Brad’s special 14 karat yellow gold classic style wedding band that was metal detected and recovered by preteen Reece Brooks!
Brad celebrates the return of his handsome wedding band with his newfound friends and ring finders, Brian Rudolph and his grandchildren, Reece (on left) and Kayden Brooks (on right).
Brian Rudolph, Lost Item Recovery Specialist (Land, Water, Sand, Snow, Leaves, Cliffs, Houses & Vehicles) Will Find Your Lost Keepsake! Call ASAP (301) 466-8644!
Brad was working on Capitol Hill in Washington DC when he lost his very special 14 karat yellow gold classic style wedding band. While taking a break out in the courtyard of one of the adjacent buildings, Brad wiped off some water that was on one of the outside seats and in the process, his priceless piece of jewelry went flying off of his finger and landed somewhere in the grass.
Brad looked everywhere for his ring and some other people also joined in the search but no one, including Brad, had any success in recovering the wedding band. He immediately looked online to see if there was a specialized service that might be able to assist Brad in recovering his lost ring. Thankfully, the gentleman came across the elite international directory of metal detectorists called THE RING FINDERS. That’s when I was contacted.
Later that same day, after spending several hours metal detecting with my grandchildren at a local park, the three of us drove to downtown Washington DC to help Brad find his lost ring. Reece and Kayden couldn’t wait to power up their detectors and start the search! Brad took us to the grass where he believed his ring had ended up and I, along with my grandkids, began metal detecting the area.
I am excited to share that within 5 minutes or so of beginning the “investigation”, my oldest grandson Reece picked up a very encouraging signal on his Garrett Ace 300 metal detector! He knelt down to check out the potential target with his pinpointer and sure enough…his eyes locked in on the awesome sight of the shiny yellow gold hiding below within the many blades of the healthy grass! Reece found the wedding band! He was beyond excited! And so were the rest of us!
Brad could not have been more impressed with our super “ring hero” team effort! He was going to be taking a flight back home the next morning to Alabama, so the timing of being able to acquire our help and recover the ring so fast and efficiently, had truly surpassed all expectations that Brad was carrying within him since making the initial phone call to me earlier in the day!
I am so proud of my grandchildren, Reece and Kayden, who diligently searched for our client’s beloved wedding band and in the end, they successfully returned the irreplaceable keepsake to its proper owner! It was a really fun afternoon!
SUBSCRIBE TO BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO VIEW THIS SEARCH VIDEO!
To receive a NOTIFICATION letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device, go to the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING HERO, click SUBSCRIBEand lastly, CLICK ON THE “BELL” to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view!
Debra’s exquisite platinum engagement ring with hinged band and 2.75 carat cushion cut diamond… miraculously recovered from the road after the jewelry was run over by vehicle tires!
Debra and Mark so very happy that their very special diamond engagement ring was recovered – both band and stone!
Brian Rudolph, Lost Item Recovery Specialist (Land, Water, Sand, Snow, Leaves, Cliffs, Houses & Vehicles) Will Find Your Lost Keepsake! Call ASAP (301) 466-8644!
Debra and Mark flew in from San Diego, California to visit their daughter at American University as she was settling in at her new school. The three of them went for a tour around the campus and during that time Debra lost her beautiful and most sentimental keepsake – her engagement ring. The piece of jewelry consisted of a platinum band with a hinge (for opening and closing the band over the knuckle of Debra’s ring finger) and a 2.75 carat cushion cut diamond secured within the lovely setting.
The family walked about 200 yards from the university school buildings down to a grassy area where the three of them sat and relaxed in a lovely serene environment. Then, they returned to the main campus drive and walked back up a steep hill in the direction of the educational buildings that they had originally came from.
As soon as the family reached the top of the hill, Debra realized that her irreplaceable diamond ring was missing from her finger. She had suspected that the hinge on the band must have opened up while she was brushing off some dirt from her pants when she stood up off of the grass down by the pretty field where they sat. Immediately, the group headed back to the grassy area to look for the lost jewel, but unfortunately all of their efforts led to no avail.
Sometime during that same day, Debra and Mark went on to the internet and searched for help and that’s when they found the elite international directory of metal detectorists called THE RING FINDERS. Soon after searching for a local metal detectorist, I was contacted by the couple.
I was so happy to come out to American University in Washington DC to assist Debra and Mark in their quest to find their lost sentimental keepsake. When I arrived, I contacted the couple and we arranged a place for us to meet. They would be coming from one of the educational buildings and would walk down the same hill where Debra realized that her precious jewel was no longer on her finger. I encouraged the couple to keep their eyes focused on the concrete just in case the hinge of the band opened up somewhere on their walk back up the hill after hanging out in the grassy area.
I am so excited to share that as I met up with Debra and Mark in the middle of the road, part way down the hill, there it was…the hinged band… right there in the middle of the concrete paved drive! As I studied it carefully, it was quite apparent that it had been run over by a vehicle at least once! I couldn’t believe what I was looking at! However, just when one would think that there was light at the end of the very dark tunnel for my clients, unfortunately that light turned out to be another oncoming train! Upon looking at the damaged platinum band, there was no diamond secured within its setting! It was gone! The immediate thought was that perhaps a tire tread picked up the 2.75 carat cushion shaped diamond and carried it away up the campus road! That very moment was extremely stressful for the couple in realizing that If that theory was accurate, they would never see their special jewel ever again!
Even in the midst of such a crisis, everyone leaned down towards the road and carefully searched for the diamond. Then, perhaps a minute later, Debra let out an overwhelming cheer and an extreme sigh of relief! She found the diamond, her precious and most beautiful piece of ice was lying on the concrete perhaps a foot or so away from where the band had been identified! All of us together could not believe the outcome of this unbelievable recovery! The couple thanked me over and over again for encouraging them to keep their eyes to the ground and for my assistance as we all rendezvoused at the spot where the jewelry was found!
For the next 45 minutes, there was such a spirit of elation that each one of us experienced right there on the American University campus! It was an indescribable time of celebration and excitement! In less than 24 hours, my clients would be leaving on a plane bound for their home in San Diego and Debra and Mark would be boarding with that beautiful “symbol of love” that represented that special moment in time when Mark popped the question…and Debra of course answered a resounding ‘yes’!
SUBSCRIBE TO BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO VIEW THIS SEARCH VIDEO!
To receive a NOTIFICATION letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device, go to the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING HERO, click SUBSCRIBEand lastly, CLICK ON THE “BELL” to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view!
Justin’s Amazing 10 Karat Gold and Diamond A&M Aggie Class Ring Miraculously Recovered in the Snow by Member of THE RING FINDER’S Brian Rudolph in Washington DC!
Justin, a Recent A&M Graduate, Smiling Once Again After Detectorist Rudolph Recovers His Lost “Super Bowl Class Ring” in the Snow!
Brian Rudolph, Lost Item Recovery Specialist (Land, Water, Sand, Snow, Leaves, Houses & Vehicles) Will Find Your Lost Keepsake! Call ASAP (301) 466-8644!
While I was conducting a search and recovery operation for a gentleman who lost his wedding band in the snow in Alexandria, Virginia, I received another ring search call from a young man named Justin who lost his 10 karat yellow gold and diamond Texas A&M Aggie 2020 graduation class ring in the snow the night before. The native Texan who had recently graduated from A&M went on to share that he was having a snowball fight with some of his other A&M graduate friends who also resided in the nation’s capital. Justin said that he was absolutely certain that he had his Aggie ring on his finger when he went outside of his friend’s Washington DC residence just prior to the ice fight that would soon ensue. When I asked the recent graduate why he was so certain that the ring was on his finger upon walking out of the front door, he went on to share that he wore the ring for a little while, but then decided to put it in his jacket pocket for safekeeping. At some point, he changed his mind once again and removed the ring from its safekeeping, placing it back on his ring finger until the conclusion of the snowball fight.
During the group’s outdoor winter fun, some of Justin’s friends were spread out in the middle of the street and he was mostly standing on the sidewalk in front of the row house where he took position and manufactured all of his ice artillery. It was only after Justin had returned inside the house to warm himself up (along with the rest of his Texan friends) that he shockingly discovered that his most prized possession was no longer on his finger. Justin was terribly upset and immediately gathered up his winter coat and hat and headed back outside to search for his ring. The others followed him out, eager to help their dear friend look everywhere for the lost treasure.
From the late night evening hours until sometime early morning the following day, Justin and his friends continued their desperate attempt to recover the lost Aggie ring. They searched through snow and ice, checking everywhere in the street, around the parked vehicles, along the sidewalk and on the front lawn of the rental house, as well. None of them could believe that with so many people (I believe there were around six of them) not one of them was able to find the sentimental symbol of accomplishment that Justin worked so very hard for. Unfortunately, the gang finally called it quits, realizing that there was nothing more any of them could do at that point. They all agreed that they would have to wait until later that morning to resume the search and come up with some new ideas if they still were not able to pull the ring from the snow.
As the sun began to rise and the snow and ice started to melt, a few of the faithful returned outside once again to continue their search for the missing ring. Sadly, again, all of their efforts led to no avail. Justin was not able to join the pack because of his work schedule on the Hill, so his friend Katie reported back to him that it still had not been found. I am not sure who it was that went online to search for a metal detecting service or rental store, but upon googling for ideas, the elite international directory of metal detectorists called THE RING FINDERS popped up on the screen. Help was “almost” on its way (so to speak)! Justin immediately called me and within a short while we made plans for me to squeeze in his Washington DC search prior to me having to travel to Baltimore, Maryland for my third ring search out in the snow later that same day.
When I arrived at the search site in downtown Washington DC (following a very successful ring recovery for the other gentleman in Virginia), I noticed how the snow was still covering most of the lawns, sidewalks and in the middle and sides of the street. The asphalt was already plowed but much ice and slush build-up was still evident all over the street. I luckily found a parking space and soon met up with Justin’s friend Katie who oriented me as to where the snowball fight took place and the exact location as to where Justin was standing and gathering up snow.
The recent A&M graduate cared so deeply for Justin and was feeling really bad for him, knowing that his ring was either still out there in the snow somewhere or it had been already picked up by someone walking by in the past 10 hours or so. Katie showed me where Justin stood on the sidewalk and the exact place where he formed his snowballs, turned towards the street and then aimed and fired at his fellow Aggie friends that were spread out in the middle-of-the-road. I asked if he had ever left that position and she said that Justin did not. That was extremely helpful and encouraging information because it meant that his beloved class ring was either lost in the area where he was gathering snow or it was possible that the ring flew off at the same time that he threw one of the snowballs towards the street or down the sidewalk where his opposition stood.
Next, I was shown where the others took their positions and then lastly Katie pointed out the area of her lawn (near the property’s edge where an old stone wall was erected parallel with the sidewalk) where Justin gathered up snow to make his weapons of mass destruction. In all honesty, though I was so very hopeful that I would recover this jewel, I knew that this A&M ring (which is considered one of the most prized graduation class rings on the market (detecting specialists nickname the Aggie ring – the “Super Bowl ring” of all class rings!)) would stand out like a sore thumb if someone were to eyeball it. The 10 karat yellow gold would be quite easy to see when resting in the snow. I just hoped for the best and looked forward to giving this search my very all.
After I received all of the information that I needed to begin metal detecting, I returned to my vehicle up the street and gathered up all of the necessary equipment that was needed to conduct the search. The first area that I detected was the sidewalk that was in front of the house. I also extended my investigation down the sidewalk in the areas that were adjacent to the rental property. I was picking up quite a few signals that were random pieces of metal and reinforcement bar underneath the concrete slabs of the sidewalk, so I needed to be extremely careful and methodical with checking every square inch to make sure that I did not miss the gold ring anywhere near or on top of all of those distracting signals.
When I finished scanning all of the concrete that was off of the main street, I headed into the middle of the residential thoroughfare to see if the snowball fighters happened to miss spotting the graduation prize somewhere under some snow or slush on the asphalt street. Once again, I dealt with a lot of interference coming from random metallic objects, reinforcement bar and piping that was hidden below the concrete. Though my metal detector coil was being swung back and forth over many snow and ice molehills, I constantly had to adjust my machine to deal with the potential “masking” issues coming from all of those opposing forces.
