Tim Blank, Author at The Ring Finders

10K Wedding Ring Overboard! Recovered in Port Barrington, Illinois.

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

Recently I got a call from Brian. He said that he found me on theringfinders.com website and that he had lost his ring the day before. He and a friend were about to dock his boat and while they approached the peir Brian put his left hand on the edge of the boat to reach for the dock with his right hand. As he did that his wedding ring slide off of his finger and into about 4 1/2 feet of water. They spend about an hour wading around in the water with a pool skimmer in hopes of scooping it up without any luck. So we set up a time for the following day to meet up. We met up the next day and he showed me which pier he was at and about where he thought that it was. So I grabbed my gear and headed for that area. And right where he was pointing I got a rock solid 12 VDI on the Nox. For whatever reason it took me a while to scoop up the signal. Brian asked if I wanted to skip it and look more to my left. I told him I shouldn’t give up on this signal because it was the perfect gold numbers. Finally after what seemed like forever I got the signal in the scoop! When I picked the scoop up from the water I gave it a couple of shakes and sitting in the bottom of the basket was Brian’s white gold wedding band!! Success!!
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Another smile for the book!!

Wedding Set Found and Returned. Gurnee, Illinois

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

I received a call from Sharita asking if I was available to do a ring search for her. We agreed to meet after we both got off of work. Her rings had slipped off of her hand into some thick, viney ground cover and mulch while walk in the dark. When her and her husband tried finding it they covered it up with some mulch under the thick patch of vines. I couldn’t get a good signal from my big detector because of the density  of  the ground cover. So I slowly went through all of the mulch and ground cover with my handheld pinpointer,  until I found them both!
It took me about 20 mins to find them.

Success! Another smile for the book!

 

Quick Ring Return in Rockford IL

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

 

I received a call from Santiago around 3:30 p.m. as I was getting off of work.  He told me that he had just lost his wedding ring in his backyard while raking. He told me that he felt it come off and just couldn’t locate it.  I arrived at his house around 5:30. He took me into his backyard and showed me the area where he felt the ring slip off of his finger.  He had recently removed a swimming pool and the area was all sand. First hit was a rusty bolt, the second signal was a solid 13 on the Equinox.  I pushed the pinpointer into the soft sand and exposed the edge of his ring! Probably less than 2 minutes!

Another smile for the book!!

 

Cartier ring found in Lake in the Hills

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

I receive a text from Yulia inquiring about a possible ring search.  Later in the day we spoke on the phone, she informed me that her husband  had lost his wedding ring somewhere in the yard while doing some yard work.  He had taken his ring off and put it in his pocket in fear of losing it while digging up some bushes. Within a half hour he noticed that his ring wasn’t in his pocket anymore.  He was using a tool in the garden and was keeping it in the same pocket as his ring. At some point he pulled the tool out of his pocket and the ring fell out at the same time. He had only been in two places in the half hour since he put the ring in his pocket. The front flower bed, and a raised garden in the backyard. When I arrived I did a thorough search of the flowerbed in the front yard. Nothing.  Yulia then showed me the area around the raised garden where her husband had been working.  No luck there either. Yulia then said that she remembered him walking from the raised bed into the back door of the house and asked if I could search his path. I said, of course. A few steps towards the house and I got a solid 13 on my Equinox 800. I didn’t see it at first glance. So I used the pinpointer and buried deep in the thick, plush grass was her husband’s Cartier ring!!

 

Success!!

Another smile for the book!

Ring Lost at Ribfest found. Lake in the Hills, Il.

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

The Morning of July 11th, 2022 I received a voicemail from Dana. She said that her husband had lost his wedding ring the night before at the annual Ribfest near their home. She said that the crews were there taking down the tables and chairs but they had already secured permission from the crew and the local police to conduct a search. I brought along my wife Jennifer since the ring was lost in such a large area, I figured 2 people could cover more ground much quicker.  After meeting up with Dana and her husband John we grabbed our gear and the 4 of us walked over to the area where John had been sitting during the festivities. John gave us a rough outline of the areas where he had moved around to during his time there and where he had been sitting most of that time. I decided to start at the farthest point and work back towards where John had been sitting,  while that’s where Jen started. John and Dana said they were going to walk back home and to call or text them if we found it. Before I could get to the far end Jen said she had a strong, shallow signal, so I went back to help her retrieve it from the hard packed dirt. Bam! Jen’s first signal! Right where John said he was sitting was John’s ring! In less than 10 minutes I sent Dana a text with pictures saying « Good news!! »

Tungsten and Damascus steel ring lost in the snow, Carpentersville, Illinois

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

I received a text late lastnight (12-29-21) from Logan asking if I’d be able to help him locate his wedding ring. He was wiping the fresh snow off of his mailbox in front of his house. During the sweeping motion, his wedding ring came off and fell in the snow and immediately disappeared out of sight. We set up a time for this morning at 7 am to meet. After a quick explanation of the ring loss I turned on my detector, and in about 45 seconds, I had the ring!! This was the fastest recovery so far!!

