Hi all ,
I got a call from the concierges office at a 5 star hotel. I was told that a guest lost a ring . I proceeded to the hotel and meet the guest on the beach. He explained that he gave his son in law his ring to hold onto . The son in law then forgot that he had it . They were not sure if it was in the sand or water. I searched for two days and found it on the second day. I will be shipping it back to them in New York.
Delaney took her engagement ring off before playing volleyball (a wise move) and handed it her friend Haley to put it in Delany’s bag for safe keeping. Haley dutifully place the ring inside the bag on top of Delaney’s jacket. Later in the day, Delaney grabbed her bag and hurried off to meet some friends down the beach. Once she met up with her friends, she remembered the ring and searched through her bag, but, the ring was gone. What to do? Well, she called friends for help and searched the web. I got the call, listened to a few particulars, and headed out to see about getting that 5 month old engagement ring back on her finger. Parking is always “fun” down by Mission Beach this time of year. Nothing close to where they were, so, I had to park in a lot a ways to the north. As I was walking to the location, a guy rides up from behind on his bike and asks of I’m there to find a ring. I tell him that hopefully I am, and then I notice that he has a detector too! He got the word also about the lost ring. We both see Delaney waving to us and we head over to meet her. Turns out they had a metal detector too and someone else in her group was also searching the sand! Okay, 3 people looking for this ring in the dry sand, that shouldn’t take long. Wrong! All three of us gridded the area where the bag was sitting when the ring was placed inside. We expanded out in all directions and made a few passes down the beach in the direction Delaney ran to meet her friends. Problem was, that exact location could not be determined. I could be anywhere from a few hundred feet away to several hundred yards, and maybe in the dry sand, maybe in the wet. That made that search area HUGE! We’re talking many football sized areas.
After a couple of hours without success, it started to get dark, windy and cold. Without knowing the exact area where she searched her bag, it was anyone’s guess at to where to search. We called it a night and I took a bit more info to mull over, and told Delaney I would keep the info and a photo on file should the ring turn up. She said they were going to return in the morning to continue the search and try to determine where she had been. I wished her good luck and to let me know if she discovered a new area we hadn’t covered. The next morning, I thought about going back down there and contacted Delaney to see if she had any new information. She said she thought maybe she was closer to the water and it might be in the wet sand now. They had already searched, but, came up empty. I decided to go ahead and give it another try. Delaney was already heading north on the road back home, so, she couldn’t meet me. No problem, I know the search area, and so just went on my own. I re-searched the first area by the volleyball court without success, and then headed the direction toward the supposed second area. Oh, I forgot to mention that since the night before, the beach grooming machine had gone through the area and sifted a 100 foot wide swath between the two search areas. Wonderful…., the ring could have been scooped up or moved hundreds of yards before falling out of the machine. I figured that would be the last area to search and I would concentrate on the slope and wet sand where the sifter didn’t go. 3 hours and many 300 yard long passes later, I was thinking about calling it. It was mind-numbingly quiet with virtually no targets of any sort, making it more of a walk on the beach than finding treasure. The good news is that you can cover a lot of ground when you don’t have to stop for anything. I finally, decided that this was going to be my last pass and head back south toward the 1st location. I got maybe a 1/4 of the way there when I got a nice solid 12 on my Equinox 800. Earlier I had found several of those sounds/readings, and they were all pull tabs or wadded up bits of foil. I took a healthy scoop of wet sand and thought I saw a flash of yellow gold as the sand sifted out. Sure enough, once the sand was gone a beautiful yellow gold engagement ring was looking up at me. Yes! Since I already had a photo of the ring, I knew it was Delaney’s. I texted her a photo and a subsequent phone call confirmed it was her ring and that she was on the road heading home. She arranged for her friends, that were still here in town, to meet up with me, so, they could pick up the ring and return it to her on their way home. They met me a short time later, took possession of the ring, and added their thanks to Delaney’s. A pleasure to meet you all, and thank you for the generous reward. My best wishes on your upcoming marriage Delaney.
April 9, 2019
Megan’s Family Heirloom
Blue Sapphire and Diamonds Engagement Ring
Not all searches are outside! This story is about an IN HOUSE search! They are not as common, but I do get calls to come out and search for missing items inside homes where people have looked and looked and nothing would come out of their “hours into days” searches. What a fantastic story this is!
