Mark Rubey, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 16 of 20

Greg called me Sunday about an hour after realizing his ring was lost in the sand at Black’s Beach. We met at the glider port on top of the cliff overlooking the beach below. He explained that he had taken the ring off to apply some lotion and placed the ring in his hat. Forgetting about the ring,  he put the hat on and the ring went for a sand swim.  He had walked 50 feet away before he realized what he had done, but when he retraced his steps, he could find it.

We hiked down the cliff and over 1/4 mile north on the beach to the search area. It took over 5 minutes to get my first target! Very clean beach in that area. After about 15 minutes or so,  I got a good signal on my E-trac indicating it was a likely candidate to be his ring. Sure enough,  Greg’s  nice platinum band was in my scoop. A happy Greg wanted to keep his smile off camera but was willing to show the ring. Thank you for the reward Greg.

Mikhail contacted me about his wedding band lost in the dry sand at Black’s beach. We arranged to meet on top of the cliff overlooking the beach below. My wife and I  ran across Mikhail and his wife  in the parking lot and proceded over to the trail head and the steep climb down. He showed us the area where they were sitting and I decided to start my grid at the NW corner. I fired up the Excalibur and on the first swing, I hit a promising sound. Sure enough, it was his ring! I love those quick searches. It helps make up for the ones where you search for hours. A happy Mikhail headed back up the cliff and off to his home in Los Angeles. Finding the ring was the easy part. Now it was my turn to hike back up that cliff! Thanks for the reward Mikhail.

After dropping off Zach at the airport from my previous ring return, I got a call from Joe, who said that his wife had lost her ring at Mission Beach. He haden’t left the spot so I told him I’d be there in about 45 minutes. I headed home and grabbed my detector and made my way to the beach where they had been camped. When I arrived, I discovered that ring had been lost in  the surf and the search area was quite large. The tide was going out so that helped some. After a couple of hours of gridding the area and no luck, Joe had to leave and meet his wife at the hotel and load the car up for their trip back home in Arizona. About 20 minutes after he left, I got the magic sound of a ring at the edge of the search area and came up with this beauty. A quick call and he headed back down the beach with lightning speed! The trip home will be a lot more pleasant now.  A pleasure meeting you and thanks for the reward.

Megan saw my ad on Craig’s list and contacted me with the sad story of losing her ring the day before at a small beach on Camp Pendleton. She had removed the ring to keep it from getting scratched in the sand. Yup, it ended up in the sand anyway! It was about a 45-60 minute drive each way to the location so I got on my way as soon as I could.

When I arrived, I called Megan and met with her at the little cove next to her rented bungalow.  She showed me where she had been sitting down by the waters’ edge. I turned on my detector and in maybe 10 seconds, it get a good « Gold » signal. Sure enough, it was the ring! I wish all recoveries could be that quick and easy. Megan was quite relieved and overcome with emotion as she hadn’t slept the night before worrying about the ring. I received cheers from the other people on the beach and a big hug from Megan. I guess I should have waited for her to recover  a bit more before taking the photo of her holding it! Believe me, she was one of the happiest people I’ve had the pleasure of helping. Thank you for the reward.

        Kara called at about 7pm saying that she lost two rings at Pacific Beach, two days ago. I told her I was on my way and also explained that it’s entirely possible that someone else could have already found them, as that beach is heavily hunted. I arrived a bit after sunset and was shown the search area. Dry sand and it was marked where they thought the rings fell. A common story about the rings having been removed and wrapped up in a shirt for safekeeping. Later,  the shirt went back on and the rings went into the sand. After only ten minutes or so, and a few junk targets, I hit the first ring….a screaming silver sound.  A foot away, I get the sketchy, small white gold sound. The E-trac, Stealth 720i, and the Vibraprobe get the job done again along with some great work by Kara to get me near the spot! Nice to meet you and thank you for the reward.

Another long distance return. Matt had lost his platinum wedding ring in the shallow surf. Not being able to find it, he flew home to Seattle. I found it a few days later and was able to get in touch with him. He was going to be back in San Diego soon so I just held onto it until he flew down again. A pleasure to meet you Matt and thank you for the reward.

       This return is a reverse find, so, I don’t know if it counts in our total or not. Wednesday evening was very warm and humid and I couldn’t get comfortable, so, I decided to go down to the beach for a while to cool off and do some detecting. I got there around sunset and started searching over the blanket line area as people were leaving for the day.

     I was finding some coins and other misc. when I came across a good sized ring. It was dark and I didn’t have my glasses so I had to wait until I got home to see exactly what I had found. I left at 11:00pm, went home, and cleaned up my equipment and finds.