Tantalum ring lost and found in Roscoe, Illinois.

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

I received a text from Brenna on Wednesday telling me that her husband was in thier back yard doing some chores and lost his wedding ring while tossing a piece of pipe. So we set up a time for me to come search that Friday evening.  When I arrived I met Callum in the backyard and he gave me a quick description of what he was doing, where he was standing, and where he felt the ring come off. In just a few minutes I got a bouncy but strong 21-23 signal. I reached down with the pinpointer and it started beeping before it reached the ground! I pulled the grass back to see Callum’s wedding ring just under the grass and just slightly pushed into the ground.

Success!!

 

3 Gold and diamond rings lost for four months recovered. Pingree Grove, Illinois

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

I received a text from Melissa letting me know that she’d heard about me on The Ring Finders website. She said that she had lost her wedding rings in her backyard back in May which was a little over four months ago.  I assured her that if she indeed did lose them in the backyard they should be pretty easy to find.  After a few weeks we were able to set up a time to do the search.  She gave me the story of how she thought that the rings were lost. Her and her husband were having a water ballon fight with their son in their backyard.  When she went inside later in the day she noticed that her rings were missing. So I started a grid search on the left side of the backyard and I carefully worked my way across the the yard.  I was running out of space quickly but  after about a hour of  searching and only about 2 passes left before covering the entire yard I got a loud double beep! I knew that it was the rings! As i looked down i could see one laying in a small patch of dirt without any grass, and as I was bending over to grab it I spotted a second one about a foot away! That’s 2! The other one couldn’t be far. After a couple of swings about 4 feet away was the 3rd one!! Melissa was very emotional after I handed her the rings and told me how the 2 wedding bands were constructed from jewlery from living and passed family members! I was so happy to be able to help!

2 Gold and diamond rings, lost for 4 years, recovered Carpentersville, Il

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

I received a email from Lori in January about looking for a lost diamond ring in thier backyard. She asked if I thought that I could possibly find it even though it was lost over 4 years ago. I asked her if there was any type of construction or if the soil had been disturbed since then.  She said that it was not disturbed. But we just had a major snow and ice storm that left over a foot of snow and ice on the ground so we decided to wait for it to melt. It took till March 11th for all of the snow and ice to melt and for us to have a chance to meet up for the search.  I was shown the area in the backyard where the ring was thought to be. After 2 1/2 hours of searching their’s and both of their neighbors backyards all the way down to the edge of the swamp, at the rear of their townhomes with no luck.  So I came back the following afternoon with some Muck boots and waded into the edge of the swamp. Not long into the search I recovered a white gold wedding band with no diamnds incased in a tite root ball! Confused I asked Lori to describe her ring to me again and she told me it was a diamond ring with one bigger center stone and smaller stones on the sides. So I showed her the ring I found. It was her wedding band! So my ring search turned into a multiple ring search. Turns out the entire wedding set was out there and now just the diamond ring is still out there! So I searched as much of the swampy area as I could before getting water over my boots. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the diamond ring that night. So I told Lori that I wasn’t giving up and that I would return with my chest waders and the rest of my water gear. It took a few days before I could get back. March 19th I made it back with my water gear and within minutes I had another white metal ring! Just a band with no stones. Turned out to be a stainless steel ring. And just a few minutes later I got the signal that I had been waiting for! 13 on the Nox, still entangled in the vegetation floating near the surface of the water was Lori’s long lost diamond ring!! We knew it was there, I just had to get my coil over it!!

 

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Car key fob lost in snow Elgin Illinois

  • from Rockford (Illinois, United States)

I received a email from Linda yesterday stating that she had lost her car key fob and the attached keys the day before. In the meantime our area got hit with a nasty snow and ice storm so the snow plows were out plowing the roads , driveways and even the sidewalks. So I met up with Linda the following morning and she showed me her suspected area of the lost keys. I asked her if she had another fob for the car. She did! Not only that, she had the same exact set of keys, fob, keychain, and key ring!! So I took a few sample swings over the spare set. (It was a jumpy 11-24 on the Nox (800) After an hour of searching evey snow pile the best I could, I went back to one of the first piles and went around the other side and down the street a little bit farther (expanding my search) and got that same jumpy loud signal high up in the snow pile! I carefully chipped away the snow and ice chucks and brushed away the loose debris and out rolled the missing key fob!! Unharmed to boot!