Carrie and Sid got a call from Morgan on Labor Day. Her husband of less than one year had lost his wedding band while working in their yard. He had many tasks so the ring could be in any of the four flower beds, garden, yard around the driveway, two potted plants or the trash can where plants and shrimp shells had been tossed. We each headed in different directions and began the search. The metal flower bed borders were the biggest problem. Lots of hunting was by pin pointer. After an hour, Carrie got a good signal on the grass a foot from a flower bed. Found! Needless to say, Morgan was excited and their marriage is now safe.
I saw a post on one of the Face Book pages I’m a member of saying, “Does anyone have a metal detector I could borrow tomorrow morning? We’re staying on the west side and have lost a ring in the sand…” I responded saying “If I can help, call me.” I also attached the link to my blog on TheRingFinders.com web site. Within a few minutes, I received a text from Morgan asking what my rates were and whether I was available the next morning. I told her that I do this on a gratuity or reward basis and I’m available at any time. We agreed that I’d meet her between 8-8:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, Sept 7th.
When I arrived I met Morgan in the driveway of their rental and she explained what happened on our way out to the beach. She said that she had put 3 rings in the cup holder of one of the beach chairs. Later that day, as they were going in for the day, her sister picked up the chairs and the rings went flying. With a family search, 1 of the rings was found lying on top of the sand; the other 2 had disappeared and were buried. Morgan’s mother had joined us on the beach and pointed out the suspected 15-20 foot square area. After a few grid lines, I hit dual signals which meant both rings were in the same spot, inches apart. I took a scoop of sand and dumped it out on the beach. When I did, I saw Morgan’s Silver and Gold ring packed in the sand. This one had sentimental value, as it was a college graduation present. I reached down and picked it up, cleaned out the sand, then held it up for Morgan to see. She came running over, very excited, with a huge smile on her face. I handed her the 1st ring and now to find the 2nd one. I turned back around to the sand pile and Bingo; there it was sticking out of the sand. Both rings are back where they belong with another chapter to add to their stories.
Morgan, Thank you for trusting me to help you find your lost treasures. Best of luck to you in your life’s adventures and enjoy the rest of your vacation.
Call Ray at MyGoldFinder for lost items 571.258.7217 www.mygoldfinder.com
While vacationing in Ocean City Maryland this past week I received a call from a customer who was trying to locate his wife’s 14K white gold wedding band with diamonds. As I wasn’t due to arrive back in Leesburg until the next day we coordinated for me to make the 2 1/2 hour trip to his home in Afton on Sunday. Stephan did borrow a friend’s metal detector and gave it a valiant attempt, but he was not able to locate the ring.
On Sunday I traveled to Stephan’s home in Afton Virginia..West of Charlottesville, a gorgeous drive through some very scenic mountain areas in Southern Virginia.
Once I arrived Stephan gave me a brief story of how the ring was lost and possibly where he thought it might be. I started my search close to the house hoping the ring wasn’t too far away, we moved a small wood pile out of the way so I could get a nice pathway cleared and I conducted a grid search across the front yard several times, only hitting mostly iron/trash items. There was also a lot of interference in the area n ext to the house so I had to change the frequency settings on the Equinox 800 down to 20khz to get a cleaner signal. After not locating the ring near the home I expanded my search to a field across a small gravel driveway in front of their home. I did three wide grid passes, each about 30/40 yards in length in the field and on the third line hit a nice bang tone of 8 on the detector, as most know this is typically a white gold range. As I knelt down and moved the tall grass out of the way the beautiful white gold ring showed itself to be saved.
As I was getting up from the ground, Stephan was coming out of the house. I raised my hand with the ring and he yelled, « you found it!? » …and came running across the front yard, injured leg or not he was trying to run as fast as he could to see the ring. Stephan was so elated that he gave me a big bear hug, this is saying a lot for a guy his size!!
Stephan and his wife were ecstatic to have the ring returned and I couldn’t be happier to bring this joy back to them and have the matching set back together.
The end of summer was approaching as was the ending of another family tradition, a clambake on the fluffy sand that laid between the house and Nantucket Sound. The fun in the sand, the bake and meal were complete and the enjoyment of the waning sunlight were at hand. But panic set in when an ill fated hand movement let Rachel’s engagement ring slip from its resting place in front of the wedding band. The band stayed from Rachel’s hand and a search for the diamond was initiated. Raking the sand in a circle did not bring the ring into the twilight or beam of the flashlight.
