Ryan Cole, Author at The Ring Finders

Lost gold wedding ring recovered, Wall Lake, Orland Indiana

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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While searching for another lost gold ring for a guy, a neighbor lady mentioned that her husband had lost his gold wedding ring a couple years ago, out from their pier, while handing items from boat to boat. She said divers had searched for the ring, but no luck, it’s very weedy and a muck bottom area.
After findng many pull rings, lead sinkers, beer cans, foil balls and fishing lures, I got a clean sounding target that was also quite a trick to scoop up, due to the thick snaggy weeds. After about 5 tries, the target sound was no more, so I checked the scoop and long behold, a nice thick men’s gold band was in there.
Trudged over and let the lady know I had likely found her husband’s lost ring. Handed it over and sure enough, that was it and they were shocked that I had found it.

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Lost gold wedding ring recovered, Wall Lake, Orland Indiana

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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Jude contacted me after losing his gold wedding ring that he’s been wearing for 37 years. He was visiting family at their lake cottage and playing volleyball in the water. Upon hitting the ball, his wedding band went missing. He thought it had fallen down near where he was standing. He contacted me, we made the arrangements for the search promptly.
The depth was from waist to chest deep, some weedy areas and the bottom had a thin layer of muck that clouds up quickly.
Searched and searched, round and round, trudged through the weeds, to no avail. I was sure the ring had went flying elsewhere, but Jude was confident it was near where he stood. I tried to expand my search zone, but it didn’t seem like that went over too well, so I kept over on the area he was thinking. AFter a long while, maybe a couple hours, I called it off and mentioned I’d maybe try again when I get by the area, so I could search further out, etc. He said that’d be no problem and I was on my way home to go to work soon after.
Decided to do some tests the next day. Went through the motions of hitting a volleyball, had a ring with some colored string tied to it, and measured the distance in paces. An average distance of 13-20 of my 3ft paces was constant.
Return trip, brought a hunting buddy and we started searching. AFter doing battle with more weeds, many other metallic targets, I moved into more shallow water and got a solid signal, about 18 paces from where Jude was when he lost the ring.
Bingo, potentially his ring, a nice gold band in the scoop with writing and some fancy on the outer part. But, another guy said he had lost a gold band there 20 years ago, so had to confirm with Jude if it was or wasn’t his. Thankfully upon texting, it was quickly confirmed, that « Lindy » was part of the inner engravings. Mission accomplished. Next-Day shipped it back to him in NC.

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3 Lost Gold rings Recovered from the water, Lake Maxinkuckee, Culver, Indiana

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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Betsie messaged me late last night in regards to her 3 lost rings. She was playing catch with her son in the water, it was almost dark out. She said that as she was catching the football, she realized her rings had fallen off, in chest deep water. Her and her son frantically searched for the rings, with no luck finding any. She mentioned her son felt guilty, because they were playing catch and she had lost them doing so. Which made finding them even more important to me.
We made arrangements, although I had to work until 6am, I agreed to meet her at the location as early as I was able to. She showed me where they thought they were and I began searching. This spot is mostly target free, as it gets detected often, which was a concern, that someone else may get to them first.
After seraching the zone for like 20 minutes and seeing some craters, I was worried that maybe someone else had got them. I moved shallower than she described, did a pass and got a nice signal. ALso, had another signal near that, so likely it was the culprits. Gazing down at my search coil, I could see the edge of a ring, so I plucked that one with the scoop, then scooped the other. The second scoop was the main wedding ring, thankfully. Two down, one to go. Got another target signal just a foot away and scooped the wedding band ring also. The 3 rings all nice and close together made for a simple triple recovery today. She was thrilled and her husband likely was too.

