San Diego Tag | Page 2 of 9 | The Ring Finders

Ring lost at Pacific Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Glynis was visiting San Diego with her boyfriend and while spending a day at Pacific Beach she lost her ring in the ocean. Out in the water, her hands got wet and cold causing her finger with the ring to shrink a bit and make it fit rather loose. She decided to change her ring to another finger so it would fit tighter. A simple fumble of the ring, and it was in the surf and gone from view. They both searched for the ring in the 2 foot deep water to no avail. They also returned the next morning at low tide hoping to spot it, but, as we all know, that just doesn’t happen. The ring is a family heirloom passed down from her grandmother (recently deceased) to her mother and then to her, so, Glynis was totally heartbroken thinking it was lost forever. She decided to run a lost ring ad on Craigslist where I spotted it and contacted her with the option of having a Ring Finder search for it. She agreed and was cautiously hopeful.  She and her boyfriend had already gone home to Washington state, so, we had to do this by descriptions and directions. I arrived before low tide and scoped out the search area. Not terribly large, but, when you’re talking about a water search on a gently sloping beach at low tide, it gets big in a hurry. With a photo of the ring, and a search area defined, I started on the south end of it and worked my way north in a wet sand to waist deep surf grid pattern. It was an hour before I got my first signal of any kind. Rats, just a scrap piece of copper. Another half hour later and I got my second signal…..a brass grommet…..double rats, or words to that effect! Another half hour later, I was approaching the north end of the search area and was getting cold, tired, and discouraged by the lack of targets. There were lots of holes, troughs, and sand bars forming and disappearing in the mounting surf, so, there was a lot of sand shifting. I was hoping that in the 4 days the ring was there that it didn’t get buried too deep, or, I started thinking that maybe someone else had found it in the interim. At that moment, I got a weak, but, solid 9 on my Equinox in about a foot of water. 2 scoops down and I pulled out her ring! Glad to get out of the water, I gave Glynis a text with a photo of her ring. She was overjoyed to see it was recovered and that she will be able to wear it again. We made arrangements later that day to ship the ring to her, so, the story continues…….I’m glad I was able to find it and thank you Glynis for your generous reward.

Ring lost at Mission Bay found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Brendan and his family were visiting here in San Diego. On their last night here, they had a bonfire on the beach. While opening a plastic bag, it popped loose suddenly, and Brendan’s wedding ring went flying into the dry sand and disappeared. Not knowing exactly where, or, even which direction it went, it was impossible to find without a metal detector. An online search for help resulted, and I got a call the next morning. As luck would have it, I was only a couple of blocks away presiding over our local detecting club monthly meeting. Brendan explained the situation and that they were leaving town in the early afternoon, so, time was fairly important in getting his ring back before they headed to the airport. The meeting soon ended and I headed over to conduct the search. We met at the site and Brendan gave me a good idea as to where ground zero was. I started a spiral pattern out from that point. First “good” sounding target ended up being a pull tab. Second good sounding target read the same, and was Brendan’s ring. A relieved Brendan can now head home with his wedding band on his finger. A pleasure to meet you Brendan, and thank you for the reward.

Wedding rings lost at Silver Strand State Beach Found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Yuliia took a walk south from The main Silver Strand State Beach, and with a simple hand movement, her wedding ring (a combination of 3 separate interlocking rings) flew off her finger and into the sand. She found my name on The Ring Finders site and gave me a call a couple of days later. We arranged to meet at the parking lot the following morning. My wife and I arrived at the prescribed time, met Yuliia, and we all took the mile walk south to the search area. Much to Yuliia’s credit, she took GPS coordinates and also remembered a particular log that was near where she lost the ring(s). She found the spot and I started my search. One short pass and a half and my first signal was a nice strong 10-11 on my Equinox. Out came the pin pointer and just and inch or two under the sand was her rings. A pleasure to meet you Yuliia and thank you for the reward.

