Natalie had just completed a fun day of Hot Tub boating on Seattle’s Lake Union. When she got back to the boat slip, got out of the hot tub boat her phone fell into the water below the dock. She did a Google search and fond me through my listing on TheRingFinders. I came out the next day and recovered her Google Pixel 3 phone just past 20′ of water. Unfortunately the phone was full of water but she was prepared for this outcome and wanted her phone back for the insurance claim. During the recovery dive an older iPhone with some old bank cards and an ID were found. I am in the process of getting that returned to its owner as well.
Check out the dive recovery here:
Special thanks to https://www.hottubboats.com for allowing the recovery effort. If you get a chance check them out and tell them the SeattleRingHunter sent you over.
Carla’s 925 Sterling Silver Wedding Band with Colorful Accent Stones
Searching for lost property can take you down all kinds of windy and unexpected roads. You will meet wonderful people and you may find yourself in certain situations that you would never have expected prior to when the initial adventure had begun. Here is what I mean:
I had taken my boat out onto Rehoboth Bay, located on the other side of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, just west inland of the Atlantic ocean. I was on a search for a lost ring that had fallen into the bay while a guy was pulling up his anchor shortly after his family went swimming in the water weeks earlier. They took their boat from New Jersey all the way down to Delaware to do some vacationing over a long extended weekend. I was hoping that I could retrieve the ring from the water, but unfortunately my boat ran into problems just prior to me anchoring at the exact GPS location where he lost the ring. My engine stalled and the current was too strong to paddle up the channel where I had traveled from. I probably cruised about a mile and a half down the canal area into the bay when my engine suddenly cut off. I was really close to my target, but it wouldn’t be my day to find the ring. Instead, I needed to find help!
Eventually, I drifted over to a shore area located on the opposite side of the bay, completely in the wrong direction from where I was trying to travel to. I was now a half of a mile south of where I was trying to anchor, and each time I tried to get further back into the center of the bay, I was pushed back towards the shoreline by the strong current and choppy water. I had a choice: either ground the boat on the private shoreline property and see if I could get an Uber or someone to drive me to my car and then retrieve the boat on the way back (which would have been very difficult because there were no launch sites anywhere nearby), hire a boat tow service (which would have been costly), or lastly, to try to flag someone down that was out boating who would be willing to tow me in.
Carla’s Wedding Band that had been at the Bottom of the Rehoboth Bay, Dewey Beach, Delaware for a Year!
I called the tow service and they gave me a quote. I thought maybe the boat would sink just hearing the number that they gave me to tow me
Claudia’s Sterling Silver that was Out of the Water and Carla’s Sterling Silver that had been in the Rehoboth Bay for a Year!
in! When I tried to see if there were any other boats that might be close enough to possibly stop to help assist my efforts to get up the channel, there was nothing to work with because I was pretty far from where people were cruising. I had very little choice but to call the tow service.
This is where the turn of events took place! I was just hanging out in the boat trying to make my final decision as to what to do, when all of a sudden I noticed a large pontoon boat coming my way! I remembered seeing that same boat earlier some distance away along the shoreline. Apparently they were crabbing and partying out on the deck. They got closer and closer until I heard one of the ladies on the boat call over to me, “Do you need any help?!” Their boat continued to draw nearer. They we’re coming to rescue me! This was awesome! I yelled back and explained that the motor stalled and that I had been fighting the current for quite a while. They weren’t surprised because they had noticed what was going on with me for some time and wondered if I was in trouble. Before long, Claudia, who was steering their boat, maneuvered the pontoon as close to me as possible, and then another lady onboard named Carla, threw me a tow line and I quickly tied it to the bow of my boat and in no time we were headed towards a launch site where I could get the boat out of the water! I could not be more grateful for these people’s assistance! Not only did they tow me in, but they went past their own slip and took me to a launch site that was out of their way just to make life easier for me by getting my boat up on shore so I could break my gear down. In addition to this amazing kindness, when we got to the site where they would release me from their line, they offered to pick me up in their minivan, haul my boat and all of my gear and take me back to my car which had to be a good 7 to 10 miles away. Then, they would have to drive themselves all of the way back home! Who were these amazing people?! I was beyond touched! I gratefully accepted their offer and prepared to break down my gear upon Claudia and Carla releasing the tow line when we got to the launch site.
Thirty minutes later, the ladies returned to me in their minivan, ready to further assist! The moment they got out of the vehicle, one of them walked over to me and handed me an ice cold bottle of beer to cool me off! I couldn’t get over the kindness! Wow! Was that sweet of them! And boy was that beer refreshing after all that I had been through!
I loaded everything up, which they both assisted in helping me with the gear and the boat (so very nice of them and they were extremely strong, too!) and in no time they were taking me back to my vehicle up river! I felt so much love and compassion coming from these two ladies!
As we drove, I offered to take care of their gas expense and I asked them if they had ever lost anything that perhaps I could help find with my metal detector as a way of showing my gratitude for all that they had done for me! I don’t remember if it was Claudia or Carla that had responded to my inquiry, but one of them said that there was actually something that was lost a year ago but that they had no confidence that it could ever be recovered. I asked what it was and the two of them shared that Carla’s custom made sterling silver wedding band from Hawaii was lost a year earlier in Rehoboth Bay while working in the water. Carla rents kayaks and paddle boards on the bay, and I believe she instructs, as well. While securing the kayaks and boards one day, her ring slipped off her finger and ended up at the bottom of the bay. Though she attempted to reach below the two and a half to three feet of water to retrieve the ring, it was impossible for her to find it in midst of the murky and muddy conditions. At some point she resolved that the ring was not obtainable to retrieve and that it was gone forever. That was a year ago.
Upon hearing the story, I assured Carla that as soon as I loaded up everything in my car, I would start heading over to Dewey Beach, Delaware on the bay side, about 20 minutes or so away, to start my search for the missing ring that had been underwater for over a year. They weren’t holding their breath that I would find the ring and I too wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull it from the bay. However, I was excited to take the challenge and see what we could find! Claudia and Carla continued to share with me that they were a married couple and that Claudia had the matching ring since they acquired the custom rings in Hawaii for their soon after wedding ceremony. I never ended up testing the other ring to use for my upcoming search.
Once we got everything out of the minivan and placed on the concrete next to my car and got the boat re-situated, we took a quick video and we said our goodbyes. I had many words of thanks to both of these ladies for the amazing rescue and all of the ways that they helped me after dropping me off with the boat at the launch site and taking me along with all of my things back to my car.
Because I had to abort my original mission out on the bay, I was now taken in another direction south of that location to search for another ring just off the shore of the same Rehoboth Bay.