With having just a small window of time to do this initial search because of my need to commute to Baltimore, Maryland for another search that had already been preplanned, I still made pretty sure that I didn’t miss detecting over the target that I was hunting for. Up and down that particular section of the neighborhood, I checked all of the curbs, around and under most of the cars as best as I could, and of course, under every patch of snow and slush mound that was in the middle and on the sides of the street. Still, unfortunately, there was no gold diamond class ring to be found.
The last leg of my asphalt search was to ask Katie if she could have her next door neighbor move their car just so that I could detect that space. This vehicle was located almost in front of Katie’s place, which was only feet away from where Justin had been standing on the sidewalk during the winter battle. Within minutes of my request, the neighbor’s car was moved out of the way and I quickly scanned all of that area under the ice. Disappointedly, I struck out again. That entire street parking space was innocent of hiding Justin’s Aggie ring.
It was at that point in the search that I had just enough time to swing my detector coil up on the snow covered lawn that was located approximately 4.5 feet above the sidewalk where Justin stood. To help my reader with visualizing how the property was laid out, I can describe it best by sharing this: From the sidewalk, you must walk up a few concrete steps to reach the lawn. There was a stone wall that probably went back to the 1920s that stretched across the entire front of the property and the top surface of the lawn almost met up with the top of the wall and then extended back just a short ways to the edge of the house. Therefore, when Justin was making snowballs, he reached back over the top of the stone retaining structure and bundled up each ball of white and then proceeded to fire the weapon of choice. My hope was that the piece of jewelry would be discovered on the lawn closest to the top of the wall where the grass and stone came together.
I walked up the steps and moved over to the right area of the lawn. Then, I began to swing the detector under some bushes that were planted very close to the edge of the stone wall. I carefully moved around that environment but I had to be careful to avoid some type of lighting system which was buried along the grass (located not too far from the edge of the property). In a few spots along that edge of the perimeter, I did pick up some target signals but they all appeared to be related with the wiring for that light system. When it seemed that everything was clear along that perimeter of the lawn, I scanned the rest of that side of the property to see if perhaps the ring flew backwards when Justin was perhaps doing one of his “windups” prior to the release of the snowball. There are plenty of examples of where I have ended up finding my client’s ring many feet behind where he or she was standing initially when the ring flew off. But in this case, yet again, nothing of importance was found under the snow and it was at that point that I needed to wrap things up for the meantime.
I regretfully had to tell Katie that I would need to leave for Baltimore and I promised her that I would return following the conclusion of my third search. I told her that I would tell my client that I would keep my word in returning to Washington DC to finish what I had initially started. In all honesty, there was very little left for me to search except to re-examine everything that I had previously detected over and to make certain that I didn’t miss anything. Also, there was a slight chance that when Justin threw one of the snowballs, the ring could have gone much farther than I had predicted. So therefore I would check territory beyond the the sidewalk that was on the opposite side of the street.
Katie and I both agreed that there was a good chance that someone had already picked up the Aggie ring which would explain why I didn’t find it during my search operation. We did not expect too much melting to occur by the time I would return for a second search attempt, so if the ring had not been spotted already, I did not expect it to be seen by a pedestrian or driver as they walked along the sidewalk or street. Justin’s faithful friend thanked me for my time and she also expressed her appreciation over the fact that I was not willing to give up looking for her dear friend’s very special symbol of achievement. When I got on the road, I contacted Justin to give him my update so that he was kept in the loop while he was working at his job. I could tell that the poor guy was losing hope, but he truly did appreciate my relentless attitude in promising to return for a second go around later that day.
After successfully recovering another wedding band (which was lost under snow and ice on a sidewalk) that same day, I drove from Baltimore back to the Capital Hill area to give it one more shot at recovering Justin’s ring. I was already two for three in successful searches and I wanted so badly to be able to get this one back for the young man!
I believe I arrived in Katie’s neighborhood some time around 4 PM or so. As soon as I parked my car, I removed all of the equipment that I would need to conduct this final attempt at finding the glorious A&M “Super Bowl” class ring. For this go around, I decided I would change my detector and use one that had a reduced coil size at the bottom of machine’s shaft. A coil is the round piece at the end of the machine which you use to scan the ground with. Just in case I missed the target because of larger pieces of metal “masking” this smaller piece of precious metal, I wanted to use a smaller disc so that I could create “separation” between such objects just in case that was the hang-up here with me not finding the ring on the first go around.
My first action taken in this Act Two of the search was to rescan the entire street as much as I possibly could just to make sure that I didn’t miss anything. Some of the cars that were parked earlier in the day were no longer there, so I had an excellent opportunity to detect some of those questionable spots for the missing ring. After all of my efforts spent looking for the jewel out there, just like before, I still did not find the precious piece of gold anywhere on that large portion of asphalt.
I then took my machine to the opposite side of the street and searched farther away in order to cover places where Justin’s class ring could have ended up due to a mightier throw of one of his snow balls. I metal detected not only the sidewalk as I did before, but I also checked out all of the remaining patches of snow and ice that had gathered up on the neighbor’s properties just below their front steps. When nothing turned up again, I really started getting concerned that this search might turn out to be a “closure story” rather than a successful one. I had to rule out all of the territory in the street, under the cars, and all of the public territory across the street and beyond the sidewalk that was on the other side. This led me to search my third and final section, which was to return back to Katie’s lawn and carefully rescan that snow-covered piece of real estate one more time.
As I walked my equipment back over to the side of the street where Justin stood on the sidewalk and had fired off his snow artillery rounds, my imagination started to torment me with negative thoughts that perhaps some pedestrian walking by (maybe a couple of hours after Justin returned home for the rest of the night) eyeballed the handsome mass of gold that could have been missed by Justin and his group. ‘If this truly did happen, all of my travels and all of my time searching would have been completely in vain’, I told myself. Yet, I fought hard against those opposing whispers in my mind and I willed myself to stay positive and believe that all of those A&M graduates scanned the territory around them well enough that there was no chance that someone could have caught a glance of that special hunk of precious metal.
It was finally time to begin metal detecting the snow covered lawn once more. One of the most important reasons why I chose to use a different metal detector (which had the small 6 inch disk at the bottom of it) was to make sure that I didn’t end up missing the class ring around this particular section of the search site due to the metal masking element that I mentioned earlier. I wanted to have more flexibility to move with ease under the bushes and also to create separation between any one opposing piece of metal and Justin’s class ring (if it was buried in the snow up there on the lawn) somewhere in that vicinity. Upon leaving the search site earlier with no positive results, I made it my plan to recheck this particular spot with this type of coil.
As I started this last leg of my search, I chose to scan over the snow and ice at the far left corner of the wall (which would be just to the right of where one would walk up the steps to the house). Then, I slowly and methodically worked my way to my right as I faced the house and scanned from left to right above the wall on the lawn. Already I could tell that this smaller coil helped me to figure out what was part of the electrical outdoor lighting system and what was not. It was not until I started to detect around the third bush (I believe it was), that I encountered a very curious target signal that my machine indicated on its screen. When I scanned in a certain place under the little hedge, my detector monitor showed a particular number representing that unique object. However, when I moved the disc just slightly over to the right and around the bush by just a few inches, a different number altogether appeared on my machine. This immediately told me that I was working with two different pieces of metal that were extremely close to one another. The last time that I was out at the search site, my other machine did not differentiate between that one mysterious object and the second one (which was part of the lighting system).
As the intrigue within me started to build, I took out my handheld detector which is called a pinpointer and I placed it under the bush to get an idea as to where both of these pieces of metal were hiding. The first target identified happened to be part of the light structure that stuck out of the ground with a wire connected to it. At that point I was so hoping that the two signals that I had originally picked up would not be just two different pieces of hardware related to the same lighting system. Next, I moved the pinpointer over the surface of the snow just about 4 inches from the other metal objects that I had just analyzed a moment earlier. To my excitement, another separate object made of metal was detected by my pinpointer. I knew this was something different than the other pieces that I had just uncovered because when I placed the pinpointer in the space between the objects, there was no signal. This is what metal detectorists call “separation” between objects.
My heart began to race with the hope that this mysterious target that I discovered might possibly be what we all had been searching for for nearly 20 hours. With my winter glove still shielding my cold fingers, I carefully removed enough snow away until I made my way down to where the curious target was buried below. Just then, as I cleared a little bit more white stuff out-of-the-way, I began to see that all so familiar shiny gold color peeking out from below the remaining layer of ice! I couldn’t believe it! It was the Aggie ring! I caught a glimpse of the beautiful diamond in the center of that most handsome A&M graduation class ring! The 10 karat yellow gold was so brilliant and spotless in appearance that it looked as if the piece of jewelry had never been worn! There are truly not enough words to express everything that I was experiencing out there on that Washington DC sidewalk as I was looking over the stone wall and underneath the bush where the ring was discovered! Because I did not find the ring anywhere on the street, sidewalks, and on the lawn during my first search earlier that day, I really didn’t think there was much of a chance that I was going to end up finding the Aggie prize at that point. It all came down to the issue of “masking”. The metal that made up part of that lighting system ended up masking the ring so that what I was getting on the other machine that I was using were the signals that pertained to the lighting parts rather than the 10 karat gold item that I was so yearning to find!
As I stared at the ring, my face just lit up with the biggest smile and I spoke under my breath saying to myself, ‘These searches never cease to amaze me!’ That is why I never give up until I know for certain that I exhausted every chance and possibility of finding the lost item before having to throw the towel in and declare a cease-fire!
At the time that I discovered the Aggie ring, Katie was inside the house. I wanted to surprise both she and Justin together at the same time, so when the young lady came outside to “receive an update from me”, I requested that we do a FaceTime video call with Justin. That’s when I shocked the living daylights out of her and Justin right there on the front sidewalk. They were absolutely in shock and the excitement and elation experienced between the three of us at that moment was simply off the charts! It’s with these kind of reactions that illustrate why us ring finders love what we do and why we love helping people like Justin and Katie! Some of the other friends inside the house were witnesses to my incredible fake out event and they too were in a state of shock and awe! Everyone could not stop thanking me for the successful recovery operation! Justin was totally floored by the amazing news and later he admitted that he had resolved in his own mind that the ring would probably never be seen again. When we first met on the phone, we both learned that the two of us were God-fearing men and we prayed for the Lord’s favor on this search. So at the end of my reveal we all gave thanks to the Lord for His favor and wisdom that was bestowed upon me in helping Justin with this project. Once I finished with the big surprise on FaceTime, I showed everybody where I ended up finding the beloved class ring. It was pretty easy to conclude that Justin lost his ring when he was manufacturing all of his snowballs on the lawn while standing on the sidewalk. He reached over the stone wall and while he was forming the ice balls, the ring must have slipped off of his very cold and shrunk finger causing the ring to burrow itself down below the snow under that one particular bush. That large hunk of gold never left Katie’s lawn! It was there all along, covered with snow under that one particular bush. It just so happened that Justin (along with all the rest of his gang) never could spot the gold piece because of where it was hiding under all of that white! When I completed my summary with the two of them, they were pretty taken back by the whole story and the remaining friends in the house were also extremely excited for such a great ending to this very traumatic situation!
The next day I had the privilege of personally meeting Justin and all of the rest of his Aggie friends who worked on Capitol Hill with him. We rendezvoused very close to the Capital building after they all got off work and that’s when we celebrated with hugs, high fives, a prayer of thanks to the Lord and lastly a few photos taken for the memory books! All of rejoiced at the return of this very special A&M class ring that was specifically made for Justin who proudly earned that gold and diamond trophy after so many years of hard work! What a wonderful time it was out there with Justin, Katie and some of his other friends! Every time I recount this special story, I still can’t stop smiling while thinking about how amazing this search and recovery operation turned out so successful in the end! It was simply an incredible experience that I will never forget!
