Pensacola Beach lost Ring Tag | Page 2 of 2 | The Ring Finders

Lost Heirloom Necklace, Orange Beach, AL – FOUND!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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What a great day today!  My new friend Alexander called me last night with a very big problem. He was enjoying dinner with his family and his girlfriend and decided to take a group photo. When he looked at the picture he realized that he was missing his cherished necklace. It was his Grandmother’s and it was made in Beirut many years ago. It was even said to have a splinter in the cross that hung on it from the Cross that Jesus was crucified on. Alexander’s Grandmother passed away when he was a kid and she entrusted it to his Dad to hold until he was old enough to truly understand the importance of the necklace. Since that day over 4 years ago Alexander has not taken it off. That’s why when he did the math and realized he had dropped it in the gulf in chest deep water while taking a swim earlier in the day, he immediately began trying to find someone who could help him get it back. That’s where I came in! 😃  When he called, we went over the logistics of everything and I explained how I could help but I was struck at how truly worried he was. I’ve never had someone so pointedly and honestly ask me, “Can I trust you?”  I immediately decided that I was going to do everything in my power to prove my answer to him that yes, I was indeed trustworthy. I met Alexander and his girlfriend Leslie bright and early this morning in Orange Beach. They walked me down to the gulf and pointed out the area where they thought it was and settled in to watch me do my thing.  I’m not going to lie, 3 & 1/2 hours later, I was starting to get concerned. I expanded the search and thoroughly covered a huge area but it was simply not there. We had already covered tides and the current but I decided to come in and talk to Alexander. He and Leslie has stayed on the beach the entire time and I could see the growing worry in their faces. I asked Alexander if there was a spot that he had thought about while watching me that I hadn’t covered. He said the only place he could possibly think of was maybe shallower and east of the search area. I went right back out while he and Leslie were discussing that this might be the last shot. I’m always talking to the Man upstairs when I do these recoveries but this time I was really asking him to slow me down and guide me. I only had about one pass left when I heard a good sound. I snapped my head down and I briefly saw Leslie realize I had heard something good. I had dug so many pieces of trash earlier that I knew this could be another but I still very gently used my scoop to make sure I didn’t damage anything, just in case. Sure enough on the second scoop down I looked in and saw that beautiful gold cross still on that gold chain as if nothing had ever happened. You can imagine the celebration of the whole family and the relieved joy and disbelief of Alexander when I held out the scoop for him to remove his Grandmother’s necklace. We could only air high five since we were being responsible and social distancing but I had one of my favorite moments ever doing this as Alexander tried to find the right words… he finally said, “You know, I will remember you forever!”  😃😃😃. I’ll remember you too my friend. God bless you all and hang on to that necklace. 😉

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If you lost something, READ THIS!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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With the beautiful weather and the long weekend, I thought I would post a PSA. If you are looking at my page and in need of someone to help you find your lost ring or item, please immediately remove any posts you have made on social media about where you lost it. I know you mean well but unfortunately there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there that will go and try to find it that don’t have good intentions. The fact is that in all of the years I have been doing this, I have only been able to recover one expensive ring that was first shared extensively on social media. 😳. So take a deep breath and give me a call. I won’t ask you for any specific information on where your ring is until you and I are both comfortable and then I will go get it for you and put that ring back on your finger where it belongs. God bless and Happy Memorial Day!
p.s.- please share this post with your friends if you don’t mind
-Dave 850-346-1736