It was time to request help from TheRingFinders. I unfortunately did not check my texts until about 3:30AM. At that time I sent a reply saying 9AM or 5PM would be a good time to meet and search, considering the tide and previous ring finding appointment that had been made the night before. 9AM came back to me as the time to shoot for. After contacting Leighton and urging him to meet me earlier than we had planned to so we could search for Rachel’s ring before meeting our noon contact. All was set and we were ready to start searching just before 9AM.
It was our fortune that the rake circle was still visible in the sand. Leighton went left and I stayed right of the shovel that was left to mark the previous night’s search. I had found a bottle cap and Leighton a piece of scrap aluminum. It was time to enlarge the search area. Leighton stayed seaward and I toward the soft sand. About four feet from the edge of the circle a familiar sound was in my ears and a ring that had brought forth the sound was in my scoop. It was time to let Rachel remove her ring and replace it on her finger where it belonged. Maybe three minutes elapsed since the start of the search to the ring return’s completion. Leighton and I just are so grateful for the precise markings made while a loss is fresh in the minds of those that have first hand information about the loss
As we always do, gather some information for the blog, photos, stories and passing of congratulations and Thank Yous. Then it was off to lost ring number two for the day. We all had big smiles for the TheRingFinders Book of Smiles.
Mike sent me a message after finding my website by doing a Google search on lost jewelry in Ocean City. He said that his dad, also Mike has worn a St Christopher medal that his dad gave him before he passed away several years ago. While in the crawl space to turn the water on a few springs ago, he was still wearing the chain but the pendant was gone. They recently sold the house, and it will be torn down soon.
We agreed to meet at 9 am on Sunday, Labor Day weekend. Today is moving day. When I arrived The men were moving furniture into a moving truck. One of them asked if I was Dave, it was Mike. Mike’s dad was there and wanted to know who I was. Mike explained that he asked me to come over to search the crawl space for your dad’s pendant. Mike’s dad became emotional, because of his son’s thoughtfulness.
Mike took me to the crawl space entrance. It was in the closest of a bedroom, removed the floor, and there it was. I lowered myself down with my detector. There were 2 lights but it was pretty dark. From ground to ceiling was about 2.5 feet. Crawl space described this hunt perfectly.
Mike’s dad said if he lost it under the house it would be the spot the furthest from for entranceway, as there is a half wall there and he was stretched across it most likely catching his chain there. I started working my way to that spot. My detector was constantly beeping. Pieces of copper pipes, buried cans, pieces of wire, buried iron pieces, nails, and old footings. I decided to use my handheld pinpointer to limit deeper targets.
I went over just about every inch of the sandy floor. I said to Mike that I’m getting a bad feeling, just as we were getting back to the entrance. I said maybe it’s at the opening and it fell off of the chain when his dad stood up. A few minutes later I found it! Buried about ½ an inch to an inch deep. Right at the bottom of the entrance. Mike was amazed that we found it. I asked him what he wanted to do. He wanted to surprise his dad. So I exited the hole first. I was asked if I found it and I said I really don’t think it’s down there. Mike was up next. When Mike came up we moved to the porch. I ask Mike senior if I could videotape him as he told me the story of the sentimental pendant, as I like to document my searches.
As Mike senior was telling me about the loss, he was ending the story saying we haven’t been able to find it. I said are you sure? And the younger Mike put the pendant in his dad’s hand.
The kicker – It is Mike’s senior’s birthday today!
I received a text message from Liz about 10 am on Saturday, Sep 5th, saying, “Hi my name is Liz and I’m at OIB. My husband lost his wedding band in the surf yesterday afternoon. We have a metal detector but haven’t had any luck. Wondering if you might be able to help?” I replied asking her to call me. When she called, I asked her where he lost it. She explained that when he lost it he was about waist deep at high tide. I asked her the time and she said around 3 p.m. I looked at the tide table and saw high tide was around 6 p.m. yesterday, so if he lost it around 3 p.m. then he was about mid tide. I told her I’d be there between 11 and 11:15, which I had to adjust to 11:25 once I got my gear and hit the road. On my way, I thought that if he lost it at waist deep about mid tide, then the ring should be at the low tide line.
