Paul Humphreys, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 9 of 12

It is too bad Golden Retrievers don’t retrieve gold, gold rings that is. If they did, then Chicago resident, Adam Katz, wouldn’t have called me.

Adam jumped off the family’s boat pier into Lake Geneva the other day to join his Golden Retriever in a short swim back to shore. When the pair emerged, Mr. Katz’s rose-gold and platinum wedding ring was missing.

I arrived on location and first assessed the depth. While the water was over my head in some places, the search was do-able with snorkel and mask and with the help of a weighted dive belt. It also helped that the water was unusually clear that day.

In the next four hours I extracted an assortment of fishing lures from the lake bottom and twice untangled myself, and my detector, from yards of abandoned fishing-line. A pair of trophy-sized Large-mouthed Bass visited me on several occasions; they seemed to be smirking whilst I dealt with the evidence of fishermen whose valiant attempts to catch them had clearly been foiled. But finally it was my turn to smirk.

Adam’s ring came to light from its hiding place among one of the many clusters of aquatic plants. “Aha! Caught you!” If you had been on shore you would have heard those words trumpeted from my snorkel.

Thanks, Adam, for the privilege of searching for and finding your gorgeous ring. Thanks too for your generous reward. I also enjoyed meeting your beautiful canine swimming partner.

I’ve been thinking; maybe there’s a way to train Golden Retrievers to fetch gold rings; now wouldn’t that be something! In the meantime, if someone you know has lost a ring give me a call. For them at least, I might become their golden retriever!

A mix of sand, water and waves is notorious for making rings and jewelry vanish.

Last Saturday, Elmhurst, Illinois resident, Joe Reiff, saw his platinum wedding band leave his hand after he threw a Nerf football while standing knee deep in Lake Michigan. The ring tumbled out of sight into the churning shore waters. Despite his immediate rescue efforts and those of his friends, Dan’s marriage-token seemed destined to remain one with nature, forever hidden from the light of day.

After Joe contacted me, we arranged to meet at the beach a couple days later. The waves were unusually high. This added to the recovery challenge since gold and platinum tend to keep settling with the wave and sand movement. After an hour or so, I picked up a faint signal in the headset of my Minelab Excalibur detector. But the more I dug, the weaker the signal became as mounds of sand carried by the waves filled in the hole before I could get my scoop back in. If I was going to catch up with the target, it meant working faster. Sure enough, at the 20-inch marker on my scoop handle, the huge hole became quiet. This meant the object, whatever it was, had to be in my scoop. When I lifted it out of the waves and looked, there was Joe’s ring!

It is not often that our oceans and Great Lakes of North America give up their treasures. But this one was no match for technology and perseverance. Even after 40 plus years of metal detecting, it never ceases to amaze me that any rings are recovered. After all, a ring is a very small bit of metal and these bodies of water, immense!

Thanks, Joe, for giving me the opportunity to recover your ring. And thanks for your generous reward.

If someone you know has lost a ring, give me a call. You never know; even Lake Michigan gives up its treasures sometimes!

I have it on good authority that spinning a child on an inner tube in the water can be great fun, but fatal for wedding rings.

A family outing at the Mauthe Lake Recreation Area, near Kewaskum, WI ended on a terribly disappointing note when Germantown, WI, resident Dan Koslo’s tungsten and gold wedding band disappeared. It happened in the park’s swimming area while playing with his children. The sickening feeling in the pit of one’s stomach whenever this happens is one shared by an estimated 60% of married men who, I’ve learned, will lose their wedding rings at some time or another. That seems like an extreme statistic. But even if it’s only half true, it still amounts to a LOT of wedding rings! And that doesn’t include all the other kinds of rings that are lost.

When Dan reached out to me for help, it was first necessary to obtain permission from Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to use a metal detector in the State Park. DNR Ranger, Megan Sina, kindly assisted with getting a Metal Detector User Permit.

Heavy dark clouds were threatening to dump their rain when I arrived at the beachfront. Dan joined me shortly. I set up a grid pattern using homemade buoys and began systematically scanning the lake bottom in the vicinity of where the ring went missing. The presence of iron in spring-fed Mauthe Lake elicited a cacophony of chirps and barks from my Minelab Excalibur detector, but these were not the sounds I wanted to hear.

At last, a promising clean, bright signal in my headset invited further investigation. Raising my stainless-steel sand scoop up out of the water to the light of day revealed the desired target! A glad reunion commenced just as torrents of rain let loose. It was as though nature was joining us in the happy recovery, applauding it with deafening claps of rain on the lake’s surface. But I couldn’t help but notice a drop of another kind, one that glistened ever so discreetly in a corner of Dan’s eye.