Carla gave me the address where she worked and soon thereafter, I had reached the search location. Then, I unloaded all of my gear, walked out onto the bay shoreline where I took note of my surroundings and looked for all of the landmarks that Carla had told me about in order to put me in position to search for her lost ring.
Carla told me that the band slipped off about 10 feet from the pier, which was to the left of where the kayaks and paddleboards were locked up. She shared with me earlier that she lost the ring somewhere between one of the boards or kayaks while she was locking them up. Exactly where, of course would be the mystery to be solved.
Remember, this happened a year earlier. Tides had rolled in and out over and over again. Storms blew through the bay area over the course of the past 12 months. Ice and other severe conditions affected the bottom of the water over time.There were so many factors that could have affected the original location of the ring.
When I started metal detecting in the water, it was low tide and night was falling fast. Within a short while, I had my headlamp blazing bright, my scoop was in hand, and I was ready to attempt a recovery of Carla’s lost wedding band. As I walked in the water, the surface started with a pleasant sandy bay bottom floor. But, as I moved into the deeper areas I quickly found out why it was nearly impossible for Carla to retrieve her ring when she attempted to do so on the day of its disappearance. Everything turned to mud out by the kayaks and boards! It was awful! Every time I was bringing the scoop up with a potential target inside of it, I was faced with a massive clump of mud that smelled so viciously evil! It was horrible! I dread environments like this, as do most detectorists!
For those who are not metal detectorists who are reading this article, one of your biggest enemies being a metal detectorist is searching for a lost item in solid mud under the water! Your dive boots constantly get stuck in the mess and you barely can move without one of the boots slipping off your foot! You can’t use the existing water to help sift through the mud in the scoop because the mud is too thick and it doesn’t fall through the holes of the scoop. Every time you have a potential target to search for, you have to take the scoop with all of its mud over to the shallow area and dump it on the dry sand unless you have a floating sifter. Then, you have to metal detect the mud with your pinpointer to see what you brought up from the water. If you didn’t find what you were looking for, you have to repeat the same process over and over again!
Every time I brought the mud up, the stench was almost unbearable! It was just disgusting! I kept searching and searching, and I pulled up all kinds of hardware of sunken boats, along with coins and miscellaneous pieces of trash that had signals in the sterling silver range. There was a lot of garbage scattered about and it did not make my job any easier.
Carla Happily Holding the Ring that She Lost in Rehoboth Bay a Year Earlier!
I metal detected for several hours but unfortunately I could not find Carla’s ring. All kinds of questions went through my mind. Could someone have dug it up the already? It was possible, but very unlikely because of the terrible conditions out there. Few metal detectorists would have had the patience to try to find anything in that horribly forsaken mud mess! Also, I found enough coins that had been down there for some time which made me believe that no one had disturbed the “scene of the crime” since last summer.
It was probably around 11 p.m. or so by the time I had to wrap things up for the night. I was disappointed that I didn’t have better results to share with Carla and Claudia upon getting back to my vehicle empty-handed. I needed to start heading back home which was three hours away. I would resolve to return next week to try again and see if I could pull the ring from out of the water.
I couldn’t wait to get back in the bay and try again to find the sterling silver band. The challenge of pulling up something that had gone missing for over a year was extremely exciting to me! I get huge adrenaline rushes for such hunts!
When I arrived back at the search site, the sky was mostly blue with some overcast skies heading my direction. A storm had emerged in the southwest area but it didn’t affect my efforts. Once I got all of my equipment back on the bay’s shore, I introduced myself to the employees who work for the same rental company as Carla. They were very nice people. One of them called up Carla to verify that I did in fact have permission to search for the missing ring.
Once I was cleared, I set up my gear and started my second search attempt. Detecting in daylight was definitely an advantage because I was able to see my surroundings a little bit easier, and the muddy conditions did not appear to be as eerie as in the dark. I detected every signal that was in the sterling silver range. I brought up all kinds of stuff and yet, there was no band to be discovered. I detected between the kayaks and paddle boards, carefully moving them to the side or placing one partially on top of the other. I moved farther away than the approximate 10 feet originally remembered. When I still couldn’t find it, I called up Carla to re-gauge my positioning and I continued on, detecting, scooping, emptying the scoop on shore, pinpointing the object, and then returning to the search site where I repeated the process again. Still, I came up with nothing.
Hours upon hours had passed by this point. I was getting extremely frustrated with the mud. I didn’t think that I could continue digging much longer because my attempts were failing over and over again. Each time that I found a potential target to pull up, it would take me sometimes up to10 minutes or more just to get the object in the scoop. Then, it would take more time to find out what it was that I pulled up because of how dense the mud was. Though the boots I wear are ankle high and can be zipped up, they were no match for the black glue-like substance that made up the bottom of the bay! And again, the smell was horrific! Just terrible! I had to hold my breath most of the time!
Finally, I got to the point where I decided it was time to wrap things up. I had tried so very hard to find this ring which I didn’t even know if it was still out there. I believed I searched every possible location. I even recreated the scene by going through the motions just as Carla would have done when she was tying up all of the rentals a year earlier. I knew that I was in the basic location because the rope that tethered all of the kayaks and paddleboards got tied to the same latch on the pier. It had never been repositioned. Therefore, the area that I was covering was definitely the right location. But the question was whether or not the ring may have moved because of the currents and or the tides. Or perhaps it got buried even farther down into that forsaken mud mixture where my detector might not have been able to pick up the signal. I didn’t know what the reason was that I couldn’t spot the ring, and that frustrated me greatly.
I decided to make my next signal to be my very last target to bring up. If you don’t believe this account, the search video will prove my testimony! I decided to aim my last attempt between two paddle boards that I had searched somewhere in that vicinity before. But, this time I would move one of the rentals over just slightly more to one side to give me a little bit more clearance to swing the detector at the bottom of the bay. Just moments after I started maneuvering the coil of the detector along the surface of the mud, about three feet below the surface, and about a foot deep in the mud, I heard a high tone signal that matched the zone I was looking for. Also, the numbers were coming up really well and within the range that I needed the signal to show forth. I did not want to get too excited but I thought, ‘this could really be it’. I kept scooping, repositioning the detector to get the signal again, scooped again, pinpointed the signal with the detector and then I tried to scoop up the target once more. Then, at some point there was no longer a signal coming from the hole that I was scooping in and I was positive the target was in my scoop. Like all of the other times, I walked the mud pile over to the shore and dumped the contents onto the sand for checking. I took my hand-held pinpointer and searched more carefully. Then, I knew that whatever this piece of metal was, it was finally between my fingers. I had to clean off much of the black mud that surrounded it, and then everything came into view. What I had in my hand was a black colored, circular piece of metal that resembled a ring. I took it up closer to me, and there I could faintly see through the outer layer of the black crust surrounding the object, a colorful stone inserted in the middle! I found it! I found Carla’s ring! I remembered seeing the stones in Claudia’s. I almost couldn’t believe it! I had looked for so many hours during my first hunt a week ago into the darkness of the night. Then, I returned again today to search many more hours all to find nothing but trash right up until the very last target that I would get a signal worth digging! And it was the very one that I was looking for! I was shouting the victory cry, yelling with fists towards the air and people that were on their balconies could not have been more excited for me and more importantly, for Carla! They had seen me out there for so long, and a couple of the condominium residents even remembered seeing me search a week earlier. It was just a marvelous moment in time for me! I could not wait for me to show my findings with Carla and Claudia!
