Jason Scanlan, Author at The Ring Finders

Gold wedding band found in Iowa Lake

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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  • After my last find I received a message from a friend about a Facebook post in the Clear Lake Iowa group.  A gentleman was looking for the guy he saw metal detecting a couple weeks prior. Seems he lost his wedding band at the same beach and lake in the prior find.  I sent him a message and my wife Jeni and I made a plan to pack the camper and spend a couple days in Clear Lake. We arrived and then this morning we went and met Robert at the beach and he took us out to where he lost it. They were standing in the water and he felt it slip off. They were very close to one of the 300’ buoys that marked off the swim area so again we used that as a reference. After searching for a while Robert had to leave as he had some work to do. Jeni and I continued searching and about an hour or so later we were able to come up with the ring. It rang up a solid 61 on the AT Max. We sent Robert a text and continued to scan the area just for fun and found another ring but it was just a gold plated costume ring but neat anyway.  I detected the area for the next couple hours and have to say if bottle tops and beverage tabs were worth anything I would be well off. Also found what I assume to be a boat part and top of a shotgun shell. Just as in life, sometimes you have to sift through trash to get to the gold. We were able to return the Ring to another very happy customer. It was a great day!

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LOST WEDDING RING IN POPULAR IOWA LAKE

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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A fun day on a pontoon ends up with a wedding ring at the bottom of Clear Lake in Iowa. After reading other finds Margi gave me a call and asked if I was willing to come look for her ring.  I was more than willing except for one problem. I had a broken toe and was currently in a boot cast. After a visit to the doctor that week, I was told that I could start the transition away from the boot and into an ankle brace.

The ring was some where by the beach and swim area of the State Park and Campground. We made plans and made a reservation at the campground for the following weekend and meetup with Margi and her husband Dan at 8am on Saturday.  When Saturday came we met and walked to the beach area. There was a large swim area marked by buoys and boats would anchor just outside the swim area and have fun. In the summer afternoon this would attract dozens of boats and hundreds of people.  They had anchored the pontoon and proceeded to jump in the water and play.  They actually had a photo of her jumping in the water. Studying the photo, you could clearly see the ring on her finger and you could see the left 2 buoys as you were facing the shore. To give a little perspective, we were 400 feet from shore and only 4 foot of water.  Using the buoys as our reference point we started searching. After 3 hours of searching we found many bottle caps, a 2020 penny, a 1966 dime, an old ring type pull tab from the 1970’s, and a top of a beverage can that was opened with a churchkey so dating prior to mid 60’s. Boats and people were starting to come so we had to suspend the search but I assured them that I would be back the next morning.  During our time together I found out that the ring had not left her finger for 30 years. Dan saved up for 3 years and had it custom made so it had a lot of meaning.

That afternoon, my wife Jeni and I regrouped. I went and bought a waterproof case for my phone so I could take it out in the water with me. The next morning at 7am, Jeni and I went to the beach and we went back out using the GPS coordinates of the photo. We searched what I thought was the correct place for another couple hours and found more junk. At this point, I was needing more sun screen so we went back into the beach. I ended up downloading a GPS app to my phone and put the coordinates of the photo into the app and when we went back out I was able to stand at the exact location of the photo.  The thing was at this new location which was left of the buoys which did not make sense as we have focused all our time right of the buoys that the photo clearly showed.  Jeni stood at that new location and I used her as a reference. I started to scan the area and within 5 minutes I got a hit at a location that was consistent with where she would have jumped in. I scooped and there it was less than 10 feet from where my gps said the photo was taken. I turned to Jeni and I could not even speak and she saw the look on my face and asked what was wrong. I was able to get the words out that I found it. After finding so many bottle caps it was just unbelievable.

We made our way back to shore at which point I gave Jeni the ring as I was shaking. We went back to our camper decided to shower to wash off all the sand and change before we called Margi.  We gave Margi a call on speaker and I explained that we had been searching since 7am and we were going to pack up but then asked if she wanted to come get this rock before we left. There were tears over the phone which made Jeni and I start to cry. Margi and her daughter came and we reunited her with her beautiful ring. It was a fun weekend that ended with so much joy.

