Steven Mack, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 2 of 3

Lost Ring Selah Washington

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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Would You like fries with that ring?

Dumpster diving anyone? Yep that was the latest ring search. I received a phone call from a young lady who had just lost her ring. She wanted to know if I could help her find it. Of course I would, and I wanted her to tell me the story.

She had been at a local McDonald’s enjoying a glass of water with her friends. She had taken her silver ring off and had placed it over the straw that was in a clear plastic cup. Engrossed in her conversation, and half looking at the ring she wondered if she could push the ring into the cup over the straw. Somehow see was distracted and sort of forgot about the ring halfway into the cup. A few minutes later ready to leave, she well, left. And being the neat person that she is she put her cup into the trash bag on the way out.

A while later, she thought about the ring and to her horror, it was gone. She was able to remember that she had put the ring nearly into the cup and must have thrown it away. AAHHHHHHH. She has a very nice friend who remembered an add that I ran on craigslist for “TheRingFinders”, and that I searched for lost rings. They were able to track down the add and gave me a call.

It was kind of funny because she wanted to know if I could find a ring in a dumpster. I told her that unfortunately for me, I had experience with dumpster diving and that I would be happy to do the search.

Most of my searches seem to be hours from home, so this one being only ten minutes away was quite a treat. I arrived at McDonald’s in Selah, Washington and met them out at the dumpster. After the introductions the search was on. (I had her get permission from the manager to go through their trash prior to leaving for the hunt).

So in the massive dumpster, we found 8-10 trash bags full of, well, trash. So gloves on hands, we started to pull those bags out of the dumpster and lay them out on the ground. I fired up my metal detector and started going over the bags. I received the typical foil signals from all of the ketchup packets, and then the high tones of pop cans and other metal objects, but no ring.

So it was now time for hand to hand combat. It is at this point I was wondering what was going to be in the trash bags. It pretty much was what you are thinking, just room temperature and all squishy. An observation. I must say that most people finish all their meals, and that McDonald’s is losing millions on wasted ketchup. If you ever need a few hundred little ketchup packs then I have a secret spot for you, AND if you find the right bags, the ones from the kitchen you can have loads of French fries and a few old burgers as a bonus. But I digress.

Well, we were pawing through mounds of squishy cold garbage and each handful was placed under the metal detector. No ring. We spent what seemed like six years going through garbage, and the bad news was that we were running out of the good bags. I was starting to eye some of the remaining fries, when Finally, all the bags had been checked. I was crying because well, you know, I did not find the ring, and everyone looked so disappointed, and the fact that just a few moments earlier after avoiding any major gooey blobs of who knows what, a blob had flown into my left eye, which I did not want to wipe with my hands full of who knows what.

I was stunned we had not found the ring, and started actually thinking about going through the pile again, which would have required ME climbing into the dumpster. My helpers were all in there by now, but I have standards. No not really, I don’t have standards… we had managed to stay out of the container.

Part of being a good ring FINDER, is thinking, so I remember the ring loser saying that she had information from a reliable source in the store that ALL the garbage bags were out here in the dumpster. That sounded to final to me, so I asked the young lady who had lost the ring to go back into the store and grab the plastic trash bag from the container she dropped her cup into. My reasoning is that when I worked at McDonald’s, if the bag wasn’t full, I did not take it out to dump.

She was not to impressed with my idea, but after some brow beating, she marched in there and made off with the bag.

This now the final bag, the tension was palpable. Bit by bit, and fry by fry we started to go through the trash bag. Every bit of trash was slowly searched until we were halfway through the bag. Then just as suddenly as the blob went into my eye, I saw the ring. Tucked down deep in a pile of French fries. I slipped the ring over a sliver of fries and lifted it out of the bag, to the shouting of joy. We DON’T HAVE TO SEARCH THROUGH THE TRASH ANY LONGER.

The ring loser, now all smiles, was very happy to see her very special ring back. It was her 16th birthday ring, with her first diamonds. A gift from her mother.

Is this a great hobbie or what. It was a very special moment. Thanks for calling me to do the search, and I think I have to go take a shower now.

If you have lost your ring in Yakima, or Selah or anywhere NOT in the trash at McDonald’s (just kidding) give me a call.