     Inspecting the ring, I found a name enscribed inside the stainless band. Not a common name (first name Guillermo) so I figured it was worth a try to find the person who lost it. I didn’t see any « Lost » ads on Craig’s list matching this ring but after a bit of internet surfing, I came up with a couple of possible leads. A call to one number got me a woman related to the Guillermo I was seeking and offered to have him give me a call. A bit later, I got the call from an excited Guillermo and we made arrangements to meet at a local shopping mall for the exchange. In talking with him, I discovered the ring was given to him from his girlfriend and he was uncertain as to where he had lost the ring. He just noticed it was missing at one point (three days before I found it) but didn’t remember actually losing it. He was happy to hear that there is a group called The Ring Finders and praised our efforts. It was a pleasure meeting you and thank you for the thirst quenching reward!

     Deanna called me at 7:30pm and asked me if I can find her husband’s tungsten carbide wedding ring. After getting some preliminary info, I told her I would meet them in about an hour. I arrived at the beach and found them still on the sand where they had pitched an umbrella earlier in the day. Always a good sign when people stay where they lose something. Seems her husband was vigorously brushing sand off his hands and the ring went flying. I started my grid right where he was standing while doing the brushing and branched out from there.

     After a few junk sounds and expanding the search area a bit, I found it about another 15 feet closer to the water, 2 inches down, and dead center in the tire track made by the lifeguard truck! They were both overjoyed to get it back. When the dust had settled a bit and I was getting ready to do some photos, they asked me if I’d like to find another ring. After my rhetorical question « you lost another ring? » I found out that it belonged to Deanna this time and it was lost in the sand too, about 20 away from where they were sitting. After a minute or two, I found it and handed it to her. She then said that it was just one of a two ring set she lost at the same time! About 5 feet away, the other ring turned up too.

      After verifying that there weren’t any more items to be found, we gathered up our stuff and went over toward the boardwalk to take the photos. I’ve found a few double ring losses before, but that was my first triple, and my first for both husband and wife! It was a pleasure to meet you both and thank you for the reward.

     This ring find is out of this world….some of it anyway.  Kyle called me with the tale of woe of losing his wedding ring at the main beach in Coronado. Seems he took his ring off to keep from losing it when he went out in the surf, and placed it in his hat for safekeeping. After he came back out of the water, the hat went back on the head and ring went into the sand. After realizing what had happened, he searched and sifted for quite a while without success. An internet search brought him to The Ring Finders and my number. He lost the ring about 3pm on Thursday and called me Friday morning at 10:30. Knowing that beach gets searched frequently, I grabbed my gear and headed down there for hopefully a quick recovery before the crowds hit the beach or another detector found the ring, not knowing it’s significance or who may have lost it. Upon arrival, I met Kyle and he showed me the search area. There were already people camped out in some of the area but most was still open. Kyle described the ring as a tungsten carbide band with a meterite inlay. (my first)  I ran a grid in all the open areas and then sniped around some of the blankets and tents but the ring wouldn’t show itself. I did find a few coins and good sounding junk, so, I figured another detector probably didn’t find it but was puzzled as to why I hadn’t. It was starting to get pretty crowded, so, we called it a day. I told Kyle that I would contact some people I know who work that beach to see if they might have come across it somehow. I met a fellow club member there and asked him, but he hadn’t found a ring like that. Kyle left, and I hung around for a while longer, expanded the search area a bit,  hoping to hit an area still uncovered by blanket. After another hour or so, I gave up and went home, but decided to return later when the crowds left for the day.

       At about 8:30 that night, I headed back down to give it another try. I arrived at 9 and began another grid over the main blanket line area that was covered earlier. I found a few coins, a key, and then a « big » hit, literally. It was can sized or bigger but the numbers were wrong and all over the board. I scooped a bunch of sand out and the first target I found was a bit of foil. After cursing under my breath, I swung the loop over pile again and got a nice 12-13  reading on my E-trac. I then sifted out a nickel. Rats! I was about to kick the sand back into the hole when I passed the coil over the pile again, I hear a loud signal but, again, the numbers were jumping from 25-35 on the ferrous side and 35-50 on the conductive side. Those are usually iron junk sounds, and for a moment, I though of just ignoring it but, since it was already out of the ground, I went ahead and scooped it anyway just to get it out of the sand and into the trash where it belonged. Lo and behold, it was Kyle’s ring! That had to be the worst ring sound I ever heard. After inspecting the ring and determining that it matched Kyle’s description, I discovered that it was marked Zirconium/Meteorite inside the band….not tungsten carbide. With today’s assortment of jewelry metals, it’s more important than ever to know what you’re searching for. If you have a call to search for a ring with a meteorite inset, you need to dig iron sounds! That is not going to make some areas fun to search.

         I called Kyle with the good news. He was very happy I found the key to getting  him out of the dog house with his wife. It was almost 10pm at this point so we decided to meet up the next day for the return. As you can see, he’s a happy guy now. It was a pleasure to meet you Kyle, thank you for the reward, and more importantly, your service to our country.