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Lost sentimental silver pendant and necklace Recovered, Klinger Lake, White Pigeon, Michigan

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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Diana contacted me to inquire if it was possible that I could search for a lost, very sentimental necklace for her, in Klinger Lake. She explained that her son and friends were playing basketball in the lake at their dock last night. One of the friend’s had been given a necklace by his father, who had passed away soon after.
We made arrangements for a search in the morning. I arrived, met with Diana and found out there was a pendant involved and that was actually the sentimental item ( a guardian angel pendant). So the necklace and pendant, somewhere in about 4-5 feet of water, somewhere within about a 50 by 50ft area.
Began the search, started finding the typical items, coins, bolts, washers, nuts, pull tabs and within aobut 10 minutes the pendant (marked 925, they were unsure of what either were made of). I got out, took a photo of the pendant and sent it to Diana.
A few of the boys had woken up now and came to see how I was doing. I let them know I found the pendant and they said the boy that lost it would be very happy I’d recovered it.
So now the necklace, which can sometimes be invisible to detectors. Not knowing what it was made of, I just started scooping every type of signal I heard. Pretty much cleaned up their swim area of foot hazards. About a half hour had passed, they said the pendant was the main thing and to just call it good. I asked if I could just try one more sweep around where the pendant was, they said sure. Got a faint whisper of a signal, got the pinpointer to it, grabbed a handful from the bottom and long behold, the necklace in my hand (could see where a link pulled apart).
Diana came down to check on everything, thanked me and said it’ll be a few minutes for the boy to thank me, because he was in tears still, holding the pendant.
I gathered my things, walked back up the sets of stairs to get to my vehicle and the boy that lost it came to say thanks. I could tell it was highly sentimental and was glad to have found it for them.

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Lost white Gold Tiffany-T Ring Recovered, Crooked Lake – Angola, Indiana

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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Saturday evening, after the Crooked Lake sandbar Music Festival (in water event), Noah and Kayla returned to their dock site where Kayla went for a short swim around the pontoon. She swam along the side of the pontoon, between it and another pier, when her hand hit the lake bottom for a moment and she felt her ring slide off her finger. She stopped, surfaced, checked her finger and saw it in fact had fallen off.
The bottom is a layer of clay silt over some gravel and sand. The spot of loss was about 3-4 feet deep. They tried to find it, kids helped also, to no avail.
A friend of mine, familiar with my services, put them in contact with me and arrangements were made for the recovery attempt this morning. She sounded confident about the exact spot it had fell off, which was nice to hear.
Kayla sent me a picture of the ring type, a Tiffany & Co « T » ring (a non closed ring), white gold with some diamonds. Non-closed rings, especially with that large of a gap, can be difficult for most detectors to sound off on. It’s just a phenomenon that occurs, as with many bracelets and necklaces also.
I’m running a Minelab Manticore detector, which is one of the newest and most sensitive units at this time. I have confidence that if any machine would « see » that ring, it would.
I let them know about the possibility, that the ring may be undetectable, but assured them that I had confidence in my detector.
In the water I went, began searching, found a couple washers, quarters, several 22 bullets, several prop curls and some nails, but no ring. Expanded the area slighly, to under the pier where her right hand was favoring, but still no ring. Worked the area from different directions, still no ring. Switched to the extra sensitive gold mode and re-swept the area further, finding a few more tiny metallic objects, but still no ring. Got the dive mask and snorkel out, worked some zones visually and with a pinpointer, finding a couple tid bits of 22 shell casings and nails again. About an hour had passed now, I was getting a bad feeling, that either the ring was indeed undetectable, or that maybe it just wasn’t there anymore.
I asked if anyone had seen them searching for it, or if they told anyone where it was lost. They said yes, two younger kids saw them searching, knew what they were seraching for and said they were going to go get goggles and come back to search for it (hopefully didn’t find it and maybe keep it). Well, I had scoured the loss spot and beyond, many many times over and I could see Kayla had a look of sadness, because it appeared as if her ring she cherished dearly was not gonna be found.
I asked if it was ok that i just try another little bit, one more hail Mary (which I seem to do on most searches). Got a very weak and low signal, but faintly repeatable, got the pinpointer down on it and got a somewhat good response with that too. Reached down, grabbed a handfull of bottom, brought my hand up to the surface, the muck fell off the sides of my hand and a nice sight to see revealed itself to me and Kayla that was looking down from the pier above. She was ecstatic, I was very thrilled and relieved (lotsa eyes upon me from above, kids watching too). Walked over and put it in her hand, carefully.

Afterwards, on dry land, I asked if I could test the ring to see how the detector reacted with it. About 2.5″ max, in gold mode, super faint 03 vdi. Glad it worked out, as were they.