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Lost Ring Perdido Beach – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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Well this is a ring return I won’t ever forget. Even Covid-19 couldn’t stop this nice lady from getting her ring back on her finger. Two days ago, Tyler and her family were in Perdido Beach and on the way back to the car she had her engagement ring on her child’s stroller. As you can imagine, she hit a bumpy patch and by the time she got back to the car her ring was gone on the beach. Yesterday she posted all over social media in hopes that someone may have found it. This is usually a really bad idea because with that much info, someone that is not interested in returning it can find it and move along. Luckily a few people recommended my services (thank you!) and she sent me an email. She didn’t provide any information and didn’t even give me a phone number. Even though I sent her a few emails back she didn’t reply or call. This is totally normal because she was so shocked, I know she was probably trying to make sure she didn’t get scammed with promises of help and she was overwhelmed with the prospect of losing her ring forever. I felt bad for her and I knew that the longer all of the information stayed on the internet, the higher the chance she would never get it back. My friend Charlie and I had the chance to get out today and I talked him into heading to the area. Once there we were very lucky to find it pretty quickly based on our experience with where she may have lost it. I finally posted on Explore Pensacola and she called within the hour. I invited Tyler and her husband to my home and did my first ever social distancing ring return. 😃. I think they were both shocked that a total stranger would just go get her ring for her. I’m very glad to be able to do it. Thanks for the assist today Charlie!  God bless you all!!! 💍

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Engagement Ring Lost for 4 months! – Pensacola Beach – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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I am so honored to be able to write up this story as one of the most amazing ring returns I have had with the Ringfinders. I warn you, it’s probably going to be a long one. 😃 2019 has been a great year. Early in the spring I had a call from a couple that had lost both the wife’s engagement ring and her wedding band out in a very large area of sand. My Father-in-Law, Tom Ledew had a freshwater machine but he didn’t have a saltwater machine. He had expressed some interest in the Ringfinders so I decided to ask him to join me and loan him one of my Saltwater machines. You can read the long story on another post but suffice it to say, Tom found one and I found the other and he now has a good Beach machine and is hooked. 😄. So that brings us to our current story… back in July, the day after the Blue Angels flew, I got a call from a very nice young man named Thomas. He had proposed to his beautiful bride, Dani only a few months earlier and she had not had the chance to have the engagement ring properly sized. They were in the water at Quietwater beach along with hundreds of other people and the ring just slipped off her finger sometime in the afternoon. I immediately came out to the beach and got all of the information that I could, right down to pictures from the boat, the tides and even the gps coordinates where the boat they were in was anchored during the air show. It was a huge area as far as water recoveries go but this is one of the nicest couples that I have met and I set out to do my best. I searched everywhere and dug up hundreds of pull tabs and I even found two other rings (one, I was able to find the owner in Tennessee 😃) but I could not find Thomas and Dani’s ring. I was bummed but I knew it was a large area so I asked if I could come out at sunrise the next morning. They said of course and I put in a few hours that morning and then put in a few more after work. All to no avail. I told Thomas that I could not find it and he was down but I told him I truly thought his ring was out there and with his permission I would like to keep looking for it when able and I would also like his permission to have my Father-in- Law help me with the search. Thomas said I could do whatever but felt the ring was lost forever and he said with all the people swimming that day he feared someone had seen it on the bottom and picked it up. I told him not to worry and that maybe one day I would come across it and call them. Fast forward 4 months and here we are in November. They were such a nice couple that I just haven’t been able to let their ring go. Anytime I am out that way, I always search for it a bit. I even came up with some down home engineering that anchors into the sand and lets me do overlapping circles to be absolutely sure I hadn’t missed a spot. Tom had been out to help me several times also and was becoming equally vested in finding this ring. Well within these 4 months, Tom Ledew was accepted into the Ringfinders over in Orange Beach, AL. (Congrats Tom! 🎉) and he had a recovery in the Gulf. I mentioned that Tom has a good beach machine but he remembered that first experience with my Excal which is simply the best machine there is for finding a ring out in the saltwater. Tom asked if he could borrow it and of course I said yes. He found the ring that day in AL so quickly and was so amazed that he had to have one for himself. Then it got really cold 🥶 and our plans to get in the water got put on pause. Through it all I kept going back to thinking about Thomas and Dani’s ring and I just knew I had covered the area where they thought it was. I also kept thinking that maybe Thomas was right and someone had picked it up but I just knew that gold sinks in the sand so quickly that it was almost impossible. I decided that the only possibility was it had to be a bit deeper where maybe the boat had swung around and Dani had to swim out a little to get on the ladder. Swimming + an oversized ring = an unhappy couple. So Tom and I made a plan to go back out and see if my theory was correct. Tom beat me to it and got his coil over it first but I am so glad that he did. This was his first major target recovered with the machine he tried for the first time earlier this year in the spring. It all comes full circle. 😃. The most fun I had was calling Thomas. Dani happened to be sitting right next to him when I started telling them who I was. Thomas had saved my number as “the Ring Guy” so he knew pretty quickly. They were shocked that after 4 months (twice as long as they had been engaged) this random guy would call and tell them that he had the ring that would forever remind them of the day that Thomas proposed. Congrats y’all, I hope this will remind you through the years as it will me to never give up!  😊

