Bill McDougall, Author at The Ring Finders

Yesterday Friday the 14th I received a text from Josh asking if I could help him find a medallion. He lost six weeks earlier in an auto accident. Josh lost control of his car on a wet evening and went directly off the road, airborne, through a small patch of field nose first, down a very steep ravine, he was unhurt except for a scratch on his arm and the car was a total. All the airbags were deployed.

 

 

 

Josh climbed out of the car and realized at the moment in time that He was unhurt , Extremely lucky, and his medallion was missing. He tried searching with the light of his phone for a little bit and then made his way out of the ravine. After the car was pulled out, they searched the interior the car extensively. And couldn’t find the medallion. I’ll just add here. This medallion was an American quarter. When Josh was eight years old, he had shot a hole through it with a 22 and this medallion was on a chain around his neck for the last 30 years.

 

 

 

Back to the presence I met Josh at the site of the accident this morning at 8:30 and we survey the scene. Before we ever ventured into the grass, I told Josh this could be something that we may have to do first thing in the spring when all the vegetation is dead. I also question Josh, as to whether the windows of the vehicle were open as he was making his way to the stream and whether any glass was broken and when it was broken. He told me just a rear window was blown out when the car finally came to rest at the bottom of the ravine. I said to Josh, the Ring has to either be in the vehicle or in the stream at the bottom of the ravine. We made our way to the bank and it was extremely steep. I question how we were gonna get down there and more importantly how we’re gonna get back out. Josh lead away and we made our way to the stream bed. Once there, I showed Josh though I couldn’t detect with all the brush and small logs that are in the area. We spent about five minutes clearing brush and logs and debris from the bottom of the stream. I then went to reach from my metal detector that was leaning against the bank, and Josh hallerout there it is. His medallion was resting on the streambank about 4 feet from where I rested my metal detector. I told Josh with a joint effort and a lot of luck. We have what we came for. Now to get out. Josh’s smile says it all.

Wednesday, August 12 at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon I received a call from Matt about a lost ring on the sand in front of their Airbnb. Matt was leaving the next day and want to know if I could search for his ring. I got the door address and left immediately. They were approximately 38 miles from me according to my GPS.

 

 

 

Once on site Matt Fill me in on what it happened when he lost his ring. He had placed his ring in his cupholder of his beach chair while he went swimming and then forgot about it when they carried the beach chairs up to the Airbnb. We started the search where the beach chairs were. Our first target was a Pull tab. His ring was an hour Ring I believe. It was silver color, but he was unsure of the metal so I was going to dig all the targets in this area. The second signal was loud clear signal. Moving a little sand, and there was his ring. His smile says it all.

This past Monday, August 10 I received a call from Dennis from the Ring Finder of Maine, just giving me a heads up about lost rings on deer aisle, Maine. I was able to contact Mariah through Facebook and offered my assistance. Mariah called me immediately and send me pictures and a location.

 

 

 

Once on site , I called Maria and she was able to direct me to where she took a picture 20 minutes before she lost her rings. She had placed her rings in the pants pocket of her shorts while she went swimming. After your swim, she picked up her shorts and started making her way to the exit before realizing that she didn’t have her rings. she searched immediately, could not find them. And then she searched three more times before she had to leave Deer Isle for her home in southern Maine. She lost the rings on a Friday so four or five tides had passed since she lost her ring.

 

 

 

I started my search At the lowest point on the beach that I felt she could’ve been and started working up as luck would have it. The ring was all the way up in the dry sand, so it was over an hour and a half of searching before I found the rings

 

Mariah drove from Southern Maine Wednesday evening to get a ring back. Her smile says it all.