I’ve observed this phenomenon before, pondering how an inanimate object can evoke such deep emotion. I believe the response has to do with memories, with experiences and associations with the object—a shared history. The capacity for such emotional attachment to the inanimate is just one more example of how humankind is uniquely set apart from the animal world. But that is another story.

Thanks Dan, for the privilege of searching for and returning your precious ring. May its story continue (on your hand) and become increasingly precious to you for many, many years to come!

If you, the reader, have lost a ring, don’t give up hope; it may still be right where it was dropped, or should I say, right where you may have spun your children or grandchildren on an inner tube in some lake. Even if your ring was lost many years ago, contact myself or another member of The Ring Finders. Who knows, yours could be the next smile on these happy blog pages!

TESTIMONY
Hello Paul! I want to thank you again for your quick response, experience and confidence in the recovery of my ring at Mauthe Lake! Within the first few minutes of our conversation on the phone I knew you were the person I needed! I am blessed to have found someone so passionate like you in what you do! I wish you could have seen my wife’s expression when i arrived home with my ring! To say you made one very happy bride again would be an understatement! Thank you so very much Paul! I will never forget! — Dan Koslo

A football toss in the deep end of the swimming area near Big Foot Beach State Park on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, proved fatal for Josh Johnson’s titanium wedding ring. He felt it leave his hand but was helpless to grab it before it slipped beneath the lake’s surface. The water’s visibility was poor which made recovery next to impossible. A resident of Chicago, Josh had to leave for home the next day minus the ring on his finger. He despaired at the thought of it being lost forever. That’s when he discovered the ring finder’s directory of metal-detecting specialists online.

I received an email from Josh asking if I might do a search. Arriving at the location very early in the morning on the following Tuesday, I began a methodical search in the 5-foot deep swimming area. Just about an hour later, I heard the telltale pitch of titanium in my waterproof headphones. As the water filtered out of the sand scoop, Josh’s ring appeared as if greatly relieved to see the light of day once again.

When I arrived home, I carefully wrapped the ring in a padded envelope and mailed it on its way to one very relieved owner.

Mission accomplished! Josh, I’m so glad for the opportunity to find and return your ring. May its story continue for many years.

TESTIMONIAL

« Paul was a life saver! When I felt the ring come off my hand in the lake, I thought for sure it was gone forever. After my friends and I searched for over an hour as best we could in the sand below and came up empty, I had no hopes of ever finding my ring again. I count my lucky stars that I found Paul and within an hour after sending him an email, he had his plans in place to find my ring. In less than 24 hours, my ring was recovered and I breathed a huge sigh of relief! I live in Chicago, so Paul even went the extra mile to carefully ship my ring back to me, after traveling to Lake Geneva and gearing up to go underwater to help locate my missing ring. I can’t say enough how great this whole experience was…well, I mean…losing the ring in the first place wasn’t great, but Paul sure was! 🙂 Thanks again Paul!! »

A game of tackle football in knee-deep water ended on a down note when Oshkosh Wisconsin resident, Chandler, came up without his wedding ring. Everybody began searching but only a few coins were found; the ring had vanished. Compared to Lake Winnebago’s 215 square miles, a man’s wedding band is a small item indeed. A couple days later I received an email from Brooke, Chandler’s wife, asking if I would be willing to conduct a search. I agreed to drive up on Friday afternoon, an hour and a half from where I live in Waukesha.

Upon arrival I was warmly greeted by ‘Goose’, Chandler’s Italian Spinone. The centuries-old breed is renown for its bird-hunting prowess and for having human-like eyes that seemingly search deep into the crevices of one’s soul. Too bad he wasn’t trained to sniff out rings in water, I mused.

Chandler had his boat ready and so we soon arrived at the sandy shore where he thought the ring went missing. We searched for about 3 hours but were forced to abandon our efforts when a storm suddenly loomed threateningly on the horizon. We boated for cover even as the winds began churning the surface of Wisconsin’s largest inland lake.

A couple days later, on Sunday, July 23rd, my wife, Kathleen, and I headed northward once again to finish the search. I received kind permission to access the lake from ‘John’ the landowner whose house backed onto to the shore where Chandler’s ring was believed to be lost. John was most gracious!

After about 3 hours of scanning the sandy lake bottom the signal I was looking for showed up on my XP Deus detector. Moments later I extracted Chadler’s ring from a mass of zebra mussel shells in my scoop. The smile on the faces of Chandler and Brooke tell the rest of the story!

