When these two lovely ladies met it was love at first sight. This young horse jumper fell in love with Stacie’s beautiful chocolate eyes, brown coat and silky mane. They spent many hours practicing and bonding with one another. Having to take a break during quarantine her owner was excited once again to get back in the saddle. But little did she know that this jump session was gonna stirrup some trouble. Mounting up they could feel the excitement as they approached the base of the jump and taking off towards the sky, they made it over with a successful landing. Completing a few more rounds before dark settled in, she noticed her very much beloved bracelet given to her by a friend was missing. After chatting I giddyupped as fast as I could to the horse arena. When I arrived, I set up my MXT and started to grid search the path she took. Bit by bit I uncovered many horse hardware items and held them up to show her. I even tried to get info straight from the horse’s mouths of Stacie’s friends with my electronic carrot but the look they gave showed me that I had no horse sense whatsoever! Almost reaching the end of the circle I got a nice shallow signal. Pinpointing and scraping about 2 inches of gravelly sand revealed a portion of the bracelet! Sensing I was taking longer the horse jumper ran to me exclaiming…..Do you think that’s it? I’m beginning to wonder if it came off somewhere else! I said hay girl.. hold your horses….look at that strange horseshoe! Reaching down she slowly pulled the bracelet from the sand. As a sigh of relief came over her, she started jumping up and down wildly and it felt like the thundering hoofs of stampeding stallions. After a quick rinse and polish the pretty gleam of the rose gold bracelet came thru with flying colors. I turned and said my my, I love how these stables have turned!
I received an email wondering if I could go up to a western Wisconsin lake and see if I could recover a lost ring. It was about 14o miles away. Wanting to ensure a successful recovery on the first trip we waited until both could meet on site to confirm the location of where it was lost. The water in the lake is getting very cold around 36 degrees F. so waders were going to have to be used. I was told that the ring came off while uncovering a boat. The ring slipped off and went into the lake near the end of the dock in about 4 feet of water. The lake levels can be lowered for the winter by conservation officials and was down about a foot from summer levels. This putting the search area in around 3 -4 feet of water. This was about the maximum depth that I could go before water would come over the waders and my hand would be submerged holding on to the metal detector. I also use an aluminum scoop to recover targets to prevent from having to get wet this time of year. The search area was about a 15′ x 10′ area. Several attempts were made at finding the ring by the owner and friends and neighbor. They tried snorkeling, raking and tried a metal detector with no luck. I have in the past had searchers looking for lost items using rakes end up moving the rings to a new location, which expands the search area. I started out with my primary search. A primary search is an initial search in the area of the highest degree of likelihood. It is usually just seeing how many targets are out in the location and if anything just screams hear I am. The lost ring was platinum with some diamonds. So you look for somewhat shallow targets, anything deeper then 4″ is kind of ruled out. The bottom of lakes if real sandy might get pushed down by searchers stepping on it but in this case there was a hardpan layer about 2″ below the bottom sand so it was going to be shallow. I did pick up several targets that were in the range of the ring but turned out to be pop tops/ pull tabs, bottle caps and other misc. junk targets. After searching for 15 – 20 minutes I got a hit on pretty good signal but not jumping out, I had set my scoop down on the dock which was about 6-8′ away. When hitting that target I did not want to take my eye off the target location but I needed to go grab the scoop. Its not hard to loose the target by waves pushing you or currents in rivers. I identified a small white pebble on the bottom that I could come back to. I grabbed the scoop and found the white stone. took a scoop and missed the target, took and second scoop and I had whatever it was in my scoop. BAM there it was… The ring, what a great feeling seeing the ring in your scoop. It never gets old. Now to reunite the owner to the ring. When I walked back up the hill to the cabin, I mentioned to owner that was standing out on the deck – « boy a lot of junk targets out there ». He said yes he was afraid of that. When I extended my hand out with the ring, it took him by surprise. You found it. You could just see the emotion run across his face. The ring had such deep sentimental value that when reunited you can feel that everything is back in it place and the relief that you are complete again. It’s so great to see that relief happen right before your eyes.