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Lost Gold Wedding Ring Recovered, Weko Beach, Bridgman Michigan (Lake Mi)

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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06/25/2024 Weko Beach, Bridgman Michigan, Lake Michigan, water temp 68. William and family were enjoying the day at the beach. The 90’s temps last week warmed the big lake up nicely nearshore. At some point, William realized his gold wedding ring had fell off. He noticed this while out by a certain buoy marker out by the water inlet tower.
His daughter Alissa, later did some googling and came across my information as a “Ring Finder”. She texted me, we worked out the details and today (06/26) I did my searching, based off a hand drawn treasure-map of sorts.
There had been a quite strong wind/storm event later in the evening of the day of loss. Things move at this beach rather easily, even heavy 2-3 ounce fishing sinkers and massive amounts of sand come and go quickly.
Well, after a bit of searching, working the fairly large area, I got a nice sounding signal, told the gopro to “start recording”, took a careful scoop and observed a very gold men’s band in the scoop! He’s been wearing it since May of 2002 and I’m glad to have helped recover it for them.

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Lost Gold Wedding Ring recovered, Union Lake, Union City Michigan

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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Zach and Elizabeth had a successful bluegill fishing adventure, until it was time to give the hands a wash in the water. Her wedding ring (set/3-soldered) slipped of as she was rinsing her hand. The murky brown water was about 4.5-5.5ft deep. Most of the shoreline looks similar, but there were bluegill beds and a shiny tea drink-can as landmarks. We worked out the details, now was the time, as I had the day off with no pressing plans. The lake (technically a main local river)is dirty water, murky bottom, with trees, leaves, stumps and branches laying everywhere. Decades of litter, beer cans, pull rings. sinkers, lures, foil, you name it, all laying in the branches and trees. Digging and retrieving targets was difficult. I gridded the spot several times over, making sure they were satisfied I was covering where they desired. After about two hours, it was appearing grim. They did make the most of the time and had caught about 40 nice bluegills. Ha. Knowing that finds often come just beyond where people envision the loss, I suggested allowing me to push beyond the area “one last pass”. A few steps and two targets later, I heard a nice clean tone with a gold range vdi number on the display. The target was suspended in muck pudding, within some tree roots, nearly impossible to scoop out, but by some miracle and lots of patience, the scoop nestled in just right and when I checked the basket I could feel the promising clunk. When the contents got rinsed more, I caught a glimpse of white gold and a ring’s edge!
https://static.theringfinders.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240530_8ff1f_63b87-scaled.jpeg

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Lost Gold Wedding ring Found/recovered by RingFinder Ryan Cole @ Silver Beach, St Joseph, Michigan (Lake Michigan)

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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Jenny was visiting friends in Kalamazoo and they all were spending the day in St Joseph, at Silver Beach County Park. It was a busy beach day and they were all just enjoying the water and eachother’s company. While out towards the floating buoys, she reached down in the water towards one of her legs, then felt her rings slip off her fingers. Her white gold wedding set and also a slim silver band. With no luck recovering them from the waist deep water, everyone she was with promptly began trying to look for the lost rings. She said about ten people were looking, some with swim masks and others just using their ringers to rake the bottom. Someone actually found the silver band and someone else found a random earring by chance, but no wedding set. Jenny’s friend Diana tried to locate a metal detector to rent, with no luck and then she came across the Ringfinders website and contacted another finder, who then contacted me. I spoke to Diana, told her I could be up there in an hour. Luckily Jenny was still at the beach with her son and was able to wait my arrival to show me where to search. Diana had given me the incorrect phone number for Jenny, so when I texted that I had arrived, given my vehicle description, etc, it all went to who knows who. But, she was keeping an eye on entering vehicles and profiling them to try and guess which wouuld be me. I had walked down to the area Diana mentioned. After several minutes, I was beginning to wonder what was going on, but then saw a lady almost running across the same towards me. She went out in the water with me, to try and relocate the loss spot, but it was all looking somewhat different to her now. I just began searching quickly, because we only had about 50 minutes until the ten pm closing time here. Found four or five bottle caps and a few pop can pull tabs. I was beginning to worry some, as I’d covered a pretty big area with no luck yet. I moved in a bit shallower and got a nice smooth sounding signal that had potential gold numbers on the detector. I was confident enough to tell Jenny it sounded really promising. I scooped up the target and could see a simple wedding band with one diamond, as she had mentioned it was. Relieved, I grabbed it out of the scoop basket and handed her the ring. She was overwhelmed with tears of joy and couldn’t thank me enough. This ring was very sentimental to her.