TESTIMONY:

“My husband and I are beyond thrilled with Paul Humphrey’s dedicated search to finding my husband’s wedding band in Lake Winnebago. Paul went above and beyond our expectations, coming back a second time to scour the area that he wasn’t able to search the first time around. As far as customer service goes, Paul gets our highest accolades. Thank you again Paul for generously donating your time to find my husband’s wedding band!” Brooke – Oshkosh, WI

Those of us listed on the directory for The Ring Finders can find a lot more than rings! Other valuables go astray, this as evidenced by the photo below. The items pictured were recovered at the same time that I was looking for a client’s lost wedding ring. These represent valuable property of another kind. Their owners no doubt still get a sick feeling when they think back to the time they first realized their possessions were missing. And so the next time you or someone you know loses valuable property, give me a call; I just might be able to help.

June 20th to 24th found South Milwaukee residents, Tim and Ashley, camped out at the Ford Festival Park near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. They were taking in the Country USA Music Festival for 2017 attended by some 40,000 people. Unfortunately, rain had turned the campsites into a muddy mire. Then on Friday night the toss of a frisbee sent Ashley’s engagement ring flying off her finger into the drizzling darkness. The next morning the couple purchased a metal detector from the local WalMart but found nothing other than debris from countless campers over the years. The chances of extracting a petite gold ring from the tramped mud and accumulation of beer cans, pull tabs, foil wrappers and other metalic remains, bordered on impossible.

On Monday following I received an email from Ashley asking if I could help. Once on location I was the recipient of the kind cooperation and assistance of Ford Festival security employee, Robert, who secured permission to search and who provided a most helpful map of the individual campsites and Tim and Ashley’s site number 1724—ground zero. But after an ever widening three-hours of painstaking investigation through rubbish and mud, further hunting seemed futile. Even with a carefully calibrated state-of-the art XP Deus metal detector the little ring eluded my best efforts. Perhaps someone had already found it, I thought to myself.

I had mentally decided to call off the search and break the sad news to Tim and Ashley that I was not successful. But then on my way back to the car a signal in my headphones prompted further investigation. It came from the remains of a large mud puddle in the roadway. Countless vehicles had driven through it. After digging and removing several bits of aluminum foil, a golf-ball sized clump of mud emitted both a promising tone and the appropriate conductivity numbers for white gold. Probing further, a flash of metal caught my eye. There, squished into the clod was Ashley’s ring! Amazingly it was no worse for wear considering its abuse from the tires of so many vehicles.

Tim and Ashley, I’m so delighted for you both to have found your ring! And thank you for your generous reward.

If you or someone you know has lost a ring, contact me. I and my colleagues at The Ring Finders are happily available to assist.

TESTIMONIAL:

“We thought the ring was gone forever and that the website [theringfinders.com] was a scam, but Paul proved us wrong within a matter of hours. We will forever be grateful and keeping his number on file!”

Ashley

Peter Wakefield Jackson is internationally known for his lustrous career as a potter—the craft of making ceramic wares by hand on a potter’s wheel. Together with Megan, his bride of 24 years, Peter lives on a 17-acre farm outside Cambridge, Wisconsin. In addition to the pottery studio in the farm’s century-old outbuildings the property is home to Megan’s 2 horses, Annie and Mo, which she uses for equine-assisted therapy.

On November 8th, 2016, the day of the USA Presidential election, Peter removed his 24-karat gold wedding band and a malachite-inlaid silver ring from his fingers so as not to risk scratching several unfired pieces he was handling while loading them into a kiln.

The gold band was an heirloom from Megan’s side of the family. It once belonged to her great uncle Nathan Kawin, a dapper young man who received it from his bride, Lottie Goldstein on their wedding day on January 5th 1885 in Chicago. Inside the gold band is the inscription, “NK to LG”.

Due to a previous scare with losing his rings by putting them loose in his pocket, Peter always put a twist-tie around the two rings for added security. It would be the last he would see of them. Later that night, after a full day’s activity, the rings were nowhere to be found.

I received an email from Peter asking for my assistance. He had written a meticulous chronology of his activities on the day of the loss. The remarkable detail was evidence of the huge sentimental value Peter’s rings held, especially the 132-year-old family heirloom. But the chances of finding the twist-tied pair bordered on impossible.

On a 17-acre hobby farm the likelihoods of where the rings might have escaped Peter’s pocket seemed never-ending. On the day of the loss he had fed horses, installed a feeder, made numerous trips to his kiln, retrieved tools from his workshop and had driven to town and back on 2 occasions. The rings could be anywhere, lost in town, shipped out with a pottery order, maybe even ingested by Annie or Mo—perish the thought!