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Lost Gold Engagement Ring – FOUND!!! – Orange Beach, AL

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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I have to say that today was probably  my favorite return of the year. It had all the elements of a great day. I got the call late in the afternoon so I didn’t have to take off work,  it was a super nice couple, they weren’t sure if it was in the water or the sand, they had dug for it extensively, they had asked a stranger with a metal detector to look in the area and last but not least, there were tons of people around watching that were vested in the return because they had been watching them search all day. When Luke called me saying that Emily had dropped her engagement ring in Orange Beach I knew I had to go and help. They had been throwing a football and when they sat back down Emily’s beautiful gold and diamond engagement ring was nowhere to be found. I got some info from Luke and quickly headed that way from Pensacola. When I got to the condo the security guard told me that there was no guest parking but he would give me one hour before I had to go. I hustled down to the beach and there were still people everywhere. Most of them were closely watching what I did so you could tell that they knew all about the missing ring. Even more than normal I wanted to do my best because I knew I had an audience. After a few questions, I started out on the beach and then headed down the path they had walked to the water. I assumed that it was probably in the water so I then went over a pattern in the breaking waves and moved over the sand drop off in case it had been sucked back into deeper water. When I was coming up the beach, Luke and Emily stopped me and said that they had been discussing it and they thought they were in the very top of the breaking water which would have been higher up the beach earlier in the day. I quickly started swinging up there and was on my second pass when I heard a very faint sound. Throughout the search I had found a few targets that I dug but nothing was a good signal. This time it was a little higher pitched but it was so deep that I was intrigued. I almost ignored it thinking that there was no way it could be that deep with only a half day in the sand. Then I remembered that they had been digging for it so I decided to go ahead and see what was down there. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the gleam of gold in the scoop. Emily and Luke immediately celebrated with me and it was then that I realized just how many people were watching the drama unfold. The whole beach erupted into cheers and applause!  😃. I had to run to the parking lot to convince the security guard not to tow my car and give me a bit longer for pictures but he was very understanding. On the way out the young man and his family who had offered help with their metal detector came running up and told me that their was a lady on the beach who needed my help. When I told them that I had found her ring the young man thought that was the coolest thing in the world. I answered about 100 questions but I’m pretty sure I have hooked him and his father on this hobby for life. I am absolutely thrilled that I could return this beautiful ring to Emily and Luke. Y’all are wonderful people and I had a great time helping you. God Bless!  💍