I got a text and call from Megan who sounded frantic about the disappearance of her irreplaceable engagement ring! This ring was handed down from her grandparents and Megan and her fiancé’ designed a new ring setting for the beautiful blue sapphire stone and diamonds surrounding the large stone. She checked out The Ring Finders directory and then contacted me immediately. I asked a billion questions about where she and her fiance’ Danny looked in their apartment. I asked if toilets were flushed, if the garbage and litter box were searched and then thrown away. I asked about the garbage disposal, checking clothes, looking in the washing machine and searching the dryer. So many more questions were asked. Megan and Danny reviewed their own in-house checklist and the ring strangely never surfaced. This went on for a very long time and then they started getting worried that the ring would never turn up.
Megan shared the disappearance story like this: Most nights, she comes home and begins cooking dinner. She takes off her engagement ring and places it in her pants pocket. She hovers over the kitchen sink and does all of the food preparations. The night of the disappearance, Megan remembered putting the ring in her pocket in order to slice and dice vegetables. She finished making dinner and the engaged couple enjoyed their meal together. It was sometime later that evening, after all of the dishes were washed and all of the pots and pans were put away, that Megan remembered that she had not placed her ring back on her finger. She reached into her pants pocket to retrieve the ring and it had vanished! She checked again and again and again! Danny would get in on the search and he too checked her pockets several times before searching the rest of the apartment.
On the phone with Megan, I continued to give suggestions as to additional places to search following a very extensive interview with her to gain the entire story of what she was doing prior to the disappearance of her beloved engagement ring. I then went back to asking questions, and finally we had exhausted every angle to this mystery. I gave Megan a list of places to re-check and check again and again! Many a times people are so close to finding the object but their eye or hands are just not in tight enough focus or not connected enough with their touch to realize the item is really right in front of them! I asked Megan to spend another few hours dedicated to searching the apartment one more time with Danny and then to call me if nothing turns up.
Several hours later that same day, Megan and Danny called me once again and shared that they had come to the place of exhaustion. They needed another pair of eyes! This is exactly what I bring to the “scene of the crime” – another vantage point, another angle, another way of looking at the same things that others have already observed and searched. So, I headed to Washington D.C. after coming from Annapolis, MD, and met the young, frustrated couple outside their lovely apartment complex just north of Georgetown.
Danny and Megan were sitting out front on a ledge waiting patiently for my arrival. I felt so bad for them because they had given it everything they had to find the ring, but still nothing turned up. We greeted one another and then the three of us headed to their apartment to conduct the search.
The first order of business was to check the garbage disposal. Nothing! Next, I had them bring all of the garbage in house to me (trash from the kitchen, bathrooms, office and bedrooms). I checked with my metal detectors and only trash metals were discovered – no jewelry. Before searching each room, I took off my gloves and called for Danny’s attention who was getting additional trash from one of the rooms. I essentially said, ‘Hey Danny, do you mind if I metal detect your fiance’s pants?’ (refer to the video account for the exact quote). It sounded quite odd at the time, but I wasn’t intending there to be anything weird sounding about it, but we all laughed! Danny answered back something like, ‘If Megan is o.k. with it, I am good.’ (again, refer to the video for accuracy on this). I proceeded to declare, “Bring me the pants!”
Megan brought the pants and I instructed her to lay the pants over a wooden chair for me to use my detectors to analyze the garment. There were two zippers on this very petite pair of pants, but no other metals were sewn on the garment. The couple swore by their multiple attempts in searching to find the ring in the pants but they said they both kept coming up empty handed. I explained to them at some point in their apartment and on the phone earlier that day that by them checking all of those times really didn’t mean a thing anymore! Why? Because they came up empty handed and because I find items all the time where people have checked over and over again but came up with nothing! That’s why I was called to come over and conduct a search myself as if one had never been conducted previously!
You’ve got to watch the video for the conclusion to this story! See below!
Spoiler Alert!
