Don Wilson, Author at The Ring Finders

Lake,Alcohol & the Ring Flies into the Lake Grapevine, Texas

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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We got a call from a really guy named Jordan.  He let us know that the previous Saturday while on a family day at the lake.  Actually Jordan’s birthday.  A mistake that sometimes happens when alcohol is involved, tempers flaired and his sweetheart in a moment of regret took off her ring and just tossed it in the lake.  They searched for over an hour even though the water was only 2-4 ft deep.  We set a time to meet Jordan the next day at Lake Lewisville.  Jordan brought his wonderful 24 ft Pontoon boat,  he took on a short ride to the Island in the middle of the lake where he and his family liked to beach their pontoon and spend the day just floating in the lake.  Upon arrival I jumped in and began search asking Jordan where his sweetheart was sitting and what direction she threw the ring.  We always ask if the person who threw the ring is athletic or not because that can make difference how far the ring may have gone,  I made several passes and then Ellen my wife hopped in the water and began to search as well.  The both use Garrett ATPro’s and waterproof Garret Pro-Pointers.  Ellen wasn’t in the wate 5 minutes when she called my name, I looked and could tell from the look on her face she had found the beautiful ring.  I walked over and sure enough, the beautiful White Gold Diamond Ring sat beautifully in her scoop.  Jordan heard us talking and was shocked that Ellen had found the ring in less than 10 minutes.  After some congratulations and photos we had a wonderful boat ride back to the marina.

Another Great Find for the Dallas Ring Finders

 

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Grandmothers Ring slides into Cedar Creek Lake, Tx

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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We got a call from a mom who was so upset, her daughter had been at a Labor Day Swim party at Cedar Creek Lake, and the group of teenagers decided to take a midnight swim.  While sitting on the swim platform of the ski boat tied off at the dock.  A boy reached up and grabbed her hand and pulled her into the water.  As Alina was going under she her grandmother’s ring slid off.  She screamed and all of her friends tried searching for the ring. The water was about 5 feet deep with ZERO Visibility.

She then had to call her mother in tears and tell her that Grandma’s ring was gone.

I fully believe that Mom was more upset than the daughter.  Mom calls us and we set a time to come out to the lake 4 days after the loss.  The drive was 2 hours, but the subdivision was beautiful and the water was like glass… BUT BUT BUT the dock was a single dock that pitchforked out into 4 more docks and the daughter was not completely sure which dock they had been swimming on since it was dark.

I began my search using my ATPro, and water scoop.  The bottoms were 18inches of mush, like wet mash potatoes.  I began clearing all the normal junk.  Soda & Beer cans, nails, and junk.  After 4 hours of going over and over and increasing my search grid area with every pass.  I was about to call it quits, the mom had come over and said she understood I had gone above and beyond in my search and understood if I need to call it.

I said I wanted to do one more pass, I had one signal that was funky and I just wanted to pull it out to be sure I would have no regrets in my search.  I made my last scoop and nearly could not lift the 30 pounds of muck, had to use my hand to squish the much through my fingers and suddenly I saw the glint of a ring.

I called the daughter and the mom over and had them explain one more time what happened and then I said… « I have a question for you ….. « Does it look like this? »  And screams and tears began to flow… mom and daughter hugged and cried tears of joy.

Another successful find for the Dallas Ring Finders.

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3 Rings Lost in Apt Yard in Dallas, Texas

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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We got a call today from a gentleman who was inquiring about our services, said he lost 3 rings in his apartment complex common area.  Something did not sound right about his story so I inquired further, letting him know that 50% of our business is from people who throw their rings, primarily women.  Letting him know I was not here to judge anyone, but that we just needed the facts so we could find the rings.

I arrived within the hour and met the young man, he ask me not to discuss the thrown rings with his wife as she was embarressed. I assured him that I would be very discrete.  I began my search by scanning the open areas between the bushes where an extreme amount of sticker vines intertwined in the bushes.  Having cleared the open areas I scanned the bushes themselves going all around the bushes.  But still no luck.  I have to then begin pushing my ATPro Detector into the bushes as far down as possible.  I then began removing all the major surface trash(tons of it).  Finally, I spotted a glint of gold between the hard stalks of the bushes… so the first of 3 rings were found.

