Dave Cartee, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 10 of 12

Newlyweds Lost Ring – Orange Beach, AL – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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Can you imagine how upset you would be if you didn’t even leave the scene of your marriage ceremony before you lost your wedding ring?  That is exactly what happened to Anthony and his brand new bride Katelyn on Orange Beach last weekend. They tied the knot on the beach with friends and family coming up after to congratulate them. They walked down to the water’s edge after that for some pictures and before they even made it back to the dunes, Katelyn had dropped her brand new and already cherished gold and diamond wedding band somewhere in the sand. Needless to say they panicked and started looking everywhere to no avail. The Pastor who performed the ceremony had a unique suggestion and went home to get a security wand like those used to identify metal on passengers at an airport. Unfortunately, this kind of detector like other common store bought models will just not read deep enough and will not work on a saltwater beach. Luckily for Anthony and Katelyn they were honeymooning in OB as well and a quick Google search put them in touch with me the following day. I came out and did a large grid search where the ceremony was performed with no luck. I moved to the water and started searching and came up on two sunbathers with their eyes closed. I moved the coil as close to them as I dared without disturbing them and sure enough I got a signal that was the same number as Katelyn’s engagement ring. It has been my experience that most people are nice and eager to help once you explain what you are doing and these two were no different when I abruptly woke them up and asked to dig near their feet. They were the first to shout happily when I dug up Katelyn’s ring but they were quickly outdone by Anthony and Katelyn who came running from the shade of the lifeguard tower. I love the smiles on both of them in the picture but I think Katelyn’s face says it best. She is so thrilled to have her ring back to its brand new home. Anthony and Katelyn, I hope you both are blessed with happy, long lives together and I thank you for letting me be part of starting out your marriage with an exciting story rather than a sad one. God Bless!

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Lost Rings at Night! – Pensacola Beach – FOUND!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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Well, I’m not sure if this counts as 2 rings or more but I am sure that Kelly and Bill are absolutely thrilled that I was able to put them back on her hands where they belong. Kelly and Bill have been married for 25 years and have been down vacationing from Michigan. Kelly folded her rings into her swimsuit early in the day for safekeeping and forgot they were there when she got up later to meet her sister. You can imagine her shock when she realized they were gone that evening. Kelly went ahead and called me even though it was nighttime and I’m glad she didn’t wait. Bill had gone out with a sand flea rake for fishing and combed the area already to no avail. I told him later that he had actually just made the rings go deeper and deeper every time he disturbed the sand because of the density of gold. Luckily for Kelly and Bill, I have a wonderful wife and even though we were at dinner 30 minutes away, she offered to ride with me and we immediately went home and grabbed my gear. I met Bill in the parking lot and he walked me down to the area he thought they had lost them. I could see all of the rake marks and I told Bill I would start my search there and then fan out if needed. I absolutely love night searches on the beach. It’s nice and cool and you can hear the waves over the hum of the machine in my headphones. You can enjoy the stars without bumping into sunbathers and it’s just a great time to enjoy what I do. I also knew that I had a very anxious couple waiting on the outcome so I was very glad that as I made my first pass I heard a faint gold sound. I was a little surprised at how deep it was even though I knew Bill had thoroughly raked the area. When my first gentle scoop to five inches came back empty I thought to myself that they were very lucky they called me and I had the machine that I was using. The second scoop was the charm and I reached down and dug the first ring out of the scoop to make sure I didn’t scratch it. When I saw that I had them both in the scoop, I smiled and handed them to Bill. With a shaky hand, he asked me to hold the light and he took a picture and sent it to Kelly in the room so she could stop worrying immediately. We walked back up and told my wife that I was already done in less than 10 minutes and Bill asked us both to come up and meet Kelly. When we walked in the door I was quickly reminded why I do this. Bill and Kelly both got choked up remembering how much those rings had been a part of over the last 25 years. I was glad that my wife got to witness that and I hope Bill and Kelly have many, many more happy years together. 👍😃