Richard and his wife spent some time at the park relaxing and throwing the Frisbee. Not long after they realized Richard’s ring was missing! After an exhaustive search they gave up and Richard figured he would never see the ring again.
After speaking to Richard and his wife, we got up for an early morning search with the metal detectors. After identifying a few areas the ring could be, within just a few minutes it was Richard who spotted the ring lying just a few feet away! Richard was THRILLED to find the ring and couldn’t believe it. I could feel the adrenaline and see the joy on his face. What a great feeling and love to be a part of the ring return.
While I can’t take credit for finding the ring, I can take credit for getting him out of bed to have another look!😄
This nice gentleman was visiting his son from out of state. Him and his son decided to rake and bag the leaves in the front yard. Unfortunately his wedding ring of 52 yrs came off. How could he return home to his wife with no ring? On site and in the drizzling rain I turned on my MXT and we arranged all 17 bags of leaves so I could search around and under each bag. Going on a hunch to check the bags first I went from right to left and when I got to the 5th bag I got a faint whisper of a signal that said here I am!, and a number on the detector meter where the gold ring should be. Taking the bag onto the concrete surface and out of the rain I checked that the concrete was free of rebar. Dumping the contents of the bags caught the attention of his granddaughter. Scanning thru the leaves the faint signal turned into a no doubt signal. Reaching down I brushed the leaves aside and this beautiful gold ring appeared on the concrete! At this point his granddaughter took control! Reaching down she picked up the ring and slid it onto grandpa’s finger and now has some practice for the future! This made all of us smile in addition to finding the ring and now he can return home with his ring of 52 years with memories and stories of his little helper for years to come!
The pictured man and his son were enjoying some time together in the cool air today at a school playground.
Many things were available to play on and reminded the dad of his childhood playground. As he looked past the swings, slide, and merry-go-round…. peering deeper thru the monkey bars, something caught his eye….Bongos!
As the son was occupied, dad zoomed over to the bongos and placed his hands on them. Slowly his fingers of each hand began to tap out a melody. As the tempo increased his hands started to lay down a beat that would make Ricky Ricardo blush. Totally mesmerized in the moment as the song reached a crescendo a few final thumps concluded his solo jam session. Stepping back he was satisfied that he didn’t miss a beat but suddenly realized that what was missing was his ring! When I arrived he had no idea which way it flew. I set up my MXT and started a grid search in the trajectory which I thought made sense. Scanning over the wood chips it was nice for a change not to find junk items. After about 5 minutes and 10 feet away from the bongos I got a clear signal that said good metal! Reaching down thru the wood chips revealed his beautiful yellow/white gold ring! As he reached down to pick it up he called his son over who gave two thumbs up on the find and said maybe we should wait on the bongo lessons for you Dad!
Once upon a time during covid-19 in a small town and cozy house lived this nice, pictured lady who’s ring went missing. Unsure of where it could be with all the routine changes that took place, she reached out for help. We chatted briefly and when I arrived today I started my ground search along the path where the classy car was parked. Next was the classy car search but nothing was found. Moving to the inside we went room by room, in the bedroom we checked wavvy waterbed along with the heavy dresser and chesty drawers revealed nothing. Searching the living room’s curvy couch revealed nothing. When we sat on curvy couch to take a break the spring squeaks sounded like they said check with chatty chair and tattle table. In doing so, it was revealed underneath in a woodburning that lazy boy talked in his sleep and said steely safe had the ring. Moving to steely safe and opening the door revealed no ring but a note that read…. lazy boy is so soft that he keeps all the jewelry that falls off from those who relax on him. Thanking steely safe we formed a quick plan. Moving hastily in a surprise attack, she jumped on lazy boy and pulled back on his arm, an agonizing screech followed and as my hands were going in to search we heard metal hit the floor! Wrestling lazy boy out of the way revealed this beautiful triple band gold ring! As lazy boy tried to wheedle his way out of this we quickly taped up all the holes where things could « fall » into. All was well again in the cozy house, a happy ending for the lady and as wisps of curly smoke lifted to the sky from the chimney the lazy boy was surrounded by his contemporaries, each sporting a grin, not to teach him his lesson but that a professional tape removal and stitching was in order.