I worked my way into Megan’s pants pockets and placed my finger in the very petite spaces right down into the crevices of where the seams met. I finished checking the first one and proceeded to check the second one. I recall hearing the couple share that both of them had checked over and over and both of them concluded that the ring was definitely not in Megan’s pockets because that was the whole reason that they invited me in on the search! Well, as we were all talking, I made my way deep into her second pocket (remember the pants were draped over a wooden chair). I recall spending a good amount of time making sure my finger didn’t miss a thing in there. And it was a good thing that I took my time, because as we were all talking, my finger felt something hard deep into the tiny pocket! I mean tiny! It was wedged all the way into the deepest space where the seam closes up. I dug the object out and my finger naturally slipped into the center of the object and that’s when I knew that I had found what this beloved couple was looking for! I found the gorgeous sapphire and diamonds engagement ring! I brought it out of the pocket, kept it between my fingers and shared the awesome reveal! I didn’t have the positioning to do a fake-out because the couple was looking on and I thought it best for Megan and Danny to just get the pure pleasure out of seeing the ring reappear out of the very place that Megan had remembered tucking it in her pants pocket all along! They were so happy! I could not have been more excited and relieved for them after the panic that they experienced for th elast couple of days!
I am beyond thrilled for this lovely engaged couple, that I could be a part of finding something so precious as this family heirloom engagement ring that had gone missing (I believe the ring gets modified with additional diamonds each time the next generation in the family receives the ring)!
I found out later that the ring may never have been recovered or that it could have been permanently damaged with the precious stones lost forever, because the pants may have ended up at the dry cleaners or in the washing machine / dryer soon thereafter! So glad we found the ring before anything unfortunate could have happened to such an “endless story of love”!
YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS VIDEO OF BRIAN RUDOLPH’S IN-HOUSE SEARCH!
CHECK OUT MORE SEARCH VIDEOS ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL: THE RING RETURNER AT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmcn09QqWhHrj-7SGqlUBJQ
CHECK OUT THE RING RETURNER WEBSITE AT: WWW.THERINGRETURNER.COM
May 1, 2019
Dominic’s Wife Abbey’s:
14 Karat White Gold Engagement Ring with Endless Diamonds
14 Karat White Gold Wedding Band Covered with Diamonds
(Both were soldered together to form one ring)
This next story that I’m about to share will definitely go down in “metal detecting search history” as one of the most entertaining and unusual search and recovery accounts ever told. I may not get another one like this, or at least for a very very long time. So this story brings so much pleasure to me to share this one with you!
The ironic thing about this amazing story is that 5 days earlier I was doing a search in Boyce, Virginia for a woman who lost two missing rings. Unfortunately, neither one were recovered. We believe they were picked up by someone shortly after the rings fell to the ground. Without giving Dominic’s story away, I’ll just say this: While I was doing this search for the woman in Boyce, I actually asked God at the Virginia search site if He would help me find her rings in a particular area that I have always wanted to find a ring that had gone missing! I have made that same request to God several other times in the last few months while I have been on searches. Well, it didn’t happen in Boyce, but it sure did happen at Dominic’s and Abbey’s estate in Owings, Maryland! Never would I have believed that God would have given me the desires of my heart so quickly after I prayed these prayers! What a great God He is! And of course, most importantly, I was able to help Dominic recover his wife’s precious 14 karat white gold, diamond covered engagement ring and diamond covered wedding band (they were soldered together)!
I got a phone call from Dominic who contacted me from the The Ring Finders directory. I immediately asked him if a particular scenario had taken place before he shared what happened to the ring, and he did in fact confirm my suspicions. For the sake of privacy, I will just tell you what happened without going into too much detail about why the ring went missing. Regardless, the video tells all and Dominic felt comfortable enough sharing on social media this amazing search and recovery story!
Three days before I got his phone call, Dominic and his wife Abbey were in the backyard of their three and a half acre estate. One thing led to another and Dominic happened to launch his wife’s 14 karat white gold, diamond covered engagement ring and diamond covered wedding band (they were soldered together). We aren’t talking about a few trees! It’s a ridiculous forest back there! Dominic immediately went looking for the ring after it took off into the woods, but he couldn’t find it anywhere in the very dense forest which dips downward into a swampy, muddy creek area at the bottom of the hill. He ordered a metal detector on Amazon after the first day of looking, and even that proved to be another failed attempt.
His account on the phone was identical to his account when I reached his property later that night at around 9:45 p.m. (3 days after the ring was lost in the woods). He was absolutely convinced of what he remembered happening. He was between two sheds that were at the place where the tree line began. He even had sticks on the ground marking exactly where he was when he threw the ring. When it went flying, he specifically remembered it going right between two trees and then straight through the forest and presumably down the hill. The strength in which he exerted gave Dominic confidence that the ring could have absolutely hit the bottom of the hill into the swampy creek. As I shared above, he bought a metal detector on Amazon and searched for an additional 10 hours but to no avail! He was done. He had given up looking, detecting and using words that I cannot describe on social media! It was time that he called a professional; someone who could lend a hand to this strange “ring gone missing” mystery.