When I got to their house, I met Liz and a few family members. Liz walked me out to the beach and said her husband, Bobby, had told her that he was west of their house on the beach. Liz set me up behind the neighbor’s house and said Bobby was from this point – that way, as she’s pointing down the beach. “That way” was a long stretch of beach, so it was time to get started. I grabbed my PI and backed up from her starting point and started a perpendicular grid above the mid tide line seaward to about waist deep. I did that grid search from my starting point to the 4th house west. I wasn’t finding anything, and reached the point of wondering if I was in the right spot, and/or going deep enough to search. I took a quick break and reassessed my thoughts about where it should be. With the information I was given, I was positive his wedding band should be around the low tide line. Did I just miss it, swing left instead of right? I grabbed my Equinox 800 and started a cross grid search starting about shin deep at the low tide line. As I’m working up the slope of the beach I got a solid 15 on the VDI (visual display indicator). This was in the range of numbers for a man’s gold wedding band. I dug a scoop of sand, had the target, and rinsed the sand out of the scoop in the surf. When I checked the scoop, I could see Bobby’s gold wedding band peeking through the shells from the bottom of the scoop. I had definitely missed it on my first pass. Liz wasn’t out on the beach when I found it, but one of her family members called her, telling her I was done. When Liz came back on the beach, another family member was able to get a video of Liz’s response. Liz was trying so hard to hold back the tears, but she was so excited. Unfortunately, Bobby was playing golf so he wasn’t there to share the excitement, but I’m sure he was happy to get his wedding band back where it belongs.
Liz – Thank you for trusting me to help you find Bobby’s ring. Enjoy the rest of your vacation with your family and have a safe trip home.
Ishmael lost his grandfather’s class ring in Sea Isle City, NJ. The ring flew off his finger while he was throwing a football and landed somewhere in the sand. I started the search with a very large grid area, but it wasn’t there. I had to expand the search area several yards to find the ring. The sentimental ring was recovered and returned.
Kiera called me yesterday, with a little doubt in her voice, about a ring that was lost by her sister in the surf. Kiera’s sister Julia had just lost her engagement ring at the beachcomber, at Cahoon Hollow Beach, in Wellfleet, MA she said it was down in the surf where she was dragged out over the rocks, she got swept up, and pummeled in the current, and suddenly realized her ring was gone. They looked for over an hour as the surf was crashing them all over the area. Frantically they were not sure where to turn. Kiera said that the Lifeguard had mentioned that there were a couple of local guys that have found rings there in the past, that she should try them. Sure enough she googled Lost Ring and Richard Browne and My name showed up. Kiera wasted no time and got in touch with me through texting. I immediately called her back, I had her send as many pictures with reference points as possible. She said it was strait down from the sign in the picture, and in knee deep water.
Luck was on her side the next day, the water was not crashing as it was the day of loosing it, and the wind was off shore. Rick & myself got there about an hour before the low tide, 15 seconds into the hunt, I found the beautiful double welded ring, I put it in my pouch for safe keeping till Julia showed up. Needless to say we were all smiles when they showed up, she was very happy to hear that we were successful in recovering it for her. It was a ring that was passed down through a couple of generations. No words can express their heartfelt Thank You. Another great recovery for The Ring Finders.
A few weeks ago, I traveled with Jeff Wettstein to a lake near Fremont to search jointly for a lost ring set. (Jeff and I are both ringfinders for Northeast Wisconsin.) Luckily, third time was a charm. We had the husband in a kayak directing us where to put the grid and dive, so we ended up a little further out. Also, I used my old Fisher 1280, which is quite sensitive. I had done some repairs on the handle, so it was ready. The last time, I was under 8-10 feet of water for two 3-hour sessions. This time, I was under for only 2 1/2 hours, and finally teased out a signal. The ring had settled on hardpan, which was underneath three layers: a seaweed carpet about four inches thick, over about four inches of silt, then about six inches of sand. My detector shaft kept getting caught up in weeds, so I had to use my arm as the shaft and hand sweep the coil underneath the weed layer in the silt, which kicked up in a cloud creating zero visibility and going by sound and feel. And, there was this big largemouth bass that kept playing with the coil like a cat after a toy. That was funny and made me laugh in my air regulator! (I didn’t know I could laugh underwater.) Finally, success! My fingertips felt the two-ring set among some pebbles on the hardpan! We had searched for 19 1/2 hours total.