Monday morning, 10 July found me on my way to my yearly dentist appointment. I received a call from Dennis from the Ring Finder of Maine with just a heads up about two rings lost in deer lake Maine. He sent me the Facebook post from the inquiry he had. I made my appointment and as I got back in the truck, I saw a Call on my phone that I didn’t recognize. I thought to myself that must be the lady. Turns out it was a lady from Phillips Lake. Lost her ring the previous evening while clearing some lake weeds from in front of a camp. She was fairly close to where I was so I said I’ll be right there. Then I remembered I didn’t have everything I needed for a water search and I had to call her back and say well I’ll be there in an hour or so.

 

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Once  I arrived at the camp, I met Ruth and her husband. Ruth and I and my metal detector headed for the beach. She had a little pile of lake weed  she had pulled. I scanned it quickly and there was no signal there. Then we proceeded to the water ruth stepped in and starting to point out to me where she pulled the weeds. I scanned a water in front of me and stepped in and the next sweep. I had a really good signal. I said to Ruth, this is a good signal. I like this signal. She said I tried to move that rock but I couldn’t. I reached out with my hand and gave the gravel a swirl, and there was a wedding ring. Less than two minutes on site less than 30 seconds in the water. If this isn’t my fastest recovery? It’s pretty close. I grabbed a picture of Ruth and a ring. We said goodbye and I headed for town thinking I wonder what’s going on in Deer isle. It turns out that Ruth’s Ring was my first of a three ring day. The other rings are for another story.

Saturday afternoon I received a phone call from Dennis of the RingFinders Of Maine. He had given my contact information to a gentleman with a lost ring in Unity Maine.  I was contacted minutes later by Eric who had lost a ring in waste deep water while throwing a football.  WE made arrangements to meet the next morning at the camp.

Once there, I got the rest of the story. Eric was attending a bachelor’s party and they were throwing a football in the water. To catch a high ball, he jumped and reached with his left hand.  He caught the ball and felt something hit the top of his head.  He asked his friend if he had thrown a rock as well. Approximately 5 minutes later, he noticed that his wedding ring was missing and figured immediately that that was what had hit him in the head.

I thought to myself, [not outloud so as not to jinx myself], this hunt is going to be easy.

After getting my metal detector and gear put together, I asked Eric to direct me to the spot he recalled being in. The bottom of the pond seemed to be a thin layer of mud, some vegetation and gravel type rocks. The first target wasn’t the VID number I was hoping for, yet I wanted to get it up to be sure. Retrieving the first target proved to be a challenge as the rocks were embedded in the mud and clay which made scooping a target difficult. AFter seven attempts, i finally got that first target that was a fishing lure!!  I said out loud “I got it!”.   Eric and his friends, exclaimed “You got it?!!!”.  I had to say « no no, not the ring, just this darn fishing lure »

The second target was a penny. The third target had the perfect VID number of 43 which is what I was looking for. I managed to retrieve the target with the second attempt  and it was the ring!  I said out loud this time , “NOW I have the ring”.

Eric’s smile says it all !

†inTuesday, May 18 at approximately 11 AM I received a call from Niomi regarding a ring she had lost at a Little League game. She asked if I would be willing to search for it and I said, of course. I gathered my equipment and made my way towards their ballpark. On the way I called Niomi to get the story. She had placed three tings inher pocket and she remembered counting them as she put them in. Then later, she left the bleacher area to use the porta potty and had her phone in the same pocket. On the way across the back of the ballfield, she pulled her phone out. When I arrived on the field, the first thing we searched was the porta potty. I convinced Niomi to stand on the porta potty while her daughter and I tipped it in four different directions very slowly. She could see nothing there. She was really anxious to get a ring back. Next, we searched around the metal objects of the field with a small coil and found nothing there. Niomi and her husband had rented a metal detector and detected for several hours, digging many holes in the field and finding just the usual debris. I started making straight line searches across the field, covering about 4 feet at a time. On the second pass, Niomi mentioned that she wouldn’t have gone through that area because there were standing water there at the time of the game. I asked her which side of the water she passed on, but she could not remember. I told Niomi and her daughter to just wait there and I was going to make some expanding circle searches around this wet area. On the second circle I received the sound that I was looking for. I saw the ring, but I didn’t tell Niomi her daughter right off that it was there. I then told her I needed a few pictures for documentation and I took the first picture of her pondering. I asked her what she was thinking. She said I think we might not find it. I said yeah I know what you mean but we haYour ring is right here. She was overjoyed to say the least. Her ring is back where it belongs.