SUBSCRIBE TO BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO VIEW THIS SEARCH VIDEO!
To receive a NOTIFICATION letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device, go to the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING HERO, click SUBSCRIBEand lastly, CLICK ON THE “BELL” to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view!
Ashley’s Sentimental Family Heirloom Ring Found by Member of THE RING FINDERS, Brian Rudolph
Ashley Excitedly Shows Off Her 14 Karat White and Yellow Gold with Diamonds Family Heirloom Ring Recovered by Brian Rudolph After Missing for Over a Week!
Brian Rudolph, Lost Item Recovery Specialist (Land, Water, Sand, Snow, Leaves, Houses & Vehicles) Will Find Your Lost Keepsake! Call ASAP (301) 466-8644!
I received a call from a young lady named Ashley who lost her 14 karat white and yellow gold diamond family heirloom ring. It had been missing outside for over a week. She and her girlfriend were hanging out on the Ashley’s side lawn of her Washington DC row house when her beloved keepsake that had been passed down the family line from her grandfather, grandmother, mother and then to Ashley went missing somewhere on the property. Ashley shared with me that she was playing with the ring in her hand when it slipped from between her fingers and landed somewhere on the ground. The two friends searched for hours on their hands and knees with much confidence that they would eventually find the precious jewel. However, as it turned out, all of their efforts led to no avail.
Sometime later that evening, as Ashley was searching online for answers to her problem, she came across the elite international directory of metal detecting specialists called THE RING FINDERS. She did not realize that such people existed and immediately contacted me to inquire about my services. I told Ashley that I am constantly doing search and recovery operations and that I was happy to help her in any way possible. She decided to go forward with my help the following day and I could not wait to try to solve this particular mystery.
The next morning, I headed out for Washington DC to an area called Mount Pleasant. Once I arrived, Ashley guided me over to a very narrow area of grass where she had been sitting on a café-type table with her friend over a week earlier. The section of real estate was so small that I couldn’t believe that Ashley had not already found her precious heirloom.
Next, my client reenacted the whole event and I personally couldn’t figure out why Ashley and her friend were unable to locate the piece of gold and diamonds. It seemed so simple. My best guess at the time was that the family heirloom must have flung in an unlikely direction, far enough away from the table so that the two ladies just didn’t look outside the box far enough. Yet, the young lady said that she didn’t remember doing anything with her hand that would cause the ring to be hurled off her finger. I did ask if the ladies had been drinking out at that table and Ashley did share openly that she had a couple of beers. Sometimes in dealing with ring searches like this one, two beers could make a difference depending on how the alcohol affected that particular individual. In some situations, the client remembers a certain amount of alcohol consumed when the actual amount was really a whole lot more. You never can tell and so when you can’t easily find the item, your mind starts to wonder how much of the story was left out due to being under the influence.
From the description that Ashley had given to me over the phone, I was perplexed by the whole mystery because this particular ring was fairly large in size. It would not have disappeared that easily. Ashley described the ring as being a men’s style band that was wide and heavy. It was mainly white gold with yellow gold accents along the rims and within its inner band. There were stars all around it with little diamonds in the middle of the stars. It really sounded quite lovely! This ring meant the world to Ashley and it broke her heart that something as simple as playing with it on her finger could end up causing the ring to disappear into seemingly thin air!
The Search Site Where Detectorist Rudolph Recovered the Precious Ring
After I got the rundown about where Ashley sat and what had taken place, I began my search using my metal detector throughout the area where Ashley and her friend were sitting. There was mainly dirt with no grass in that search zone where the table was located. Therefore, it was pretty obvious where the eye would not have missed it. I checked a garden bed behind where she was sitting as well as locations along the side of the house. Nothing of importance was found and as time marched on I was getting more curious as to what could have happened with this ring. One of the last places I detected was closer to the wrought iron fence that overlooked the side of the property towards the Washington DC street. I moved a metal frame out of the way (which was the base for a hammock) and again I swung my coil over the ground and yet still nothing turned up.
I tried everything to recover this ring and still there were no substantial targets found except a bottle cap or two, a pull tab from a can and some other miscellaneous items discovered during the search. I even got down on my hands and knees and used my handheld detector in several places in order to work around metal infested sections of the property where I could not use my regular machine. Once again, I came away with no ring.
When nothing turned up, I stopped my search for a moment and rethought the whole event. I recounted in my head what Ashley’s recollection was of what happened a week earlier. When I couldn’t find the heirloom anywhere, I realized that perhaps I was thinking too far outside of the box of possibilities. I also adjusted my detector which may not have been set properly for this type of ring search. Also, I thought that perhaps it was possible that I had missed the ring right from under my nose when I had been detecting at the beginning of the search near where the table was situated. I then resumed the investigation with a fresh perspective and a focused attack plan.
My new strategy was to metal detect over and around the same patches of dirt where I had initially began my search. I started scanning the area about three feet away from where the table originally sat. Almost immediately I hit a fairly good signal with the exception of a scratchy tone that made the target appear to be more iron based rather than a precious metal. I really didn’t think the object could have been the ring because I was looking for a surface find, not an item completely buried below the ground.
Though I was pretty certain that the target below was not what I was looking for, it truly got me curious as to what this object actually was and so I started to carefully dig the object up with my hand digger. Just as I brought the chunky piece of metal out of the ground, the mystery began to be unraveled little by little! I caught a glimpse of a smooth rounded shape, then I saw stars engraved into the side of the object. Next, I observed some sparkles coming from what appeared to be a men’s ring! Finally, as I cleared off the rest of the dirt from the silver-like halo, there before me was the very culprit that I had been searching for for the past hour or so! It had been completely buried in the ground! I concluded that because it was completely dark outside at the time of the ring’s disappearance, Ashley must have gotten up out of her chair and had accidentally stepped on the ring. This caused it to completely disappear beneath the soft dirt where the eye would not have had a chance to spot even a glimpse of the piece of metal! Ashley’s simple account of her fidgeting with the ring without any force to cause the ring to go very far from the table, perfectly matched up with where I actually found the heirloom!
It all made perfect sense once I extracted the handsome band from below the dirt! I then realized where my obstacles existed in dealing with finding this piece of jewelry. First, my detector was incorrectly set at the time. Secondly, the ring was buried on a particular angle which made it more difficult to accurately assess the iron-like scratchiness sound that I was hearing in my headphones coming from the target. Thirdly, I wasn’t anticipating the possibility that the ring could have been fully pushed down into the ground where no metal was exposed at all! I learned a valuable lesson (even as a seasoned metal detectorist). Though I have had several searches where the item was recently lost and then found below the earth due to a shoe or foot that had pushed the jewelry down into the ground, I have at least been able to still see a slight “halo” of the ring peeking through. This particular search was definitely a first for me!
I was so happy for Ashley and I couldn’t wait to do the reveal! When I surprised her I could see her countenance light up with an expression of happiness and also great relief! Her beloved family heirloom had returned to her finger once more and she was so grateful that I could help solve this simple but yet seemingly more complicated mystery!
I truly love what I do for people like Ashley and returning rings and other cherished items is such a fulfilling and thrilling experience for me every time!
SUBSCRIBE TO BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO VIEW THIS SEARCH VIDEO!
To receive a NOTIFICATION letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device, go to the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING HERO, click SUBSCRIBEand lastly, CLICK ON THE “BELL” to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view!
Excitement and Relief Written All Over Kat’s Smiling Face as She Displays Her Treasured Keepsake!
BRIAN RUDOLPH, LOST ITEM RECOVERY SPECIALIST (LAND, WATER, SAND, HOUSES & VEHICLES) WILL FIND YOUR LOST KEEPSAKE! CALL ASAP (301) 466-8644!
As a ring finder, I consider myself not only a metal detectorist, but also a “metal detective”. Many of the people that contact me are ones that need help solving the mystery as to what happened to their ring. They are not sure if the ring ended up in the grass, leaves, sand, water, or even snow. Yet, they sometimes don’t think outside the box by including the possibility that the ring never made it into nature’s elements all along. I searched houses and vehicles all the time and this story is an example of exactly that situation.
Kat was running late to get to her Washington DC gym for her regular workout class. She took her engagement ring off, placed it in a side pocket in her gym bag, threw some other things inside, placed the bag on the back of her bike and hurried to make her appointment.
When Kat arrived back home later that evening, she dropped her things at the door and forgot about retrieving her ring until sometime the following day or so. When she finally returned to the gym bag to recover the ring, Kat was shocked to find out that it was no longer inside. She started to panic and looked everywhere in the house as well as in her vehicle. She retraced her steps and started searching along the streets that she traveled on her way to the gym, looked everywhere at the workout center and still nothing turned up.
Eventually the distraught young lady filed a police report because she didn’t know if somebody may have stolen the ring while she was working out at the gym. The bag was left unlocked along with all the rest of the other gym members’ belongings. Kat called local pawn shops and checked eBay to see if somebody was already trying to sell her ring online. In addition to that, the young lady even printed “LOST” signs, hoping that if somebody did find it on the street, maybe that person would be honest enough to turn the cherished item in and receive a reward for their high ethical practices. Unfortunately, the phone never rang and no text was received about her beloved keepsake.
This ring meant the world to Kat in various ways. The large diamond was a family heirloom that was previously owned by Kat’s mother in law who had sadly passed away shortly before the ring went missing. Her fiancé Peter (now husband) custom designed the band specifically for Kat. There could never be a replacement of something so special and sentimental as this engagement ring. The two of them were devastated when nothing turned up.
Finally, when all of Kat’s other efforts failed to recover the ring, she thought that if it had fallen out of her bag while biking her way to the gym, perhaps it was still somewhere on the street, near the curb or even the sidewalk. Using a metal detector, she thought, might be a helpful tool in finding her lost family heirloom. The moment that she started Googling her particular need online, The Ring Finder’s website popped up. Kat found my profile page and promptly contacted me.
I love trying to solve mysteries for other people because I know how much these items mean to people. They are not simply material objects. These are stories that represent love, family and commitment. I kept Kat on the phone for over an hour and a half, asking her every question imaginable. I wanted to get an accurate picture of what took place and what were all of the possibilities that we were dealing with as to what could have happened to her precious keepsake.
When I am working with people that are not sure what happened to their item, it is so important that I look at all of the possibilities of the situation as if it’s a crime scene. Then, I come to the most likely conclusion based on my years of experience and I start the search at that point. Wisdom comes from the Lord according to the Bible, and so I heavily rely on my faith in God to help guide me along the investigative trail, using wisdom which is full of logic, common sense and reflecting on past successful experiences.
Once I acquired all of the facts on the phone with Kat, we set up a time later that night for me to come out with my metal detector and immediately search along the streets leading to the gym. If we did not find the ring outside, I highly recommended that I search inside their house. I conduct in-house searches all the time and I am highly successful in recovering lost rings inside houses.
In the meantime, before my arrival, I highly recommended that my client continue to search inside her home near the front entrance. From everything that Kat told me, I told her that I thought that the ring most likely ended up falling out of her bag when she dropped it by the front door. It could have ended up rolling across the hardwood floor and was hiding behind something. I shared with Kat that shoes are generally the number one culprit where rings end up inside near the front door. Not only have I seen this happen before, but other Ring Finders that I’m associated with have shared similar stories with me, as well.
I shared with Kat that it was highly unlikely that her bag leaned over enough to spill the ring out on the street while she was biking to the gym. If that was the case, she probably would have lost something else along the way, as well. This left us with the possibility of theft or that the ring fell out of her bag when she placed it on the floor upon arriving home that particular evening from the gym.
I suggested that Kat take a a high lumen flashlight, turn off all the lights in her living room which was adjacent to the front hall next to the front door and search every crack, crevice and corner! I encouraged her to look inside anything that the ring could have fallen into (including shoes and other bags nearby). She agreed to take on this assignment during the hours before my arrival.