For those who are not aware of what happens to sterling silver in water over time, the metal oxidizes and the surface of the silver darkens in color. One can easily remove the outer layer that forms on the metal and return it to its original appearance. I did not do any removing of that layer just in case I might accidentally leave a scratch on the ring. I would leave that up to Carla to take care of. When I saw the colored stone in the ring, I knew that the blackened condition of the ring most likely meant that it was silver in content. I was so happy to see this outer color change because it was the best clue to indicate that I had found what I had been searching for this whole time!
What a great feeling to pack up my gear and leave the search site with the keepsake that I had come to look for, pulling it from the bay where it had resided in a foot of mud, in the water below for over a year! Absolutely fantastic! My mission was completely successful!
Now it was time to bring the ring back to its owner. I wasn’t going to call Carla up and share the news on the phone. I definitely was going to do a fake-out! As I drove in the direction of their home, which was very close to where the two of them had rescued me out in the Rehoboth Bay a week earlier, I came up with my surprise strategy. Carla and Claudia got a fun reveal waiting for them!
Watch the upcoming video to see how I surprised the ladies! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel at: THE RING RETURNER and hit the notification bell to get a reminder when the video is finally uploaded.
It brought me so much happiness to return the ring to Carla! As a result, we all became friends. I also got to meet their lovely children back at their place. We celebrated with a couple of drinks and the next day we sat out on their deck and shared life together. Not only that, but they offered to take me back out to the initial search site to help me recover the ring for that other gentleman. Can you believe such selflessness and kindness?! Because my boat engine was not repaired yet, we would take the pontoon boat out the next day and I would check the search site out for the missing ring. Unfortunately the water was too deep even at low tide and I was not able to use my equipment. Also, I was not equipped with additional scuba gear in order to attempt a dive for the ring at that point. However, I got to jump in and cool off in the water and so did Claudia after I climbed out! It was quite refreshing! Then, we headed back towards their slip and hung out outside for a while as I shared earlier. It was a blast!
So, what started out as a time of adversity for me in trying to help somebody find their lost ring, it ended up with me being helped, which in turn allowed me to help them with finding their missing ring, and then also in turn, they ended up helping me once again with a final search attempt to help that other person who lost his ring overboard!
I look forward to stopping by and saying hello to my new friends the next time I’m out in that neck of the woods again!
We will always have fond memories of this story that the three of us shared together. A story that was quite special indeed!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Lisa’s 14 karat White Gold Diamond Covered Wedding Band
I love doing In-House searches because there is always a new challenge with solving the mystery at hand! No two searches are ever the same, especially when a ring disappears in a home!
I received a phone call from Lisa of Arlington Virginia, who shared how she was perplexed with not knowing what happened to her wedding band that had disappeared in her Arlington home a few days before. She remembered taking off her wedding band upstairs in the master bathroom. When she returned to the bathroom the next morning to place the band back on her finger, the ring had vanished. She and her husband looked everywhere. She took everything out of her vanity and searched diligently to find her beloved wedding band. She checked the floors and then began checking other places in the home. Nothing turned up. When she exhausted every possibility as to where the ring may have ended up, she found The Ring Finder’s site and contacted me immediately.
On the phone, I asked Lisa every question imaginable, such as: When do you remember taking off the ring? Do you remember removing anything from the bathroom that might have had the ring inside of it or with it? Did you hear anything bounce on the bathroom floor? Were there any other people in the house, like a house cleaner, who may have placed it somewhere or accidentally knocked it off the vanity?
Lisa answered all of my questions and when the Q and A time was finished, she and her husband scheduled me to come over later that evening.
That night, I arrived in Arlington Virginia and began the in-house search. I started in the master bathroom where Lisa had last seen her diamond encircled wedding band. She was fantastic about letting me go through all the drawers in her vanity area in the bathroom and take out all of the different compartments in order to investigate every crevice of every to see if I could find the ring. I was beyond meticulous about not missing anything, just in case the ring landed in one of her very organized makeup sectionals. We ruled out the possibility that the ring had fallen into the sink drain hole because the stopper in the sink did not allow for the wedding band to fall down into the drain.
I searched the garbage can, the tile floor, I looked in the towel closet and in a second closet that was adjacent to where all of the linens and accessories were kept. Still no wedding band found. I even looked in the shower stall just in case the ring had bounced onto the floor and then bounced again into the shower area.
Once I finished concluding that the ring was nowhere to be found in the master bathroom, I continued in other rooms of the house, convinced that the ring must have ended up somewhere else outside of the parameter of the bathroom. “Why” and “How” would be the questions that would need to be answered over the course of the evening. I looked everywhere. Still, no ring was discovered. I continued to the next floor below and repeated my steps in each room to assure myself, Lisa and her husband Dan that we could eliminate more areas to search that were on my checklist. I couldn’t believe that I still had not found the treasured jewel on the third and second levels that I thoroughly investigated. This took me down to the first floor where the living room and kitchen area was located. It was the last level to check because she had never gone to the basement with the wedding band that seemed to have evaporated into thin air. So, it was clear that I could rule out any search down there.
Throughout my journey to uncover the missing keepsake, I used my in-house search equipment, which included my handheld metal detector, along with a small sniper coil on my regular detector. A detectorist is very limited to what you can do with a detector because of the quantity of metal that is found in sofas, floors and walls. The most important tools to use happen to be the use of the mind and of the eyes. One must think clearly in regards to all of the possibilities of what could have happened to the piece of jewelry and to look very carefully as to where it may have hid itself.