Lost ring at South Mission Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Hailey was out on the beach one evening playing a game. When she was done, she realized the ring given to her by her boyfriend at Christmas was not on her finger anymore. Soft sand and a 30 X 40 foot area and there was no way she was going to find it without help. I got the call the next morning, grabbed my gear, and headed to meet her. On a public beach, you need to get on these things right away so someone else doesn’t find it first and not know who to return it to. On arrival, I noticed that some heavy equipment had gone through the area…..not a good sign. I looked down the beach and could see that equipment at work moving sand around. A skip loader and a rake machine. Okay, that’s better than a sifter, but, still the ring could have been scooped and dumped somewhere else, or, the rake could have drug the ring out of the search area. Not all of the search area had been disturbed, so, we were hopeful. After about 15-20 minutes of gridding, I got the sound I was “looking” for, and one scoop later, I had her ring. It was just a fraction outside the raked section of sand. Whew! I’m glad I could help you Hailey, and thank you for the reward.

 

Lost ring at Coronado found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Stephen and his family were visiting from out of town and spent the day at the beach in Coronado. He had removed his wedding ring before going into the water and left it there were they were sitting in the dry sand. At the end of the day, the belongings were gathered and the ring ended up MIA. I got the call the next day and got the particulars on what type of ring, a photo of the ring, and approximately where they were sitting via a Google map, since they had already gone home a couple of hours north of me and couldn’t show me the exact spot personally. Over a Sunday night and a Monday morning, there usually are several people who detect that beach, but, the area where they were sitting wasn’t right in the most common area, so, there was still a chance it was still there. I headed over after all the crowds had left for the day and took a guess as to where to start. I actually started a bit north of where ground zero was supposed to be and was going to work my way south. When I got the the area, I noticed that the beach grooming machine had gone through the place. Yikes, another strike against a successful search. I turned on my light to take a closer look at the sand, and realized that they just ran the big rake through there, and not the sifter. Good! That made me a bit more confident.  I made about three 20 foot passes and got my 4th solid 14 on my Equinox. The previous 3 were pull tabs, as usual, but, this 4th one was Stephens ring! This search could have taken hours, but, sometimes you just get lucky! I sent a photo of the ring to Stephen and he was overjoyed that it was found and he could actually wear it again. Now it’s up to the USPS to do it’s job getting his ring home safe and sound. Thank you for the reward Stephen.

Lost cross at Pacific Beach found.

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Reuben called me saying that he had just lost a cross off his necklace while running on the beach in the wet sand, on the slope and in the shallow water.  It was right around high tide when he called, and I was just about to eat some dinner, so, I asked Reuben if he could hang around down there a while so I could gulp down some groceries and let the tide go out a bit. He agreed, and we met at a spot at the north end of the search area around 9:45pm. He explained to me that he headed south from there and was running in a zigzag pattern from the water’s edge to the top of the slope, kind of dodging the surf as it surged in and out. I then asked how far he ran until he noticed it was gone. Well, he had a selfie that he took, at the spot we were standing, showing that he had the cross at that point. He then said that he started running from there and headed south for a good 5 minutes! Whoa, that was going to be a HUGE search area. After more Q&A we decided the most likely area was toward the other end of his run when he discovered it gone after he had jumped over a pile of kelp, but, frankly, it could be anywhere along the way. Ok, let’s start walking to that spot. I figured I’d go ahead and turn on my detector and sweep a bit while we went. I just picked a straight line on the slope about half way between the water and the top of the slope. We walked, and we walked, and we walked some more. Found a few piles of kelp, search all around them, and continued on. I hadn’t gotten one signal thus far. I asked how much further he ran, and he pointed down the beach some more. I was about to say that this was going to be a waste of time as this search area was now almost 1/4 mile long and approaching the edge of Mission Beach (the next beach south), and that I was going to have to get a lot more help to cover all this sand, when we approached another pile of kelp. Searched all around it and continued on a little ways more, when I got my first signal of the entire way. A nice solid 11 on my Equinox. One scoop and Reuben spotted his gold cross (a family heirloom that he got from his father) in the pile of wet sand I just dumped. Talk about dumb luck! We both should have bought lottery tickets right then and there. I’m not sure who was more amazed, but, we both counted our blessings on this one! That potential search area was the largest one I had ever had and would have taken me over a week to completely cover it by myself. We found it in an incredible 20-25 minutes. A pleasure to meet you Reuben and thank you for the reward.

