Ryan Cole, Author at The Ring Finders

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

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

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.

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

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

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).

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

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

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!

Lost gold wedding ring found (for a 2nd time) Granger, Indiana

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

9 years ago, in 2013, I recovered this ring for Chris, who had lost it in Donnell Lake (Vandalia, Mi). Since then, he implemented a protocol to always leave it in the lake house prior to heading out on/in the water. The ring is half of a matched set (with his wife’s). Anyhow, he was cleaning up leaves in the yard and at some point noticed his ring went missing. He knew who to call to search for it. I searched most the yard and an area where he said he had lost a gas cap from a blower yesterday, but ended up finding it within the leaves by the street (piled up for the county leaf sucker truck to get). He later recalled flinging some leaves onto a large tarp, which must have sent the ring sailing also. Prior to me going to search, he mentioned being worried maybe he blew the ring away with the leafblower too. I tested that concern with an average weight men’s ring and my extra powerful Stihl 800x blower (had to totally try to move the ring, not a worry, likely different with lighter rings though).
I told him that he’s now in the “twice-found club”, as I’ve recovered another ring twice, years apart, for another guy recently.

Lost gold wedding ring found, Paw Paw Lake, Michigan

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

Lynn contacted me about her husband’s wedding ring that fell off his finger while cranking the wheel on the their boat lift. The ring had also been Lynn’s father’s ring, so it was extra sentimental them. We discussed a time frame yesterday and I went up there this afternoon to search. I brought an underwater tube-lens contraption (for viewing bottom/etc), the usual detector, backup detectors, scoops, pinpointers and also my scuba gear. The water visibility was as bad as I expected (murky/sediment), so the view tube was a no go. The pier and lift station was a maze of metal with large metal pads on the bottom. I opted to start with detector and scoop. Found a multitude of undesirable « trash » targets, cans, nuts, bolts, coins, pier post caps, etc, etc, but no ring. Obviously, the detector can’t « see » when near the metal frame parts, posts and pads. After an hour and a half with detector and scoop, I had to move to the anticipated Plan-B, scuba gear and pinointers, for working close to the framework. I used my fancy little gear cart to bring everything out to the dock site. After dawning the gear, I went to put the mask on and CRACK (the strap fixture broke). Not really wanting to dismount the gear and get repair stuff from the truck, I MacGyver’d the mask strap with a piece of wire I had just dug up and had in the floating sifter, worked perfect, back in business. I searched and searched with pinpointers, all around the metal structures and post pads, still no ring. I was getting worried now and wondering maybe it wasn’t in the water. I noticed the pier had metal supports under the slotted walkway with a channel big enough to catch a ring. I checked all the channels, no ring. Now I was thinking about the two frame parts, that I saw from above, that had holes big enough for a ring to fall into and no way to really check.Then I thought, maybe, maybe the the last place that ring could be was actually laying on one of the metal post pads, where the pinpointer nor metal detector would see it. I started moving the inch of sand/dirt/sediment off the pads and checking that with pinpointer. On the second pad, doing the same, I felt my finger tip go into what really felt like a ring. Bingo, that was it!

Lost gold wedding ring recovered, found in leaf pile, Baroda, Michigan, Berrien County

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

Larry, his wife and some family had been doing some fall cleanup of freshly fallen leaves on the property.
Later in the afternoon, Larry noticed his wedding ring, that he’s worn proudly for 49 years, had slipped off and was now missing.
For hours, they searched, sometimes on hands and knees, scouring the leaf piles for the missing gold band. They tried using a metal detector, but said it was making all kinds of noise on random targets and they weren’t sure on it’s settings or how to really use it.
Larry’s daughter had seen a Twitter tweet about someone’s ring being found by a ringfinder (me) and they decided to look to TheRingFinders.com for help.
The first potential area of loss was where the loads of leaves were being dumped. They had taken some photos during the day and saw that Larry still had his ring on his finger at some point.
I started searching, found several undesirable targets that were under the surface, some flakes of copper and foil pieces on top of the ground, slightly prolonging the process.
I have found many lost rings, often just outside of where they are thought to possibly be.
I got a good strong signal near the back side of the compacted leaf piles. I rustled carefully through the leaves to locate that particular target with my pinpointer. They didn’t expect the ring would be right there though. A brief moment later and I saw the golden edge of a ring at the end of the sounding pinpointer. Bingo! I said. I immediately handed it back to Larry.
I’ve seen many happy reactions from people and families, which is awesome, this was no exception. He was so very happy and gracious to be reunited with his lost ring.
I’m glad I was able to help. Took about ten minutes to find.


