Received a call yesterday from Domingo who said he had lost his class ring 5 days ago while planting and transplanting plants in his backyard. Domingo said after spending several days searching for the ring with no success, he located “The Ring Finders” online.
I made the trip over to Domingo’s this morning, Domingo showed me his backyard and the possible areas where he thought the ring may have come off his finger. You can see from the pictures, Domingo was in the process of a backyard transformation with several areas needing to be searched.
Domingo mentioned something about coffee and went back into the house leaving me to conduct the search for his ring. I eliminated one of the flowers beds pretty quickly and moved on to the next flower bed near the center of the back yard. I was on about the forth swing in that flower bed when I hit a pretty good signal.
I knocked on Domingo’s back door and asked him to come on out back and show me the areas again needing to be searched. As Domingo was pointing out the areas again, I held out his class ring, Domingo was pleasantly surprised.
I often talk about my adventures as a Ring Finder with people at work. Like most people, they love hearing the stories of lost rings, both wedding rings and engagement rings, being found and returned to their owners. Every ring has a story and is so much more than just a piece of jewelry. One day, Jason stops over and tells me that a friend of his lost his ring in his backyard. He wanted to know if it was ok to give him my contact information. He also wanted to know what I charged. I explained that I ask for a small fee to cover gas and my time, and then a discretionary reward – whatever the person can afford and thinks is appropriate for the service we provide.
A couple of days had passed, and I hadn’t heard anything from Jason’s friend. I asked if he had found the lost ring. Jason said he had not, and would remind him to give me a call. Jason had heard all of my stories and knew that we could probably find the ring pretty easy. His friend Ryan was playing football with his kids in his backyard in Fitchburg. On one throw, he actually felt and saw his wedding ring fly off and land on the ground. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find it. In my experience, what typically happens when someone begins to look for their lost ring, is that they inadvertently step on it – pushing it into the ground. No matter how hard you look with your eyes, you’ll never find it.
Another week passed, and I again asked Jason if Ryan had found his ring. He said that he had not, and this time just sent Ryan a text message and included me on it. I responded directly to Ryan that we could come out that night and take a look. He responded almost immediately and we agreed on a time to head over after work. As I typically do, I brought my kids along who love metal detecting and ring hunting. I talked with Ryan before beginning the hunt. He explained how he had lost the ring and that he was determined to find it himself. He had told his kids that if they found his ring, they could have ice cream as a reward. Funny, right? He also had thoughts of renting a metal detector, but wasn’t sure he would know how to operate it. I explained that he made a good decision to not rent a metal detector. I’ve heard countless stories of people renting a metal detector and getting excited the first time it goes off. However, a typical home owner would be shocked how much junk is hidden under your yard.
I will never forget this hunt, because it was, and still currently stands, as our fastest recovery to date. Ryan pointed to the area that he was standing when he threw the football, and literally within 3 mins we had a signal. We could not see the ring with our eyes, and had to use a small shovel to pry up the ground … out popped Ryan’s ring. He was in disbelief, as was his wife … Ryan said, “You’ve got to be kidding me” probably 4-5 times. It took longer to take our picture and post it to Facebook than it took for us to find his lost ring!
Remember, don’t rent a metal detector, rent a Ring Finder!
I received a call yesterday from Eric a resident of Bellaire, Texas regarding his lost wedding ring. Eric reported he had lost his wedding ring in his backyard while playing water volleyball in his new pool. Eric said he remembered hitting a volleyball and his ring flying off his finger. Eric reported he searched his yard for several days trying to find his ring. Eric said after unsuccessfully finding his ring he located “The Ring Finders” on a Google a search.
I made the trip out to Eric’s home this morning and was given a walk through of how and where the ring was lost. The backyard was under renovations, a beautiful new pool, landscaping steps, and new and old landscaping underway. The backyard had little grass, so the remaining search area was going to be several areas of monkey grass, small hedges and a few flower beds.
Having the 6″ coil for the CTX3030 was a big factor in this recovery. Most of my work was pushing the small coil through the small tight hedges to work the ground below and around the hedges. It would have been nearly impossible to have accomplished this task with the stock 11′ coil.
I worked an area of the yard that seemed most probable for Eric’s ring to have landed based on the information of how it was lost. This area was relatively heavy with scrubs and money grass providing a great hiding place for a missing ring.. I thought for sure it would be the spot. After spending sometime working the hedges and monkey grass in this area with no results, I moved to the far side of the yard.
I started in on one of the flower beds, pushing the coil through the hedges blindly when I got a nice signal. I worked through the ground cover vegetation with a pin pointer and uncovered a series of intertwined gold loops. I ‘ll be honest, I initially thought maybe I had found an earring , I was thinking to myself what the heck is it. I knew it was gold, but did not register as a gold wedding band.