 

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Lost Wedding Ring – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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With all of this warm weather I knew it wouldn’t be long until someone called with a lost Ring. I thought it would be a spring breaker that dropped it on the beach though and not my new friend Freddy with a lost Ring in the front yard. Freddy is active duty military and is living in Navarre, FL.  He had dropped his wedding band while doing some landscaping in the yard a month ago. Freddy was concerned that after some heavy rain, the ring would have sunk too deep into the ground to find. I assured him that the machine I have would have no issue reading it if it was there. This was a pretty straightforward recovery and I was able to find it in only a few minutes. I’m so glad that I was able to return something so meaningful to Freddy and I am very thankful for his service to our country. 

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Lost iPhone X surprise – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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It’s funny, sometimes you don’t even know you need the RingFinders but… the RingFinders find you.  😃 I was deep in the middle of trying to find Allan and Ami’s wedding band when I came across a great signal worth digging. When I pulled it up I saw that it was an iPhone in a lifeproof case and there was some sort of card holder on the back. I put it in my pack and finished finding Allan’s ring. When my wife and I left, I pulled out the cards to see if there was an id but there were only names on credit cards. My wife went into Facebook detective mode and looked at a few profiles. One girl looked promising but she was living in CA.  However, we saw on a public picture that she had recently done a Spartan run and that was the image on her phone case. 👍. I thought it appropriate to reach out via FB messenger. Victoria quickly replied back and said, “Omg!!! Did you find my phone with my cards?!”. To which I replied, “Haha , yes i did“. Too cool. Well the Rest is boring but to sum it up, I sent an iPhone X and some credit cards to California and Victoria was absolutely thrilled to get them. I think she was most shocked that I found it in deep water, buried 6-7 inches in the sand right where she lost it well over a week before.  I love being able to help people out with my hobby!  😃 Congrats Victoria!!!

 

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Lost Ring in the Gulf – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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This is an awesome ring that I actually recovered a couple of weeks ago but I’ve been waiting to post and keeping it safe until Patrick was able to get back down here from Huntsville, AL.  I love this story because it seems like what I would do if the situation was reversed.  Patrick called me after he and his wife had already gone home and told me that his wife had lost her ring in the Gulf of Mexico 9 days earlier! 😳  They had already contacted their insurance carrier and been told that they had a claim.  Unfortunately, as we all know, when you file a claim your future payments go up.  Most importantly, even though you may be able to pay for a replacement, you can never get back the actual ring that holds so many memories unless you go find it.  That’s why when Patrick and his wife stumbled across TheRingFinders.com and saw my page, they gave me a call.  I was feeling lucky having already found a ring that morning an hour away so I decided to head out to Pensacola Beach late that afternoon.  The people at the Margaritaville hotel were awesome and quickly gave me permission to park so that I could help out one of their previous guests.  When I got down to the beach I thought to myself that this would definitely be a record for wave height if I was able to find it.  I waded in and I was very quickly taking waves over my head (I’m 6’3” 😳) but luckily they were spaced out where I could work and I like a challenge.  Patrick gave fantastic directions over the phone and I must admit that I was surprised when after less than 10 minutes I heard a fantastic signal and I was able to gently scoop up this gorgeous ring buried about 7 inches down.  To say that Patrick was thrilled when I called him is an understatement!  I am so glad that they took a chance and reached out to me even after they thought it was lost forever!  What a great day!