Lisa’s White Gold Diamond Covered Wedding Band Sparkles Brilliantly
Once I finished searching the vestibule, half bathroom, the dining room, living room (all of the sofas, chairs, air vents and area rugs), the kitchen was the last room to search. I was pretty confident that I had not missed anything. If there were no other possibilities as to what happened to the disappearing ring, it would have been found long before I arrived at the scene! These In-House searches are usually not so simple to solve. They require much deduction, thinking outside of the box of reason and it takes patience and confidence to figure out what may have happened to the ring.
As Lisa’s husband Dan was preparing the evening supper, I requested permission to search the final room – the kitchen. If it was not in there, I would have no more places to check and I would have to call it quits for the night. I had already conducted a three and a half hour search at that point. Dan gave me the go-ahead to look under the stove, refrigerator and any other places that had cracks or gaps where the ring could have rolled or slid under. This also included the lovely kitchen island where Dan was preparing a delicious gourmet meal for two. Once I looked everywhere in the kitchen, every spot was clear of the potential of hiding that stubborn “ring of ice”.
At this point, there was only one place left that had gone unchecked, and that was the kitchen trash can. I knew that if it was not in there, I would have completely run out of options. I asked Lisa if I could look through the garbage, piece by piece, to see if the ring had ended up in there. She deferred to her husband who was just about to finish all the preparations for their dinner. Dan politely and respectfully declined giving me permission to allow me to conduct the search. This family was very private, and just like many Washingtonians (people who live in DC, and the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia) there are limitations to how much someone will permit you into their private world. It is completely understandable. Dan felt uncomfortable allowing me to look through their trash, and so I suggested that the two of them look through the bag upon finishing their evening meal. I completed my suggestion by asking them whether or not the trash had been taken out ever since Lisa had lost her ring. Their response was that it was not taken out to the garage and not given over to the garbage truck quite yet. But the truck would be coming in the morning and they planned to have the garbage bags taken away first thing in the morning. This included the kitchen bag of garbage.
I pleaded with both of them to make certain to go through the garbage because it was quite possible that the wedding band had been placed by accident in the garbage. It was my only explanation for the disappearance of the ring since I had not discovered it in any of the other rooms.
I may have said something that caused Lisa to talk things over with Dan because moments later, she asked if I would excuse myself from the kitchen so they could talk things over privately. I was happy to do so and after a short while I was called back over and Dan gave the go-ahead for me to go through the trash. I was happy for their decision because if they didn’t check the garbage before taking it out to the curb, their last attempt to find Lisa’s ring would have gone out the window and we would have never known if it could have possibly found its way in the bag.
Immediately I went to the car to grab my rubber gloves and started back to the kitchen where I took a hold of the white garbage bag and headed out to the rear patio.
I knelt down on the brick laid surface, in front of the bag, and piece by piece I removed the rubbish. Sometimes I get the question from people as to what I may be thinking when I’m almost done with all of my searching and it comes down to one last place to search. Many times I stay quite hopeful that a miracle will take place and that I will defeat the odds at the “11:59th position” on the clock. In all honesty, I am wishing for a fairy tale ending. What I was doing in the back of the house was my “Hail Mary” attempt. It was the last play of the game, so to speak.
Lisa Excitedly Shows Off Her Once-Gone-Missing Wedding Band!
I kept going through the trash, removing food scraps and random items that came from places throughout the house. I had a separate bag to discard the miscellaneous garbage, and soon I had just about filled the empty bag with everything that was in the trash bag that was under the kitchen sink. Then, just as there was almost nothing left to look through, I emptied a small plastic transparent bag that had miscellaneous throw-away items that were not food related. The contents fell to the bottom of the near empty bag and there before my eyes, with the search headlamp blazing towards the plastic, I thought I saw something sparkle brilliantly towards the very bottom. I reached farther in to grab it out and there it was! The missing ring! Lisa’s beautiful wedding band! Her diamond covered wedding band was in there all along and I found it! It turned out that I made the right call in asking the couple to allow me to check the garbage! Apparently, the wedding band had been accidentally discarded along with some other master bathroom throw-away items that were in the transparent baggy! The ring was probably in her hand and she didn’t realize that it got dropped in the same bag along with the other trash! And had I not pointed out the necessity of checking our last option to find the ring (which was the kitchen trash can), that wedding band, full of white gold and diamonds, would have been put out on the curb the following morning, and picked up by the garbage truck where it would be taxied to the central city dump! Incredible! I was elated! All of the feelings that I experienced at that moment, as I stared at the ring that I had been looking for over the course of many hours, gave me an amazing rush! I was even surprised that I had found it with that final option to search the can! It just blew me away! It brings so much gratification to my heart to be able to find something missing such as this! And to give a suggestion as to where it might have ended up and then it turns out to be correct, it’s such a great feeling!
I consolidated all of the trash into one bag and headed for the rear door of the house just feet from where I was searching. I knocked on the door and Lisa opened it up and she immediately asked if I had any luck finding her precious and priceless piece of jewelry. I couldn’t wait to tell her the news!
If you want to know what I said and what her reaction was, stay tuned for my upcoming video to share the awesome reveal! See my YouTube channel link below to subscribe and get the latest search videos including the one that you just read about! Make sure you elect to receive notifications of all new videos so you will know when this story is uploaded on the YouTube channel.
Because of the quantity of searches that have taken place this past summer, I am trying hard to catch up with all of my articles and videos. Please subscribe to my channel: THE RING RETURNER and I assure you that the video to this story will be up very soon. I will be catching up with all of my stories over the next month or two.
The article above is a perfect example of how we should never give up. It reminds us that there is always an explanation as to how the item disappeared, and that we must never disregard searching the most unlikely places. We should never doubt or pass up looking at the last and final location where the ring may have ended up, because it might very well be right there, just waiting for us to find it! Just waiting for it to be returned to its owner from an unlikely search spot like the kitchen garbage can!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Sometimes, we conclude the very worst about a situation, when in reality, it may not be as bad as we thought things were after all! In this search account, you will see illustrated exactly what I am talking about!
I was in touch with a woman named Amie who had lost her engagement ring about a week prior to us talking on the phone. She did everything to try to retrieve her ring that had gone missing over the previous weekend. Amie and her husband took all of the right steps to attempt to find or get back her beloved keepsake.
The story goes like this. One Saturday afternoon, Amie left her house in Ashburn, Virginia, to take her daughters out to the soccer game that they would be competing in. As the girls left the house, one of them asked mom about her beautiful diamond engagement ring that she was wearing. It sparkled brilliantly in the light and the daughter to notice of it. She asked, “Mom, why do you wear that ring?” Amie shared the significance of the ring and what it meant to her. I’m sure she even cherished it more as she reflected on the sentimentality of how she received it. They talked all the way to the car and then headed for the game. Ironically, without knowing it, the ring would be the subject of many more discussions in the next few hours and to into the next week
Like a good soccer mom, Amie hung out on the sidelines, cheering on her daughters’ team. Little did she know or imagine that there would come a real trial upon returning home from the match.