Well, just as I was texting my client to let her know that I was on my way to Washington DC for the evening search, Kat called me in a state of utter ecstasy to share the amazing news the she in fact recovered her missing ring! Though she had searched the first floor of her house several times during the days prior to contacting me, she listened to my advice and sure enough, she found the ring inside another item that was lying on the floor located behind a piece of furniture!
Apparently, the ring had fallen out of her gym bag, rolled along the hardwood floor behind a piece of furniture and then slipped inside another container! Using her phone’s flashlight in the dark, she was able to catch a glimpse of her precious jewel that was peeking out just enough to catch the light from her phone! Absolutely wonderful! My client was so happy and she couldn’t stop thanking me for all the help that I gave her earlier that afternoon! I was simply overjoyed for Kat that this most cherished family heirloom would remain in the family for many generations to come!
I was beyond excited for Kat and Peter! How fantastic was that moment when I heard the incredible news that the engagement ring was safe and sound in their home! And most importantly, that beautiful diamond and yellow gold band was finally back on Kat’s finger… exactly where it belonged and nowhere else!
Testimonial
“One evening I was hustling to the gym in downtown DC, running late for a workout class. I took off my engagement ring and tucked it into my bag, but when I got home it was nowhere to be found. The ring has huge sentimental value – the band was custom designed for me, and the diamond originally belonged to my mother in law, who recently passed away. My spouse and I were heartbroken. I searched the gym – nothing. We were terrified that it had slipped out of my bag on the street… what would be the odds of recovering it then? After filing a police report, calling local pawn shops, checking eBay, and printing “LOST” signs, I thought if there was any chance of finding the ring on the street, a metal detector would be necessary. I stumbled across TheRingFinders.com in a Google search and found Brian’s profile. When I called Brian, I was expecting a polite “please schedule an appointment” response. Instead he spent over an hour on the phone with me, talking me through every step I had taken since the last time I saw the ring. He was extremely considerate, reassuring, and positive, while digging for details to narrow down where the ring might be. He offered to come out that night, but after I got off the phone I decided to take one more look around our apartment. Brian had said that night time is actually a good time to look for a ring because it will reflect a bright light. So even though I had already scoured our place, I turned on my phone’s flashlight and looked again. Lo and behold the ring had fallen out of my gym bag, behind a piece of furniture and slipped down inside another container – but it was peeking out just enough to catch the light from my phone. If not for Brian, it would have been weeks, if not months, before I recovered my ring – time I would have spent grieving my most cherished possession. Brian’s thoughtful and thorough consultation put me at ease that I had an expert on the case, and gave me the clue that led me to find it. He has clearly seen it all and cares a ton about the people he is helping as much as solving the mystery of each misplaced item. If you’re in Maryland/DC/VA and you’ve lost something precious, call Brian! You won’t find a better partner to help locate it. Thank you, Brian!”
Kat
Washington DC
If you would like to view SEARCH VIDEOS and fantastic RING REVEALS please subscribe to my YouTube channel and you will be notified when the next search video is uploaded onto YouTube.
SUBSCRIBE TO BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO VIEW HIS SEARCH VIDEOS!
If you would like to watch SEARCH VIDEOS and RING REVEALS: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device. In the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING RETURNER, click SUBSCRIBEand lastly, CLICK ON THE “BELL” to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view!
BRIAN RUDOLPH, LOST ITEM RECOVERY SPECIALIST (LAND, WATER, SAND, HOUSES & VEHICLES) WILL FIND YOUR LOST KEEPSAKE! CALL ASAP (301) 466-8644!
I WANT TO PERSONALLY THANK CELEBRITY ACTOR, JON CRYER, FOR SHARING ON TWITTER, HIS OWN PERSONAL STORY OF HOW “THE RING FINDERS” HELPED HIM FIND HIS MISSING WEDDING BAND! NOW, MANY THOUSANDS AROUND THE WORLD WHO ONCE LOST THEIR SPECIAL RINGS AND KEEPSAKES ARE CONTACTING MEMBERS OF “THE RING FINDERS” LIKE ME! AS A RESULT, THESE PEOPLE ARE BEING SURPRISINGLY AND HAPPILY REUNITED WITH THEIR SENTIMENTAL JEWELRY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS!
In the past few weeks so many love stories have gained back their sentimental and beloved keepsakes such as wedding bands and engagement rings, found in the ground or pulled from vehicles and houses, lost for years and now returned! How could this be?! It’s because of one wedding band owned by actor Jon Cryer that was discovered by our very own Chris Turner, professional metal detectorist and CEO of the THE RING FINDERS!
I can’t fully express with words just how wonderful it has been to recover numerous rings for people who had given up hope in ever recovering their lost precious possessions! Their smiles are priceless! The word got out around the world about how members of our wonderful metal directorist directory can find these lost treasures and The Jon Cryer Effect is making many waves throughout homes everywhere!
When I got contacted to help these desperate individuals, I found that each story was quite unique in their own way, possessing plenty of backstory drama and search challenges. However, my passion and excitement as a member of THE RING FINDERS and as a metal detectorist who loves helping people find their “lost stories”, certainly energized me to do everything possible to help recover such special items for these Jon Cryer Twitter followers!
Since Chris Turner’s amazing recovery story, countless television stations, talk shows, radio stations, podcasts, newspapers, magazines and online news media outlets have interviewed Turner and it has certainly generated much public awareness of what our “movement” to help others recover their lost property is all about!
May every city in every state and country experience the wonderful hope of reuniting people with their lost keepsakes! Not only as a result of news circulating about Turner’s incredible ring recovery for Cryer, but in addition to that marvelous account, may word continue to travel the world through the latest ring success projects from THE RING FINDERS’ members (such as myself) who are receiving calls from people who learned of what Turner did in Vancouver, allowing for another tier of amazing search and recovery stories yet to come!
Jenny’s Beautiful and Unique Engagement Ring Finally Returned Home!
BRIAN RUDOLPH, LOST ITEM RECOVERY SPECIALIST (LAND, WATER, SAND, HOUSES & VEHICLES) WILL FIND YOUR LOST KEEPSAKE! CALL ASAP (301) 466-8644!
I WANT TO PERSONALLY THANK CELEBRITY ACTOR, JON CRYER, FOR SHARING ON TWITTER, HIS OWN PERSONAL STORY OF HOW “THE RING FINDERS” HELPED HIM FIND HIS MISSING WEDDING BAND! NOW, MANY THOUSANDS AROUND THE WORLD WHO ONCE LOST THEIR SPECIAL RINGS AND KEEPSAKES ARE CONTACTING MEMBERS OF “THE RING FINDERS” LIKE ME! AS A RESULT, THESE PEOPLE ARE BEING SURPRISINGLY AND HAPPILY REUNITED WITH THEIR SENTIMENTAL JEWELRY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS!
Jenny is now one of many people around the world who have been personally affected by the recent Twitter feed of celebrity actor, Jon Cryer. Miraculously, he was able to recover his cherished wedding ring that was lost during his day off of work from filming the TV series ‘Supergirl’ on location in Vancouver, Canada. Cryer is recognized for his well-known acting roles, including the highly successful sitcom show ‘Two and a Half Men’ that ran for 12 seasons from 2003 to 2015, as well as the ever famous 1980’s classic movie, ‘Pretty in Pink’. Because so many around the globe have chimed in to Cryer’s Twitter story and are finding their lost treasures (thanks to the help of THE RING FINDERS), this amazing outcome has now been officially titled, “The Jon Cryer Effect”!
Coincidentally, as I was wrapping up a successful search in Alexandria, Virginia (which came together due to Cryer’s recent tweet), I received a call from a young lady named Jenny who was yet another Twitter follower of the famous actor Jon Cryer who shared on Twitter how THE RING FINDER’S CEO, Chris Turner, found his wedding band! She, like many others, thought that maybe she could reach out to a member of the elite metal detecting directory in Washington DC and hoped that perhaps maybe I could find her lost engagement ring that had been missing for just over a year! As I was packing up my gear, I listened to Jenny’s voicemail message and immediately called her back to gain more information about her particular situation.
THE BACKSTORY
Jenny shared with me that one year ago she was taking a walk through the woods of Glover Park, located in Washington DC near the National Cathedral, when all of a sudden she was attacked by dozens and dozens of hornets! She believed that she had stepped right into a nest whereby the angry critters viciously attacked her over and over again! She was left with over 25 hornets stings all over her body. She tried to get away from the attackers by running down a hill and into a clearing where she constantly swatted and batted them with her hands as she desperately attempted to fight them off! In the process of defending herself from those demonic insects, Jenny’s eyeglasses fell to the ground where she eventually stepped on them, causing the lenses to break into pieces. At that point she could barely see clearly, causing her to be quite disoriented. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come! In the thick of the battle, while fighting off those flying beasts, the tortured woman felt her very heavy yellow gold, 1.75 carat diamond engagement ring fly off her finger! Though she was completely overwhelmed by what she was facing with her attackers, she somehow tried to search around for her missing keepsake. However, because she was hurt so very badly by so many stings, at some point she needed to leave the forest in order to receive medical attention at the nearby hospital. It was a terrible dilemma because she knew that she needed to get help for her hornet stings and yet she didn’t want to leave her most precious jewel somewhere out there in the woods where someone walking by may have the chance to spot the ring and walk off with it.
Once Jenny got help for herself and she was able to return back to the location where she lost her ring, she and her husband searched the woods the very next day but they still couldn’t find the solid gold betrothal piece anywhere. She first rented a metal detector but nothing turned up at the search site. Then, once she finally returned the rented machine, she was fortunate enough to borrow one of her children’s teacher’s metal detectors. Jenny and her family continued to make the trek back to the “scene of the crime”, hoping that something would turn up, but even those attempts ended up with empty hands. Hours of searching turned into days, and days eventually turned into weeks and months. Still, nobody could find her beautiful gold diamond engagement ring anywhere. It was as if it disappeared into thin air. They did everything possible at the time to hopefully find the missing ring. They used rakes to work through the many leaves that had fallen during that fall season of 2019, and over and over again the search team meandered through the wooded area, looking under and around the many tree limbs and logs that were scattered about the search site. Of course, there was a chance that somebody had already found the treasured item. Jenny and family realized that if the jewel landed somewhere along the path that was perpendicular to the trail that went down the hill where Jenny was attacked by the hornets, it was quite possible that at some point during the next few days following her horrible incident, somebody could have picked it up before the autumn leaves covered over the priceless ring. Even with their worst fears, Jenny and her husband reported the missing ring to the park ranger, hoping that if someone picked up the ring, it would be turned in and eventually reclaimed. She estimated that over the next year, 100 plus hours had been invested in all of her search efforts which included over 30 hours of metal detecting, and plenty of assistance from her husband, children and friends! Again, nothing ever turned up.
THE SEARCH
Jenny was absolutely devastated by the loss of something so special as this. However, she was a determined woman who never gave up hope that perhaps the ring was still out there somewhere, buried under downed trees or lost in the high grass and bramble. Finally, a beacon of hope was spotted on Jenny’s smartphone as she read actor Jon Cryer’s Twitter feed about the successful recovery of his own beloved wedding band! She went online to THE RING FINDER’S website and reviewed my profile listed under the Washington DC metropolitan area. Little did Jenny know that I had just discovered two other lost rings that had gone missing for 3 years and 1 year for people just like her who also read Jon Cryer’s Twitter feed and contacted me in the days that followed, asking if I could help them find their rings! I couldn’t wait to set up a time for me to travel out to the Washington DC forest to make a search attempt to recover Jenny’s lost gold diamond engagement ring!
While Jenny and I were talking on the phone, I asked her question after question regarding everything that transpired leading up to the ring flying off of her finger out in the forest. From what she described, I felt very confident that there was a strong possibility that nobody spotted the ring with the amount of “distracting nature” that surrounded that particular area. She mentioned that there was quite a bit of bramble and fallen trees that had rested in the location where she was once under attack by those vicious hornets. Also, she said that she lost the ring in October 2019 during the same autumn season exactly one year ago. That information gave me hope that the ring could still be out there because it could have easily been camouflaged by the golden colors of the leaves that had fallen from the trees above, causing her engagement ring to blend in perfectly with its surroundings.