When Dominic called me, I told him that after the search was over, he needed to send his metal detector back to Amazon for a refund! The ring would have to be somewhere on his property even though he spent three days searching with no luck, because nobody would be trespassing on that private property area that Dominic and his wife Ashley owns. The ring was somewhere out there. It was just a matter of where and how much time it would take for me to find it!
As I shared, I got out to the property at around 9:45 p.m. and immediately started pulling my gear out of the car. I love night searches. In fact, it can be a great advantage to search for missing items in total darkness with the help, of course, of my headlight. I was hoping I would see a shiny brilliant diamond ring glistening through the leaves that were scattered everywhere in the forest! Dominic took me to the “scene of the crime” and he reviewed with me the story from beginning to end as to where the ring was before it was tossed and where he believed it ended up.
I did not mention to him at the time that I was thinking how strange it was that he searched for so many hours with the metal detector and he still couldn’t come up with the precious keepsake. Even with a bad detector, this was dense woods we were talking about here. Not some overly populated residential or commercial area. Any detector will pick up the metal signals and there should not have been so many that it would cause him frustration by looking at all the metal on the surface of the leaves or just below some of the leaves. And in fact that is what he said. There wasn’t too much metal as you go down the hill. There was quite a bit of scrap metal and small pieces of aluminum towards the top of the hill where the woods begin, because the previous owner threw scrap metal into the forest at the edge of the lawn.
The other side of the coin is, that metal detectorists like me are sent out because even with a little bit of metal out there, people are convinced to metal detect only in certain areas and not to look “outside of the box” in areas that you would never think to look at.
I started out into the woods with Dominic after he took me from the top of the hill all the way down to where the muddy creek was located. That’s where I started metal detecting in every area down at the bottom. I was wearing my very tall waterproof boots (they looked like fireman boots), and the mud was so thick that when I tried to pick my boot up out of the mire, my foot would come right up out of the boot! It was almost as bad as quicksand!
Dominic showed me where he even cut down trees at the bottom of the hill across from the creek area. This guy was totally determined to find that ring! But even with all his cutting down small trees and tall bushes, his efforts were still not enough to find what he was looking for!
My next focus was to metal detect all over the leaf covered hillside. There was metal here and there but nothing that came up as a precious piece of jewelry like his wife’s engagement ring / wedding band! I searched farther over to the left and farther over to the right and made my way up to the top where the tree line began and then headed back down to the left and right areas once more. My new found friend got out his metal detector that he bought from Amazon a few days before and started searching, as well. If we were in a different location, I would have encouraged the owner of the lost property to refrain from using their detector if it was a cheap device as most homeowners purchase to find lost property. But, in this case, it was an advantage for us to have more searchers because there was only so many pieces of metal out there in the woods. We were looking for a surface find which may have only gone below the surface of the leaf beds. And there were tons of leaves! So, it was quite possible that Dominic could find the missing ring if he looked in areas where he had not searched prior to this evening.
Without reviewing the video (which I have not done yet at the time that I am typing this account), I can only estimate that we spent around 1 hour and 45 minutes of search time and we still came up with nothing. I believe on the video I began to talk with Dominic (and even to myself) about the next strategy that I believed we needed to implement since we were coming up with nothing. I was confident that I had done an excellent search grid all over the property starting from where the tree line began, heading down to the bottom of the hill and working towards the left and right sides that were even out of the range of where Dominic recalled launching the ring.
It was at this point in the search that I told Dominic that we needed to start searching the trees! We came up with absolutely nothing on the ground and I was pretty convinced that unless he chucked the ring way off beyond a 45 degree angle to the left or to the right of the area that he claimed to have seen the ring fly, Ashley’s precious property had to have landed upwards and not on the ground. I started thinking to myself how cool it would be if my theory was correct. I began to dream about finding it on a branch or in a nest of leaves somewhere in a tree above, just as I had daydreamed about it the other day in Boyce, Virginia and in those previous searches many months prior, where I thought it would be so cool to actually find a ring in a tree!