After the game, the daughters were driven home by their mother. It was not until Amie arrived back at the house that she realized that her engagement ring was missing! She looked everywhere for it. She knew that she took it with her to the game because Amie remembered talking about the ring as they headed for the car. But what happened to it? It had disappeared! She concluded that it must have fallen off sometime during the soccer game. She checked the car thoroughly but nothing showed up. That’s when the big search began. Amie drove back to the soccer field and checked all of the places where she walked and stood. Still nothing was found. She checked with the other coaches who were playing their teams on the field when she traveled back to the school where the games were played. No ring was turned in. You can only imagine how upset and frustrated she was for having no explanation as to how the ring fell off of her finger.
Amie and her husband Tim continued searching, including acquiring a metal detector to search the field more thoroughly. But still there were no happy findings. They exhausted all of their means for searching and so they let the soccer association and the school building know about the disappearance of the ring, just in case somebody turned it in. Amie also put an ad out in Craigslist, hoping somebody found the ring and would respond to the online appeal.
Amie’s Gorgeous Diamond Engagement Ring Found After A Week Gone Missing!
Well, almost a week would pass, and still the ring did not surface. Amie and Tim were perplexed and saddened, thinking that she may never see the ring again since days had already passed.
Finally, after reviewing my credentials online, Amie reached out to me for help. She shared everything that had happened and everything she did to get word out about the ring’s disappearance. After listening carefully to her story, I asked her a whole list of questions to make sure that I had all of the details down. I also wanted to make sure that she had exhausted all of the search possibilities, including looking in her house more carefully. She and Tim did a careful search and she concluded that there was no way the ring was in the house, especially because she left the house with the ring and when she returned shortly thereafter, she realized that the ring was not on her finger.
I agreed to drive to Ashburn, Virginia and to first search the soccer field and surrounding areas where Amie walked on the day that the engagement ring disappeared. Tim met me out there during the last hour of daylight and he guided me to the places that I needed to detect. It took 3 hours or so to finish my search on all of the grassy areas. Most of the detecting was done in the dark with my headlamp on high beam. The 14 karat gold ring was nowhere to be found. I then resolved to check Tim’s vehicle in the parking lot of the school that we were at, which was the SUV driven on the day that the ring was lost. We talked a little about golf as I thoroughly searched it from top to bottom (Tim is a professional golf instructor! He has met, worked with and / or instructed some notables such as President Obama, Tiger Woods and a young Naomi Watts and more!). I was hoping to have a fun discovery for Tim and Amie by the time I finished looking over the vehicle, but there were no encouraging reports to share.
There were only two more places for me to check after I finished with the field and with the SUV. First, was to search the grass areas along the walkway leading from their resident’s parking lot right up to the front door of their house. Secondly, the other location was to search the inside of the house. I started with the outside areas and worked my way to their front door. I wasn’t shaken or placed in a state of doubt regarding the continued search efforts. I knew that this beautiful piece of jewelry could have fallen off Amie’s finger as she walked back to the house following the soccer match, or that she lost it upon entering her home just prior to her realizing that it had gone missing. In fact, I was so confident that we still had a chance to find the ring and that it may not have disappeared on the field all along, that I specifically requested that Tim return inside the house and begin to search the first floor of the home. He was totally up for the challenge! I told him that in my experience, many times the missing ring ends up being discovered in the house and was never left on the ground outside somewhere. In many situations, it’s waiting for someone to find it inside the house! I also told him that I hoped that he would find the ring because “us husbands” need all of the points that we can earn and this would greatly score him some big numbers if he ended up finding the wedding band! Tim agreed wholeheartedly and he headed inside to conduct a more thorough search based on my encouragement and instructions as to where to carefully look.
Tim and Amie, Happily Ever After Now That Her Lost Ring Was Found!
As I was metal detecting the grass sections, slowly walking closer and closer down the walkway to the front entrance of Tim and Amie’s house, Amie approached me in tears because Tim had just shared that our search efforts at the school came up empty handed. Honestly, she had lost hope at this point. I talked to her and encouraged her by sharing that we still had plenty of areas to check: all of the footage remaining outside for me to detect, and all of the first floor of her home! I expressed my confidence by stating that I sent her husband inside to search and that he could find the ring somewhere in the house and I still had room to discover the ring in the grassy areas along the sides of the walkway. She appreciated my positive stance but she also reminded me that she couldn’t imagine the ring being inside because when she re-entered the house with the girls that afternoon, she wasn’t wearing her ring as she did when she left the house to go to the soccer field earlier in the day. I proposed the idea that perhaps the ring fell off her finger just soon after she arrived back home. It would be improbable but still possible in that small window of time to have lost it on the first floor!
Well, the improbable became possible! Moments after I attempted to infuse some fresh hope into Amie, Tim came strutting out of the house and down the walkway where we were conversing, and he had some terrific news! He got his wife’s attention to look and see what was in his hand! He found the ring! Yes! The diamonds were sparkling everywhere in his palm as I brought the headlamp light near to them! He listened to my instructions to search the floors more carefully and to not leave a spot unchecked! And boy did it pay off! Remember, the engagement ring had gone missing for nearly a week! Well, it was finally found and it was spotted by Tim under the computer table where all of the power cords and power strips were located! At first, I observed that Amie was in such disbelief that Tim had found the ring because she was acting kind of passive and not understanding to what Tim had discovered. I think she thought it was some other ring! So Tim made it a whole lot more clearly by showing her the gorgeous white gold band covered with diamonds on top as he opened his hand some more! Then, it was if the sun had come out in the middle of the night and her countenance started to greatly change! A huge smile overtook the previous dim look of sadness and reality began to set in! The ring was found! She was going to wear it again! It was back in her possession! Amie almost couldn’t believe it, although she began to slowly get convinced that she wasn’t living a dream! She cried many tears of joy and hugged her beloved husband over and over again! It was such an amazing sight to see! I couldn’t be happier for her! Then, I was able to properly gloat a little by reminding her that I did say that the ring could be just feet away from where I was searching, and Tim was the hero to set his eyes on the prize! I high-fived Tim and we all rejoiced with hugs at the discovery!