Lost ring at Ocean Beach dog beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Bryan just went down to the water to rinse sand off his hands. He returned to where has was camped in the dry sand and when he shook the remaining water off his hands his precious gold ring he got in Dubai flew off into the sand too. He sifted around with his fingers for a while without success. I got the call and told him I’d be right down. After battling the traffic to get there, I arrived just before sunset and walked out to  the search area where Bryan waved me over to where he was. He moved his blanket out of the way, 10 seconds and two swings later, I get a solid 17 signal on my Equinox just out of the area he had searched with his fingers. I asked if he would like to pick up his ring, or, would he like me to do it. I took one scoop and held it up for him to grab. He took a photo of it in the scoop, pulled it out, and put it back on his finger.  A happy Bryan can now head home. A pleasure to meet you and thank you for the reward.

Ring lost at La Jolla Shores found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Annabelle was at La Jolla Shores surfing when, while ducking under an incoming wave, her hard earned graduation ring popped off her finger and plunged in the waist deep surf. After an online search, Annabelle’s mother Ginny, called me about an hour and half later to see if I could help. Do beaches eat rings? Sure I could! At least I would give it the old college try! Surf hunts are never easy, and with a storm southwest of us causing some bigger surf, this was going to be an extra challenge. I picked 11:30pm as a time to meet, as low tide was going to be coming up at 1:15am. Annabelle lost her ring about and hour and fifteen minutes from +5.9 high tide, so, with a -.01 low tide coming up, the ring should only be in very shallow water or wet sand. I met with Ginny, Annabelle, and her two brothers on time and we proceeded to the search area. As I suspected, the surf was not going to cooperate. Rouge waves kept blasting up the wet sand wiping out my grid marks, and after a half hour and a few tries going from beach to breakers, I gave up on that plan and tried running parallel to the shore where I was able to take some bearings from lights off in the distance to help keep me on a straight line. After another 15 minutes and not finding a single non-ferrous target all night, I got a nice solid 10 on my Equinox in ankle deep water. One scoop later, and I see a nice looking ring in the basket. I walked over to Annabelle and Ginny and asked if this was THE ONE. Annabelle picked up the ring in relief, joy, and disbelief. A pleasure to meet you all, and thank you for the reward.

Ring lost in Mission Bay found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Cynthia and her husband Juan were cooling off in the waters of Mission Bay. Cynthia’s ring was bothering her finger, and when she adjusted it, it came off and sunk into waist deep water. Try as they might, they couldn’t find it. An online search brought them to TheRingFinders.com website and my contact info. We arranged to meet an hour before the afternoon low tide at 1pm, which should be low enough to where the ring might be just in the wet sand instead of waist deep water. That makes searching much easier. I arrived a bit early and a short time later Cynthia and Juan arrived and found me down by the water. They directed me to the search area and I proceeded to start a grid pattern from lower slope out into thigh deep water. Some time, and lot’s of good sounding junk targets later, still no ring. Being a hot Sunday afternoon, there were lots of other people and children playing in that area too, so, it could be I may have missed it in dodging around them. I then started a grid 90 degrees from my last one. I started up on the slope and worked my way into the water. In ankle deep water, I got a sweet sounding 11 on my Equinox, sifted the sand out of the scoop, and saw Cynthia’s beautiful ring in the bottom. I looked over to where they were sitting, gave them thumbs up, and held up her ring in triumph. An emotional Cynthia fell into her husband’s arms, people on the beach were amazed, and I ended up answering many questions about our service. Cynthia and Juan were high school sweethearts, so, it was wonderful to help continue the ring’s story for them. A pleasure to meet you both, and thank you for the reward.

Ring lost in Ocean Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Montague contacted me about a ring his wife lost in the water at Ocean Beach. She had been in waist deep water holding their daughter when her family heirloom rose gold ring slipped off and into the surf. In looking at the tide chart, Montague agreed to meet me there at 1am for the low tide and a better shot at finding the ring. Being Saturday night, there was still lots of people partying and parking was still a problem, but, we eventually met and proceeded to the search area. Running a grid pattern from lower slope into knee deep water didn’t produce the ring, so, after re-evaluating where she was probably standing, I moved higher up on the slope. After a few more passes, I got a much higher reading than a rose gold ring should produce, but, I like to remove all targets to reduce the chance of them masking the signal I expect to receive. I scooped down, and pulled up a ring, but, as I suspected, it was a silver ring. Well, it turns out that was a second ring that she dropped into the water! Another search of the immediate area produced the nice low tone that I was hoping to hear, and the rose gold ring was in my scoop. A happy Montague now got to head home and bring the good news with him. A pleasure to meet you Montague and thank you for the reward.