Continuing on, I was on my knees (thank God for good Knee Pads), using my Garrett Pinpointer, and began searching by hand,  pushing my pinpointer into the bushes.  My arms were severely scratched up and bleeding (looked a lot worst than it really was), Then I found the Diamond Ring… only one more to go.  I searched and searched, it was 102 degrees and the customers were watching my every move.

I was nearly ready to quit but the client had rented an ACE250 and he began searching as well, so I continued.  There was a 4-5 ft drop-off down to a grassy area next to a sidewalk, then more grass and a pond.  The customer drop down to the lower grassy area to check there, based on the small stature of the lady who threw the rings,  I did not really think she could throw a thin band gold ring that far.  When all of a sudden her husband hollers « I found it »,  it was actually his ring which was much heavier and had flown down to the grassy area.

We never care who finds the rings, we just want them to get them found.

So the lesson here is to ask for pictures of the missing rings before your search…

But another Successful Find for the Dallas Ring Finders »

Don & Ellen Wilson

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Aggie Ring and Wedding Ring Lost in MUCK in Ennis, Texas Lake

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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We got a call from a young man who had been riding a horse with his wife and decided to cross the lake to the island in the center.  As they entered the MUCKed Up section the young man’s horse sank up to his belly in the MUCK.  He crawled off his horse and crawled through the MUCK to the shore.  Concerned that they would need a tractor to get his horse out he sent his wife to get a ranch hand to assist.  But the horse was able to break free and get himself out.  Then he realized that both his Aggie Ring and his Cobalt Ring were gone.  He looked over at the MUCK and thought the worst.  He may never see his rings again.

Then he checked the all knowing “Google” to rent a metal detector and during his search the Dallas Ring Finders listing came up.  We scheduled to come in the next day.  We were able to locate both rings in under a minute, see the full video on our channel “Dallas Ring Finders”, another happy customer  for the Dallas Ring Finders.

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Cedar Creek Lake – Platinum and Diamond Ring Missing

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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Well, this was our 2nd attempt to find this $5,400 Platinum Ring with Diamonds. The owner had called and explained that the motor on his small 12-foot boat quit on him just 2 docks from his home.  His boat was still slowly moving in the water while he attempted to restart the engine and after several hard pulls on the start cord (with no luck) his anger increased. He jerked the starting cord one last time and as he did he felt his ring fly off into the water. He felt he knew exactly where the ring went down but after an exhaustive water search with both our Garrett ATPro and our Excalibur II in the deeper water area(s) we cleared every signal with no luck.  We scanned every area 4 to 5 times.

The only thing we can say is that possibly we were in the wrong location(?). With the boat moving and the anger seeping in along with the strength of the last jerk on the cord, that ring could be anywhere in a 50ft by 300ft area in black water.

I believe when we go back, and we will go back, we will extensively widen out our search area… it’s got to be there…we will find it.

We do not always win but we will give our all to every search.

Don & Ellen

Dallas Ring Finders

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Prepper Father-n- Law Dies leaving hundreds of Buried Silver Coins

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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We got a call early this morning from a gentleman who said that his father-in-law passed away recently.  His father-in-law was a serious Prepper, he was heavily fortified and heavily stocked in every area of life.  He said 6 or 7 years ago he had shown he and his wife a Google Earth photo showing where he had buried Multiple Boxes of 500 coins each and many packages of 100 silver coins in plastic ammo containers.

He and his family had spent 8-10 hours digging in the known places and discovered many boxes of silver everything from 6 inches to 36 inches in depth.  They were exhausted and needed help.  They rented a metal detector but it did not work well for them so they went searching and found the Dallas Ring Finders.

Ellen and I drove out as soon as we got the call. It was 161 miles one way to reach the location.  We reached the home, met the family and were shown around the property and shown the 4 potential locations of the Silver coins.  Just want to say it was 103 degrees today.  We went to work with our Garrett ATPro metal detectors and Pinpointers.

The ground was really just pure sand, very easy to dig.  We were able to scan the boxes of Silver that they had found the day before to get our search signals and searched for 3 hours, digging dozens of holes.  The challenge was there was so much metal debris all over the search areas…   (NOTE:  history tells us that people who buried things sometimes scatter scrap metal all over their buried items to discourage metal detectorists from digging).