So, in conclusion, it turned out that the ring did return home from the soccer match. Here is the explanation as to what had happened: When Amie entered the house upon returning from the soccer game with the girls, she took both of their string backpacks and placed them on their designated hooks in the coat closet. Apparently, the ring must have been pulled off her finger by one of the strings of one of the backpacks, it slipped off her finger when she placed the backpacks on the hooks and it hit the hardwood floors and rolled under the computer table where it remained until Tim conducted a more aggressive search! I couldn’t have been happier for the couple! The search was over! The ring was back on Amie’s finger again, and she was one relieved young lady!
That night, the three of us celebrated for a while longer before I packed up my gear and headed back to my car to prepare for the journey home. It was a wonderful search and a very successful ending to my day! Tim and Amie were relieved and overjoyed! The mystery of the lost engagement ring was finally solved once and for all!
CHECK OUT THIS SEARCH VIDEO OF THE RECOVERY OF AMIE’S MISSING RING:
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
I received a call from Derek about losing his wedding band in waste deep water in Lake Michigan at Glen Haven, Michigan. Derek said “we have a problem.” Glen haven is in the lower peninsula and Derek and his wife Dorothy are in the upper peninsula headed toward Wisconsin. They are doing a circle trip around Lake Michigan. I told Derek we had no problem, we just needed to use the US Postal service to get this done. I got a good location from Derek. Straight out from the walkway and the water was waist deep. I drove the hour up to Glen Haven spent 6 minutes in the water and got the ring. I put the ring in the mail Monday morning sending the ring to Pennsylvania. Derek and Dorothy were very happy to get the ring back, its a family heirloom from Dorothy’s grandfather. A couple days later I got a nice hand written letter of thanks in the mail. I also appreciate the reward very much.
Hannah’s 14 Karat White Gold, 1 Carat Diamond With Surrounding Diamonds Engagement Ring
Hannah and Her Bridesmaids Excitedly Show Off Her 1 Carat Diamond Engagement Ring After Found in the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean City, Maryland!
After a Day in the Atlantic Ocean, Hannah’s Engagement Ring Returns to the Shore With the Help of The Ring Finder, Brian Rudolph!
It was Hannah’s bachelorette party weekend with the girls in Ocean City, Maryland! Her wedding day was two weeks to the day of that unforgettable summer afternoon! With such fun and celebration in the air, also came a time of heartache and despair. While Hannah was out in the Atlantic Ocean with some of her entourage, the bride-to-be was hit by a wave, causing Hannah to fall over into the water. As a result of the wave striking her and with her having to push herself off the sand, the bride’s beautiful fairytale-like engagement ring slid off her finger and landed somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, forty yards away from the shore.
Hannah was in a panic. She called Derek, her fiancé’, and told him everything. He kept it calm, went online to see if he could find a metal detecting service, and that’s when he found THE RING FINDERS and Brian Rudolph. Hannah was given all of the contact information and then she called me. I was just coming into Ocean City to do a search on 101st Street for an iWatch that had gone missing in the Ocean. As I was entering into the city limits, Hannah gave me the story of what happened. I explained to her that she had a great chance of getting the ring back because she was calling me just 45 minutes after the Ring settled to the bottom of the ocean. Rings can be found days later but she had the best chance because of how quickly I received the call and her group’s clear recollection of where the ring came off.
We talked about what she needed to do in order to remember approximately where she was when the ring slipped off her finger. I asked her to count how many feet out into the ocean where she was in relationship to where the lifeguard chair was at the time. I asked her to walk down the beach from the lifeguard chair and count how many feet over and then to count how many feet out into the ocean. Thanks to Hannah, her mother, and the other bachelorette party girls, they all agreed on a particular area for me to do the search.
After I finished the search for the iWatch, I headed over to the beach side of 47th Street, in front of the Gateway Grand condominium building where I met Hannah, her mother and all of the bachelorette crew. She took me through each step of what happened and so did the other girls. Then, Hannah walked me from the lifeguard chair area out into the water where she was accompanied by her friends to show me where they believed the ring may have come off. When the loss happened, her mother had been sitting on the shore watching the ladies out in the ocean when the ring came off and so she gave a very good idea as to the hot zone where I should start my search.
Once I got all of the information down while we were standing in the ocean looking out to the area where Hannah’s ring may have come off, I felt confident as to where I needed to begin and the yardage from left to right where I needed to search. It was looking like it would be a 40 yard area from left to right and 30 to 40 yards out in the Atlantic.
We all came up on shore and that’s when I got my gear and did a two-hour search even though it was during high tide. I thought maybe I would get lucky, but there was no way to get that far out because the waves were just way too aggressive. I would have to wait until the middle of the night when low tide would arrive again.
Everybody on the shore in the bachelorette party, including two guy friends that were in town at the time of the unfortunate incident, all took off to get ready for the evening fun. I knew that Hannah would be extremely preoccupied with the loss of her ring and I tried to comfort her and encourage her to go out and have a good time and that if anybody could find this ring, with the help of God, it would be me that could recover it for her. I told her later, that I never do tell people how difficult this kind of thing is to find a 1-inch piece of jewelry out in the roaring Atlantic Ocean. But, I knew that if I used my skills correctly and if I was divinely-guided, it was a good chance I could get it back for Hannah, just in time for her wedding that was two weeks to the day!
The two hour search that ensued that evening was very difficult and I didn’t even find a single target to scoop up. I resolved to leave the beach and return at 4:15 a.m. at low tide. I left the beach knowing that Hannah’s ring was left behind, buried far out in the water and sand, way out in the dark, needing to be recovered, as I headed to my car.
I think God woke me up in the middle of the night because both of my alarms failed to go off on my phone. I happened to wake up at 3:45 a.m. and I was so glad that I did not oversleep the low tide hour. I quickly got my wet suit on, geared up and headed for the sand in total darkness. I prayed for God’s help and guidance as I did the night before, to take me to the spot where the ring rested below. Throughout my search, I prayed and asked God over and over to bless Hannah with the recovery of the ring. I prayed to Him out of compassion for Hannah and Derek because of the disappointment that this loss weighed upon them. I fully identified with them regarding the feeling of losing something so precious and wondering if it could ever be returned. It’s a helpless feeling and all of the “what ifs” attack you over and over again.
Not a soul was on that beach. It was just me, the ocean, and Hannah’s ring which was somewhere out there. Pardon the pun but looking for a ring in the ocean is like looking for a needle in a haystack when doing a search of this magnitude. When you’re out there in the water, with the waves coming at you in the dark and all you have is a headlamp on, it’s a weird lonely feeling. A metal detectorist just has to get over it and focus on what the mission is and not think about the loneliness and the improbability of finding such a small target out in the middle of so much territory.