I hollered over to Eric who was working in the yard, and held out the dangling loops of gold, I saw a smile on his face, and rest is now history.
Eric explained that the odd configuration (the gold loops) was a Gold Arabic Puzzle Ring, and it had belonged to his grandfather original, passed to his father, and now to him. Thought to myself (priceless) and awesome, that is something you could never replace.
I have picked up a lot of rings, but this was my first ever puzzle ring and what a cool story. It didn’t take long to figure out why they call it a puzzle ring.
The video is a quick clip of Eric putting his ring back together.
Contacted by Gene a resident of Fulshear, Texas who advised he was searching the internet for metal detector rentals and came across “The Ring Finders” website. Gene wanted to know if I could assist him finding a metal property marker at his resident. Gene said he had a copy of the original land plot showing the location of the markers. The property plot was a nice reference but lacked any measurement to aid in locating the markers. Some how I am thinking it’s drawn like that intentionally. Gene said if we couldn’t find the marker, he was going to have to hire a surveyor to re-plot the property lines and it was going to be very expensive.
Made the trip out this morning and hit the property marker pretty quick, excavated, and tagged it for the homeowner.
Galveston is one of the most popular year-round coastal destinations in our second largest state TEXAS. It is an island in the Gulf of Mexico. You can still take a road trip here because it is connected to the mainland by a bridge. It is a city that offers many historical and cultural attractions, water sports, and great hotels and resorts. Galveston TX has most of its businesses downtown, but also offers many rental residences with access to the Galveston beaches.
Lost Texas A&M Class Ring Bryan College Station, Texas
Received the following e-mail 03-13-2014 Thursday
Hey John,
I got your contact info from the ring finder website. I recently
lost my Aggie ring. I believe it fell off in my neighbors yard, while I was
picking up some trash that had blown into his leaf piles. I’m 99% sure where it
fell. My neighbor gave me permission to look, but I have not been successful.
I’m a veterinary student in college station, tx. What would it cost to have you
drive out here and have a look? Do you know anyone in this area that would be
willing to assist? The ring is very important to me, and had a stone from my
grandmother in it.
Kohl
Spoke with Kohl on Thursday and he explained the circumstances surrounding the loss of his class ring. Kohl explained the ring was important, but the diamond in his ring had been handed down to him from his grandmother, making it irreplaceable. Kohl and I , worked out some travel expenses issues, and arrangements were made from Sunday morning. I made the 1:45 minute trip out to Kohl’s today meeting him at his residence. Kohl walked the search area with me pointing out the areas he believed he may have lost his ring. The search area was relatively small with several sections of the lawn had exposed dirt surfaces. I knew if the ring was in the remaining grass or leaves it would be a very fast recovery.
These are the difficult stories; the ring was not in the yard. I worked that lawn so hard I may have killed the remaining grass.
Having searched for A&M rings in the past, I knew the school had a lost and found specific to class rings. Even the local area police departments, having checked this for myself, contact the schools when a class ring is turned into them. I directed Kohl to notify the school, and to continue the search for his ring. Kohl advised he would notify me if he finds his missing ring.
The fine folks at Anderson Detector Shafts sent out an Excalibur II travel shaft for long term testing and evaluation 🙂 The product looks and feels very well built and should be a nice upgrade for traveling with an Excalibur II.
Anderson Detector Shafts also builds some really nice looking Carbon Fiber shafts, and a variety of other quaility detecting products.
Ryan at Andeson Detector Shafts will be your point of contact.
Recent Discovery, the new White’s Bullseye TRX Pinpointer.
As I favor Minelab products, I am going on my 6th and 7th Minelab pinpointer pro. (all under warranty) I am not sure if it’s the Texas heat, humidy, or moisture while occasionally operating in some damp enviroments, but failures have plagued my pinpointers.
I was getting ready to send both back on warranty issues, and did not want to be without a pinpointer. A quick Google search, and I discovered White’s had jus released the new Bullseye TRX.
Although, I have not field tested the new TRX, I am really liking the sensitivity, as well as the lanyard attachments on both the pointer and carrier.
The build seems solid, and if it runs trouble free, it might be my new go to product for pinpointers.
It was my first week on the Ring Finders! Successful recovery of a gold wedding band, recovered in the city of Providence Rhode Island. If you or someone you know has lost a ring etc. please contact me. Thank You Jeff
I received a call on Monday about a mans lost set a keys. He was helping a friend out while shoveling the snow from the driveway and lost them somewhere. I could not make for the next couple of days because the temperatures were down in the negative 20’s. So we meet up on a much warmer day. After searching for about thirty minutes about the driveway, there was the keys in the two foot high snow bank. He was very happy to have them back, which save him money into getting a new car key and he can use his gas discount card again.
