Dave Boyer, Author at The Ring Finders

Back in July, 2023, Devin and Garrett were playing with a Frisbee when she noticed her ring was missing. Gregg and I went out there the first time and spent a couple of hours searching for the ring with no luck. Today, we met Garrett out there and he had marked a few areas with flags that he thought the ring could be in. In a few minutes I got an iffy signal and decided I’d better dig it to see what it was. I used a screwdriver and with the first attempt this diamond stone popped up and stared me in the face. I signaled Gregg and we called Garrett over who was using his own metal detector. I hid the ring in my hand and ran my hand over the coil on his metal detector and then opened my hand for the big surprise. A beautiful rose gold ring with a diamond on top. Garrett went to the house to tell everybody about the find. We gathered the family together for a few pictures and bathed in the smiles and laughter of finding the ring.

 Received a call from the staff at Oval Beach stating a lady lost her wedding ring in the sand and asked if I could come and help find the ring. I arrived around 8PM and a staff member showed me the general area where the ring was lost and he said the family had to leave and would be back shorty. I started to search the beach and Sush showed up shorty with her husband, Vaibhaw and son Vihaan. She showed me an area maybe 20ft x 20ft where she was playing in the sand with Vihaan when the ring slipped off her hand. I searched that area further from the water with no success and then moved closer to the water when I got a good hit. I knew right away this had to be her ring so I handed my pinpointer to her and told her to search this spot right here. She pointed it to the spot and the pinpointer started to sing and vibrate and Vaibhaw came over and sifted the sand with his fingers and there was the ring. Emotions flowed and I received hugs from both of them. They have been married for 5 years and spending their vacation in Michigan from their home in Ohio. It was a tossup, who was happier, me or them.

After getting home from another ring find I get a notice from my friend Gregg Larabel that there is another ring lost and they need help in finding it right now.   I called the number but it went right thru to voice mail so I just showed up at the volleyball court.   A group of people were having lunch nearby and I asked them if somebody had lost a ring in the volleyball court-their reply was yes but they did not know who it was.   I just grabbed my equipment and started to search for the ring.   Just got started and Allen and his wife show up, they had been sitting in a group outside their apartment and saw me start the search.   The ring that was lost was Allen’s wedding ring.   Allen showed me what he was doing when his ring flew off his hand and the direction he thinks it went.   I started my grid of that area and after finding 2 pennies the third target was his ring.   Allen gave me a big hug and we just saved another marriage. 

John called me last night and said he lost his platinum wedding band in about thigh deep water just south of the South Beach. He and his wife and kids are vacationing from California with friends and family for a couple of weeks. Larabel was busy so Tom Cleary agreed to meet me there this morning to find this ring. After about 2 hours of searching I was tired out and turned the detector over to John. Gave him a 2 minute instruction on how to handle the detector and he was off and running. After about an hour John calls me over and says he has a good reading on the detector that I had told him about. I helped him dig the target and there was his ring. We had been searching in too deep of water and his ring was only in water below the knees. John saved his own vacation memories with this find. John and Vanessa toasting the new found ring.

I was on the golf course with my brother-in-law, when I received a text from Ross, saying that his wife, Natalie, had just lost her wedding ring on a Lake Michigan beach after 16 years of marriage. I texted him back, telling him we could be there later this afternoon, and hunting partner Gregg and I arranged to meet the Fort Wayne, Indiana, couple at 6:30 to try to save their vacation at this gated community right on Lake Michigan. When we arrived Ross showed us an area of about 30 feet square where they felt the ring must be. Natalie had the ring in the front of her swimming suit, and she remembered going to the water’s edge once and bending over to touch the water. They were quite sure that was when the ring fell out of her swimsuit. After about 1 1/2 hours and many targets of tin cans beaten into globs of aluminum, we were just about ready to give up, thinking that the ring had been washed out deeper and we would have to come back another day when the water was calm. But I got one last iffy signal close to the water’s edge — that turned out to be the ring. We walked up to Ross and Natalie with sad faces and shaking our heads, but I walked over to Ross and handed him the ring without Natalie seeing me. He got down on one knee and presented the ring to Natalie. (Should have had a video of that). If this doesn’t choke you up a bit you are not human. This hobby never gets old!

EPSON MFP image

 I received a text from Dan, saying he had lost his wedding band. He and his wife, Emily, were visiting from their home in Missouri, vacationing at a private home on the shore of Lake Michigan. Spending the beautiful day on the sand beach with lots of family and friends, Dan noticed his ring was missing shortly after they had played some catch. He pointed out two areas where he suggested I start: right next to the water, and an area right in front of the whole group of family and friends who were sitting on the beach, watching, not wanting to get in the way of the search. Checking the area next to the water produced only a rusty can lid, but on the third sweep of the area in front of the group I got a good solid hit. Bingo! There it was in my first scoop. Whoops and hollers and high fives from the group watching, and Dan and Emily’s 11 year marriage was back on track. Saving good memories of the 2022 vacation in Michigan!!