I received a call from Bob who stated that his wife Emily lost her platinum wedding band and ring the day before. The rings were lost in waist deep water in the lake at Driftwood RV Campground just outside of Sea Isle City and Avalon. After a thorough grid search of an area of the lake both rings were recovered!!!
Chris and Christi were celebrating Father’s Day at Island Lake State Park. The whole family was out in the water at Spring Mill Pond enjoying the sun, the water, and the record 90 plus degree heat. It was a perfect summer day until Chris noticed his wedding band was missing. Pictures taken just minutes earlier confirmed the ring had been lost in the lake, so the family along with other beach goers looked frantically while slowly losing hope. One of Chris’s daughters asked her phone for help and theRingfinder web site came up with my phone number. I was able to come immediately, it was early evening, and the lake was still crowded with swimmers. With the light starting to fade and park closing in two hours, I knew I had to be quick. Chris and daughter Carly marked the area boundaries and Christi I started making 50 yard passes in 3 – 4 foot deep water. Everybody was cold, and we took turns diving with the scoop. An hour later, after five passes across the swimming area turned up only a few coins, I got a great signal in about 4 feet of water. Christi held the metal detector and I was able to scoop up the ring. A happy ending and a super Father’s Day chapter added to this family’s album.
I was metal detecting with my brand new detector for the very first time, looking for some treasure. I found a 1958 Wheat Penny and soon after I was approached by Karen who asked if I could help find her lost ring. I explained to her that I belong to The Ring Finders and would be glad to help her. She told me she was visiting from Mexico and her Mother had given her the Ring. We walked to the area where the Ring went missing and I began my search. My confidence was high even though I was using a new detector because she seemed very sure where she had lost it. I found her Ring in about 10 minutes, Karen was very happy to have the Ring her Mother gave her back in her possession.
Simon was collecting oranges in the orchard and didn’t realise until he got back to his car that his shorts had a car key-sized hole in the pocket.
A couple of days later he found me through TheRingFinders and I arranged to meet him onsite.
It was a huge area to scan, so I put my Search & Rescue tracking skills to work and retraced his meanderings in and around the trees – Made more interesting by the fact he’d been back the previous day for another look with a borrowed detector, which meant differentiating his original track from the fresher one. Good game!
I snaked my way through the trees following the two day old sign. Bruised leaves, broken stems or blades of grass under tension all reduced the search area to no more than a metre wide strip. These clues all led me to where he’d sought out the odd ripe fruit from random trees, retraced his steps, or just changed direction for no apparent reason, and right in the heart of the orchard where he’d finally filled the bag and turned to head back – were the keys, tucked under the grass.
It would have been a mammoth task to search the whole orchard without the advantage of being a tracker.
He was rapt, and more than a little impressed. Twenty minutes from getting out of the car, I was on my way home.
Sometimes, the eyes can be faster than the coil.
I was just doing a casual beach detect at a very small, unassuming patch of sand tucked away on Whangarei Harbour in New Zealand. It is the sort of place that would struggle to have 20 people squeezed into it on a busy summer day.
After I had been detecting for maybe thirty minutes, a beach-goer wandered up and asked if I would be able to find his wifes ring. Quick background of, “It fell off her hand outside the car as we turned at a junction, six months ago – I saw it rolling across the road”. This was a new scenario for me!
I said I’d give it a go.
Packed up and followed the gentleman to the scene. I was envisaging a sea of can pull tabs, the usual metal detritus that litters the roadside, and possibly a flat and chewed ring.
When we got there, I didn’t have my usual high vis gear with me, so it was a very cautious operation to ensure neither I or the detector got clipped by a passing wing mirror as I nosed the coil in and out of the undergrowth and leaf litter. My helper made life easier by shifting all the crushed cans and foil packets he could – But there were plenty of scraps left for me! After four to five minutes and another crumpled up bit of foil, I got a hint of a clean tone under one of the plants. I couldn’t get the beach coil in properly, so scuffed the leaf litter out into the open, and left behind, lying in the dirt was his Precious.
Happy faces all round back at the beach! A quick pose for a photo, and I went back to where I left off twenty minutes earlier.
The beach smiled kindly on my good deed and gave me an old and ornate silver ring shortly after – This would have been lost well before there were RingFinders to save the day!
As Nick stood at the end of the dock looking out over the water, he realized he was getting rather warm. So he decided to take off his sweatshirt and as he pulled it over his head he felt his gold ring slip off of his finger and watched as it dropped into the water. This was a very special ring, given to him by his grandfather and he immediately felt his heart sink! What was he to do? How could he retrieve his special ring?