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Lost Wedding Ring in Iowa Snow

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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I received a message from a young man who said his wife had lost her wedding ring. As the story goes, she was outside at night with their dog standing on the deck and the ring came up missing. They were not sure if she lost it playing with the dog or when exactly she lost it. By chance, her friend was there and was videoing their interaction and at one point, the wife was standing at the top of the steps, facing the yard, swinging her arms. When her arm was back, the ring was on her finger and the next time it was not. I must say this is the first for me that they actually had the losing of the ring on video. There was snow in the yard and they frantically searched but the temperatures were below freezing and the husband had to force the wife to give up for the night and come inside. For the next week they would go in the yard and search but to compound to the problem was 4″ of  new snow and then the temperatures warmed just enough to melt some and refreeze.

We made an appointment for the next Saturday and I went to their home. He took me through the story and showed me where it had happened. I got my equipment   and set the sensitivity way down and the discrimination to the max. I took 3 steps off the deck and got a signal and told the husband who was helping that this would be a good place to look. He got down and started digging in the snow and ice but did not come up with anything. I got my pin pointer and pointed to where it should be and he took another brush of snow and there was silver shining through. It never gets old seeing the sheer joy on their face and feeling the burden being lifted off their shoulders. It is something that is hard to describe. The next task was to get a little torch because it was frozen in ice and snow. We heated it oh so gently and pulled it from its frozen grave. They were both very appreciative and reward me nicely for coming to their rescue.

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Lost Ring in the snow in Iowa

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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This is a familiar story.  First Snow fall a nice young gentleman was wiping the snow off his truck with his hands and shakes his hands and loses his ring. He call me in a panic and distressed so I went down the next day to see what we could do. It didn’t take long and he was back in possession of his ring and a very grateful person. It never gets old when you have success stories like this.

Lost Ring in Iowa

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Lost New GoPro in Iowa Marsh

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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The following story is from a local Nature Photographer who contacted me because he lost his GoPro

This picture says it all. I was paddling my kayak in about 30-degree temperatures when a spindly little branch knocked my 2-month old GoPro camera into moving water that was deep. In fact, the water was deeper than my chest-high waders were tall.

Finding this was more than just finding a nearly new GoPro camera. Along with the camera was a mount, a small tripod, and a high capacity memory card. Obviously the value of this was more than just replacing a camera.

I contacted Jason Scanlan at “The Ringfinders” to discuss running a metal detector in the cold, moving water. Within ten-minutes of searching there was a “beep” in the headphones and I knew where to scoop with a long-handled net. Another minute or so later and I had my GoPro camera and equipment back in my hands. I pressed the power button and was able to watch the recorded journey my camera took after being knocked off of my kayak.

Thank you Jason Scanlan/The Ringfinders!

Ladage Photography

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Lost Ring in Iowa again

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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Received a message from a guy that I helped last year. His Fiancée lost her ring again in the same yard as last time. It is only about 15 miles away so I went right down there. She was raking leaves and caught the rake tines on her ring and away it went. They tried to find it before looking me up. They showed me where they thought it was lost and sure enough within 5 minutes they had the ring back. This would  be my first repeat customer.

 

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Lost Wedding Band in an Iowa Lake – Recovered

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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Monday I had an Email from Michelle who resides in North Carolina. Seems a couple weeks prior, her and her family were visiting family here in Iowa and were staying at an uncles cabin on a lake. The story you have heard many time on this site, she removed her ring to put sunscreen on the kids and put the ring in her pocket. Later she went to sit on the bench at the end of the dock and her phone and ring fell out. The phone landed on the dock but the ring was gone. I was missing a couple key pieces of equipment like submersable headphones and a sand scoop to properly do this job. I had no reason to buy them prior. Since she knew where they fell out I figured I stood a good chance of finding them but of course I did not tell her that so she did not get her hopes up. I told her I could do it and agreed to do it the next Saturday since it was suppose to be 90 deg and Humid. She said that her in-laws and Her Husbands uncle would be there and were having a family gathering that day. I promptly ordered the Headphones and scoop so I would have them for the weekend and asked my wife and son if they wanted to go for a road trip which they were excited to do.