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Lost Ring Snoqualmie Pass Washington

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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I wonder if rings have wings or feet because even though you drop one straight down, they seem to always turn up somewhere else.

This search started as they almost always do. Hi, I lost my ring and I found you on the Ringfinders web site, and I hope you can help me find my ring. It was in the afternoon that I received just such a call. It was snowing hard on Snoqualmie pass near Seattle. He had been having a great time until he was getting ready to leave. His hands had become cold and wet while working at the back of his vehicle. His Platinum ring slipped off his finger and dropped straight down into eight inches of fresh powder. Knowing that the ring should be right at his feet he began to feel around in the snow and try and find the ring. The problem was he could not find it. So, he dropped another ring and nearly lost it.

After searching the small area he widened the search area and before long the fresh powder snow was all mixed up and he could not find the ring. Being of sound mind he left his vehicle right where it was, and marked the spot with wooden stakes. He then closed the tailgate and left. He called me the next day, and I agreed to do the search that night after work. He was able to locate a metal detector and was searching the area for several hours before I arrived on the scene.

What the search initially looked like

Search area after snow plow came through the next morning

Would have been nice to have bright lights.

After listening to his story, and looking at the area to search it seemed like it should only take a few minutes to find the ring on the flat ground, even with the snow still falling on over half a foot of new snow. The problem was that the snow plow had been through the lot the night he lost it, and plowed within inches of his vehicle. Since the tail gait was down when he lost it, and closed when it was plowed it left plenty of room to collect most of the snow where the ring was dropped. This had been piled into a drift of snow that was at least 12 feet tall and twenty feet at the base. This ran for about 200 feet around the edge of the parking lot. Needless to say we had our work cut out for us.

We worked in the falling snow and falling temperatures with head lamps until 1am. He shoveled and I detected. But no ring. I left that night and got home at 3am. We decided to search it again once the snow had melted off. This was in February. I went up again in May to search again, and most of the snow had melted and all that remained was a 3-4 foot pile of snow around the outside of the lot. But once the snow was mostly gone and the weather warmed the underbrush had started to grow and now made searching very difficult in the area he lost it. I was able to again go over the snow, and into the icy creek that now ran through the search zone. I picked my way through the brush with a small hand held detector and no ring. I once again left the snow to melt away and did not get to search again until July.

We were going over the pass on the way home from a short break, and I talked my wife into letting me search the area for about an hour. This time the brush was so large that I could not search the area where he lost the ring. So I decided to finish off the rest of the parking area. After about an hour I found the ring sitting on the top of the dirt about 80 feet away from where he lost the ring.

It was a nice sized heavy platinum ring. I gave the owner a call and let him know that I had found the ring and mailed it off to him the next day. It was a great find, since I thought I was going to have to help him cut all the brush down to search it again.

Rob with the ring. The snow bank now brush

Nice heavy ring

On the question wondering if rings have wings or feet. In this case they had wheels. On the second search I ran into the man that plowed that parking lot the night the ring was lost. He remembers wondering why someone would put wooden stakes behind his vehicle. I also learned that he used a front-end loader. He said he scooped the snow straight into the bank and dumped it. So the ring must have clung to the side of the metal bucket with the left over snow and fell out where I found it.

It was a great hunt and a happy find. Thanks for the call to search for the ring, and the reward was great as well.

If you have lost your ring in the Yakima or surrounding area give me a call and I will see what we can do to find it.

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Lost Keys Found Yakima Washington

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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Good things can happen in 10 seconds if you know the right questions to ask. This search was what I would call perfect. It began when I was asked by a friend of mine to keep a look out for a large set of keys he lost the week before.

We had both been working on a « Journey to Bethlehem » live production here in Yakima Washington. We had around 3700 people go through the village over four nights. His part of the production was to plan and build the sets. After the weekend was over, we received seven inches of heavy wet snow which stressed our buildings.

My friend had been using a rake to pull the snow off the roof, and when he went to go home he realized the keys he had in his pocket had fallen out. Due to the new snow he was unable to locate the keys.

I had been searching for a large silver earring that had been lost around the village, and he knew this, so he asked me to keep an eye out.

Well, I had searched the village 5 different times with my metal detector and was able to tell the nice lady who lost it « somewhere » between her home and the event, that it was not lost on the path.

My friend was there as well, working on taking the buildings down, so I decided to search for his keys next.