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Lost Engagement Ring – Gulf Shores, AL – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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I love good people and I really love being able to help them out when they have lost a ring.  I met my new friends Christa and Ryan today in Gulf Shores, AL after reaching out to me about  the possibility of finding Christa’s rose gold and diamond engagement ring that she lost in the shore break yesterday.  They told me that they were here from Texas and Christa had been cooling off in the water and was walking out of the surf when she was knocked to her knees by a wave.  She immediately realized that her ring was gone and Ryan helped try to search down in the sand for it only to discover that it was missing.  Christa found me last night on TheRingFinders.com and I returned her email this morning.  Ryan and I got a chance to talk shortly thereafter and I knew I had to help them out immediately.  My kids and I headed that way despite the rain and found Ryan in the parking lot buying us a parking pass, what a great guy.  We walked down and met Christa on the beach and talked for a second.  I quickly lost focus and had to talk to a well meaning guy with a metal detector about how we were thankful but we didn’t want his help.  After hopefully explaining that I didn’t need his help and in fact his presence there was making my new friends very nervous, he finally stalked us from a bit farther away and I could get started.  This is why it’s so important to start looking for it immediately.  About 45 mins later, Christa and Ryan came and got me and confessed that they may have been down the beach to the east 40-50yds.  I was thrilled to hear it because this means they have really been thinking about where the ring is.  I quickly moved that way and started over my grid search and after several coins I finally found that sweet sound and and showed them the scoop.  You can tell by the pictures that they are very happy to get the ring back.  Thank you so much Ryan and Christa for trusting me with your treasure.

 

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Lost Wedding Ring – Pensacola Beach- FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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Today was such a cool day because I got to help out a fellow detectorist. 😳👍 Allan and Ami came down for the weekend to celebrate their 16th anniversary and unfortunately Murphy’s Law struck quickly. As they were waiting to check in they decided to wade out in the beautiful Gulf waters. Allan was explaining to Ami that she had to be very careful out in the deeper water because your ring can fall right off your hand. As he touched his left hand to illustrate his point… you guessed it, Kerplunk! Allan’s ring fell straight down in the water and quickly buried in the sand. Luckily they emailed me and although I didn’t get the email until late last night, we touched base first thing this morning. I quickly started getting ready and unfortunately tragedy struck. I badly pulled a muscle in my upper back and had to be helped to lie down. My wife sent Allan and Ami a text explaining that I was hurt and there was no way I could come today. They are very nice people and were more concerned with my health than anything else. I took some Motrin and laid still for a few hours until I dozed off. I woke up and realized that whatever had popped in my back was back where it was supposed to be and although I was really sore, I gingerly went to the front yard to see if I could swing my detector without too much pain. It hurt but I knew Allan and Ami were leaving town at 2pm and I really wanted to send his ring with them. I gave them a call and luckily they were still here and about to have lunch at Pegleg’s. I was quickly enroute to the beach.  Well Allan has done a lot of land detecting and he had tried to mark the location of the ring when it fell and did a great job. I always do a larger area and overlap my passes multiple ways because I have learned what Allan was about to; it’s never where it’s supposed to be in the water. 😃. The first thing I found was an iPhone X in a Lifeproof case complete with multiple credit cards (stay tuned for that return story this week 😉). Although it definitely wasn’t their ring, I think it gave Ami some hope that I really could find stuff buried in the sand out in the water. It wasn’t too many passes before I was worried that Allan might be getting concerned that I was in the wrong area. But then I heard that beautiful sound!!!  I called to Allan and waved him out to join me. He looked shocked when I told him that I thought I had located it and asked if he would like to do the “honors” and “dig it up”. He told me to go ahead and I very gently dug a large scoop full of sand. When I verified with my machine that I had whatever it was in my scoop, I just smiled and handed the scoop to him. Well, he smiled even bigger when he washed out the sand and saw his ring gleaming back at him. It was a great moment when he quickly put that ring back where it belongs and began striding back to Ami to show her that their anniversary weekend just got a whole lot better. 😃

Thank you Allan and Ami for letting me help you and for your patience and understanding when I was hurt this morning. Thank you also to the very nice front desk crew (especially Gillian) at the Holiday Inn Pensacola Beach who allowed me to park on property and even helped us celebrate when Allan showed them his ring!  👍👍👍