My 40-plus years metal-detecting experience kept telling me to decline the search and not get Peter’s hopes up. But I could sense the earnestness in Peter’s email; perhaps I could help to bring a sense of closure to his loss knowing he had done all he could to find them. Conducting the search, however, would be a long shot, a very long shot.

On May 25th 2017, six months after the ill-fated, twist-tied rings went missing, I arrived at the Wakefield Studio to begin the search. My strategy was to try and eliminate the outdoor areas. After a couple hours, it seemed all the more certain that the rings would never be seen again. But it was while searching the horse corral that a high-silver signal on my XP Deus detector warranted investigation. Probing deep into the manure, mud and water, a glint of metal caught my eye. It was Peter’s rings—still twisted together as when Peter tucked them into his pocket 6-months before!

Just how the rings ended up in the middle of the horse corral will remain a mystery. One thing is for sure this happy find will go down in my books as a ring-find with a twist!

Rejoicing with you both, Peter and Megan! May the story of your rings continue for many happy years to come! And thank you for your kind gift; the hand-thrown Wakefield Studio pottery pieces will be treasured for the extra special memory they hold.

If you or someone you know has lost a ring or other piece of sentimental jewelry, don’t give up! Peter didn’t. And his persistence paid off.

Contact The Ring Finders today for a metal-detecting specialist near you.

TESTIMONY

“I can recommend Paul without reservation to anyone who has lost a wedding ring. From our first communications, I could tell he had a sincere and honest approach to solving such a puzzle. It was a pleasure to work with him, and I could not be happier that he was able to find my long lost rings!” Peter – Cambridge, WI

Memorial Day Weekend turned to disappointment when Valerie’s wedding ring flew off her finger while playing ball with her husband, Mike and daughter. It seemed to land somewhere in the thick grass behind their newly acquired home in Fontana, Wisconsin. Despite searching for many hours on their knees, the ring eluded discovery.

A phone call from Valerie on Monday, May 29th, set in motion a quick one-hour drive to the Lake Geneva district not far from the Illinois State border. Upon arrival, she escorted me to the location where a wooden stake marked ground zero; the place she was standing when the ring left her hand. Additionally, Mike had spray painted a square perimeter line on the ground to indicate the area where the couple had concentrated their search efforts. From a recovery standpoint, this couple had done everything right but still was not able to recover it.

It wasn’t long before a promising signal showed on my monitor. The numbers displayed were consistent with Valerie’s wedding band. Then began a systematic parting of the green blades but the ring’s hiding place was no match for technology and 40-plus years metal-detecting experience. A flash of metal betrayed its presence.

Valerie, I am so glad we were able to get your ring back on your finger where it belongs; may its story continue for many, many happy years. And thank you for your kind reward.

TESTIMONY

« Thank you so much for your quick response to my call and for finding my wedding band immediately. I can’t express how much I appreciate your willingness to travel, on a holiday, to my home 45 minutes away, to help me find it. Thanks again » Valerie – Fontana, WI

Sunday, May 8th was not a good day for Lori Cox, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Life had thrown some nasty curve balls at her recently but when she lost her precious engagement ring, it was like the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Despite her best search efforts, the ring eluded discovery.

Thinking she would investigate the rental of a metal detector, an online search immediately directed her to The Ring Finders website and subsequently to my metal detecting services. Would I help? I could sense the desperation in Lori’s quivering voice on the phone.

The circumstances surrounding her loss were somewhat vague, thus I wasn’t too optimistic about locating it. But I felt compelled to give it my best try, if for no reason but Lori’s peace of mind. After all, it is times like these we humans are glad for even the small kindnesses of others.

During the drive to Fond du Lac, I mulled over a search strategy. Two large dogs (gorgeous ones I might add) in residence meant checking their bags of poop, this since canines have been known to swallow rings. And since it was not known whether the ring was lost outside in the backyard or inside the house, I determined to concentrate my 40-plus years detecting experience on the outside areas and first eliminate those. Lastly, a house search would involve a forensic-style review of the areas Lori had checked, eliminating one room at a time.

Later, while I was outside eliminating square inches of backyard, Lori was busy inside eliminating square inches of floor and furnishings—its called teamwork! I had almost completed the outside search when Lori suddenly appeared. She was holding up her ring! It was all she could do to speak she was so choked with emotion. As it turned out the ring had fallen down behind a seat cushion of a chair in the family room.

Lori, your ring doesn’t weigh much, but its discovery sure lifted a huge emotional load off your shoulders! I am so glad you found it! Thank you for allowing me to have a small part in encouraging you and giving you hope.