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Lost Gold ring found (recovered) by RingFinder Ryan Cole @ Warren Dunes State Park, Bridgman, Michigan (Lake Michigan)

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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Kevin was enjoying his camping vacation and spent the day at the beach with his family. The water was a nice 72 degrees, clear and just slightly wavy today. While in about waist deep water, he felt his ring slip off and wasn’t able to see it on the sandy bottom. His son had a metal detector with them, however it wasn’t a waterproof unit (only submersible up to just below the control box). He attempted to locate the ring, but it was worried the detector was going to get wet and ruined. Kevin’s wife discovered the Ringfinders site and had Kevin give me a call. I was actually heading up there at some point today for some water “therapy”, so I let him know I could head right up. (Recovering from a broken leg surgery a few months ago, walking in the cool water is helping immensely to deter swelling issues). He had described the loss location and upon arrival, I just headed out to the water and started searching. Kevin didn’t show up when he said he was going to, so I just hoped I was in the correct spot. I dug several bottle caps, coins, pull tabs and other pieces of metallic junk. After a short while, I got a smooth gold range signal, scooped it up and had a nice men’s gold band with ornate engravings. Still no Kevin, so I went up to my truck to get to my phone and ended up crossing paths with him and his son who had just parked in the lot. I presented the ring, in hopes it was the right one and sure enough, it was. Another happy customer (who did not wish to be photo’d etc).

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Stunning lost gold wedding ring Found/recovered by RingFinder Ryan Cole @ Lake Maxinkuckee, Culver Indiana

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)
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Got tagged by a friend in a Facebook post, in regards to a woman posting that she had lost her wedding ring at « the beach » earlier in the week. I sent Jessica a link to my Ringfinders contact information and received a reply yesterday, four days after the loss. She gave my number to her husband, David, who called me to explain the events and location, etc. We spoke and currently had a window of good weather opportunity, I offered to come down and search immediately. They had posted a reward and said that at least four people had said they were going to search for it (they provided them with the suspected areas etc). David had borrowed a metal detector from a friend and tried searching for the ring, but said the detector never « found » anything in the water or on the beach (cheap detector). I let them know I wasn’t 100% my normal abilities, due to medical restriction from a few recent surgeries, but I would try searching within reason/etc. Pretty much everyone at the beach knew of the lost ring. David said Jessica was playing volleyball in the water, but was always facing towards shore when hitting the ball. I searched the dry sand where they had setup towels/etc, then moved to the water, it’s a rather shallow swim area. There were two little girls with masks on, the older of the two asked if I was looking for the lost ring, I said yes, she said they were both searching for it also, lol . Another little kid had actually found a ring earlier, or a couple days ago, gave it to the mother, who then showed David and Jessica the ring to see if it was theirs. Not being theirs, they told the lady to turn it in to the office lost n found, she said she would, then packed up her stuff to leave and walked right past the office and left. Anyhow, upon searching in the shallow water, I started seeing fresh dig craters, not a good sign. Targets were non existent, which is good and bad, but I kept looking in the zone. Found a pull tab and a couple quarters. Got somewhat worried that someone else had cleaned the place out. Nearing the far edge of where they said she had been, I got a strong signal of something likely laying on top of the sandy bottom. Scooping gently, then washing out the sand slowly, revealed one Massive chunker of a ring, loaded with diamonds. Wowzers! I wasn’t sure if it was the lost one or not, they only had a really poor photo of her ring that was provided to me, which made it look like very yellow gold and not the very white gold this one was. After getting back to my truck, I re-examined the photo they sent and could see the stones were indeed the same pattern/etc as the found one. They had gone to get dinner up the street. I sent them the photo of the ring and made their day!

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