Tuesday evening I received a call from Dennis Boothby about a lost ring in Bangor. He provided me with a phone number and name and asked me to call the lady.

I immediately called Lily and got her story. Apparently, her boyfriend, Josh, had tossed her ring and it was somewhere in her yard. I assumed it was her backyard.  I told her if it’s in your yard, and not a public space, then searching for it tomorrow afternoon when she got out of work should be fine with no danger of it being found and picked up.

I arrived at her house a few minutes early and give her a call. She said she was on her way home and her boyfriend would be there shortly. I asked her to  describe where in your backyard is it  and I’ll start looking. She stated it wasn’t in her backyard but in her front yard. Her boyfriend had thrown it from the porch over a forsythia bush then over a car and over her head into the neighbor’s lawn. She had already spoken with the neighbors and they were fine with us searching. I said to myself at that moment « oh no, if it’s in the front yard with the sidewalk and  street,  There is a chance it could’ve been picked up by somebody walking on the sidewalk”.  I started searching the neighbor’s lawn. I then searched the strip between the sidewalk and the street. I received many signals, but none that were on top of Soil. I was using a large coil as it covers the ground very efficiently. However, in town conditions and close to sidewalks there are tons of signals along with a lot of electromagnetic interference. This generally means a background “chatter”.  For someone new to metal detecting this can sound like a constant “roar”. With experience it’s easy to ignore.

About 10 minutes after starting the search, Josh arrived home. I sat down the detector where I was and greeted him and said I would like him to do some coins tosses so that I could see his distance and direction. Josh told me he was a ball player in high school.  I had him throw five pennies and I saw one bounce on the neighbor’s lawn finally; the other four I just did not see where they landed.  I continued searching and told Josh the metal detector was making a lot of noises but I was listening for one particular signal and visual identification number. I searched the neighbor’s entire lawn, the strip between the lawn and the road and the flowerbeds.  Then I went to the next neighbor’s lawn. After a short while Lily arrived.

At some point, I told them that I may have to put on a smaller coil because I was receiving multiple signals quite often. I then asked if the neighbor’s car had been parked there when the incident happened the previous evening. They were unsure. I said to myself I need to look under that car and search the grass close to it. Metal detectors do not work well close to big metal objects such as cars.

As I got close to the rear tire of the vehicle I saw a glint of gold in the asphalt.  I looked closer and it was the ring! I stepped back and motioned for Lily to come over. I told her I wanted a few pictures and for her to see how the metal detector worked. She said OK and started to detect for the ring. I gave her a few pointers on how to use the detector….you have to be closer to the ground and to move a little faster. Then I gave suggestions on where to search… move  over here just a little bit, then check out over there close to that tire. Once she got close to the tire,  I heard a scream of delight. I think her words were “OMG, it’s right here! There’s my ring!” Then she asked me “did you know it was there?”  I said  » I did », yet wanted her to “find” it.

 

The ring is still on the ground, very close to the back tire. If you open the picture up, you can actually see it!

 

The ring was actually embedded a little bit in the asphalt and appeared to have been run over at least once.

 

It looked to me to be undamaged, which was very lucky.

 

In this last photo, it shows the distance the ring traveled! Josh tossed the ring from the porch of the BLUE house over the forsythia bush, over her car,  over the neighbor’s  lawn and into the driveway of the NEXT neighbor . Josh certainly has a good arm. The smiles from both of them is what makes a metal detectionist’s day!!  As Dennis from the Ringfinders of Maine says « we have the best job in the world”.