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Lost Ring Dauphin Island – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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Nick and his family were visiting from Oklahoma and had a house on the water in Dauphin Island.  When Nick called I was worried because I was going to be out of town on business for several days but after getting some more information I told him that I thought I could still find it for him when I got back on the weekend.  Nick explained to me that he was playing in the Gulf with his nephew in about 3 feet of water when he took off his ring and showed it to his nephew and joked that he had found “treasure”.  Well he quickly stopped joking when his nephew made a grab for it and it dropped out of his hands and into the water.  Nick and his family looked for hours but weren’t able to recover it.  When I finally got there, they had an over under going on how long it would take me to find it, and if I could find it at all.  Nick had great directions and after some machine adjustments to account for a ton of old nails from an old pier, I heard that awesome Gold sound and got it on the first scoop.  Needless to say, Nick and his family were thrilled and impressed.  This is definitely the most impressive men’s band that I have recovered.  Thank you Nick for giving me the chance to find it for you.

 

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Lost Ring Orange Beach – FOUND! 2 Day Search!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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Well, this was a tough one but it turned out great!  Crystal and her family were staying in Orange Beach, AL while they watched her daughter’s team compete in the World Series of Softball. Two days ago they were enjoying a much needed break cooling off in the Gulf of Mexico right before the sun went down. Crystal was standing in waist deep water trying to catch one of the bouncing water balls when tragedy struck. As the ball hit her left hand, both she and her husband saw her engagement ring fly off her hand and into the water. They looked and looked and raked their hands through the sand with goggles and masks and all of the volunteers they could get but they were unlucky and couldn’t find it. A very distraught Crystal did get a bit of luck later however when she found me on TheRingFinders and sent me an email. So yesterday after getting what I consider to be very thorough starting point directions, I began my search in the Gulf. I spent hours and ended up gridding out a really large area and I dug everything from fishing lures to a cell phone deep in the sand. I just couldn’t find it. I was bummed out and beat up from all the digging and I made the call to a very sad Crystal. Well I will say that the occasional one I can’t recover absolutely haunts me and I lay there when I got home last night thinking about anything that I could have done differently. After checking the tide graphs again, I decided that I would try even deeper and use a different mode on my machine. My wife gave me the okay this morning and even offered to come along. I started out neck deep and after only 2 passes I heard a strong signal. I switched the machine over so that I could hear what it was made out of and instantly heard that awesome gold tone. After a couple of gentle scoops, I had Crystal’s ring headed back to where it belongs. She was so sad yesterday, it was fun to hear her beside herself with happiness today. I’m very happy for you Crystal, thank you for giving me the chance to find your ring for you.

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Lost Ring, Night Find, Pensacola Beach – FOUND!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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I love to find rings at night!!!  There’s something about that cool breeze and the stars in the sky that make it that much better  😃  I got an email last night about 8pm explaining to me that Matt and his wife had been out on Pensacola Beach all day enjoying the Gulf and especially the Blue Angels as they rehearsed for the upcoming show this weekend.  Matt had put up a tent and taken off his shoes.  Unfortunately, his wife put her diamond and white gold engagement band in one of his shoes and forgot to tell him.  When the family ended the day and headed towards the parking lot Matt popped his shoes together on the boardwalk to knock off the sand.  When an inexpensive ring came out he asked if she had put her rings in the shoe and she said, “oh yeah, hand me my engagement ring” 😳😳😳.  Well you can guess where this story goes next. First Matt decided to rent a metal detector and actually did a great job removing all of the bottle caps and pop tops from the area ( I appreciate that 😉).  Unfortunately those machines are just not built to find anything made of precious metal around saltwater or after it has dropped deeper in the sand.  In fact when they finally called me and I came out, you could see his tracks where he had gone directly over the spot with the rental detector.  It didn’t take long once I finally got to the beach and I’m very glad I got to return such an important ring.  Thanks for letting me help you out Matt!

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