The odds of finding a ring in a tree are almost impossible. But not so in this case. Dominic told me that he had placed his wife’s engagement ring on a cord where he tied it around his neck for safekeeping while Abbey went away for a short while. The ring was to hold thoughts of her dear to his heart while she was on her trip. In reviewing the video account, at the time of the search, I was given an initial impression that the engagement / wedding band got separated from the cord before it was launched. But that apparently was not the case. The ring remained on the cord the whole time. So, at this point, when I got more clarification, I started reacessing the “crime scene” and I was more skeptical that the ring could have landed so far from the launch site. I had always questioned whether or not the ring could have really landed so far from the top of the hill, but now I really wondered, knowing that the ring was still tied to the cord. Dominic was convinced of what he saw and justified his account based on what he remembered and he verified that he used extreme force in the actual moment of release. In addition to that, he also used a test ring on a cord to see how far the ring could possibly travel. Excellent strategy on Dominic’s part! So I kept with the search in the areas where he swore the ring had traveled until the time that I realized we needed to start searching upwards.
I could tell that he wasn’t too fond of my theory even though he himself did some cutting town of some small trees and long branches the other day. But I was so grateful that he agreed to get on board with my vision and he started to assist in any way possible. I first wanted to use our metal detectors and just reach as high as we could to see if the ring landed on branches that were close enough to us without us having to climb or cut limbs down. We exhausted all of those possibilities and then within minutes of completing our metal detecting search in the reachable tree branches, he had come back from his garage with this amazing Silky brand tree cutter and pruner and he began to cut down small trees where I instructed him to do so. Some of these trees were towering maybe 20 feet or so in the air, though nothing was too tall or thick to attack at that point. Once the trees fell, I took my metal detector and swung the coil over all of the fresh branches and leaves to see if metal would be revealed. But unfortunately, nothing turned up.
At some point, we exhausted even that idea of cutting the small trees and branches to possibly expose the lost ring. But, I was still convinced that the ring was not on the ground, but that somehow the ring got lost in the trees. This would mean that Dominic’s recollection of seeing the ring fly straight through a set of trees and down the hill into the darkness was inaccurate. This is not uncommon. People swear by their stories but then they come to find out that they were completely wrong based on the actual reveal of the lost items. Because of their emotional state or sometimes what one may had been drinking or smoking, the mind can absolutely play tricks on you! In this case, drinking and smoking were not involved at the time of the disappearance.
Dominic decided to continue metal detecting down the hill and to go back to his theory that the ring had landed down in the leaves or in the swampy creek. I stayed up at the top of the hill right where the tree line began and I still felt it was important to look up and start scanning the branches and leaves hanging from the trees farther up in the air. Most of these trees were at a 45 degree angle or farther away from the place that Dominic launched the “missile”. Obviously, my search was completely off the course that Dominic swore by.
I was determined to find this ring no matter what it took, and at this point Dominic was fine with me staying out into the early hours of the morning if I had to keep searching. Finally, after many scans with my eyes focusing in the trees, slowly panning from the left to the right and then back to the left again, my eyes focused in on a brilliant little ball of light coming from around 15 feet in the air! As I began to look carefully at this reflective object, I noticed that it was swinging from a camouflage colored cord! I found it! I found the beautiful 14 karat white gold diamond engagement ring / wedding band which was covered with diamonds around the setting! I could not believe it! I was so beyond excited that it took everything in me to keep whispering into the GoPro and to not shout down to Dominic and share the amazing news! All I could do was stare up into the trees and smile back at what was wrapped around a branch or two with leaves everywhere around it! It looked like a snake that had wrapped itself around the branches and leaves! As I continued to be mesmerized by the shear beauty of the ring, it was almost as if it was smiling back at me, knowing that she was about to return to her proper love keeper!
Apparently, according to the location of the find, Dominic had not recalled correctly what had happened to the ring. This is very common as I shared above. When he fired it, his right hand, he released it with a motion that sent it on a 45-degree trajectory to his left and far up into a tree that caught the ring cord just as the tree line began! It did not even travel more than 15 feet into the woods! But it did go farther up and not farther down the hill!
I bet the video will not do justice to convey the stunning appearance and pure brilliance of the diamonds sparkling in every which way as my head light shined directly on the ring!
I wasted no time. I got my point-and-shoot camera out to take still photos and take some video with it, as well. I was not going to lose this opportunity to document such an incredible search and recovery which I may never get a chance to experience quite like this ever again! I was only disappointed that I couldn’t get the best pictures because of how high up the ring was and it kept getting blurry when I tried to focus in on it due to using all artificial lighting from my headlight and camera flash.
Once I finished, it was time to share the great news with Dominic who was getting extremely tired and was about to hang it up for the night.
