Jeff Lubbert, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 5 of 7

White gold ring recovered from Chatfield State Park reservoir, Colorado

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)

Adam and Tiffany were enjoying a hot summer day with their kids at Chatfield State Park in Denver, Colorado. They typically do not go to the typical beaches that are provided but rather prefer the less crowded non-improved beaches further north. Adam is a large guy and has had problems with his ring falling off in the past so when he heard a « plop » and didn’t feel his ring anymore he knew that he had a problem. He was standing in mid-thigh deep water which is just deep enough that he and Tiffany could just reach the bottom of the lake with their hands with their heads above water so they spent several hours trying to feel for the ring.

Tiffany found my contact information on the Ring Finders and we set up a search. The search location was a short hike from a parking lot through a tall grass field then a wooded edge of the lake and then down the beach 100 yards or so. Tiffany sat on the beach watching as Adam and I headed out into the water. Adam was showing my the approximate location he was in when his ring slid off. Several minutes into the search I noticed Tiffany on the phone, she was talking to her brother and discussing what was going on. Her brother was in the process of telling her that Adam’s ring was lost and would never be found when I pulled up a large silver looking ring in my scoop. I just smiled at Tiffany and then to Adam and gave Adam a head nod to come to me. I let him be the person to take the ring out of my scoop. I received a rather big ole bear hug from Adam.

Ring recovered August 18th.

Adams ring - 1 Adam and Tiffany

White gold ring recovered from Boyd Lake in Loveland, Colorado

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)

Troy was playing with his two young daughters in the lake at Boy Lake State Park when his ring slipped off his finger. Troy and his wife used the diving mask that their daughters had with them to search for quite a while. They did recover another ring during their attempt to find Troy’s ring, this ring was turned into the ranger station. But their efforts to find Troy’s ring were not successful.

Troy contacted me and we set a date and time to perform a search. Upon arrival and a quick talk about the circumstances that lead to the rings loss, I grabbed my equipment and headed toward the beach. Troy thought he was in waist deep water when his ring was lost, but his daughter (10 years old) remembered being in chest deep water. So my search area was a bit larger than I had hoped for. I took my search out to chin deep on me and started searching into shallower water. Troy was beginning to give up hope when I got a good signal on my CTX in waist deep water and sure enough it was Troy’s ring. We made our way to the beach and that is when I noticed that Troy’s waist is about the same height as his daughters chest.

Ring recovered July 14th, 2015

Troy and ring Troy's ring - 1

White gold earring lost in Centennial, Colorado – Returned

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)

Alexis was playing volleyball with her family and friends in her sister’s yard when her earring got caught in the net and flung into the yard. Luckily one of her opponents had seen the earring get launched but did not see exactly where it ended up. The volleyball game halted and the search for the lost earring began but luck was not with them as the earring remained hidden in the long grass. Alexis’ sister, Stephanie, found me through The Ring Finders and contacted me about searching for this precious lost item. We made arrangements for a search on a Thursday evening.

Upon arrival Stephanie explained how the earring was lost and showed me the location that Alexis was in (marked by a couple of tent stakes). I tested the remaining earring on my V3i in several programs before I found a program that would respond to such a small bit of metal. I began my search in the area of the tent stakes and found no earring so I expanded my search area. Within a couple of minutes I received a signal similar to that of my test target. As I parted the grass I could see the shape and color of the lost earring, I looked up at Stephanie and said « I found the match to that earring ». We called up Alexis and let her know that the earring had been found, she was quite happy. About 15 minutes later there was Alexis ready to get her pair of earrings back.

Earring recovered 7-2-2015

Alexis & earring Alexis' earring

Lost platinum eternity ring found in Centennial, Colorado

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)

Kathleen was out planting flowers in the yard of their home in Centennial, Colorado. While shaking open a garbage bag to put old, dead plants in her 3 ring platinum eternity ring slid off her hand. Kathleen had seen people searching with metal detectors in the past and knew that the newer machines would be expensive to purchase and complex to understand. And that rental machines may not be good enough to get the achieve success and with no knowledge of how to set up a detector. So Kathleen decided to find an expert detectorist and ended up calling me through TheRingFinders.

I was out at a wine tasting when Kathleen called and I did not hear my phone ring so she left me a message. Upon seeing I had a message I returned her call. We talked for a bit and set up a search for the following morning.

After arriving at their house Kathleen and Michael (Kathleen’s husband) led me to the location where Kathleen was working. We discussed the possibilities of the rings hiding place and I began my search. After searching the area in front of where Kathleen was standing a twice with no success I started searching behind where she was standing. My MXT gave out a faint signal (my sensitivity was turned down due to edging and pipes in the area and the plantings were deep). I pulled back the plantings and there sat Kathleen’s rings. She was quite happy to get her prized rings back.