Yesterday I received a call from John. He asked if I wanted to help him look for a very sentimental ring. He had lost the ring that morning. It was almost noon with plenty of daylight now the spring is almost here and I said absolutely!  I would love to! John provided me with an address and after making a quick sandwich I was on my way. He lived 51 miles from me so the trip was going to take approximately an hour.

On the way,  I called John to begin the questions I always try to ask people. When was the last time you definitely remember seeing the ring? He stated he put it on his finger this morning. Excellent! I said we know the time it was lost.  Have you been anywhere? He stated he’d only been in his yard so far today. John had been doing yardword with a tractor. He stated that the area was fairly small.

We then talked a little bit about the ring. John told me that his great, great (I’m not sure how many greats) grandfather was in the Alaskan gold Rush. This ring was made from Alaskan gold. The ring was passed down father to son ever since.

Once I arrived on site, we did a quick overview of the area that needed to be searched. I was a little concerned as the area was basically bare  as the grass had not really started to grow, therefore the ring should have been visible to the naked eye.  I told John this and said We were mostly looking for places that could hide the ring.

I detected the back area of the house, the side of the house where John had been. Then we moved towards a shed where John had moved some Lumber. I asked him to just make his way to the shed as he did that morning as best as he could recollect. I was detecting behind him. He sat down on a ramp and was watching me as I was working towards him. I thought again the ground is really kind of open here and a ring should be very visible, especially given the size As he described it. I noticed the ramp he was sitting on had a sizable pile of leaves beside it. I asked him …did you sit there this morning? He said yes.  I said the ring is gonna be in the leaves. I know it. As I was making my way to him and the leaves I received The sound I was waiting for. A large double signal. I looked Down and I could see nothing. I swung the metal detector again got the same signal and looked once again , still, I could see nothing. I thought to myself it must be just under the surface. I bent down as I was reaching for my pin pointer. There was the ring invisible in plain sight. John and his wife were quite surprised. He said that they had searched that area 10 times! However, The way the ring was sitting amongst the little bit of leaf debris.  It was there. It was really invisible until you saw it. John and his wife were happy and relieved to be sure!!
I was happy to be a part of a sentimental ring recovery.

 

of note: I would encourage anyone Who has lost a ring or jewelry in an outdoor environment to contact a Ring Finder in their area. The sooner the contact the better the chances of finding the ring. However, Rings can be found that have been lost for years.

I got home Saturday evening at 8:30 pm and discovered I had missed a text about a lost ring.  I immediately called to get the full story.  Samantha stated that she had placed her rings and jewelry on her lap and forgot they were there.  She, her husband and son stopped at a local McDonald’s; when  she got out, forgetting about the rings, and inadvertently the rings fell off her lap and onto the pavement.  She did not realize she had lost them until she got home about 80 miles away.

On Saturday, her husband discovered the “Ringfinders of Maine” website and Dennis Boothby. They contacted him and  Dennis recommended they contact me [Thank you Dennis!].

Samantha  sent me a text.

 

 

The rings were lost at 3:30 Friday afternoon. Snow started at 9:00 pm that night.  By the time she contacted me the following day, the lot had been plowed.

I arrived at the McDonald’s the following morning [Sunday] at first light [6:30] and spoke with the manager.  They had received her messages and no one had turned in any rings. They were very agreeable to my searching the parking lot and have my and Samantha’s contact information should the second ring show up.

I first searched the left hand snowbank and came up with pennies, dimes and miscellaneous trash.

 

I then searched the right hand snowbank with similar findings and finally up came the engagement ring !!

I searched and researched that bank [it really wasn’t that big]… and could not come up with the second ring. Being 8 degrees outside and having been searching for an hour or so, I was pretty cold.  I texted Samantha and let her know that I had one ring and for now was done with the search.

Throughout the day that Sunday,  I kept pondering what could have happened to the second ring?? Around two that afternoon, I realized we were getting another snowstorm Monday.  Hence, if I was going to search more, it had to be done now.  Thinking the round wedding ring could have perhaps rolled to a different area and been plowed to a different location, I searched the entire parking lot and snowbanks.  To no avail, no second ring. Perhaps someone had picked it up, perhaps it’s deep in a snowbank [some of the snowbanks are 6 feet tall!].