Lost wedding ring recovered from Lake Michigan, Union Pier, Michigan

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

Got a call from David, who had lost his white gold wedding ring while out at a Lake Michigan beach, near Union Pier Michigan. He wasn’t certain when the ring had fallen off his finger, but knew it was either up on the dry sand or out in the water, possibly deeper than head deep, within a certain “width” area.
Lake Michigan quickly claims many rings and can be quite uncooperative or merciless due to prevailing winds/waves. The wind forecast looked promising for a morning search the next day. Upon getting to a nearby parking area that next morning, I could hear an unwelcome roar of the surf.
We met at a certain stairway, walked to the beach and I could see the 3-4 foot high-freqnency whitecaps that make searching in the surf nearly impossible. The water temp had dropped from cold water being moved in. Temp from mid 70’s down to what felt like upper 50’s. I searched the dry sand area, then near the water line with no luck. Started in the frigid water, working the shallowest parts, getting battered by the waves and powerful multi-directional currents, as if the lake wanted to take me. With numb legs and that terrible feeling of failure, I accepted that the big lake wasn’t going to let me to find this ring today. I had to call the search and break the bad news to David and Silvia, who were standing on the beach watching with hopes of good news. They had to check out and leave for home again this same morning. I told them that I’d be back when the conditions were better so I could try searching more.
I returned to try again when the wind forecast looked good, but as usual with Lake Michigan, it wasn’t as forecasted and was still wavy enough to interfere with searching, no luck after trying a couple hours before work.
Fast forward a few more wavy days, there was finally a few hour window of nearly flat calm in the forecast and I took advantage of it. A few days of heavy wave action, wild currents and mass sand movement were not bringing positive thoughts for a recovery. I had a couple hours to search and had until 1130, which was when I had to stop and leave for work.
I searched the dry sand again, then the surf zone and found a few dimes, a nickel, a quarter, a couple pennies and some junk pieces of metal or tin. Moved out deeper, no promising signals of any kind. I had taken into consideration the wave directions, the current and searched quite a distance beyond where David said he’d been. For awhile, I was even using my scoop and detector like « arm stilts », so I could detect deeper than head deep (I’m 6’3″), nothing but junk targets. . 1130 came, it was time leave for work, no ring, that bad feeling of failure again set in.
Started back towards shore, I figured I’d go even further South of the search area to keep swinging the detector until back on the beach. About halfway to shore, chest deep, I got a potential lone signal of gold or a nickel. Scooped it up and there it was, a white gold men’s size wedding band. It had inscriptions in it and I confirmed with David that it was indeed his lost ring.

Lost gold cross ring, found in Little Long Lake, Fremont, IN

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

Kyle and Brent’s aunt had lost her gold-cross ring (diamonds cross) in the swim area of the family cottage.
She had been lounging on a tube/float when it fell off somewhere between the stairs and end of the pier. They said the ring had sentimental value and she really wanted it to be recovered.
We set up a day when the weather was cooperating.
I started shallow, found a couple pieces of metal junk, then got a signal with a few targets close together. Scooped out a piece of foil, a piece of aluminum, then a nice gold ring with diamond cross. Took all of about two minutes.
I was also able to scoop out a large nasty shard of glass that may have recently gouged one of their kid’s feet recently. It was bad enough to require stitches they said.