Saturday came and I neglected to watch the forecast and we took off for the 3 hour drive. When we got there is was raining and shy 70 deg. We made small talk with the uncle for a while under the garage lean-to and watched it rain for a bit but then I said there was no time like the present so I went to the lake and got in. It was not bad once you got in. The water had dropped about 2 foot in the last couple weeks so it was only about 3 foot deep The bottom was a mix of Silt, rock up to 2-3″ and sand. First thing I had to do was figure out how to use the detector when I could not see the bottom or the coil. I finally figured out that I could pinpoint and then use my foot to mark the spot to dig. I had just sent my waterproof hand held pinpointed in for repair so I was without that which might have made things a bit easier. Now digging was another learning experience since I have not used a sand scoop before so it took a little while to figure out that I had to dig deeper than I was and with the big rock I had to really give it some effort. At one point I had my son Jordan come in with me and we tried some different strategies without really any luck. After a little over an hour I loosened the setting up on my metal detector and it was raining pretty hard at this point that I could hardly see. We decided we should take a break and warm up but I had hit upon a strong signal that I wanted to try. I gave it a big dig and came up with a aluminum Rivet Washer so I now figured I had the right technique. I hit on another strong signal and I took a big scoop and nothing. I tried and hit it again so I took another big scoop and I pulled it up and  I exclaimed excitedly « Jordan, there it is ». So we washed the dirt and rocks off and there she was in the bottom of the scoop. I told Jordan that when we get out to tell everyone watching, which was like 20 people now. that we were going to take a break and warm up. So he gets out first and started walking to the garage and they met him half way and asked if we found anything and like a champ said no. I got out and I had to walk back to the deck and get my shirt and sandals and I come walking up and the MIL and FIL met me and I asked if anyone even knew what the Ring looked like. The MIL started to describe it and then I held up my hand and asked if it looked like this. Her scream could of awoke the dead and the FIL could not believe we had found it. I learned later that they were skeptics and were telling Michelle that it was gone and there was no way that it could be found but Michelle told them that she had to at least try so she had a piece of mind . They are now believers and there were some very joyous people. It was a good Family outing that ended well for everyone.

 

 

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Lost Engagement Ring in Iowa – Found

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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I received a text over the weekend saying they needed my services to find a silver engagement ring in the back yard. I was not available at that time so I met up with Blake late Monday afternoon. He said him and his fiancé were chipping sticks when a stick caught the ring and pulled it off. The grass was pretty long in the back yard because he did not want to mow until he found the ring. I started the grid search and after about an hour he came and we discussed it more. The yard was not very big so I went one way and then changed directions and could not believe I could not find it. He asked if the other half of the ring would be of use. Well, Duh, I should of asked for that in the beginning….Lesson learned number one. He went and got the ring and we put it on the ground and I did a test pass. It was ringing up as a 41-43 on my AT Max….Lesson learned number 2….I assumed since he told me it was silver it would ring in the 70-90 range. I had the AT Max discrimination set pretty high. I reset the detector and started all over with the grid. Within about 15 minutes Blake came back to check on me and while he was standing there I got a hit in the 40’s. Like so many other times I figured it was nothing and started digging in the grass and there it was. Needless to say everyone left happy.  Sorry about the crappy photo.

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Lost Wedding Ring in Iowa snow – Found

  • from Waverly (Iowa, United States)
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I bought a metal detector a few years back and my son and I would use it to find coins and other objects.  Well, a couple years ago, one of my fellow Firefighters texted me about 2 months after his wedding and asked if I had a metal detector. My response was, yes, where did you lose your wedding ring. His response was « How did you know! In my yard » Well it was the middle of winter with temps around 0 and 2 feet of snow on the ground, I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be digging any treasures. Seems his ring was a little loose on his finger and he was outside and he went to throw something away from his house and his ring went with it. I went to his house and by this time it was almost dark and he was in a panic and was scared to tell his wife. I started by asking what he was doing and kind of reenacted what he did and started the search. Within 5 minutes we both heard the distinctive tone from the detector and he looked down and picked up his ring with my pin-pointer. He was relieved that he could go back into the house.

Since then I have wondered about a metal detecting service but never really pursued it until I found Ring Finders and just signed up. Give me a call and let me try and help you find your lost items.

Sorry, I never took a photo of it but the next time I find one for someone, I will sure to take a photo.

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