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Lost Ring – Fort Morgan,AL -FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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This is Whitney who was down with her family from Arkansas visiting Fort Morgan when she lost her brand new ring somewhere on the beach or in the Gulf. She was absolutely distraught because she and her husband Justin had been married for 13 years and finally decided to get this beautiful ring for Whitney. In her own words she knew that she shouldn’t wear it to the beach but she was just so proud of it that she couldn’t leave it behind. I always tell people to NOT dig for their rings because especially with gold the density difference makes the ring drop farther and farther into the sand. I also tell people that a cheap detector from Academy does not have the capability of finding a ring on a saltwater beach after an inch or two. Unfortunately, this ring was a prime example of both of these rules.  The night before, Whitney and Justin had driven to Foley and bought a cheap detector and dug all night at false signals making things worse. Luckily for them, my detectors can read much deeper than that and luckily for them I’m a sucker for a good story so I left at the crack of dawn to make the several hour round trip out to see if I could help. When I got there Whitney wasn’t sure if the ring was in the water or not since they had gone over the beach with the Academy detector. I told her I would start on the beach and then if it wasn’t there I would move into the water. I could see all of the disturbed sand where they had been digging so I set my machine and walked to the edge of the area to start my grid pattern. I have to say that I was a little surprised when I swung the coil to the left and before I could even complete the first swing I got a solid loud gold signal. It was a no brainer and I gently dug it out of the ground from 6 inches deep. Whitney hadn’t even walked over to her chair yet so she didn’t see me get the ring. She had mentioned earlier on the phone that they hadn’t had a good day yet because of losing the ring. I walked over and held it out and said “maybe, you can have a great day starting now.”  Needless to say, she was shocked and thrilled. She couldn’t believe that I had found it that quickly in the exact spot they had searched and dug for hours the night before. I’m so glad that I could give you back your ring and finally start your vacation right.

 

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Lost Ring in the Gulf – Orange Beach

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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This was an awesome return!  My new friends Kathryn and Matt has been down from Ohio enjoying beautiful Orange Beach. Kathryn learned that there are positives when you solder your rings together but the big negative is that if you were to lose one, you lose all three. That’s exactly what happened when she was throwing a ball in about chest deep water and her rings went flying in the Gulf. She found out about me 2 days later and when she called she was very worried that she had waited too long and the rings were lost forever. I told her that I had a really good track record with rings in the water and that as long as it was still there and hadn’t sunk too deep in the sand, I thought I could find it. When I got there, the whole family was in attendance and although Kathryn was trying her best to appear optimistic, I could tell that she was truly worried. I felt for her and Matt and I got in the water on a mission. I heard a couple of higher tones which would not indicate gold but I always like to dig a few things so I can get idea of depth. I got a couple of coins in a row and I realized that I had told Kathryn and Matt that I would probably dig some other things but I had not told the whole family. I saw (maybe the brother-in-law) checking out my coin digging and I thought to myself that I needed to make sure I dug everything very visibly. I was excited when the very next tone I went over sounded like gold. I very gently dug it up and put it on my finger and starting wiggling my fingers so the bro-in-law could see. When he realized I had it by the smile on my face, he yelled to Matt and Matt yelled to Kathryn. They all sprinted down to me and before I was even out of the water Kathryn was in tears and had her arms spread wide open for a hug. When Matt got choked up too I told them I knew how they felt and that’s why I do this. That will never get old. I’m so very happy for y’all!  Congratulations! 💍

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Lost Ring at the Blue Angels – Found!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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This was a neat return!  Sarah was down from Huntsville, AL enjoying the Blue Angels show with some friends when unfortunately her solid gold University of AL School of Nursing ring slipped off of her finger. To make matters worse, it came off in about 3 feet of water. Luckily for Sarah, a few days later, I was in the area looking for another lost ring and I found it before she even knew about the Ringfinders. I am always telling my wife that if she will put her name in her jewelry, there’s a good chance that if someone like me finds it, they will make their way back home. Sarah helped me illustrate that point because she had her last name and her date of graduation inside the ring. I went into “Facebook Detective mode” 😄and quickly tracked her down. I think she was a little shocked when I sent her a PM that I had found her ring. When I learned that she has recently accepted a position as a nurse in Hematology Oncology in Nashville, I wouldn’t even let her pay for the shipping to get her ring back to her. As you can see by her picture, she was thrilled to get it back. Sarah, I hope God blesses you in your chosen profession and you have your ring for many years to come. 👍

-Dave

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