Yes, there was plenty of metal detecting at the site, but in my mind, it didn’t mean that the gold ring hadn’t been missed. In my many experiences with other people using detectors that are made of cheap quality electronics and having lack of experience, those search attempts generally end up being futile, giving up no positive results. I remember telling Jenny on the phone how excited I was to hear that there was plenty of thorn bushes and overgrown weeds and trees that had fallen down all around that area. She couldn’t figure out why I was so encouraged by her description of that forsaken territory where her nightmare took place! I reiterated my positive thoughts about her description of the site by explaining that it gave more opportunities for the ring to hide as opposed to having only one or two scenarios as to where the jewel could have ended up (such as it being left on the path for somebody to pick up). Though Jenny was still in a mode of doubting the possibility that I may be the one to recover her lost keepsake, she was nonetheless enthusiastic for giving me a shot at finding her precious ring that she had missed so much.
I finished our second conversation that same night by encouraging Jenny with several search and recovery stories that had to do with me finding people’s rings that had gone missing for years. Jewelry that had been out there for the longest time, buried in the ground or hidden in a vehicle or house, just waiting to be found by me! Before we got off the phone, we tentatively set up a time to meet in three days on a Saturday afternoon. I told her I couldn’t wait to get out there into the woods and help her find the lost engagement ring that she cherished so very much! Jenny didn’t know what to say to that declaration because so many hours had already gone into the search and every time she gave it her all, she came up with nothing. I told her if that ring was never picked up and it was still out there somewhere, I told her that I would indeed find it for her…guaranteed!
For the next three days, I couldn’t wait to meet up with Jenny in order for her to take me into the woods and show me where all of the drama took place a year ago this October. I pictured the ring buried somewhere out there, just waiting for me to come and return it to the finger that it still belonged to! She and her two dogs met me at one of the entrances to Glover Park located in Washington DC not too far from the National Cathedral. Jenny, who is very familiar with the paths and trails throughout the park (it was routine for her to walk her retrievers in that area quite frequently), led the way into the woods and down into the forest where she lost her ring on that one dreadful afternoon. As we walked to the spot, she gave me more details about that particular day and just how much effort she had invested in trying to find her beloved engagement ring.
After a good 5 or 10 minutes of walking over rocks, downed trees and across muddy spots, we eventually got to the top of a hill where Jenny was steps away from being attacked by those ruthless hornets. Her dogs led the way as she guided me down the slope, eventually stopping at the bottom where it started to level out. Another path could be seen to the left and right of us and I immediately wondered how busy this particular trail had been traveled. Jenny stood close to the intersection of the two paths and recounted what happened next. She showed me how she was swatting the insects profusely, trying with all of her might to get them off of her. She demonstrated for me just how she was standing and brought attention to the angle of how she was positioned when she tried to fight off her attackers. Jenny believed her left arm went forward and that the ring most likely went into the woods in front of her, towards some very large trees that had fallen many years prior. There was a gigantic tree trunk with its roots still intact, along with all kinds of huge branches, tree limbs, high grass, weeds and plenty of bramble growing wild everywhere. Just as she described to me on the phone days before, there was plenty of obstacles and area to search! The ring could have still been hiding just about anywhere! She actually ended up apologizing to me for such a complicated search site to have to investigate! I told her, “Please, there is no need to apologize because I am more encouraged about having this kind of environment as opposed to being in a public area where anyone could have easily spotted the ring on the day that it flew off your finger!”
Next, I asked Jenny to give me an account of all of the spots where her crew had metal detected so that I could have an idea of what pieces of real estate were already covered in the past year. She pointed out those locations, but I noticed that she didn’t mention the property behind where she was standing. I pointed to the hillside where we came down and over to the right another 30 to 75 feet, and asked her if anyone searched behind the section that she thought the ring had flown towards. Her response was that they had barely looked in those areas because she had believed that the ring had flown forward into where the trees and bramble rested based on how her arm moved forward during the brutal attack. I took close attention to those facts.
Once we covered all of the details regarding where she felt the ring flew and all the places that she, her family and friends searched over the past year, I was ready to return back to my car to gather up my gear and return to the search site to begin my recovery project. Jenny was kind enough to orient me to a closer entrance point which would help me pull my equipment wagon down into the woods where my travels to the site would be much faster than where we originally entered. She took some of my orange grid cones and placed them in key positions where I would be able to find my way out of the woods and back to my car once I finished the first leg of my search that day. We didn’t know how many trips it would take for me to wrap up the project because there was so much territory to cover. However, it was clear that I needed to have a way of identifying markers in order for me to make my way out of the park and back to my vehicle.
Jenny guided me back to the search site, showing me a little stream with lots of rocks and mud that I would need to cross over, and then eventually she pointed me to the largest landmark at the “scene of the crime” – that huge tree that was lying on its side just in front of where Jenny fought for her life last October.
Before she took off to walk the dogs deeper into the forest, I warned Jenny that upon her return to this location, she may end up observing me searching for the engagement ring in an area that most people would consider to be an illogical place to metal detect when searching for a jewel that went flying in an entirely different zone. She appreciated my words but assured me that she was putting what hope she had left into my care, wishful that I would use my expertise and experience to pull her ring from the park!
As she headed off with the dogs, I started setting up my gear for what I anticipated to be a very long and possibly difficult search project. Like I mentioned above, there was no way of telling whether or not the ring had already been picked up by somebody or not. All that I could do was to give it my all and hope for the best. Before I began setting grid cones up in a certain area on the hill side where she had originally ran down just after being attacked by the hornets, I prayed to the Lord and asked my beloved Creator to help me and guide me in the search efforts. I asked my Heavenly Father to give me wisdom and guidance in finding the hiding place where the ring had ended up, believing that it was still somewhere out there. Then, I put my metal detecting harness over my jacket, placed the headphones over my ears and finally started grid searching inside of the area where I placed the cones up and around a portion of the hill.
Generally, when one is metal detecting an area way out in the woods, there is very little metal that you will encounter in the ground. This scenario was no different. However, there were a few targets that I dug up because the metal detector was picking up a few shallow targets that were just below the ground. I knew that if the ring was still there on that property, it would be just slightly below the dirt and leaves with just a little bit of the halo showing up above the ground. It turned out that there was absolutely no ring to be discovered in the first section that I marked off with my orange cones.
By the time I finished grid searching that first area, Jenny had returned with her precious retrievers just to check on how things were going and to let me know that she was heading back to her place. I quickly showed her what I completed at that point and pointed to the area that was going to be surrounded by cones for my next grid search. Eventually Jenny left and I remained there at the site, continuing my efforts to reclaim my client’s lost beloved ring. Though there was so much pain, drama and sadness that took place in this region of the park, I still couldn’t help myself appreciate the surroundings which were absolutely beautiful that autumn day.
I would continue to work on the hillside, adjacent to where I had just finished the first section. Moving to the other side of the trail where she quickly ran down the slope as she was being attacked by the hornets, my aim was to hit that spot next. I set the cones up around that that territory and was then ready to begin that second phase of the search. For some unexplainable reason (which I now believe was true divine guidance by the Spirit of the Lord in answer to my earlier prayer), I began to just randomly metal detect the area that Jenny had pointed out where she and the others predominantly searched over the past year. I wasn’t thinking that I would necessarily find the ring, but I was just curious as to what I would discover and get an idea of how much metal was in the ground in the environment where all of the downed trees, high grass and bramble predominantly congregated around. I casually swung the detector in that particular zone and then slowly moved my way around and back towards the path that crossed the trail that goes up the hill. There was no ring to be found in any of those spots that I casually swung the coil over. One habit that I seem to typically implement while I am detecting an area is to keep swinging my detector over real estate until I get to the section that I intend to grid search next, just in case I come across something of interest along the way. This moment was no different. I crossed the path that divided the main section of where she had been searching for the past year over to the hillside section that would have been where her back was facing during the hornet attack. I didn’t get more than 6 feet off the path, moving up the slight incline (probably 8 to 10 feet over to my right which would take me towards the coned off area that I was about to grid) when I hit a pretty significant target signal that appeared to be buried just below the surface. Because the ground was covered with the most beautiful colors from the autumn season, I wasn’t able to observe whether or not this target was partially resting above the ground. However, I was about to find out! The VDI number (visual discrimination indicator) that appeared on my detector screen came up as a solid 18. First of all, that number is not a common number that comes up on my detector. Usually I find items made of lead that come into that range of 17 or 18. Therefore, this solid 18 number got me really curious. A typical lady’s yellow gold engagement ring would never register such a high number. In fact, I was only told that the target that I was looking for was a yellow gold solitaire diamond ring with the stone set into the band. I didn’t think much about the weight because usually lady’s rings aren’t designed with a bulk of extra gold. Most of the time I find that a lady’s yellow gold ring will fall into the VDI number range between 8 and13.
With this current target that I was about to investigate, I honestly was not thinking that I had found Jenny’s ring by any means. However, I am always hopeful in every situation because I have seen so many miracle stories take place with many of my searches. With this target signal, I was not going to discount that same possibility, as well. I got down on my knees to the ground and pulled out my handheld metal detector which helps to pinpoint the exact location of where the other metal detector had discovered the target. I waved it over the ground in the spot where the detector picked up the curious object and almost immediately I located the exact spot where the item was buried. Slowly, I used my left hand to start removing some of the surface dirt to see if I could make out exactly what the target was before having to use my digger to go farther down if necessary. Instantly my eyes caught the most beautiful image of something gold in color that was resting just below some brittle leaves and topsoil and on that hillside. I could not believe what I was looking at! Only a part of the object was protruding through the ground, but I knew very well that what I was going to pull from the earth in a moment’s time just had to be Jenny’s missing diamond engagement ring! There was no way that another piece of precious metal would have been lost in the same vicinity as the ring that I was on the hunt for! This had to be Jenny’s jewel! It was an unbelievable moment for me! I was only walking in the direction of where I was about to start my second grid search when I hit this home run! I couldn’t believe it! It was absolutely amazing! The cones were already in place for me to begin my grid lines and yet I never even made it over to that second zone! Why? Because I believe I was divinely guided by the hand to the very spot where Jenny’s beloved keepsake had landed and remained hidden for over a year! The ring was discovered 27 feet from where Jenny remembered feeling her priceless gem slipping off her finger! The keepsake flew from across Jenny’s left side, over her head and moved airborne in the direction behind her to the right on a 45 degree angle (4 o’clock position), slightly up the hill!
Once I Removed Some Top Soil and Leaves, This is What My Eyes Encountered!
I was now looking at a huge piece of gold exposed in front of my eyes! The rest of the ring was perhaps buried maybe a half-inch in the ground! Jenny had mentioned twice to me that she had searched for over 100 hours and even came back to the search site after the two of us talked on the phone the other day! So much time was invested in trying to find her precious ring, and yet nothing became of all of her efforts…until now! Her best decision was to contact THE RING FINDERS! The ring that she had attempted to recover in an entire year of searching, I was able to successfully find in 20 minutes! Though I would have eventually grid searched the spot where I stumbled upon that most priceless piece of artwork, the fact that I found the treasure so quickly and incidentally was beyond a surreal moment for me!
The moment was too amazing to believe that it was really happening! Yet, it really was a reality! I really did find Jenny’s beautiful solid gold diamond engagement ring! I was so excited that I actually fell to the ground and laid there on my back like a little kid with my feet and hands up towards the top of the trees! I couldn’t contain myself! I just took in the moment, thanking God over and over again and saying out loud, “I can’t believe that this is really happening that I actually found the diamond engagement ring and how quickly I discovered it!” When you know that somebody has been searching for something for over a year with metal detectors and with numerous people added to the hunt, you can anticipate searches like this to be a bit more complicated than some of the more simple scenarios that we ring finders have had to tackle. I loved the challenge of this particular case, but I had no idea that I would end up finding Jenny’s ring this quick and so easily!
