winter.
(June 14) The Vacationing wedding band has found its way back to its owner for the second time. Twelve years ago, Jim felt his wedding band slip from his finger into the depths of a Maine lake. Then a year later Jim was snorkeling in the area where the loss occurred and to his luck the sun was shining just right and reveled a sparkle from his ring that was just sitting on top of rock some 6 feet below the surface. Jim did a shallow dive and retrieved the ring and replaced it on his finger.
All was well until last year while vacationing on Cape Cod. With the excitement of a quick dip in Nantucket Sound Jim forgot to leave his ring on shore, safe with his wife, until his return. You guessed it…the ring once again took a vacation from Jim’s finger. Eleven months later I was enjoying a late spring afternoon of detecting when I happened upon the ring in waist deep water. With only a name and date I had little hope of finding its owner. Six weeks later I was in the same area detecting with little success of finding even a single coin when a strong signal was heard. The target turned out to be a Parrot drone. As I put the drone in my pouch, I was approached by Jim who had the usual question…Find anything? I showed him the drone and then he told me of losing his wedding band last year. His description said it was engraved with his wife’s name Karen. That rang a bell and I told him I just might have the ring at home and I would search my finds and call him back that night.
I was running a bit late for dinner…it was ready just as I walked into my home. I ate dinner, had a cup of coffee and nodded off to sleep. I woke with a startle; I had not looked for the ring or called Jim. Three minutes later I had the ring in my hand and dialed Jim. Unbelievable, the way things happen at times. Jim and I set a time to meet and for me to return his wedding band. The meeting turned into a luncheon with a great conversation on detecting and life experiences.
This was about the end of the story with smiles and happiness all around. Our last thoughts were about the drone not knowing that I would find the owner and return it the next day.
Got a late night text from Renee after she found me in the Ring Finder Directory. After a few days of frantic searching and the purchase and attempted use of a cheap metal detector she decided to reach out to a professional! In our text conversation she shared with me that she was out berry-picking at her home in the Swedesboro, NJ area when her hand got caught in her beautiful gold, charm-laden necklace and the chain broke spilling all the charms over a grassy area. She was able to find the chain and 2-3 of the charms but couldn’t locate 2 of them. She told me that she acquired the charms in France many years ago….and they were extremely important to her. I agreed to meet her the following afternoon. Upon arrival to her home I first asked to see the similar charms she was able to recover….I scanned them with my detector to firstly make sure my machine could pick them up and secondly to calibrate my machine to pick up just them when scanning the area. She made it easy for me by marking the area where the chain broke and she found several of the charms. I was about 3 minutes into the search when my machine let out a sweet low tone that suggested gold! With Renee at my shoulder I bent down and pushed some grass out of the way….there they were! The immediate relief and joy showing on Renee’s face makes it all worth it! I was very happy to be able to reunite Renee with her very important and sentimental charms!
This woman called me crying. She had lost a ring that her husband, who had been incarcerated, had given her. He received the ring from his uncle so it was a family heirloom of sorts. She and her two sons were out at Baker Beach (yep, Baker Beach again!) and the ring, which is too large for her fingers, flew off into the sand. They had all tried to find it. The beach was cold and very windy. They weren’t dressed for the weather having driven down from out of the city. One of her sons had gone to the car because he was freezing by the time I arrived. The sun was setting so we had to get to work quickly. I can hunt in the dark but the police kick you out of there at sundown. I traversed this section of beach three or four times and she started to lose faith. I told her I wouldn’t give up and she shouldn’t either and then I finally hit on the signal. Tears of sadness turned to tears of joy!
Ring Found!