As soon as Dominic got to the top of the hill, I brought him back to the very place where we began talking about the ring launch where he placed the sticks to mark where he threw the ring. I asked him to recount how he threw the ring and where he saw it go between the trees.
Then, I surprised him with my next statement by telling him, “That’s not what happened at all”. He responded with this extremely perplexed look on his face trying to process why I would make such a statement. And then I revealed the news that I had found the ring! Dominic was so shocked and so happy all at the same time! I have to tell you that I was so full of elation at that very moment of giving him the rundown as to where the ring ended up! I was given such a gift to come out and actually retrieve a ring in a tree! I don’t care what the reader thinks regarding the existence of God, because I knew He existed prior to this scenario and I was absolutely convinced that I was given the desire of my heart to be involved with such a search where I would discover a ring in a tree, just as I had asked God to give me such a search just several days before this one, and again, over the past many months prior! What are the odds of that?! At one in the morning, I called Chris Turner, the founder and CEO of The Ring finders in British Columbia, Canada, and he said that he had never experienced something like this in a search in the many decades that he has been doing this. Although, he said he did find a ring stuck in a tall hedge tree (the ones that grow really tall that provide privacy between homes). 
Dominic could not believe it! He was dumbfounded and yet so relieved all at the same time! He was kind enough to give me some more time in taking some additional pictures and video. While he kept his Maglite shining up there in the trees, I shined my headlamp on the ring, as well, to get the best images I could with the limitations of artificial light shining on such a brilliance and sparkling piece of beauty!
Dominic eventually did the honors of cutting the branch down, which the ring cord had tied itself around for the past couple of days! He did the procedure with his extremely tall tree cutter that he used earlier in the evening. The ring was now safely back into the hands of the one who had picked out that gorgeous prize many years ago and who presented it to his beloved bride-to-be over years ago!
I won’t forget how excited the two of us were out there at the foot of the woods just high-fiving each other and hugging knowing that we found the mysterious lost ring! This had explained why all of his metal detecting and all of my time searching ended up with no results! Dominic even said that he would have never looked where I ended up spotting it. My thoughts are that he probably would have seen it one day, but no one will ever know just how much time would have gone by if he wasn’t totally focused and looking up at that very spot in the tree and not tuned in towards the common areas to search on the ground.
The two of us gathered up our gear around midnight and headed back to his garage with the biggest smiles on our faces and on our hearts! This could not have been a more successful and more exciting conclusion to my search that night! After I took some additional photos under Dominic’s carport, the two of us shook hands, gave a gentleman’s hug and wished each other well as I got into my vehicle and headed back home (about an hour and fifteen minutes away) traveling into the night.
What a fantastic recovery! I know I will never forget this night ever! I think I thanked Dominic just as much as he thanked me because I got such a thrill out of this search-and-recovery! Like I said before, I don’t care what any of you think, I really believe that God truly gave me the desire of my heart with being a part of this kind of search because I only started doing searches for people starting last year and I just started daydreaming about being a part of such a story just in the last few months leading right up to several days ago! This is something that could have never happened or if it would happen, who knows how many years or decades might have gone by before witnessing this kind of search! But no, When the Bible says,
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you, as well.” – Matthew 6:33
I really believe God did give me a gift to be a part of finding Abbey’s gorgeous ring and to forever hold a story that will be cherished for many years to come, all because I have been seeking Him first in my life! I consider this a little “extra love gift” from above! It has no Heavenly value, but just a little expression from Him that says, ‘You wanted it, ok, here, have fun with it, and know I am in your life even in the smaller, less important things of life.”
Thanks Dominic for contacting me to help you on your search for the missing ring! Also, I personally want to thank Chris Turner for creating such an amazing directory – The Ring Finders, in order for people to connect with metal detectorists around the world to experience such stories as I have just shared with you all!
CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE VIDEO STORY ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL: THE RING RETURNER
CHECK OUT THE RING RETURNER WEBSITE AT: WWW.THERINGRETURNER.COM
CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL: THE RING RETURNER AT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmcn09QqWhHrj-7SGqlUBJQ
Peter had been kicking a football with his son’s team mates before watching their AFL match. At the end of the third quarter after running the water bottles out to the team on the field he noticed his wedding ring of 17 years was missing. He and some other parents had searched in earnest for the ring before the next match began. During the next game he had googled for help and shortly after I got a call from him late morning. After gleaning the full picture of his movements around and across the field and when he had last seen the ring I asked him to find out when the last match for the day would end and to let me know so I could meet him then to conduct a search for the ring.