You are not only battling the darkness, but you are facing so many different factors at one time. You’re dealing with the waves, the current, the noise of the ocean while trying to listen to your detector, the pounding pressure from the water that is constantly going against your coil as you’re trying to swing to the left and to the right. You have to hear and read signals correctly. You’re fighting against the tide and the clock, because you have a small window of time to search farther out in the deep. You constantly deal with doubt and wondering what actually happened to the ring when it fell to the sand below. You are hoping the estimations of where the ring disappeared are somewhat accurate. You’re hoping that the ring stays in one place and that it did not get carried some distance away by chance. You are wondering how much sand may have gotten piled on top of it and if the metal detector will even be able to reach the depth where the ring rests below the sand. You fight your own pressure of knowing that you are the only one that can bring this ring back with the help of God. If I failed, that bride won’t be wearing her engagement ring for the upcoming wedding in 2 weeks. Love and compassion must be your drive to get you past all of the adversity that you face out there in the dark.
So I searched that morning from 4:15 a.m. until 7:45 a.m., detecting the ocean as the sun came up and I only got a few targets to search, and none of them were Hannah’s ring. After all that time I was physically worn out, as well as disappointed that I had not pulled the ring out of the Atlantic…but I didn’t give up. Once again, I resolved to return in the late afternoon during the next low tide to give it my all and see if I could get the ring back.
Once it was later that morning, I would call the bride-to-be and let her know that I was unsuccessful at my second attempt in finding her ring. I could hear her disappointment on the phone. We agreed that I would do another hour and then she would tell me what she wanted me to do next – to keep searching or to let it go.
That afternoon, I got back out onto the beach after resting up for a few hours that late morning and early afternoon. I was mentally strong and ready to attack the water once again. Just seeing all of the people on the beach and in the water made for a completely different scene from the night search. The beach was alive again, teaming with people everywhere. That made me happy.
I got my detector ready, geared up and once again headed for the same water that I got to know quite well in the middle of the night. I was not going to rest easy and allow the water to keep what rightfully belonged to Hannah. I would give it all I had and hoped that I could find her beloved engagement ring.
The tide was helpful to me, as was the tide in the middle of the night. However, the waves really battered me like a rag doll every time I was getting as far out in the deep as I needed to be. There was one thing I didn’t have to deal with which I dealt with in the middle of the night, and that were a few small sand sharks that were bumping into my leg as I metal detected through the night. It’s kind of eerie because you can’t see them but you can feel them every so often pumping and brushing up against your wetsuit.
Each target that I came in touch with ended up being a disappointment, one after the other. I would get hit by a wave, my headphones would go flying off, and my hat would go swinging to the back of me because it was tethered to a cord around my neck. Between the waves being aggressive when I was up where they broke, and the depth of many of the signals, it took quite a while to be able to get to each of the targets that were buried below the sand.
Finally, just before I reached the end of the first hour of searching that afternoon (my sixth hour in total), I got my 7th target signal. This signal was very weak and almost unrecognizable. It was the kind of signal that you could just walk right by if you weren’t listening extremely carefully because you’re dealing with the noises of the waves, and the headphones can only give you so much volume. Also, those low tones that you are looking for to detect white gold, are masked by false signals that sound the same when your detector coil is brushing up against moving sand in the water. So, you almost can’t tell the signals apart unless you stop and test whether or not there is something deep below that is made of metal.
Though I wanted to pass this signal up because it really didn’t sound like it was anything important, I decided not to compromise the search by giving up something that I just didn’t know what it was unless I scooped it up and found out. I attempted to pull the target out several times and it was probably the most difficult time getting to the target because of its depth and the waves were just pounding me. Every time I laid the scoop down into the water, another wave would take me by surprise. I kept going and going, scooping over and over again, until the detector did not read any signal i
n the hole any longer. I didn’t even think that the object was in the scoop because I had been digging so much that I didn’t believe anything was even in there. But once the detector did not sound off any signal any longer, I took a look in the scoop. I brought it down to the water to get some more sand out of it and then brought it up again. I believe it took a couple of times to do this and then when I got my focus back on the scoop and looked down for maybe the second or third time, I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was there! It came into focus! This beautiful princess-like object that was given to Hannah at the proposal by Derek himself was finally caught, cradled by my stainless steel net! It had been raised from the dead and it would be given life again above the waters that concealed it for 24 hours! It appeared from the dark! It was like living a dream because I knew I was looking for the ring but I didn’t know exactly what it looked like. One thing I knew and that was if I found it, I would know it was Hannah’s! After searching so many hours and finding nothing, the reality of finding that which I was searching for, for so long, became very emotional and almost to the point of being overwhelming!
There was victory, at last! I defeated the elements! I know that it was God’s hand and His immense favor that led me to that target and it was my determination to not reject that which was handed to me! I truly believe it was divine intervention. God loves marriage and loves symbols. Like the rainbow, which God told Noah it would always be a reminder of the covenant between man and God. I believe the ring is similar. It’s a representation of the covenant between two people.
And it was there in the Atlantic Ocean, 40 yards out, that I was introduced to the ring and the ring was introduced to me as my eyes laid ahold of it. Soon my fingers would greet the priceless keepsake as I grasped it out of the scoop! I will never forget how the diamonds and gold treated me so warmly as they reflected millions of brilliant colors back at my face!
I couldn’t hold back the excitement after what I finally found from the depths of the ocean! The impossible had happened and now I let it all out for everyone to hear on the beach! I started running to the shore and sharing my overwhelming joy to find that which had been lost 24 hours prior! People started clapping and some gathered over to see what emerged out of the waters of the Atlantic! This was one of the best “show and tells” that I had ever had! It really takes your breath away when something like this can be recovered! Many people on the beach rejoiced with me, knowing that Hannah was going to get her ring back soon enough! There were even people on the beach the day before who witnessed seeing the bride-to-be’s sadness and how all of her friends and mother reacted to the loss. Now, the same people witnessed redemption, a second chance, a new unbelievable fairytale of how the storybook ring would reappear and be carried back to the princess just before the wedding day!
I gave God the glory and credit for what had taken place. I just felt like I was the servant who He sent to the ocean to pluck that ring out and return it to the one who cried out for help! Apparently, on social media, a prayer group was assembled and requests to God were made known. Yes, the power of prayer! I do believe that God is not all about material things but most importantly, that which comes from the heart. But from my personal experience, I see how God gets involved when love and compassion are made the center points, and not idolatry of an object. This was one of those examples where I believe He divinely intervened. I know my skills and I know what I am capable of. But, in this search, I needed something more than what I was knowledgeable about, and more than the detector that I held in my hand 40 yards out in the ocean. I was thanking God the whole time for what He did to guide me to the jewel!
