Jeff Lubbert, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 6 of 8

White gold ring recovered in Greewood Village yard

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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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

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

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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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

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Military dog tag returned to Highlands Ranch Family

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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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.

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Engagement ring recovered from Eldora Ski Area parking lot

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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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

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Custom wedding band recoved from Dever area school grounds

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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On December 29, 2013 Ryan Law was out playing with his dogs at a school football field that was near his house. During this play session his beloved custom made white gold wedding band had gone missing. The ring is a tad large and had become even looser by the cool temperatures that afternoon. Ryan spent the rest of the afternoon searching for his ring with no success. He called me that evening and we arranged for me to come and search for his ring on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.

I arrived for my search and Ryan and I went over the events of the rings loss and he showed me the areas that he and his dogs were in that day. I began my grid search of the area closed to the gate that we came through to get into the sports field. For being the last day of the year of the year the weather was unusually warm but after just over 2 hours of searching I had not recovered Ryan’s ring. Ryan needed to go to work so I told him I would be back the following day to continue the search.

New Year’s Day morning we were receiving a rain/snow mix so my search had to wait till afternoon. I drove to the school grounds and started my search of the area that had yet to be searched. After an hour and a half or so the ring was recovered by eyeballing it on the cinder running track that surrounded the football field. I called Ryan to let him know I had the ring but he was out of town. Just as I got to my car to put my gear away the snow started to come down, good timing.

Ryan ended up coming to my house that evening to claim his ring. He and his wife were quite happy to get his ring back.

 

Ring recovered 1-1-2014

Ryan Law - Custom white gold ring Ryan Law - happy to get his ring back

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Gold Tiffany & Co. ring found in Aurora, Colorado park

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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Jena Manning was visiting a friend in Aurora, Colorado. While their children played on the playground equipment the girls chatted and then Jena did something that is normally not in her nature, she tossed her gum into a nearby patch of juniper bushes. When she did this her Tiffany & Co. ring slipped off finger and followed the gum into the junipers. The two girls searched the junipers for several minutes with no success.

Jena sent me an email and we exchanged phone numbers and played phone tag for a couple of days. Finally we connected via phone and decided to meet so she could show me the location of her loss and for me to search bright and early Sunday morning. The search area was a large patch of knee high juniper bushes. I placed my 12” coil on my White’s V3i and began my search hoping that the ring was hung up on the branches of the juniper bushes. Trying to perform a grid search while walking through those bushes was not easy and though I did hear a couple of signals the ring was not found. I then placed a 4”x6” coil on my MXT and began to poke around the bushes. This was the only effective way to search this tangled mess of shrubbery. After a couple of hours search the ring was still hidden amongst the bushes and I needed to get going due to prior commitments. We made arrangements for me to meet Jena again the following Tuesday to continue the search.

Tuesday evening I arrived back at the site and began my search again. When Jena arrived I had her toss a ring with high visibility string attached a few times. The ring always made its way through the bushes and to the ground so that would mean that I needed to use my small coil and poke through the bushes. After a little over an hour of searching and finding only garbage I had Jena toss the ring and string a few more times. I noticed that a couple of her tosses were shorter than the others so I started searching a bit closer to the edge of the patch than my previous searches. Within a couple of minutes my V3i sounded off and there was Jena’s ring. Due to the rings design, basically gold chain mail, the ring gave an exceptionally low VDI number. Jena couldn’t believe that I had found her ring as she was beginning to give up. Luckily I don’t give up too easily or this ring would have never made its way back to where it belongs, on Jena’s finger.

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Jena gets her ring back!

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Not an easy find, a VDI of 3 due to the ring being chain mail style.

Ring found 3/19/2013.

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Wedding ring set found in Fort Collins, Colorado

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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Chiyoko reunited with her rings

While out walking her dog with her kids Chiyoko Hogan lost her wedding & engagement rings while attempting to toss a snowball at her two wonderful daughters. The rings escaped her hand, hit a handrail that was beside the sidewalk she was on and then hid from sight under 2-3 inches of freshly fallen snow. Chiyoko did not see the ring set leave her figure but she did hear it hit the metal handrail. Immediately the search for the rings began but due to the two pre-teen children and dog on the lease, efforts were hindered. She went into her apartment with tears in her eyes to get her husband Joshua to assist in the search. The couple moved several inches of snow because of previous snow along with the fresh snow in an attempt to find the ring set.

After a couple hours of searching Joshua went to a local retail store to purchase a metal detector. The detector that was purchased was not of very good quality but should have been able to find the ring. They searched the area again without luck again. Joshua knew that the detector that was purchased wasn’t of good quality so he went to a store where he could rent a metal detector. The rental detector was definitely a better quality machine, but without experience using such a machine even the world’s best metal detector would not be much help. They searched the area that they expected the ring to be in one more time hoping the detector would alert them to the rings’ location.

After a quick internet search the couple came upon my Ring Finders profile and contacted me Friday night night. Unfortunatly I was not home that night due to having plans with my wife that niht. But Joshua left a message and contact information so that I could get ahold of him at an appropriate time. I called Joshua the next morning and he told me the basic information of the rings’ loss We made arrangements for me to come and search for the ring later on that day, Saturday, February 11, 2012. Unfortunately Chiyoko would not be able to be there when I made my search for her rings due to having to fly back to her former home town to see a sick relative.