Back in business!
We met at the grounds in the late afternoon and he walked me around the various areas he’d been. The kids play on a reduced size field from the adults but even reduced in size it was still as big as a full size rugby field!
I used string lines and tent pegs to grid off the various areas and began a methodical search of the identified areas. Where he and the other parents had been on the sideline in front of the clubhouse had many gold like signals but most were deep, without any obvious ground disturbance so I completed that area with no joy.
The grass was quite short so I was half expecting the ring to be proud on the surface and was searching with both my eye’s and detector figuring that even if it had been trodden on during one of the games or on the sideline that at least a portion of the ring might still be visible.
The second area searched was part of the playing field. As I was working my way back towards the goal posts where he had been kicking the ball with the kids pre-match, a man approached Peter and asked him what we were doing (it always makes me cringe as I hear my client tell them what I am searching for). After finding this out he and his kids who could see me working close lines back and forth across the search area started to do the same within my marked out area. It occured to me to ask them to stop as they could tread the ring into the ground but decided not to as I couldn’t afford to waste time on the inevitable “we were just trying to help” type coversation as I did not have a lot of time before it would be dark, and I still had about 50% of the total area left to search.
Peter’s precious..
Upon finding the ring I had planned to stop searching, walk over to Peter and ask what the ring looked like etc whilst discreetly tossing the ring just behind him, so that when he answered I could point behind him and say, “does it look like that one?” which would give me time to snap a sneaky ‘smile pic’ as he picked it up in disbelief and turned back to me, which would be both a bit of fun and far more memorable for both of us.
Unfortunately the man who had decided to jump ahead of my search soon saw it and stole my thunder! Bugger, bugger, bugger. If you don’t quite understand why I wouldn’t be so happy about that, I’d been methodically searching for a bit over an hour at this stage and it is the anticipation of the feeling you get in ‘the moment of finding’ that is why we are able to keep going for hours on end (sometimes days), and as much as any reward that may be given, is a great part of why we can do it. Anyway despite the anticlimax the ring was found and returned to it’s rightful owner. Of course it was inside the my marked out search area and about 6 more passes back and forth and I would likely have ‘specked’ it!
This past weekend I got a call from Brad and his wife Sky from Louisiana. They were in Fort Walton for a Volleyball tournament. What started out as some fun and exercise in the nice weather quickly turned into a fiasco when Sky realized that not one but both of her rings were missing. She had taken her engagement ring and her wedding ring off and tucked them into her swimsuit for safekeeping. Somewhere during the course of the day she realized they were gone and that’s where I came in. They had actually left me a message the day before while I was out finding the ring for the newlyweds in Orange Beach in my last story. I sent Brad and Sky a text once I was done and offered my services. Luckily they reached back out the next day. Brad did what a lot of people do and he went to Bass Pro Shops to buy one of their metal detectors. Unfortunately he quickly learned that the average detector will simply not work right on a saltwater beach. I got some information from them and I decided to ask my Father-in-law, Tom to join me as he has been getting into detecting. I am glad that I did! 😃 When we got there I quickly gridded out the outer edge of where I thought the rings might be based on the couple’s info. I asked Tom if he would start going around the outer areas just in case the rings weren’t where we thought they should be. It would also be a good opportunity for him to get some experience with a detector in the sand. We were out there for a long time and had to take a break and get some water. We weren’t giving up though and we headed back down to resume our search. Before too much longer, Tom waved to me to get my attention and I came over to see that Tom had found his first ring!!! Low and behold it just so happened to be Sky’s diamond wedding band. 😃I am so glad that he joined me because I was then able to adjust my search based on what Brad had said earlier and after another 20 mins I found Sky’s engagement ring! 💍👍. What a great day, I got to experience my Father-in-law’s first ring recovery and return two precious rings back to a beautiful young couple. 😃Congratulations all around!
I received an email about a man’s white gold wedding ring lost somewhere around the house. He was doing some basic yard work to include added dirt, mulch and moving some rocks. He was working in the front yard as well in the back yard. I started my search in the front yard searching through the flower bed. Then to the path taken around the house to the back yard, still no ring. Then continue to the back yard with search through the grass and dirt pile. As we were discussing which area to search next, then I got a good hit. By using my pro pointer to move the mulch and soil, the ring pop right out. He was very happy to have the ring returned to him.