 

Rings recovered 5/30/2015

IMG_0222  IMG_0225

White gold wedding band found in Denver’s Washington Park

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)

I was attending the GPAA’s Gold and Treasure show when I received a call from Mike. He was in one of the local parks preparing to play volleyball when he decided to take off his white gold wedding band and place it into his pocket for safe keeping. After a few games and a few beers Mike decided it was time to walk home and reached for his wedding band. The ring was no longer in his pocket. His friends stopped playing and searched both courts that they played in and the area between them in earnest for his ring for several minutes. But they had no luck the ring was well hidden in the grass. After a quick internet search Mike found me  and left me a message on my cell phone. I noticed the message on my phone and called Mike back. I was only a 15 minute drive from the park and just happened to have a couple of detectors in my truck.

Upon my arrival Mike and I talked about the series of events that happened, he took me to the location where he had played. His friends were still there playing one last game of volleyball so the location of the hunt site was not in question. I searched the area between two courts that Mike had played on only recovering pull tabs. As his friends were taking down the final net I asked them to keep some sort of indications as to the net’s and sidelines locations. They left the court boundary line staked in the ground so I decided to run a couple of quick patterns along both sides of the net location. Within 15 feet of starting this pattern my V3i gave me a nice 13-14 reading and there was Mikes wedding band. I received a crushing group hug from Mikes friends and Mike was quite relieved to have his ring back.

Ring recovered 5-17-2015

Mike & ringMike's ring

White gold wedding band found in Denver, Colorado

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)

On December 13th David and his wife had a small gathering of friends at their house, one of their friends brought their dog. David being the kind of guy he is, didn’t want the dog to be left alone in the back yard so he spent some time playing with the dog. While playing with the pup David noticed that his wedding band was missing and he went back inside to see if it was there, no luck. The whole of the party then went into the back yard and searched for David’s missing ring, no luck again. Photos from earlier in the day show that David had the ring on so the window of opportunity for the rings loss were narrow. David spent several hours over the next few weeks searching the back yard. Due to snow fall and the holiday season the search for David’s ring had to take a back seat till warmer weather.

On January 16th David found my profile on TheRingFinders.com and he contacted me about searching for his ring. We set up a date and time for me to conduct the search of Sunday the 18th at 10:00AM. Upon arrival at their home David took me to the back yard and gave me a run down of the events. My search area was the side yard which was pretty small and the back yard a nice size yard for an older home. I knew the search wouldn’t take too long as the yard wasn’t expansive. I pulled out my V3i and prepared it for the search, upon starting the machine I could hear all kinds of electrical inference from the overhead power, phone and cable lines. Luckily I had my trust old MXT with me as well so I prepared that machine for the search. After a few potential targets that turned out to be pulltabs my MXT let out a signal that was truly different than any of the others, the pinpoint let me know it was a surface target. I pulled back the grass and there sat a pretty silver colored ring. I pulled the ring from it’s hiding place and hollered for David. He was quite happy to get his ring back and was quite surprised at the speed of recovery, this search lasted less than 5 minutes. David mentioned that this recovery saved him 50 or so years of grief from his wife. We talked a bit, shot some photos and I was on my way home by 10:30. It was a great way to start off a Sunday.

Ring recovered 1/18/2015

  David and ring Davids ring

White gold ring recovered in Greewood Village yard

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)

Melissa was out making snow angels in the fresh fallen snow with her children and fiancé on New Years Day. This was a quick and impromptu decision so all ran out without putting on hats or gloves. After making their snow angels everybody was getting up and Melissa was shaking the snow off her hands when her 14 kt white gold engagement ring that she received just the week before during Christmas slipped off her hand. Her son is the one that noticed that her ring was gone and the search for the ring began. Their search included raking the snow, moving snow aside with their feet and also taking large pots of snow inside and melting them on the stove. After a few hours of fruitless searching Melissa contacted me about coming to conduct a search.

Upon my arrival we looked over the search are and I put on my hunting boots because there was 6″-8″ of snow in their yard. After 10-15 minutes of searching my White’s V3i gave me a wonderful 12/13 on the VDI meter, I looked up at Melissa’s fiancé and said « I like this signal ». I pulled out my Pro Pointer and pinpointed the signal, it seemed to be hung up in the snow. After pulling away some of the snow Melissa’s ring was revealed to the light of day. Melissa is now going to go get her ring sized properly.

Ring recovered 1/2/2015

IMG_4848 IMG_4849

Texas A&M class ring recovered from a Colorado sledding hill

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)

In early January Charley Mitchell was part of a group of young men that came up to Colorado from Texas to be part of a friend’s wedding. They stayed at the house of the bride’s grandfather which is up in the foothills west of Morrison, Colorado. Prior to the group’s arrival the area received several inches of fresh snow. Being the adventurous types the group of young men decided to do something that isn’t common in Texas, they went tobogganing.