I asked him more questions about what he had been doing the day he lost the keys and what areas he had been working in. I thought it was logical that he must have lost it when pulling snow off the roofs and did not find it because it had been hidden by the snow.

I decided to start the search behind the buildings snow piles. I went to the first building and had been searching the piles for about three steps, when I noticed the keys laying in the melted snow pile.

It was over almost before it started. That is my fastest search to date and I will take a little luck anytime. It also helped to ask the right questions, and it was good he remembered where and what he had been doing that day.

He was glad to get the keys back, and I was glad to be a part of the search.

I usually ask so many questions before I take on a search the people must think I am crazy, but it really helps narrow the search down, and also gives me an idea if they really know with certainty in what general area they lost it. Doing a grid search takes time, and the more focused it can be, the more likely I will find it.

If you have lost an item of value, give one of The Ring Finders a call, we might just be able to help you out. Of course you will have to put up with a million questions :), but it just might be worth it.

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Property and Estate Searches Yakima Washington

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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To date most of my hunts have included searches for rings and other lost personal items. But the use of a metal detector goes beyond just rings. I initially purchased my Whites Classic ID metal detector 11 years ago to search my property for underground lines and property markers. Since then I have loaned out that detector to search for wiring in new construction, for a friend to look for a pair of glasses lost on a snowy hike and yes for several property marker searches.

Recently I was asked if my detector could locate the lid from a chewing tobacco can. I responded that it would be able to see the metal part of the can and followed up his question with one of my own. Why?

The response got me ready to hunt. He told me a story about his grandparents who hid money in their yard in these containers and who knows what else. In one can there was a reported three thousand dollars. They lived in an area rich with history and many detectors had been by asking for permission to hunt their property. They had always said yes, but restricted them from searching around the house.

This led the person asking me the question to think there may be much more in the ground and he wanted me to do a property search. Currently the ground is nicely frozen, so this will have to wait until spring, and I will report back on what I find.

Another friend spoke with me about searching his late fathers property as they had already found $37,000 in cash in a drawer when they went through his estate. The father had owned a coin op car wash pre–1965 and had told the kids, when I die you can bet I will have several large drums of silver coins in the yard.

So you see besides searching for rings or keys, there are other good uses for a metal detector.

If you have a property that you think holds buried treasure and would like a hunt done, then let me know. If you are in the Washington State area I can help you out and depending on the treasure, I could be willing to travel. I can also set you up with a Ring Finder in your area who I am sure would be more than happy to help you out.

Now if spring could only hurry up so I can get to that estate search and see what treasure is waiting to be found.

Do you have a search? I am waiting for your call.

Steve

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Lost Gold Wedding Band Found Yakima Washington

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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Another great smile

When you are a Ring Finder, you never know when your next search will be. I had a feeling that I might get a search this week because here in Yakima we had a very cold and snowy spell.This can often mean valuables such as keys and rings can get lost.

When the call came asking if I was willing to help find a lost gold wedding band I was not surprised. After speaking with the wife of the man who lost his ring I was ready to start the hunt.

The ring had fallen off while the husband was cleaning the snow off the car, and then brushed his arms and hands off. He told me that he heard a metal « clank » but did not put it together that it was his ring that made the noise. When he arrived at home, he realized that his ring was gone and was sure that it was his ring that must have come off back in the parking lot. Well he returned to the site, but there was two inches of fresh snow in the lot and he could not find the ring. I was called the next day after they found my listing on The Ring Finders Metal Detecting Service on the internet.

I agreed to meet them after work to look for the ring. Now I said earlier that it was cold and snowy, and it was. Although the snow had mostly stopped it was still only around 18 F outside and by the time the search was called off for the night it was well on the way to -5 F.

Unfortunately when we arrived at the search location the parking lot had already been plowed. There was only a 1/4 of packed snow on the parking lot, with two large piles of snow off in the corners. The man was able to put me exactly where the ring came off so I searched that area first. I then expanded the search grid to include the most likely route the scraper would have taken to move the snow into the piles. Still no ring. So after looking at the two piles of snow we decided to search the most likely one, which of course was the larger of the two.

I began to shovel layers of snow off the pile and search the remaining snow. After about two hours I had searched about half of the pile, and called it quits for the night.