Lost Man’s White Gold Wedding Ring in Galloway, OH. “FOUND”
Lost Man’s White Gold Wedding Ring in Galloway, OH. “FOUND”
Lost Man’s White Gold Wedding Ring in Galloway, OH. “FOUND”
Can you imagine how upset you would be if you didn’t even leave the scene of your marriage ceremony before you lost your wedding ring? That is exactly what happened to Anthony and his brand new bride Katelyn on Orange Beach last weekend. They tied the knot on the beach with friends and family coming up after to congratulate them. They walked down to the water’s edge after that for some pictures and before they even made it back to the dunes, Katelyn had dropped her brand new and already cherished gold and diamond wedding band somewhere in the sand. Needless to say they panicked and started looking everywhere to no avail. The Pastor who performed the ceremony had a unique suggestion and went home to get a security wand like those used to identify metal on passengers at an airport. Unfortunately, this kind of detector like other common store bought models will just not read deep enough and will not work on a saltwater beach. Luckily for Anthony and Katelyn they were honeymooning in OB as well and a quick Google search put them in touch with me the following day. I came out and did a large grid search where the ceremony was performed with no luck. I moved to the water and started searching and came up on two sunbathers with their eyes closed. I moved the coil as close to them as I dared without disturbing them and sure enough I got a signal that was the same number as Katelyn’s engagement ring. It has been my experience that most people are nice and eager to help once you explain what you are doing and these two were no different when I abruptly woke them up and asked to dig near their feet. They were the first to shout happily when I dug up Katelyn’s ring but they were quickly outdone by Anthony and Katelyn who came running from the shade of the lifeguard tower. I love the smiles on both of them in the picture but I think Katelyn’s face says it best. She is so thrilled to have her ring back to its brand new home. Anthony and Katelyn, I hope you both are blessed with happy, long lives together and I thank you for letting me be part of starting out your marriage with an exciting story rather than a sad one. God Bless!
I received a call from Shelly who told me her Daughter lost her iPhone near the fire pits the night before. She asked me how much it would cost and I told her it was no cost for me to search, she thought that was great. I could tell she wasn’t to happy with her Daughter as this was a brand new phone and her credit card was inside the case.
I told her I would start the search before they arrived since her Daughter knew which fire pits she was at. The area had over a dozen fire pits in the area so I picked one and started my search. I had scanned my iPhone before I started to get an idea of the signal I was looking for. On the fourth fire pit I got a signal that sounded like the one I was looking for, with my foot I moved the sand around and out popped her phone, I left my scoop in my truck so I wouldn’t damage the phone.
I called them to give the good news and her Daughter answered and couldn’t believe I found it. They quickly arrived but Mom didn’t pull into the parking lot and sent her Daughter walking in to pick up the phone so I didn’t ask for a photo op.
Surf City Ring Finder 714-944-0555
surfcityringfinder.com
Ruth and her boyfriend had enjoyed an afternoon at Perth’s most popular beach but when Ruth looked for her sentimental rose gold earings once they had returned to the car she found that she no longer had them. They had returned to the beach to look for them where they had been sitting close to the waters edge but had been unable to find them and were standing there wondering what if anything they could do
Beep, beep!
when they spotted me metal detecting along the towel line. Ruth’s boyfriend had waved his arms to get my attention and then explained what had happened and asked if I could help. I said sure, and walked with him back to Ruth where I questioned them about their movements. After a quick search of the area where they had placed their towels etc had failed to find them I asked them to define the maximum extent of the area they had walked across to get to where they had sat at the waters edge by dragging a line in the sand with their heels. I started to detect the area they had marked and it wasn’t long before I heard two solid signals in one sweep of my coil across the sand.. I thought this sounds promising as I dropped to my knees and I drew my pinpointer. As I moved the pinpointer close to where I’d heard the first of the signals I caught a glint of metal in the sand to the left of me and sure enough it was the clasp of a gold earing. I quickly located no.2 and turned to find Ruth staring in shock as I dangled them on my finger and said “would these be what we’re after?”
Happy happy, joy joy…
Well shock quickly turned to joy as a huge smile broke out on both of their faces. I handed them to her as she thanked me profusely and then asked how can I pay you, we didn’t bring any money with us. I smiled and said “hey it was my pleasure and didn’t take long but I’d love to take a pic of the earings and a ‘smile pic’ to go with it for this story. They were more than happy to oblige as you can see…