During the festivities Charley’s prized Texas A & M class ring went missing. The group searched for the ring, they even purchased a metal detector to aid in their search. But their search was in vain as the ring was well hidden. The wedding went on and the group returned to Texas but the search for Charlie’s ring continued. Jim, the land owner kept up the search but the area of search was quite large and he had no success either.

On January 25th a small group from my local metal detecting club and I were contacted about searching for Charley’s ring. The weather had turned warm and melted the vast majority of the snow, with only small patches of snow and ice on the hillside. Our group divided the hill into search zones that were probably 15 yards wide running vertically up the hill, each one of us selecting a zone and began searching. I was one of the last to get a zone so I took the first zone on the steepest part of the hill. On my first pass down down my zone I hit a patch of ice hidden in some tall grass and found myself laying on my back in mud. After getting myself up and scraping mud off my XLT I continued my search down to the end of my zone. On my return trip up the hill I located a dime that was laying on the surface so I bgan to get excited, if they were loosing change at that location the ring could be close by. Two swings later my XLT sounded off and there was the Charley’s ring laying right on the surface gleaming in the sun. I made the announcement to the group that our search was over after only 5 minutes of search time.

Charley was pretty sure he would never see his ring again so he was pretty darn excited to get his ring back. Due to him working off shore on an oil rig that reunion had to wait till after his return to dry land at the end of February.

Ring recovered January 25th, 2014

Charles Mitchell with ring Texas A&M ring front

Military dog tag returned to Highlands Ranch Family

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
On january 12 I was asked to look for a military dog tag that belonged to a young man named Jordan. It was his grandfather’s dog tag from when he was in Vietnam, unfortunately Jordon’s grandfather passed away this past September. The dog tag was lost the previous weekend either playing football or possibly while sledding. I arrived at their house a little before 9:00 AM and we talked about their efforts to recover the dog tag. Jordan and his family had spent several hours searching the neighbor’s yard in search the mis-placed dog tag with no luck. The neighbors who own the house where the football game occurred also spent several hours searching the yard as well. After nearly an hour of searching my hands were beginning to get numb from the cool temps and the windy conditions, I spotted the dog tag just as my coil passed over it. Jordan and his family were very happy to get this family heirloom back. Mary, Jordan’s mother, commented that she was surprised as to the diligence of my search. I reassured her that when I get asked to search for an item I treat that search as though it is the most important search I will ever conduct.
Dog tag recovered January 12, 2014
Jordan happy to get his grandfathers military dog tag back.

Jordan happy to get his grandfathers military dog tag back.

Engagement ring recovered from Eldora Ski Area parking lot

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
It was a Tuesday night and I had just gotten home from the gym at 7:30 and was about to get something to eat when I noticed the answering machine blinking. There was the sad voice of a young lady asking me to help her search for her lost engagement ring. I called Jamie back and we had a brief conversation, she believed that her engagement ring was lost while changing out of her ski bibs in the parking lot of a “nearby” ski area. I had Jamie call the ski area to inquire about doing a search. While Jamie was making her call I quickly made a sandwich and ate. Jamie called back after several minutes stating that she couldn’t get ahold of the ski area as it had been closed for several hours by then.
The weather that night was a bit brisk; at my home the thermometer read 1 degree above 0 and it was snowing. I knew that going up to a ski area the temperature would be even colder so I needed to change. By the time I changed my clothes, gathered my gear and loaded my truck it was now 9:00 PM. The ski area that was my destination was an hour’s drive in good weather, but I still made drive in an hour and 15 minutes.
Upon arrival I checked my trucks thermometer prior to stepping out, it read -17. WOW, my coldest search yet. Luckily there was only a slight breeze so with wind chill it had to be around -20 to -25 degrees. Jamie, Mike (Jamie’s other half) and I talked about the location of their car during the ring’s loss. While marking out the search area in the fresh snow a guy in a front end loader who was clearing the snow form the parking lots stopped by to see what we were up to. Upon hearing that Jamie lost her ring and that I was there to search for it he raised his eyebrows and said “Good luck” then he continued on his with his business.
I began my search on the east end of our search area, after a half hours search my XLT’s screen had become very sluggish and pretty much useless. I typically detect by tone anyway so the lack of VDI was not a big deal. Another 5 – 10 minutes later I heard that wonderful tone and I scraped the top layer of snow away. The signal moved so I broke out my pinpoint probe and zeroed in on the target. When I brushed some more snow away there was Jamie’s ring, I must say her ring is quite exquisite. Jamie and Mike were so excited to get her ring back. I received a bone crushing hug and a good hearty hand shack and then we proceeded to get some photos.
Jamie and Mike live in Texas and were heading back home in just over 24 hours. I am sure that they will have some good things to say about us Coloradoans, metal detectorists and The Ring Finders.
Ring recovered February 4th, 2014.
Cold but happy

Cold but happy

Jamie's engagement ring

Jamie’s engagement ring