Tom Caldie, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 3 of 4

Found!

While on a metal detecting vacation to Key West, FL on  December 14th,  Jeff Wettstein, another ringfinder, and I were detecting Smather’s Beach, which is quite long.    I had found one 14k gold wedding band, but only a few coins after that, and it was getting late.   Suddenly a man rushed up to me and asked if we could find his tungsten wedding band that had just slipped off of his finger in about 4 feet of ocean water.   It was almost dark, but I started searching near where he and his friend had been swimming.     After about 30 minutes of intense grid searching, Jeff came along and helped.  He found it in about 5 minutes, and soon it was back on the groom’s finger where it belonged.   Drinks at Sloppy Joe’s followed, of course!

On Friday October 5th, I put on my wetsuit and drove a short distance out of Green Bay for a ring search.   It had been lost the previous weekend when Tim, the ring’s owner, had been pulling his dock out of the water for the winter.   He saw the ring plop into the water, and knew approximately where it was.  I have been to the site the previous Tuesday, but high waves drove me off before I could make any progress.  Since then, a storm had come, bringing in sand and waves that came to an all-time high-water mark of several decades.  I was worried that the ring might have shifted, though it was a man’s heavy gold wedding band, and they tend to go straight down until they reach equilibrium.   My diving buddy, Brian P., went with me because we knew the ring could have traveled.   We measure the distance to the probable drop site 100 feet off shore, marked it with a float, and started our search patterns.  The water was cold, but we persevered for three hours.   Finally, I decided to dig the deep signals because we had been looking fairly shallow, and found it 18 inches down with my new Minelab Equinox, near the float marker.   I couldn’t believe it had descended that deep, especially because it was nestled in stones, with only the top six inches being sand.  Tim was overjoyed to see the ring back on his finger, especially because his silver wedding anniversary was coming up soon!

On March 21st, I received an email from a person named Kate, who had lost a vintage silver ring last summer while wilderness camping near the two-hearted river in Upper Michigan. It was her grandmother’s ring, and her fiance had been wearing it on a chain around his neck for seven years. They planned on getting married soon, and needed the ring to design their wedding bands. I explained that the trip would be pretty far, but she offered to pay expenses. Finally, we heard the snow melted there, so decided to leave. My detectorist friend, Brian,  and I drove there last Friday. Brian did the driving because his vehicle has better climate control and he can see deer better. We drove, and drove, and drove. It was about 500 miles, plus an extra 60-mile trip to get a park pass from the State DNR Park office, plus kind of getting lost a few times because GPS, two phones, and a few maps all said different things. Finally, we found the camp site coordinates on Brian’s portable GPS, hiked a ways to it, and he found the ring! We celebrated with a couple of Yuengling beers. Taquamenon Falls was amazing, and the campsite was pretty cool, too. 

On Saturday, May 26th, 2018, Brad contacted me to say he had lost his wedding band at a popular sandbar while throwing a football with his family.   He called a friend who metal detects, who lived too far away to drive, but recommended me.   I tried to find someone who would be at the lake, but nobody was available.  So, I quick popped in the car and drove about 75 miles to the cottage.  The entire family rode out to the sand bar with me to witness the search.  They were all very nice, though worried it might never be found.  Luckily, they had marked the spot using GPS on a cell phone, so we knew we were close.  Well, maybe not, as opinions differed as to which direction the 14k ring had flown.  Gold can grow wings when it catches on a football!   After about 20 minutes of pattern searching, a handful of pop tabs and a few coins, I heard what I thought was another pop tab signal in my AT Pro Headphones.  A beautiful wedding band with inlaid diamonds appeared in the scoop, and Brad plucked it out with a big smile!   His finger needed that ring back on it after 21 years!   It was well-worth the drive to make Brad and his wife happy!