After the storm on Monday, the plow folks will be hauling the snow off site and if the ring is in it, will most likely never be found.I am hoping to contact the plow company and find out where they haul the snow. Perhaps it is a place that will be searchable in the spring.

I contacted Samantha — she  and her husband were happy and ecstactic that they had the one ring and made arrangements to meet me and pick it up.

 

On  Wed. Aug 20 I received the following text .

Good afternoon Bill.  My mane is Lucas. I spoke to Dennis Boothby via the ring finders yesterday and he recommended I reach out to you as I live nearby in Hamden. I lost a ring on my property recently and am looking to have someone help locate it. Let me know if this is something that might be possible to set up.

I responded  “Yes! Absolutely! »    Lucas had recently had his driveway resurfaced.   Two loads of gravel were delivered to his yard and he and  his son were playing on the piles when he realized his tungsten wedding ring was missing. The contractor later spread the gravel over the driveway and compacted it.  Lucas was sure his ring was there.  For a metal detectionist gravel driveways are the worst, as they are compacted and very hard, difficult to dig… you have to  ‘sneak up’ on the target in the hard gravel or you are likely to damage the ring.

Lucas’ lost  ring was made of  tungsten.  I was unsure of  the numerical number metal detectors give for it and would have to react to many more targets in the gravel.  I asked if his wife’s ring was the same material so I could get a reading [numerical number] from it. He said it was not, however, he had a second ring.   Why do you have two rings ??     That’s the way they came.  Apparently when he ordered his ring …two arrived.  I said well lets see the second ring and get a reading from it.  Lucas brought out the second one ring and I placed it on clean ground and swung my coil over it.  My metal detector would not pick it up.

I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe I could not hear a tungsten ring. I told Lucas I had to figure this out and I would return in a few days.

As I was driving away, I called my friend, Dennis, and he could not believe it either.  He asked me if I checked  that ring really well.  I turned around and went back. Looking at the inside of the ring with my glasses now on as well as a magnifying glass I could see the small word “Ceramic. »    This was a ceramic ring not tungsten!!  Metal detectors will not detect ceramic. I asked Lucas if he was sure his lost ring was tungsten.  He said that is what he paid for and he was pretty sure it was on the inside of the lost ring.

I decided to proceed with the search.  Being unsure of the signal number, I would have to investigate all the targets.  Usually a recently lost ring is on or near the surface… however, with this gravel being spread with a bobcat, it could be at any depth.. possibly down to the old driveway. I had some work in front of me.

After an hour and a half or so and dozens of holes, I had detected the whole driveway….  NO ring. During this whole time,  I was wondering if  I was looking for a ring made of tungsten OR ceramic ring ??? Ceramic is NOT possible to be found with a metal detector!

I asked Lucas if he was sure the ring was in the gravel or was it possible for the ring to have been lost in the grass on the edge of the driveway??  He was unsure, “Maybe? »

I was beat, yet  decided to do one sweep around the perimeter of the driveway

In front of the garage doors there was a little clover and grass.

When a metal detector gets close to any large metal, such as a garage door, it gives a loud signal making it impossible to hear anything else. Therefore, you are unable to detect the last 12 inch or so up to the door itself.

Each swing ends with a loud metal signal…. at the midpoint of the first overhead garage door … right on the edge of that signal, I thought maybe I heard a little something extra.  I managed to repeat it… so I got out the pinpointer. Just under the grass was Lucas’s tungsten ring!!

Any closer to that door and I would not have heard it!

I attempted to make a video of returning the ring to Lucas, however, The video came out terrible ! Yet in the audio one can hear me ask Lucas if he was sure his ring was tungsten?  His response was « not 100 percent ».   As I gave him the ring,  I said  “You are you right!” HIS SMILE SAYS IT ALL!