I didn’t even pull the ring out of the ground before I walked 40 feet back to my equipment wagon, pulled out a white rag, placed onto the ground in front of me and worshipped the Lord down on my knees! Jenny would finally get this priceless and most sentimental piece of jewelry back on her finger soon enough! I knew that this was one more miracle story to be added to all of my others that I had experienced over the past couple of years! I wanted to give God the glory and thank Him before I held that ring in my hands for the first time!
The Engagement Ring Flew 27 Feet Behind Jenny During Her Horrible Hornet Attack!
As I was still on my knees, a gentleman who was walking his dog on the trail just feet from where I had found the ring, stopped and inquired about what was going on and what I was doing. His name was Lindsay. I explained to him that I was worshiping the Lord because I found something very special that belonged to someone and I couldn’t believe that I had found it so quickly! I explained that it was a ring that had gone missing for over a year! He was quite intrigued and asked if he could see the treasure that I pulled from the earth. I was more than thrilled to share my excitement with him! It was at that moment that I returned to the diamond ring that was still waiting for me to raise her up from the ground! Slowly and carefully I separated the piece of gold from the earth, exposing the most humongous diamond that was embedded into the actual band of the gold ring! It was simply exquisite! There were two accent lines of white gold that were wrapped around each of the sides of the ring and the artwork on this beautiful object was simply stunning! The weight of this jewel was extremely heavy for a lady’s ring, very non-characteristic of a lady’s engagement ring! It was a very special ring that was obviously custom-made in every which way. I would later find out that the ring was designed based on the need to have a diamond that would not rub or bump into things while the owner physically worked out and while regularly teaching yoga classes.
Lindsay was so taken back by the whole story of what I had searched for and so quickly discovered, that he asked if he could bring his entire family over to the site so that they too could witness the cool event! I welcomed their visit and I told him that in the meantime I would be continuing my time of worship onto the Lord and then begin taking pictures of this incredible moment! He left and I returned to my white towel that was still laid out on top of the leaves near my wagon and I just continued to thank God for everything! The gratitude in my heart was overwhelming! I thought that I would most likely have to come back for consecutive visits to complete the search and hopefully find the ring in that process of time. I never thought in a million years that I would end up finding the engagement ring in such a short period of time! Once I finished my moment with God, I returned back to where the ring was found and documented the entire event with my still camera and video equipment.
By the time I wrapped up my photo session, my new friend’s family arrived at the search site and I got to share with them the whole search story from beginning to end! They were the nicest people! I could see it in the kids’ eyes just how intrigued they were to witness something as fantastic as this with me finding buried treasure out there in the middle of the forest! When you see something made of solid gold with a huge diamond set inside the precious metal, just lying on the ground where it should have never been lost, it’s pretty powerful to experience such a moment! This is what makes ring finders and metal detectorists like me so energized and beyond thrilled when we find someone else’s lost property in places such as this!
At some point, before the family headed off, they thanked me for sharing this special celebration with all of them. We said our goodbyes and though I took enough photos and video earlier, I decided to document a few more moments before it started getting darker outside.
Eventually, I began packing my things up. While I was still in the forest, there wasn’t a moment that I wasn’t still floating on cloud nine! I constantly thanked God and felt so grateful that I discovered the ring where I had found it and just how fast it was recovered! As I was collecting all of the cones that I had set up in that second zone where I had intended to start grid searching, I thought to myself just how innocent I was, metal detecting randomly in that first area where Jenny said that they had been looking for so very long. I recounted how I crossed over the trail and began making my way back towards the cones and how I just happened to stumble over the ring as I made my way to start the second zone! I could have just begun the grid search on that other part of the hill, but it never had to take place! Yes, as I shared before, I would have eventually found the ring because the area where it ended up was at some point going to be the third section that I planned to hunt. But, boy did I save a lot of time and energy! Oh yes! I could not have been more surprised!
Once I packed everything up in my blue wagon, I said goodbye to this very special search site that was a witness to Jenny’s attack and the loss of her precious ring during the October before this one. But now it became a beautiful place now that the earth gave up something that only belonged to Jenny and nobody else! I was so proud to be a part of such a search and recovery project and to be the one to eventually return the most beautiful and sentimental keepsake to its rightful owner. Returned to one who had been yearning for a reunion with this sentimental keepsake for so very long! Finally, this huge piece of gold with its amazingly large diamond was leaving the forest since October 2019!
It was a moment that I will never forget, the evening that I surprised Jenny and one of her children (who happened to be home at the time of the ring reveal)! She was absolutely stunned! So much so that she admittedly shared with me that she thought that the ring that I had surprised her with couldn’t possibly be hers! Why? Because I was able to find the keepsake so very quickly as opposed to all of the search attempts that she had made that added up to well over 100 hours and each one miserably failed! She thought, ‘How could this be?’ But she then eventually came around to realizing that there was no way that I could have produced a copy of such an incredible engagement ring because I had never seen a picture of what it looked like in the first place! Jenny was completely in a daze when I handed her that ring! The realization that it was finally back in her possession after all this time was something that she couldn’t fully describe with words! The same jewel that was placed upon Jenny’s finger by her beloved groom on the day of their marriage, was now back on that same ring finger, never to get away from this bride ever again for the rest of her life! During that reunion moment, you could easily see what was going on inside of that stunned young lady! Emotions of pure happiness were dancing within every chamber of her heart! Part two of Jenny’s horrible nightmare that took place one year ago this month had finally come to an end…her lost engagement ring had finally come home to her!
If you would like to view the SEARCH VIDEO and the fantastic RING REVEAL pertaining to this search, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and you will be notified when the search video is uploaded onto YouTube.
SUBSCRIBE TO BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO VIEW THIS SEARCH VIDEO!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and the RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the video will be uploaded soon. To receive a NOTIFICATION letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device. In the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING RETURNER, click SUBSCRIBEand lastly, CLICK ON THE “BELL” to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view!
Abdul’s Palladium Ring Recovered from a Baseball Field! Call Brian Rudolph at (301) 466-8644 to Help You Get Back What Has Been Lost!
Happiness Shines All Over Abdul’s Face Now That His Wedding Band is Safely Back on His Finger!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
I received an email from a woman who desperately wanted to find her husband’s missing palladium wedding band which was lost on a baseball field the day before. Abdul’s wife went online to research possible methods in recovering lost rings on sport fields. The Ring Finders directory popped up on her phone and she began to search for a local metal detectorist in the Gaithersburg, Maryland area. My name came up on her Google search and she quickly reached out to me.
As soon as I read the email description of how Abdul’s wedding band disappeared off of his finger while playing baseball, I quickly called the couple to ask questions and to set up a time when I could go out looking for the ring. Abdul told me that he was playing various positions during a baseball game at Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He didn’t know when the ring slipped off of his finger but he did recognize that it was missing before he left the field that day. After the game, he searched everywhere and yet he still couldn’t find it anywhere. That’s when other players got involved and looked in every position where Abdul was playing the game, but they too came up empty-handed. He eventually had to leave the baseball diamond that afternoon knowing that the very ring that was presented to him by his beloved wife on their wedding day would be left behind somewhere on the baseball field. He told me on the phone that it was quite a disheartening feeling to wonder whether he would ever be able to get the ring back or not. Because there was another team that was supposed to play after his group completed their game, he worried that the ring might have already been found by someone else.
During the entire time on the phone, I tried to give some hope to the couple that if the ring was still out there on the field, I would be able to find it and return it to Abdul. It just so happened that he got sick overnight and so he was not in any position to go out and meet me on the baseball diamond to recount where he was positioned during the game when he lost the ring. Instead, he sent me a diagram of the baseball field and where he was positioned at different times, including the areas where he practiced and warmed up before playing the game. This was extremely helpful and it would provide just what I needed to search the various places where he stood and played ball. Before we got off the phone, I told Abdul and his wife that I would update them as soon as I finished with my search later that evening.
By the time I got to the search site at Gaithersburg High School, the sun was descending behind the trees that encased the baseball field where I would be conducting my search. I gathered all of my gear out of the car and walked to the field that Abdul so perfectly diagrammed earlier that morning. There was no game going on that evening, so I had the baseball diamond to myself, including the outfield.
The first thing I did was say a prayer and I asked the Lord for help during the search. I then started metal detecting over by the batting cage which Abdul also illustrated for me. There were a lot of potential signals, but every time I checked the ground in that area, there was no ring to be found. Bottle caps and aluminum can pull tabs were scattered all over the place. This made my search a little bit slower than anticipated.
As soon as I completed my search around the cage area, I headed over to the baseball diamond. Because Abdul played various positions, I needed to first check all of the hotspots. If I didn’t find the ring in those places, I would start doing a grid search over the entire field. I metal detected around all of the bases and to the left and right of the baselines by several feet. I wanted to see if the ring may have come off while he was running the bases or in the process of getting tagged out.
Once I completed my detecting in those places, I was convinced that the wedding band was not lost in those locations. Then, I went into the outfield and began to grid search beyond first, second and third bases. Still there was nothing to be found. By that time I may have completed about an hour and a half of detecting. I was certain that the ring was not in the outfield unless somebody had found the ring just by chance when looking down at the ground. The odds of that were very slim because the field was completely covered with thick, healthy grass. Most likely the wedding band would have settled between the “blades of green” and would not have been seen by anybody.
My next search area focused on the grassy area behind the backstop. I also metal detected both dugouts and still came up with nothing. Abdul had walked behind the dugouts and took a couple breaks by walking closer to the tree line, so I checked those areas behind the backstop, as well. My last area to check without having to re-grid the entire field, was to metal detect all of the area inside the baseball diamond. Most of the grass within the parameter of all of the bases was very dry and much of it was dead. There were also a lot of spaces that were simply dirt spots with absolutely no vegetation. I presumed that if the ring was initially lost in the dirt-filled areas in the diamond section of the field, it would have most likely been picked up by someone between the time of Abdul’s game and the other games that followed after his team left for the day. The reason for this was because there were so few places for the ring to hide. There were also summer programs going on earlier in the day, which could have caused a young one to eyeball the handsome palladium band and walk off with it. I was hoping that this was not the case and that it was still out there, waiting to be found. I put my doubts aside and focused on eliminating all possibilities as to where that ring could have ended up.
Abdul’s Ring Found At Last! The Wedding Band Resting Amongst the Dead Grass and Weeds on the Baseball Diamond!
Starting at home plate, I moved my way to third base and then started a grid search back towards home. I kept moving my way across the playing field for a few more passes before I stopped briefly to grab my headlamp that was in my backpack nearby. It was starting to get dark outside and I needed the field to be fully illuminated as I traveled in straight lines across the diamond.
The Ring Slipped Off of Abdul’s Finger Just 8 Feet From the Pitcher’s Plate!
I then resumed my search and continued to move across the infield, back and forth, swinging the coil of the detector with steady movements, hoping that I would get the target signal that I was looking for.
I was getting random target signals here and there, but each time that I put the pinpointer (which is a handheld detector) down to the ground to investigate the potential target, I would discover that it was a coin, pull tab or something else that was below the surface.
Finally, as I neared the pitcher’s mound, approximately 8 feet away from it, I got the perfect signal. It was a bouncy kind of target signal that indicated that the object was above the surface and it came into the range of a palladium wedding band. Just as I looked down to investigate what the detector was picking up in the midst of the dead grass, my eyes zeroed in on the very object that I had been searching for in the past two hours or so! I had found Abdul’s ring! I was so very happy! What a great feeling it was to see the one and only object that I had been hunting for! Because of the location where the band had been resting, I presumed that Abdul must have been pitching at the time when the ring slipped off his finger.
Brian Rudolph Ending Another Successful Search!