So, what did I do next? I took a survey from everybody on the beach and it was clear that I needed to do a fake out and make this a surprise worth keeping forever! So, I called her up and I told Hannah that I did everything I could to recover the ring and I just asked her if she would like me to continue beyond the one hour search that I had done so far. We had agreed that I would stop after the first hour and she would reevaluate everything with Derek about moving forward or not. Hannah decided to not continue the search. Had I not found the ring during that hour, it would have stayed out there in the Atlantic possibly indefinitely because the couple decided to let it go rather than to continue. I couldn’t wait to do the reveal!
This was an amazing story that I will never forget. Please watch the video for what happened next! It’s worth watching!
As much as it was a fairytale come true for Derek and Hannah to fall in love and to recover the lost engagement ring from the ocean just two weeks prior to their wedding, it was also a fairy tale story for me, as well. Just a few days after I returned the ring to Hannah, my wife and I received an invitation from the couple to join them in their celebration at their wedding! I was beyond honored and touched by their hearts of kindness! I was able to attend this most amazing wedding and celebration! It’s so hard to describe the emotions that were running through me when I saw the bride and groom exchanging vows and wedding bands! Also, to view Hannah, dressed as the fairytale bride, wearing the engagement ring and now accompanying the matching wedding band, it was simply magical! The set was complete, and so was this beautiful love between the newly crowned husband and wife!
This story was a fairytale come true twice over! I will never forget it as long as I live!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and how I surprised Hannah with the return of her ring, click below:
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN OTHER SEARCH VIDEOS ARE UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Please don’t hesitate to call me. Surf City Ring Finder 714-944-0555
Susan called me and said her friend Mike lost his wedding band at the beach. Mike had placed his ring in the cup holder of his chair and when it was time to leave he picked up the chair and the ring went flying into the sand. When I arrived at the beach I saw Mike with a kids plastic shovel trying to search for his ring. He was happy to see me and all it took was less then two minutes of searching to find it. Susan and Mike were very pleased with The Ring Finders service.
I got a call from Dave and he asked if I was the metal detecting guy. I said, “Yes, what did you loose and where?”. He proceeded to tell me that he was still at the Puyallup River and that he had just lost his gold wedding ring while fishing. I could tell he was quite upset about the situation. After requesting that he take several photos of the exact area and how to mark the location I agreed to do a search the next morning.
Being a river hunt I wasn’t quite sure if a recovery would be successful or not but we had to at the very least give it a shot. Our Great North West is full of faster flowing rivers often making it extremely challenging to recover a ring. However we all know the results of not trying, and no one is happy with that result. Come along for the adventure and see how this lost river ring gets recovered and returned to its very appreciative owner.
Claudia Couldn’t Be Happier to Wear the Old Gold Ring Again!
I received a phone call coming from a woman named Claudia who found my contact information online by clicking on The Ring Finders link somewhere at the bottom of a web page. Like me, she grew up in Bethesda, Maryland area and she went to the same high school that I went to but just a different time period.
It turned out that Claudia’s childhood Bethesda house would be put up for sale soon because her mother (who still lived in the Bethesda home) would be moving into a retirement community nearby. So, it was Claudia that had to tie together all of the loose ends and make sure that everything was taken care of inside and outside of the house before the house sale would be soon finalized.
One of the To-Do’s on her checklist was to search and dig up her ex-husband’s wedding band that was buried somewhere in the front lawn of the house! Yes, you read it correctly! Her former husband’s wedding band! Initially I was taken back by that, but it wasn’t as strange as it seemed. According to Claudia’s account, even though she had been divorced from the man for over twenty plus years, (and by the way, she was the one that ended the marriage), Claudia liked wearing her ex’s big-old-hunk-of-gold wedding band! She kept wearing it and it just became a part of her hand over time.
Claudia described to me on the phone what happened to the ring a year earlier. She shared that she was parked along side the front of her mother’s house, on the street, and she opened up her minivan to bring out some groceries. At some point she saw the ring fly off her finger and onto the lawn near the street.
She wasted no time in searching for the ring. However, what she thought would be so simple in finding the ring ended up being an unsuccessful recovery. Time marched on and Claudia had always meant to go look for the ring again but other priorities came in the way of this from happening and so it wasn’t until her mother had to move from Claudia’s childhood house that she needed to make the ring reappear from the lawn.
I was so happy to help Claudia when she called me to ask if I could come out sooner than later to help recover her ex-husband’s yellow gold wedding ring from the earth. We set up the appointment for the following day and that’s where the fun began!
When I met up with Claudia and her brother who happened to be at the house at the same time, she took me to the spot that she believed was the general area where the ring went flying to the ground. I got my gear out and began the search. I was looking for a pretty hot signal because the ring was said to be a real “chunker”! In no time, I got a couple of signals that matched up with what I wanted to see on my detector! One of them ended up being a penny. I was almost certain that the next target was worth digging up, and I proceeded to do so. About 4 inches down, after clearing a good amount of dirt with my trowel, it was then that I caught a glimpse of some yellow gold peeping through the earth! I hit gold! I was delighted that nobody had picked up the ring when it was on the surface over a year ago! The grass must have effectively camouflaged the treasure piece and I was delighted to conclude that now that the ring had been exposed for the first time in a year!
I called Claudia over to where I had been working and eventually her brother joined us as well. I got to share the exciting news of my find! Claudia was thrilled to say the least! I went ahead and carefully removed the gold ring from the rest of the surrounding dirt and proudly handed it to its owner. Moments later, the ring was back on the finger of the woman who had accidentally dropped it just over a year earlier!
It was such a satisfying feeling to be able to get this keepsake back to Claudia before the land would become someone else’s property. Both Claudia and her brother were quite pleased by the whole experience and the return of the ring truly made their day and mine completely thrilling!
If you, a friend, or a loved one has lost something special to them, please remember to pass the word around about The Ring Finders directory. Let’s get back to you and to others what has been thought to be lost forever!
If you would like to watch this SEARCH VIDEO feel free to click on:
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THE LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
I received a call from Meg who told me she dropped her wedding band in the sand in Avalon, NJ. After speaking to her and asking several questions about where and how she lost it, I started my search. I detected for about 40 minutes without any luck. Since she knew exactly where she dropped the ring, I knew it couldn’t be in the sand and had to be somewhere else. I asked her to check her bag again and sure enough it was there. It must have fallen into something inside the beach bag. The ring was found in the last place that we looked and went right back on her finger!