Upon arriving at their residence Joshua took me to the area of the rings loss and described the circumstances of the rings’ loss and their attempts to recover the ring. I put my detector together and proceeded to search the area that they had searched previously. After recovering a couple of non-ring targets I decided to switch coils in order to get closer to some metal yard edging. While changing out coils I also needed to put on my gloves, the temperature at that time was around 17 degrees. After another 15 minutes search I heard a good signal on the opposite side of the sidewalk that they expected the ring to be. I looked over at Joshua and said “This sounds REALLY good”. When I pulled some snow back I could see the glint of the 14 kt while gold shining up at me. We had recovered Chiyoko’s rings! Joshua was ecstatic and a bit taken aback as he had previously searched this area with the purchased and rented detectors. This once again proves that expertise in the use of a metal detector can be the key to finding such things as this BEAUTIFUL ring set

Chiyoko's 14 kt white gold wedding ring set

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Platinum wedding band found in Denver, CO parking lot

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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Chris's platinum wedding band

Sunday night December 4, I am sitting in my bed reading my favorite metal detecting magazine when I hear our phone ring at 10:30 pm. My wife’s mother was expected to call that evening so I assumed that that was who was calling. Within a few seconds I hear my wife walking up the stair talking on the phone. Diane hands me the phone and says it is somebody who has lost a ring. I answer the phone and Chris Tatum is on the other end, he is in the parking lot of a pizzeria where he has just lost his ring. He tells me that he has searched the area around his car but cannot find his ring and was wondering if I could come out that night and look for the ring. There are a couple inches of freshly fallen snow covering the parking lot and the temperature is 11 degrees. I realize that timing is critical because this parking lot will more than likely be plowed first thing in the morning. I let Chris know that I will be at his location in about a half an hour.

I get dressed, start getting my equipment together and then I have to explain to my wife why I am heading out of the house at 10:45 with my metal detectors while snow falling in bitterly cold temperatures. But we both agree that this search has to occur now so out the door I go.

I arrived at the pizzeria and introduce myself and Chris explains how he was wiping snow off his driver’s seat when he heard his platinum wedding band hit the asphalt parking lot. It was quite obvious where he and his wife had searched for the ring without any luck. I prepped my Whites XLT with Bigfoot coil and began my search. I began my search over the areas that they had searched by eyeballing the site. Soon I expanded my search beyond our original search area, still no luck. By this time my hands are numb and I need to get my gloves out. I continue my search beside a concrete wall that is loaded with steel reinforcing where I heard the definite sound of a ring come from my XLT. I carefully dug through the snow and got my hands on Chris’ ring. The ring laying under 3 inches of snow 20 feet away from where I had expected it to be. This search took only 20 minutes but it was a pretty intense 20 minutes due to conditions.

Ring recovered December 4, 2011.

A frigid Chris holding his wedding band

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14 kt wedding ring found in Denver, CO yard

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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Ben Spiking was doing the typical fall yard work of racking up leaves and dead grass, bagging that debris and placing it for pick up. While cleaning up after his work he noticed that he no longer had his 14 kt white gold wedding band on his figure. He immediately began a search for his ring. He quickly pulled the bags of refuse from the back alley and placed them within his fenced yard. He

Ben's wedding band

started to empty the bags one at a time and carefully go through the yard waste.  After three of the bags had been gone through leaf by leaf, Ben realized that going through the 8 remaining bags was going to be a daunting task and may be fruitless as well.

A quick internet search led Ben to Ring Finders and my profile page. Ben called my home phone and left a message which was relayed to me by my wife as I was in the mountains elk hunting at the time.  Where I was camping there is no cell phone service but I had made arrangements to check in back at home every couple of days. My wife gave me the critical information and I called Ben’s wife Kim to set up my search.
I arrived at the Spiking’s residence and Kim gives me a quick explanation of what had occurred the day of the rings loss. I began my search with my White’s XLT with a bigfoot coil. I searched the whole front yard and then the path through the back yard to the gate. I search the remaining bags of yard waste and the area where Ben had searched through the first 3 bags of yard waste, no luck. I then made my way back to my truck and switched out coils to my factory 9 ½” coil and searched the front yard again. There was an area in the northwest portion of the yard with several pieces of shredded aluminum can and pieces of aluminum fascia were just under the surface of the ground. I pulled up several pieces of the aluminum but there was enough metal in the ground that pinpointing was difficult at best. Once again I head to my truck and switch to 4”x6” coil and head back the area with all the aluminum. After another 20 minutes search I found the ring. I spent just over two hours searching this yard,  and even I was beginning to wonder if I could find the ring. But with the right equipment for all kinds of searching you can tilt the odds in your favor.

Ring recovered November 11, 2011.

Kim happy to be holding Ben's wedding ring.

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Wedding ring found in Longmont, CO yard

  • from Denver (Colorado, United States)
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While cleaning up debris left behind by a recent snow storm Matt Smalley lost his 14 kt white gold wedding band. Matt performed an “eyeballing” search for his ring but it was unable to locate his ring. Matt found my profile on Ring Finders and contacted me, giving me the basic information and we set a date for me to come and look for his ring.

I arrived at the prescribed date and time; Matt had taken that afternoon off work so that he would be able to explain his work site and what he was doing the day of the rings loss. The day was a bit cool so after Matt had shown my around he went back into his house to stay warm.

I prepared my equipment and set about on my search. Within a couple of minutes I heard the sound of a ring laying on the surface. As I parted the grass I could see the white gold band that was hiding very well under the leaves and brown grass. I retrieved the ring and made my way to the front door to return Matt’s ring.

Ring recovered November 1, 2011.

Matt's ring

 

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