I was getting random target signals here and there, but each time that I put the pinpointer (which is a handheld detector) down to the ground to investigate the potential target, I would discover that it was a coin, pull tab or something else that was below the surface. Finally, as I neared the pitcher’s mound, approximately 8 feet away from it, I got the perfect signal. It was a bouncy kind of target signal that indicated that the object was above the surface and it came into the range of a palladium wedding band. Just as I looked down to investigate what the detector was picking up in the midst of the dead grass, my eyes zeroed in on the very object that I had been searching for in the past two hours or so! I had found Abdul’s ring! I was so very happy! What a great feeling it was to see the one and only object that I had been hunting for! Because of the location where the band had been resting, I presumed that Abdul must have been pitching at the time when the ring slipped off his finger.
The other possibility was that he had been taking off his glove while switching sides with the opponent and it came off at that point.
Brian Checking Out the Palladium Wedding Band Up Close!
Whichever the case may have been, I was so delighted that I would soon be able to return the wedding band back to Abdul! That night I rejoiced for his sake and it made me so happy that I could find his ring after no one else on his team could recover it! I also thanked the Lord for giving me the ability to search and recover what Abdul and his wife hoped to get back in their possession! I couldn’t wait to share the good news with its rightful owner!
After taking some photographs and a bit more video, I packed up my gear and left the baseball field with a big smile on my face!
If you would like to view the search video and the ring reveal, please avail yourself to subscribe to my YouTube channel and I will notify you when the video is uploaded in the next few months.
Abdul and Brian Celebrating the Ring Returned to it’s Owner!
There’s nothing like it in the world to be able to return something that means so much to someone else! My gratitude goes out to Chris Turner, CEO of The Ring Findersand for his marvelous vision to save the sentimental from extinction by providing a directory of metal detectorists that connects people like me to people in need like Abdul!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Emily’s 14 Karat White Gold Engagement Ring with Opal Stone and Diamonds
Emily’s 14 Karat White Gold Nesting Band with Diamonds
After a Week at the Bottom of Frederick Maryand’s Monocacy River, Emily’s Beloved Engagement Ring Set was Found and Returned to the Bride-To-Be by Metal Detectorist and Ring Finder, Brian Rudolph!
Emily and Mark Excitedly Show Off the Bride-To-Be’s Beloved Engagement Ring Set That Was Thought to Be Lost in the Monocacy River Forever!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
Emily and Mark got together with a bunch of their friends and headed off to a fun swimming hole near Frederick, Maryland on the Monocacy River, located not far from Monocacy National Battlefield. It was a hot summer day outside, perfect for couples to hang out, take a plunge in the river and make a fun-filled day outside. Unfortunately, their plans started to fall apart quite quickly when Emily’s two rings went missing some time while they were all out by the water. She was pretty convinced that she lost the rings during the 30 minutes of play time in the river with her fiancé. Mark was holding her up while she was lying in his arms in the river, and she believed it was probably at that point when the rings slipped off her finger. Emily didn’t feel the jewelry come off of her finger, but she believed that it was the most probable scenario that the water had something to do with how the rings fell off of her finger.
In Emily’s moment of panic, as she came out of the water, the young lady told the rest of the group what had happened. Immediately a search began to look for the rings out on the riverbank and in the shallow parts of the water where they could see all the way to the bottom. One of the rings that went missing was Emily’s engagement ring. It was made of 14 karat white gold, centered with a lovely opal stone and accompanied by several diamonds surrounding it. The other ring was part of the engagement ring set, a 14 karat white gold nesting band, very petite in size which held three small diamonds along the top of the ring. The sad part of the whole ordeal was that Emily had just received these precious keepsakes on the day that she was proposed to only a month or so earlier (Her wedding date is scheduled for September 2020!).
The fact that the bride-to-be lost both of her rings was very difficult for her to deal with and you can imagine how upset she was for the rest of that day (and for the next week, as well). Everyone kept searching in the water to see if they could spot the rings, but nothing was found. As the group made their way into the deeper area of the river, there was just no way to see that far down in the water where Emily believed the rings may have come off. Besides the loss of her jewelry, the worst part of her afternoon came when she had to leave the river empty-handed.
The couple was desperate to see what they could do to get the newly engaged lady’s rings back. Emily was not about to give up hope yet, and that hope was about to be called by Mark’s future bride! They looked online to find tips on how to pull a ring from a river, and The Ring Finders directory popped up on Google. Emily immediately contacted me and before long we were talking on the phone to make plans for a recovery effort.
I put Emily at ease by telling her that I had successful recovery stories dealing with finding rings in water. Some people told her that the rings most likely had been washed down river which would make it impossible for them to ever be found again. However, I assured her that those rings did not go anywhere after they fell to the bottom of the water. She was relieved at my words.
Once I received all of the details about the missing engagement band set, I asked her additional questions to help me get the entire picture of what we were dealing with. Because she lost the rings at a state park, I told her that I would need to pursue special permissions from the park service in order for me to conduct a recovery mission. She had lost the rings on a Friday, I believe, and then she first contacted me the following day or so. Therefore, I would have to wait another 24 hours before I could contact the park service to request a permit to search the river on Emily and Mark’s behalf. When we got off the phone, we had a plan in place to begin the process of getting me in the Monocacy River as fast as possible!
Monday came and I was on the phone calling various departments connected to Maryland’s state park service. I was initially bounced around between the county of Frederick and the Maryland park service. But, eventually I was able to talk to the right people who set me up with a top administrator who could affirm that I was talking to the correct people to pursue a permit for Emily and Mark. One employee at the park service referred me to a website where I could apply for special permissions to search the water. Metal detectors are strictly prohibited at this particular park as most state parks prohibit the use of any detector. What was supposed to take possibly up to two weeks or more to “hopefully” get a permit request approved, I was able to get an official permit in hand within three days of filling out the paperwork! I was granted full access to the river! Thanks to the hard work of a couple of top administrators at the park service, they were able to push the paper and “cut the red tape” a whole lot faster than the usual process! I was quite excited with the news that I was free to search the water much sooner than later! Though I was only given a specific period of time that I could search the river and after that I would not be able to continue any futures searches, I felt I had a large enough window to get the job done (if the rings were not already plucked out of the water by other metal detectorists).
Every day leading up to when I received the approval to search the river, I kept giving updates to Emily who greatly appreciated all of my efforts. I was delighted to help the couple in every way possible! The next step was to schedule a time to meet Emily and Mark over by the park where the rings went missing the week before. I looked at my calendar and set up the next possible timeslot when I could conduct the search. I needed them to show me where everyone was hanging out on that dreadful afternoon when the rings left Emily’s finger. Then, I could search all of the probable locations where the engagement ring and nesting band fell to the bottom of the Monocacy. We agreed on meeting that Friday, which was the Friday following Mark and Emily’s excursion when the initial happy and fun afternoon suddenly turned so very sad and disappointing for the couple.
Friday arrived and I headed to the Monocacy River to meet Emily in the park where the rings went missing. Mark was not able to join us due to his work schedule. We met in the park parking lot and then Emily walked me to the spot where the group of friends were all hanging out the week earlier. It was a considerable journey through the woods alongside the riverbank before we got to the place where she lost the rings. When we got to the spot where everyone went swimming that day, we walked down onto the riverbank where there were lots of stones and pebbles – perfect for keeping my gear dry above the water.
Frederick Maryland’s Monocacy River
Emily then showed me where she played in the water and where she and Mark drifted downriver approximately 50 yards or so. She had an idea of where she thought she may have held onto some rocks as the water current was taking Mark and Emily downriver. She thought that maybe the rings slipped off when she was trying to brace herself at that time. Emily couldn’t be certain of her predictions because there were times when she was just floating in the water and the rings could have slipped off at any of those moments. In any case, I was given a very good picture of how things looked on the day that the rings disappeared and I then had all of the parameters to work with as to where the rings may have settled to the bottom of the river.
The water depth was probably around two and a half feet to three feet deep closer to the middle of the river and maybe higher in a few other spots. It was very shallow due to the fact that we had gotten so little rain in the weeks leading up to the search. Though most of my body was above the water, the current was quite swift so I did have some opposition from the speed by which the water was traveling. The terrain at the bottom of the river also made the search more complicated because of how difficult it was to move about without tripping over a rock or small boulder.
My search grid would involve a 50 yard area from left to right (down river) and 30 yards from one side of the river to the other side (though Emily and I agreed that I only needed to search 20 yards from our side of the Monocacy riverbed out towards the middle of the river because she didn’t float close to the opposite end of the riverbank). Once we finished going over all of the details, I headed back to the car to put on the rest of my wetsuit and gather all of my gear so I could soon begin the search for Emily’s missing rings!
Emily wasn’t sure if she would ever get her rings back, but I kept telling her that all things are possible if she would keep believing the positive and not doubt. I shared with her that in life, we must doubt our feelings of doubt and believe the impossible can happen. The Bible says, “Everything is possible for him who believes” (Mark 9:23). Yes, it was a large area to search. Yes, it is hard enough to metal detect that amount of space on land, let alone the degree of difficulty in searching a moving body of water like the Monocacy. Yet, I was determined to find Emily’s lost rings. And I didn’t just want to return to her the opal engagement ring, but also the other white gold band, as well! Before I headed out into the water, I prayed that the Lord would favor my search and to give Emily some hope inside to believe for the impossible! God loves the covenant of marriage, as He created it, and her engagement ring was a symbol of promise (betrothal) unto marriage! Therefore, I always know that I have favor from above when searching for lost engagement rings and wedding bands!
Emily’s Rings Lost Somewhere in the Historical Monocacy River
As Emily hung out on the shore, reading and doing some work on her tablet, I began my hunt for the missing rings. Because the items were very petite in size and made of 14 karat white gold, picking up the target signals on the detector would not be easy. Having a small, white gold object lost at the bottom of a body of water is not a good combination. The signals are light and very difficult to hit effectively, especially if you swing the metal detector coil too fast. Every step taken and every decision made out in the river had to be slow and very methodical in the way that I conducted this search.
My first grid was about 20 yards downstream, starting where Emily pointed out the first hotspot to investigate. There were rocks of various sizes covering the bottom of the river and there was nothing but stones in between the larger formations. Not only did I have to metal detect over and around and underneath all of those obstacles, but I would have to deal with many pieces of garbage that were discarded in the water over a long period of time. I found old beer can pop tops along with torn up cans, miscellaneous pieces of aluminum and much more throw-away items of trash. I would end up using two of my Equinox 800 machines with two different size coils. I used a 6 inch coil and an 11 inch coil as well. The smaller coil was helpful to get around some of the larger rocks and downed trees. The larger one was helpful to cover more territory in the river, as long as I wasn’t slowed down by metal trash that was settled close to other pieces of garbage at the bottom of the water.
I believe Emily hung out for a couple of hours before she needed to pack up her things and head on out. She kept a great attitude even though I had not yet found her rings. By the time she started walking back to the car. I told her from the water that I would be relentless in my search in finding what had been lost. Just before she took off, I asked Emily where Mark proposed to her with the rings.I wanted to get the whole story behind these precious pieces of jewelry that became extremely sentimental on the day of the proposal! Everything about the location of where Mark popped the question and how he proposed to Mark was absolutely beautiful and so fairytale like. This only propelled me even more to do whatever necessary to get these rings back on her finger! We said our goodbyes and I assured her that I would give Emily an update upon leaving the park.
If one were to observe the amount of territory that I had to search in this historical river, it would only emit stress on that person and bring lots of second-guessing to the mind based on the difficulty of finding such petite pieces of white gold at the bottom of the water. There were so many places that the bands could have ended up. There weren’t any clues to go by as to whether the rings came off at the same time, or if one came off in one location and then the other slipped off sometime later. Honestly, I loved the challenge and I was just so happy to give it my all in attempting to return these sentimental pieces back to Emily.
The main strategy that I implemented was to continue searching all of the hotspot locations where Emily may have lost the rings and focus my efforts on gridding each pass, heading downriver and then back up the river, approximately a distance of 20 feet for each pass. The width of the grid parameter was probably around 20 yards left to right.
While I was out there in the middle of the river, I couldn’t help but be so grateful for the beautiful weather that I was experiencing. It was warm outside, with no chance of rain in the forecast. To be surrounded by such amazing creations of God, there was just nothing like it! Then, add to the experience the whole idea of searching for lost items that mean so very much to another human being, it makes life so fulfilling and fun!