Lost Gold wedding ring recovered from yard, South Bend, Indiana

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

George contacted me a few days ago about his unfortunate situation of losing his cherished gold wedding ring. He said that he had mowed most of his yard, unloaded a few bags worth of grass clippings and then noticed it was missing when almost done mowing. He was unsure when the ring went missing and assumed it may have fallen inside one of the three bags of wet grass or in one of three areas where he recalled taking the glove off. He checked inside the glove, attempted searching through one of the bags of wet grass, but realized a metal detector may be the answer. He turned to google to search for the possibility of renting a metal detector. He also considered buying an inexpensive detector, but then realized even if he did either, he wouldn’t know how to use it anyhow. He came across the TheRingfinders.com website, quickly found my information and had me on my way when our schedules meshed.
I searched the bags of grass and the areas where he had taken his gloves off, with no luck, which meant searching the whole yard knowing there was a chance the ring got mowed over and possibly shot to who knows where by the riding mower.
Typical of most yards, there were several shallow targets to deal with, a sprinkler system throughout the whole yard, buried yard lighting wires, edging stakes and buried phone/cable lines in the back yard.
I opted for the larger 15″ coil on my Equinox 800 detector, which makes it hard to miss much of anything when covering a large area like a yard.
Knowing it was going to be just laying in some totally random spot, I had my fingers crossed I’d come across it quickly, a little luck is always welcome and it happened pretty quick, considering.
Got a banging nice surface signal, started checking it with my pinpointer and saw that fantastic color of Gold nestled under the thick blades of grass in the front yard.
George was so happy that he gave me a big hug and when I asked him if it was ok to get some pictures, he posed for the camera, giving his missing ring a big ole kiss. He said his wife put that ring on his finger in August of 63 and that he couldn’t thank me enough.

Lost Gold wedding ring recovered 20 years later, Lake James, Angola Indiana

  • from Granger (Indiana, United States)

Last month, Corey contacted me after reading about a guy from The Ringfinders, me, recovering a lost ring for someone that lives on the same chain of lakes that he does. We spoke and he mentioned that the lost item was his late father’s original gold wedding ring, lost many years ago. He said it was certainly in the water, near their pier in probably 3 to 4 feet of water.
Fast forward about a month, we discussed the details further and we were able to finally set a date and time for the recovery attempt.
After some mild rain storms cleared out, I arrived all prepared for the search. Initially he mentioned a rather small search area, but this grew somewhat as he pointed out the potential loss areas.
Immediately, I was getting signal after signal, from large amounts of metallic debris, filling my headphones with all kinds of sounds. I quickly covered the area initially for any obvious clean and loud targets, removing several coins, pull tabs, pull rings and bottle caps.
Next, I slowed down to do a more methodical grid-like search, finding several more targets amongst the iron/metallic debris around the pier.
I covered the area from several directions, moving slightly outside the area where he thought the ring may be, just in case.
It was thought that his dad had lost the ring either cranking the boat-lift wheel, or doing something around the pontoon boat that was on the lift (lift no longer there).
Corey said that his dad even tried finding his lost ring with some sort of metal detector that he had for locating water pipes (when the lake homes were just starting to be built there). This home was built around 1936. Corey also tried using that same detector device to find the ring in the past, with no luck.
Being rather tenacious, I searched and searched for hours and ended up digging every target I heard, even the « iffy ones », just in case again. There was one particular piece of junk i dug, a large perforated tin can lid that was over a foot deep. This deeper junk target will come into play later in this story. I scoured under and around the pier posts and had to contend with digging/scooping in lots of weeds towards the deeper end of the pier. If it was in there, I was going to find it!
It was going on 3 1/2 hours now, long beyond the half hour or hour I had planned to search. I had already said « I’ll do one more grid » to myself several times over. At about the 4 hour mark, not having eaten lunch, hungry, thirsty, skeptical and ready to call it, I told myself « ok, one more absolutely last sweep »! In the deeper water, near where the back of the pontoon would’ve been I got a good sounding target in the edge of the temporary crater where I had scooped the big tin can lid. I scooped out a big heavy blob of weeds and muck, slopped it into my floating sifter and checked it with the pinpointer. The pinpointer rang out quickly, so it definitely wasn’t something small like a penny or a fishing sinker this time. I swirled and sloshed the sifter around some more, poked the pinpointer back in it and as the muddy water began to turn clear, I could see the wonderful color of gold and the round shape of a ring’s edge showing itself!

Got it! This ring had been in the water for the past 20 years now! That large tin can lid was right under where the ring had settled and due to being so large, it « masked out » the ring from being seen initially.

It’s always an amazing feeling of satisfaction when there is so much sentimental value involved. I worked hard for this one, but the persistence paid off.