The next day was even colder, but the sun was out and I was again eager to continue the hunt. My oldest son was home from school, so I asked if he would like to help me search for the ring, and fortunately he did. So off we went. It took about another hour of digging each layer of snow, and then searching it to come up with the ring. It was sitting just hidden in a clump of snow. About the time I swung the metal detector over the ring, I heard the beep and there was the ring. I could not believe we found it. I thought for sure that I would have to just wait for the pile to melt before the ring would be found.

Now I wanted to surprise the husband with the ring and capture that on video, so I called his wife and told her that I had found the ring but wanted to surprise him. So I asked her if she could get him down to the search area to give me some more details about losing the ring, and she agreed.

When they arrived I asked him if he could tell me about what significance the ring was to him and to go over how he lost it again. Then I asked him to describe the ring and after he was done I pulled out the ring and asked if it looked like this one! He was very surprised and happy to get the ring back.

I was pretty happy to have found it for him with the help of my son. It was a great moment I will not soon forget.

They were very kind in giving me a nice reward, which was much appreciated. I do accept rewards as it helps me cover costs and keep my equipment up to date, but for me the true reward is the great smile and joy that I get to witness and be a part of.

Thanks guys for giving me a call and letting me be a part of your wedding ring story.

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Yakima County, Wiley city Washington Lost Earring

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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I accepted an earring search today. I know that finding a small diamond earring can be almost impossible, as metal detectors can have trouble sensing them. But I was eager to have a search, and I thought I would like to give it a try. The area it was lost in was small, just a few feet square and grass. It belongs to a lovely young child, and I knew the smile if I found it would be worth a million bucks. So off I went. Just a short drive and I was there. I met with the family and looked at the site. Next I was lucky and she had the matching earring. I tested it in my normal search program on my XLT and it was completely silent as it passed under the coil. I made several adjustment and finally was able to get the faintest signal. The search began and after only 15 or 20 minutes I had a similar faint signal among several loud and deeper signals. I went carefully through the patch of grass and caught the faint glint of metal. It turned out to be  the back of the earring. Very tiny and a lucky find. Since she was standing still when it came off, I moved over about 6 inches and had another faint signal. Searched through the grass and there it was. I did this search for the smile, and I was well paid as you can see in the picture. Happy all around. Great hunt and I will take a lucky find every time. If you have lost something special, give me a call and lets find it!

Million Dollar Smile!

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Yakima County Park Hunt/ESCHBAUGH PARK

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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Last weekend I searched an old county park. Usually I am pretty much the only one there, but this weekend was different. There was a group from the SCA, a Middle Ages and Renaissance bunch, who would have probably liked to have been born in the 17th century. I suspect that I was probably not supposed to be there, but it was the last day of their events and I tried to stay out of the way by searching a field they were not using. I was finding the usual clad coins when one of the folks from the group approached and was curious about what I was finding. Apparently the day before they had used this field for staged battles, complete with a portable castle. Sounds like it was full on swords and arrows kind of war.True to form, he was wearing some pretty interesting jewelry, in the form of claws, birds and the like. Turns out he was a maker of jewelry that they used. Most of the things he made were using old techniques. Pierced and hammered jewelry.

After meeting him, I wondered what I might find. I did search the area where they had the battle, but it was pretty clean. I am sure they take care not to lose items during battle. That evening, when they had packed up, I returned and searched through the camp sites and places I had noted they congregated. Those areas were so full of bottle caps, pull tabs, foil ect. that I just used my pinpoint function and searched for only surface targets. By the way, all the trash was not from them. This is a busy park in the summer and my detector was showing most of the trash was at least an inch down or at least not on the surface. For as large a group that was there, the did a great job with clean up.

As you can see, I found a few hammered rings and odd pieces of jewelry. I especially like the silver frog. I also found several heavy metal tent stakes. Nice to pick those up as the county mower would have loved hitting those.The money value of the rings were just pennies, but the workmanship and old world styles were pretty nice to see.

No ring hunts this month so far, but hoping to be sharp if someone loses that special something.

Take it easy,

Steve

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Metal Detecting at Kaanapali beach resort

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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Kaanapali Beach

Looking at Black Rock. Lots of people

Still looking for the big one!

Nice detail on this ring.

Hi from Maui.

Well we finally took some time off and headed to warmer weather.