I had given myself a good five or six hour window to search the river that day. Afterwards, I would need to head north to Pennsylvania, near historical Gettysburg for a wedding that I was attending. I had been invited by a grateful couple that I helped in recovering the bride-to-be’s engagement ring that was lost 40 yards out in the Atlantic Ocean just two weeks before the wedding! She lost the ring on her bachelorette party weekend! I was quite honored to be a part of the festivities! It was kind of special that at one point in the day I was searching for a bride-to-be’s engagement ring set, and then later that night I would be celebrating the wedding of a bride who would be wearing the ring that I was able to return to her from the depths of the ocean! I thought that it would make an even more enchanting story if I was able to recover Emily’s rings before having to continue north towards Pennsylvania that afternoon!
Four hours passed by and I continued my detecting efforts in the water for the missing rings. Each time I covered a section of the river, I was only encouraged that I had eliminated more possibilities as to where the jewelry could have ended up. I had not lost any of my drive and enthusiasm for finding Emily’s rings. I kept swinging my detector in straight lines going up and down the river and then side to side. I was continuing to cover a distance of about 20 yards wide and search in 20 yard sections of the entire 50 yards, up and down the river.
At some point, I was finishing one of my grid passes when I hit a signal that was in the range of Emily’s lost rings. This was not the first time that day that I had gotten other potential targets to check out. In fact, I had plenty of them. In those first many hours of searching, I consistently pulled pieces of trash out of the water, but no rings had been found. This current signal was yet another one that I needed to check out. I knew the exact range of VDI numbers (these are numbers that help to identify the type of metal the target could potentially be) to look for on my machine and this piece of metal was showing the kind of target that got me curious! The numbers on my Equinox 800 detector screen were dancing around a number: four, five, seven, nine, and I believe eleven, as well. I was looking for such low numbers on the scale of my detector and I knew that the signal that I wanted was not going to pound hard in the headphones. Rather, it was going to be light and questionable. These rings were very petite, and therefore there wasn’t a lot of white gold on them at all to be detected easily. Like I did with many other potential signals that day, I reached down into the water, right over the spot where my metal detector had picked up the signal, and I surveyed the metal object with my Garrett handheld detector called a “pinpointer” in order to isolate the location where the object was resting. Once I was confident of the exact area where I knew the object was hiding, I placed the handheld detector off to the side (which was attached to a cord and clipped to my harness belt), grabbed a cluster of stones and sediment in the vicinity of where the buried object was and brought it all up to the surface for review. I have to use this type of method in rivers because it is impossible to use a scoop in this type of environment due to the quantity of stones and rocks that are stuck to the bottom of the water. Therefore, I have to use my hands to bring up the objects that I am potentially looking for. Next, I grabbed my pinpointer again and scanned over the contents that were in my hand to see if I found the metal object that I had detected moments earlier. To my great surprise, my eyes first focused in on the loveliest opal stone, then some small diamonds surrounding it came into view, and finally I saw the white gold band! Indeed, I had found the engagement ring! It was a fantastic moment! In this vast area of water, I had recovered this small precious keepsake! Like a needle in a haystack!
Though I had nobody around to share the excitement with, I expressed all of my joy and happiness into my GoPro video camera that I had been using to document the entire search up to that point! I gave thanks to the Lord for giving me the ability to find the ring and bring it up from the river where it had been resting at the bottom for over a week! I was thrilled at finding the band! Between the two rings, this one was the most important one to Emily because it was her engagement ring. Yet, I was not going to stop at that point. I would continue searching for the nesting band once I secured the recently found item in my zipped up case attached to my metal detector harness. I made sure that Emily’s opal ring was not going to be lost again in that river!
Discovering one of the sought-after pieces that went missing was such a boost of encouragement to me! My search methods that day were working effectively! So far, I had not believed that I had overlooked either target that I was after! Could I have missed the other ring due to it consisting of a thin band of white gold? It was possible. But, I kept my mindset on believing that I was thorough and accurate in my grid moves. When one is detecting in water, there are no cones or tape to keep you walking in a straight line! You have to be extremely careful not to move too far to the right or to the left, or sweep too short on either side of your body as you move forward with the detector.
Once I found the first of the two lovely rings, I was back at it again, searching for the second one, which was even thinner than the engagement ring. I had barely gotten a decent signal off of the last ring and so I was confident that this one would be even harder to recover. I believe I had another 30 minutes or so for me to try to strike gold, but at the conclusion of that search day I was unable to walk out of the river with both rings. I had no time left and it was imperative that I got on the road and start heading towards Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for the wedding that would take place later that evening.
Before I made my way out of the river, I took note of where I had found the first ring and I would resume my search the following day. How could I have not been pleased with the results so far? I was able to recover half of what I was sent out to help with and there was still more work to be done! I walked out of the water and gathered up my gear and returned back to the parking lot, packed my things in the car, changed out of my wetsuit and then headed north.
During the whole drive to the hotel, I couldn’t stop thinking about how blessed I was to recover the engagement ring! I couldn’t wait to get back in the water and search for the nesting band! In keeping my word to Emily, I called her but I had to leave a voicemail message. I was vague about my search, hoping I could surprise her the next day with the news that I had found both rings, and not just the opal engagement ring. That was my hope!
The next morning, I left the hotel and drove south to Washington D.C.. I had received an urgent call from a desperate husband who shared that the day before his wife had lost her wedding band at the National Zoo. I immediately headed to the Nation’s Capital to help the couple out. Once I completed the search in D.C., I drove back north again, which was 45 minutes in the direction towards the Monocacy River.
Upon arrival, I once again setup all of my gear along the river bank and quickly made my way over to where I had found the engagement ring the day before. I knew the location because there was a particular formation of rocks along the side of the river, and I had lined up that formation with the place that I had found the first ring in the middle of the river. I knew that if I started walking from those rocks straight out into the middle of the river, I would end up at the location where I found the first ring. Secondly, I could feel a certain rock with my dive boots that was below the surface of the water and it was near that rock that I had found the engagement ring very close to that particular formation. From that point, I counted approximately 30 feet down the river and that was where I had finished my search the day before. I was now ready to begin the second chapter of my recovery efforts
For me, I love the thrill of the challenge to find what is not easily obtainable, especially out in the middle of a river. The current was much faster than the day before, so I needed to work smart and place my feet in certain positions where I would not lose my balance from the swift movement of the water. It was another lovely day outside and once again I could not ask for better weather conditions.
My strategy of the day was to not change anything with the way I searched the day before. I kept doing my grid lines with the same method that I had implemented on Friday and I worked my way farther down the river and then back up again, pushing my way against the stubborn water flow. Then, I would move back down the river and continued to do this in straight lines. Not knowing when the two rings came off of Emily’s finger, it led me to tighten up my mental focus. I had to tell myself that finding the other ring was obtainable just as I found the first one, even though it was a lot more petite and the gold was even thinner than the band of the first ring. I had no idea what the distance was between the first ring falling off and when the second one hit the bottom of the river. However, I wasn’t going to be intimidated by how much more territory needed to be detected!
Approximately 45 minutes into my second search that day, I had searched approximately 20 square yards of river from where I found the engagement ring. Like before, I moved the metal detector slowly so that I would not miss any potential signals that I might swing across. So far, all of the targets that I pulled out of the water that afternoon were small pieces of aluminum – still no ring to be found. At some point, as I continued down the river, slightly detecting to the right side of the water, I hit a signal that was extremely light and almost unrecognizable on my detector. I moved the coil back and forth a little bit more and I was still picking up this particular target that matched white gold. From certain angles I was not getting any reading on my detector screen, so I had to move the detector coil at different positions just to see if I was getting a false reading or not. The signal still showed up and that’s when I started getting more curious. Most detectorists would have moved right across that target because it really didn’t appear to contain much of any metal to consider pulling it up. Someone else would have mistaken it as a small piece of aluminum foil. Because I knew better with white gold targets, I was not about to pass it up. I took my pinpointer and placed it down into the water right over the spot where my detector coil was resting. Then, I removed the coil from the area and immediately the pinpointer found the metal object. The target was obviously just inches from where my hand was positioned! Also, I could tell that it was a small target by the way the tip of the pinpointer was sounding off. Next, I removed the pinpointer out of the way and quickly grabbed a handful of sediment and rocks where the target was resting. Bringing my handful of stones and sand up to the surface, I immediately scanned the contents for the mysterious metal object. I believe that my first attempt came up with nothing and so I repeated the steps over again until I was certain that this time I hadn’t left the item at the bottom of the river.
I once again used my pinpointer to detect the clump of stones and sediment that was in my hand, and finally the piece of metal was detected by the pinpointer! Whatever it was, I now had it inside my grip! I knew the object was very small because it was surprisingly hidden in the midst of all of the river stones and sediment. I moved my finger through the items and it was then that I saw it! It wasn’t a scrap piece of aluminum from a drinking can, nor was it part of an old used ketchup packet or flimsy milk peel top! Not at all! It was a petite, white gold ring with a very thin band holding 3 small diamonds that were spread out along the top of the precious metal! I immediately knew that I had found the second missing ring because I recognized the details from a photo that Emily had previously provided for me! I did it! I found the nesting band that was part of the original engagement ring set! I could not have been more surprised by my findings based on how weak the target signal was! What an awesome moment!
Unless you are a ring finder like those found in The Ring Finders directory, it’s hard to describe the feeling inside when you discover the very object that you were on a mission to recover. When you find the sought-after keepsake that means so much to someone else, there’s almost a feeling of electricity that works through you! There’s such a rush within that excites all of one’s senses when the missing item is found and then returned to its owner! With search and recovery missions like this one, the degree of difficulty is so large that when one finds the lost property (like in the case of these two missing rings), there is just no greater feeling in the world! Taking on a challenge like this and being able to deliver to the distraught owner, not just one ring, but to find both rings in separate areas in the river, 20 yards apart, there are few words to accurately describe the entire experience!
Metal Detectorist, Brian Rudolph, Successfully Returned Both Rings to Emily and Mark! Call Brian Rudolph to Help You Find Your Lost Keepsakes at (301) 466-8644
I was so thrilled and overjoyed to find this second ring! I held up the nesting band and kissed it, yelling out loud, “Yes! I did it! I found it! Yes!” All kinds of words of excitement and relief flowed from within me, realizing at that moment that I was able to successfully fulfill this mission! I remember just standing there in the middle of the river, holding Emily’s ring in my hand, knowing at that point in time that there was nothing left to recover from the water! My search was over! It was extremely gratifying for me to leave the riverbank with my equipment in one hand and the recently discovered gold band that was zipped up in my harness case! I couldn’t wait to surprise Emily and her fiancé Mark with the good news! As I walked through the woods along the path leading back to the parking lot, I could see the river through the tree line, and I thought to myself, “I did it! I conquered the Monocacy!” At that moment I could only give thanks to the Lord for something as extraordinary as what had just taken place in the last 24 hours!
If you would like to see the video of me revealing the rings to Emily and Mark, please subscribe to the YouTube channel link provided below, and you will receive a notification when the video is uploaded in the next few months. It is worth waiting for! I promise!
Emily Couldn’t Have Been More Happy to Hold Her Missing Rings Once Again!
Emily and Mark were beyond excited to receive the missing rings back in their possession! My efforts to recover the special keepsakes in the Monocacy River were 100% successful and the couple was pleasantly shocked with surprise at the outcome! The look on their faces when I returned both rings will always be fixed in my mind! They were so happy and relieved at the sight of those beautiful bands that had disappeared below the water over a week earlier and located 45 minutes away from where Emily and Mark resided! Now, the engagement set was returned home for good! Emily’s finger was finally reunited with its newly found friends (the ring set), and together they now await the arrival of yet another ring this autumn…the wedding band!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
To receive a NOTIFICATION letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device, go to the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING HERO, click SUBSCRIBE and lastly, CLICK ON THE “BELL” to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view! 
VISIT 