A couple of months passed as Nick tried to think of different ways to get his lost ring back. He finally came across theringfinders.com web site and saw that someone could help him and that I was located close by. After calling me and explaining what happened we met at the dock and Nick showed me exactly where the ring fell into the water. It was over 10 feet deep so I suited up and dove in. Right at 10 feet the bottom of the lake had a soft, silky, muddy like texture. As I reached my arm down into the soft silt and mud, my hand was not able to touch the actual bottom of the lake. I used my Garrett pro pointer to find a few targets in the mud but only came up with a handful of nails, screws and a few pieces of aluminum foil. So I figured there had to be another way to retrieve Nick’s lost ring. Two weeks later I tried out a new method for finding rings in the water. I had made up a basket and covered it with half inch hardware cloth and then fixed it to a 16 foot metal pole. My first attempt at dragging the sifter thru the mud and silt lasted 5 hours and still no ring. On Dec. 31st I searched again for only an hour and was asked to leave the dock so the city could set up for fireworks. The next day, Jan. 1st, I went back and after one and a half hours….I could hardly believe my eyes! There in the sifter was Nick’s lost gold ring! I sent Nick a photo and asked him if that was his ring? And as he showed the photo to his family, they all joyously celebrated together! It took 8 hours of hard work to find Nick’s ring and it was so very rewarding and satisfying to finally hand it over to him. Thank you Nick for calling me and for giving me the opportunity to help you recover your lost ring!
Mike McInroe—-Proud member of theringfinders.com
2017-08-14 – Pike Lake, Ontario
Heather R from Milton, Ontario was recommended by a mutual Friend for me to assist in the recovery of her late Uncle Paul’s lost wedding band. He lost his wedding band approximately 6 or 7 years ago at a dock area of Pike Lake while washing his hands in the water. At the time of the lose they couldn’t find his ring and notched out a mark on the dock.
Heather, Greg & Max picked me up and proceeded promptly to Pike Lake that day.
I found a few items (fishing hook/coins and metal) and with-in 20 minutes I found her late Uncle’s wedding band. Heather proceeded to call her Aunt to verify and it was with happy tears confirmed to be his.
A few days later we all met Heather’s Aunt in Brampton for the joyous return of their now Family Heirloom.
I have myself a great new Friend of Heather and her Family and look forward to going back to Pike Lake (with permission) to clean up their beach!! Labour of Love!
Thank you Heather for you and your Aunt’s charitable donation to the Kelly Shires Breast Cancer Foundation!! Grateful for your kindness!
Here’s the video link;
Heather’s late Uncle’s ring
Max & Ally
The Family Heirloom returned!!
Jan 14th, 2018
I came across a plea on social media about a gold ring lost in the surf at Ruakaka. The beach is open to the ocean, has a reasonable longshore current and while conditions had been calm, sand is always moving… and rings are always sinking.
While it was outside my normal maximum travel range, the backstory to the ring put a successful recovery and return at the top of my priorities. Even if I took a financial loss, I was going to do my utmost to find and return this ring!
The ring had been lost for just over two days by the time I got there. Family efforts with a borrowed metal detector the previous day had drawn a blank.
The gentleman concerned turned up, and after a brief discussion, he duly marked out the boundaries in the sand, I waded in and got to work. It was hard graft with a big coil, although after digging a fishing weight from over a foot down, I knew if the ring could be found, it would be found.
Two hours later, I got a nice solid tone. It was so beautifully clear and smooth, it could only be gold. I listened to it again and again, knowing what it was. I had to pause as a largish wave passed, then went after it.
In the scoop was a whole heap of smiles 🙂
Some rings are worth far, far more than their weight in gold.
Jan 2nd, 2018
Hot on the heels of my first ring recovery for this summer, I finally managed to track down the owner of a ring I found mid-2017.
It had been returned from Police Found Property, although the fact it had an unusual name engraved inside made me want to try and find the owner myself.
Seven months of lurking around the internet and multiple dead ends later (including one opportunist who had a good go at claiming it!) I finally found them.
They live in Chile and lost it while on holiday, so not surprising the New Zealand Police had no luck.
No photo, but I’ll let the Facebook dialog tell the rest.
This reunion made me realise how many tourists leave their rings behind in NZ, purely because they don’t know who to ask for help.
And so I joined The RingFinders.
Mike Hall called me on a Saturday night. He was pretty frantic; the previous evening he was eating at a restaurant in north Malibu by Zuma Beach and playing with his son after dinner in the sand, and his wedding band came flying off. It was dark out, so they did a quick search, but came up empty handed. I moved some plans around and met him out there the next day, Sunday evening, after traffic died down. It still took about two & a half hours to make the 80 mile drive. I got there, and Mike and his family were nice enough to save a parking spot for me right next to the sand. I asked him to try his best to remember exactly where he was in the sand when he was playing with his son, in relation to the parking lot, trash cans, and surrounding in general. I took out my Whites Duo Field Pulse machine and started to grid the area. I was finding many trash targets like small nails and bottle caps, but after more guidance from Mike and his son, I was able to narrow down the search pattern to a strip at the back of the beach just parallel to the cars. It wasn’t long before I heard a loud repeatable signal that sounded promising. One scoop, and there was Mike’s ring. He was elated and the whole family was jumping for joy. He then shared the story of the significance of the ring’s history. The ring had been passed down for generations, from his great-grandfather, down to him. What really touched my heart, was that his young son who was there, asked his dad, “How can I get married someday, dad, if the ring isn’t there to be passed down to me?”