The Kaanapali beach where we are staying has a very nice beach, and it is heavily used. Between family activities I have been sneaking out to work the sand.

I started with the XLT and was very happy with the Beach program. I have also been using the Surfmaster PI. Both machines have done well.

The first time out, was in the evening, and I picked up a watch and two silver rings. They all look pretty cheep, but I was happy to find them. The beaches are very clean, and it is probably due to at least 5 other guys working them every day. I have met several of them, and all have been nice. I met a local who I have seen twice so far. He works the low tide in the early morning. So far just a few rings and a moderate amount of change.

I took one afternoon and tried the surfmaster while snorkeling. I was able to get many signals, but the wave action has been very strong and I was unable to get down to work through the rock and sand to see what was there. Eventually I got tossed by a big wave, which blew my headset off and rolled me in the sand on the bottom. I decided working the beach looked better.

I found one ring while out snorkeling. It is the one with the turtles on it. Sells for $18 in the store.

I spent about three hours woking the Grand Wailea resort. Great beach, but only a single Canadian coin and a couple dimes ect. That evening was the best sunset ever.

Well thanks for looking at the blog and I have a couple days left and will try the beach again.

Steve

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Found Lost Ring Walla Walla/Eastern Washington/Platinum Ring

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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Today was a good day to hunt for a ring. Well, just about any day is good for hunting. I was contacted by a man from Walla Walla, Washington, who had listed a lost ring on Craigslist. The ring was lost about one week ago, and they had already rented two metal detectors and searched the area with no luck. It is always hard for someone to pick of a MD for the first time and understand what all the « beeps » are about and he was no exception.

The story was that they were out on the deck trying to get their barbecue going. She was fanning the flames and suddenly her 4K Platinum engagement ring flew off her finger. They did not see where it went and did not hear it hit anything.

Upon arriving at the house I did a ring test to see the areas that it might have landed in. Each test showed a low trajectory directly to each side. I started the search on the deck, where the bench around the deck was open underneath and was dirt and gravel mix with dry leaves on top. After that did not show any ring I started on the lawn. I did a grid search twice of the area using two different settings on my XLT and the ring was not there.

The only other place that it might have gone, I felt was over the fence to the neighbors yard, but that was a long shot because of where she was standing, and the other ring tests did not even come close to the fence. After suggesting we check over the fence and see if it had somehow made it over, I stopped and searched one more area while a relative went into the neighbors yard to look. He found the ring on the ground under a camper parked next to the fence. It must have been some wild arm flapping to get the ring to come off and fly back over her shoulder at least 20 feet. It was pretty amazing. Everyone had just about given up hope on finding the ring. You can imagine how happy they were when it was found.

This was such a nice ring, and it had only just began its journey, to be lost and ended there, would have been to bad. The owners were such nice people and now they have a story to go with the ring.

The owner of the ring was pretty excited to have it back, and was thinking of ways he could tell his fiance that it was found. Big smiles all around.

Thanks guys for letting me be apart of the adventure and thanks for the nice reward!

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Ring search Camas and Richland Washington/Lost Ring/Walla Walla

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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I am thinking about changing my name to Ring Searcher instead of a Ring Finder. This sums up my last two searches. In my defense, both of the searches are not over, and were rings that were lost but the owner was not sure where. This left me with large search areas.

The first one was in Camas, Washington. Like most ring searches it started with a phone call. Help! I lost my ring. This was a very special engagement/wedding ring combo. She was not sure if it was lost in the house or out. She had turned the house upside down and no ring. Next she thought there was a chance her beautiful pet had possibly eaten it. So off to the vet for xrays, which were normal. Finally it was my turn to search the property. It took me three hours to search the yards and nothing. I am hoping to return this spring to look the yard over again.

The second search was for a ring that was a father to son gift. This ring holds special meaning and like all the rings lost I really wanted to find it. We knew that the ring was lost, and at this location. However the area to search was over two acres. Even after searching for 6 hours I had not located it. I did find a ton of pull tabs and bottle caps. I am also planning to continue the search and want to give the client the chance for the story of this ring to not end this way.

I will update the blog as soon as we find the ring.

I just got a call today, for a search in Walla Walla. This one was lost in a specific area so I should be able to locate it.

Bye for now and hopefully, the next blog will put me back in as a ring finder!

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