I am not going to disclose what we found but we may be returning for further digging and possibly bring a small backhoe to take off the top 2-3 feet of soil to make it a little easier to detect.

Suggestion, if you or someone in your family buries things on their property, please, please, please make a map or show someone where your items are so that everything can be recovered when you’re gone.

Awesome day helping a family who was completely overwhelmed.

Don & Ellen

Dallas Ring Finders

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Lake Christine/Los Colinas, TX ~ Lost Phone in Lake

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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Sometimes when you’re strolling along a water’s path, holding your phone and decide you need a drink from your water bottle being held in your other hand, attempting to remove the twist cap can be a little more challenging than imaginable.  That’s exactly what happened to Stephen yesterday. Getting in the water 5ft deep to search with a metal detector and scoop proved to be unreliable since the depth increased the further he tried to walk out. So Don suited up in his diver’s suit and tank to scan the bottom up to 15 ft deep.  After a couple of passes it was found in the far corner of the water.

PS… I do have to say it was really a strange feeling Scuba Diving in Lake Christine which is in the middle of 30 story tall buildings… I know we had many eyes watching us as we located this Iphone.

Another happy customer for the Dallas Ring Finders.

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Dallas, Tx – the Aggie Ring Disappears

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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Rec’d a call from Mr. Garcia requesting our services to hunt for a most valuable possession…his Texas Aggie ring. (Anyone from Texas knows how much those rings mean to their owners!)   Mr. Garcia had been moving out of his current residence to move to another city so locating this ring was imperative to say the least. He picked up a broken pair of sunglasses and threw them sidearm across the yard, when he did he saw his beloved Aggie Ring go flying.  He had spent Friday evening (3 hrs), Saturday afternoon (2 hrs) and again Sunday, another 3 hrs but that important ring was no where to be found! We arrived with our Garrett metal detectors, Pinpointers and a can-do attitude and stayed in the Texas heat to help as best we could.  We detected grass, huge bushes and even areas where we felt it might have gotten kicked or raked over to, but, nada, nothing, it was still lost.  Mr. Garcia had no doubt whatsoever where he saw it bounce across his yard and knew it absolutely HAD to be there, somewhere. We decided to re-search the areas beneath the huge bushes, on hands and knees with only our Pinpointers and low and behold….found it!!!  Amazingly enough it was found under the roots of one of the largest bushes.  How it traveled to where it was found is beyond imagination but…when one method doesn’t work determination proves there’s always another.

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Caddo Lake Lost Ring Mishap on a Kayak

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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Drove  out to Caddo Lake for an individual to look for two very special rings. She is a nature photographer by trade (& a very good one) and had taken her rings off and placed them in the fold of her lap/shirt while in the kayak to get a pic of a bird.  Excited about the pic she continued to kayak around the cove snapping pictures and when it was time to head back in she paddled to the spot where she entered the lake.  Feeling the solid ground beneath the kayak she stood up to exit the craft and her rings plopped in the murky water.  In her panic to recover the rings she placed her camera equipment on shore and tried to feel around beneath the water to no avail. In the span of just a few hours she had purchased two different types of metal detectors and even tried to shovel clumps of Muddy Muck   from the edge of the lake.  However, a park ranger did not see the humor in that, made her stop and told her to call someone professional but that she was not to dig again.  She called us.  Due to the metal garbage in the lake we had to first remove all things that set off our detectors and then proceed to concentrate on the jewelry specified sounds.  One of her rings belonged to her mother (who recently passed away) and the other was her engagement ring.  After a couple hours searching thru the mud and the muck We found one beautiful ring which had belong to her mother.  The engagement ring is still elusive and we will have to travel back to continue the search another day.

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Lake Lewisville, Tx New High School Ring in the lake 😔

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
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Received a call from a young lady who was almost in tears that needed our help in finding her newly acquired 2022 high school graduation ring that unknowingly came off while swimming in Lake Lewisville. Since it was already at the end of the day but close enough to go view the area we met her about 7:00pm.  After accessing the beach area and the size of the area she had been swimming in we knew how to tackle this problem first thing the next morning.  After gridding off the search area we began to hunt; luckily enough it was little more than chest high in some areas but very murky.  It took about 2 hours, along with avoiding other swimmers who came to enjoy the day, but she now has her beautiful ring back on her finger.

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