metal detector rental Laguna Beach Tag | Page 7 of 13 | The Ring Finders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I reeived a call Sunday afternoon from Melissa she had a unusual situation where a family heirloom ring may have been lost on the side of a toll road. She generally explained to me that her husband’s brother had lost a gold ring that had belonged to his deceased father. It had happened a couple weeks ago, possibly on the side of the Orange County 73 toll road. Her question was, would I be willing to try searching the area?

We agreed to meet Monday with her brother in law, Josh. He took,a few minutes to tell me the what happen the evening of the loss before we drove onto the toll road. Two weeks before he had pulled to the side of the highway where he suffered a seizure. He was able to get out of his car, confused and disorientated, Josh remembered walking alongside the guard rail a couple blocks toward the next exit. He said, he had fallen a couple times. The next thing he remembered was was struggling with ambulance attendants as he had another attack. Later at the hospital is where Josh realized the ring was missing.

It is always a long shot when a person doesn’t feel the ring come off and so many possibilities of where the could have come off. I agreed to give it a try, at least to eliminate the area. I wasn’t quite sure how to legally proceed with the search. Pedestrians are not permitted on this particular toll road. When they searched the area they had called the highway patrol to get permission to search. The highway patrol sent a patrol car to ok the search location. 

It was too cold and windy Monday and I needed at least two hours to cover the large area. Tuesday after traffic slowed down I was able to park safely off the side of the road. 

Walking up to where Josh had parked his car, I started my grid search on the safe side of the guard rail. It was a 3 foot wide dirt path with marble size rocks. One side had asphalt and the other side was thick brush. I wanted to eliminate this 100 yards first but in my mind the best possibility would be where the struggle with the abundance personnel happened.

There was a lot of tin foil and pieces of aluminum trash, but 50 yards from the start of my search I got a pull tab or gold signal. Looking down I spotted the unique gold ring lying in the hard packed dirt amongst the rocks.

It was amazing, considering all the places that it could have been lost. I was also concerned that the highway patrol would not give a second permission to search because of liability laws.

I was able to send a photo of the ring to Melissa, who was totally responsible for making this happen. She talked me into giving a try, saying it was their last chance. Two hours later I met Melissa’s husband, Justin to return the ring.

He told me how his dad had worn this ring for as long as he could remember and that it meant so much to the whole family.

This was not an easy search but worth every minute of preparation and I’m so glad I didn’t refuse to try something that seemed impossible. I can’t get tired of seeing miracles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle was visiting from Boston. Saturday she went to Santa Monica Beach near the pier with her mother and sister to take advantage of our weather. After most the afternoon on the beach they went up to the pier for dinner and a few drinks. That was when Michelle realized her two ring wedding set was missing. The last time she saw them was when she set them on the edge of her towel to apply sunscreen.

They walked a couple blocks back to the spot just before sunset but after 2 hours could not find the two white gold diamond rings. 

By the time they got online to locate me, it was after 10pm. Michelle said they would stay to meet me at 11pm. We met on the beach in an area between the first two lifeguard towers south of the pier. The next day was Sunday and there would be other people with detectors on that beach. 

It was dark, cold, and they were tired. Also a few extra adult beverages while waiting may have contributed to the confusion getting me in the exact location. I assured them that I could search the whole area but it would take a couple hours. It had been a long day for them so they decided to go back to their hotel. Basically they had given up hope that the rings could be found.

Later while working a methodical grid search, two other guys with metal detectors were working the same location at midnight. They were wondering through the general area and didn’t know what I knew, but I still worried that they might find the rings first and claim them as a treasure. Soon they wandered off down the beach. Shortly after 12:30am the magic moment came, when I scooped up a metallic signal that turned out to be Michelle’s beautiful diamond engagement ring. Three feet away was her diamond wedding ring. 

I texted a photo of the rings to her and immediately she returned a call with excitement in her voice that is hard to explain. I met with her the next morning to return the rings. Part of doing this, is being able to hand the ring back to the rightful owner and seeing how grateful they are to have something so very sentimental to them back after thinking it was lost forever. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Georgina lives West Los Angeles. Her apartment is on the fourth floor. Four months ago she walked out on her balcony where she picked up a small hand full of leaves. She tossed the leaves off the balcony and her very special Cartier gold ring came off her finger at that same moment. She could hear the ring hit some cement or the rod iron fence separating the neighbors property. Her fear was that the ring may have gone over the fence.

After arriving Georgina told me she had another person with a metal detector search for the ring with no success. It was only about 15 or 20 feet from the balcony to the neighbor’s property. The landscaping below her apartment had two levels of plants. The top level was only 3 feet wide and was covered with leaves. The lower level was 6 feet wide with thick 3 foot high plants. I had two detectors with small coils but it was impossible to use them in the lower planter.

I had to bring out the hand held pinpointer to probe into the thick vegetation. Meantime I could see Georgina was starting to lose confidence that the ring could be found with such a small detector. She could hear the pinpointer sound every time it located a piece of metallic trash. After about 20 minutes of checking every metal signal. I reached down, with plants over my head, to remove what I thought was a piece of tinfoil.  It turned out to be Georgina’s very special ring. It had been waiting there to be found for more than four months.

Georgina was so happy that her ring had been found that she could barely speak. This ring was a gift from her husband many years ago, when she had received a promotion at her job. We went back into the lobby of the apartments where I received hugs from several of the workers and I was able to visit and tell ring recovery stories. Every search is a challenge and an adventure. This is all possible because of all the new technology, especially the internet and TheRingFinders.com.