Jon
What better way to transition into fall than one last ring return on a Volleyball court. I had just returned home when I got a call from my buddy Charlie who is out in CA. He had received a call from a friend of his named Joey who had in turn gotten a call from his wife Nicole and she was in a panic. Nicole had been playing Volleyball with her daughter at a local park and looked down to notice that her wedding ring and her engagement ring were no longer on her hand. This is about the time the panic had ensued and I think everyone will agree that it was totally justified. Luckily Charlie is a great guy and rather than telling Joey that he was out of town, he tracked me down and put us in touch. We were running out of daylight so I loaded up as fast as possible and called Joey to tell him that I could help and get an idea where to go. I pulled in the park and although there were lots of people there enjoying the playground equipment I had no doubt who I was looking for. As soon as I pulled my gear out, a big group of ladies and young people started waving me down. I noticed that they all had makeshift seines and colanders and I wondered which one was Nicole. Then I noticed the lady who was crying and I knew I had found her. I immediately introduced myself and told her not to worry that I was totally going to help her. She told me that I didn’t understand, they had searched everywhere that it could be with the strainers and they had even found the wedding band but she feared the engagement ring might be anywhere in the park and she was distraught. I asked her if they had been there the entire time and they said yes. I tried again to reassure her as I explained what I was doing and started my grid pattern. I made about one pass but as I was talking to her I could see she was in agony so I decided to take a different approach. I told her to tell me where she had found the gold band, she told me that they had already looked there and I told her to humor me. She did and I asked her if they changed sides at all and she said no. Lastly, I asked her if she wore her band closest to her heart and she said yes. I took a step towards the way I thought the ring first off her hand would fly and I said, “watch this” with a big smile. I went about two steps and got a good tone. I don’t think she realized I had something until I kneeled down with my pinpointer and then stood up saying, “Does it look like this?”She broke down in tears and I was reminded why I love doing this so much. Congratulations Nicole and Joey. Thank you very much for trusting me to help you. God Bless!💍
The pictured gentleman is known in the neighborhood for having a green thumb. About a month ago while him and his wife were cleaning up and weeding a garden for a homebound, elderly neighbor his ring came off. Thru much outside influence, from an unreliable source, temptation won over and the wrong metal detector was chosen. After much trowel and error searching with nothing produced they felt re-entry into the garden wasn’t mint to be. When we talked today I was all ears and offered much encouragemint. Keeping the convo upbeet, I said I can dig it, just romaine calm, it was no big dill and that I’ve helped lots of people who’ve bean there. On site and after setting up my MXT I said let’s turnip the beet. Scanning in a grid pattern over the soft ground the detector was silent for about 5 min. then I got a familiar signal and meter read about 1″ deep.
Pushing the garrett carrot into the soil like I was putting down roots I got a vibe, and scraping the soil aside revealed this simply radishing, chunky white gold ring! Waving him over I said I need you to weed this out. As he looked down at the ring he exclaimed Amaizeing! We high fived and yelled…. Kale Yea! After a few pics he said thanks for taking the thyme to help him cultivate his ring, beeting seemingly unbeetable odds and squashing his downbeet. He said if I was a fruit I’d be one fineapple. I said I yam what I yam but now it’s time to beet it, it’s party thyme, peas out!
Jon
Story of lost ring leads to another reunion, 25 years after loss at Lake Sikome
Chris Spronk searched repeatedly for ring his mother gave him on her last Christmas
Pamela Fieber · CBC News · Posted: Oct 02, 2020 3:00 PM MT | Last Updated: 24 minutes ago
Chris Spronk, left, and Kevin Niefer at Lake Sikome earlier this week. Niefer, a member of Ring Finders in Calgary, found Spronk’s long-lost signet ring there about 25 years ago. (Submitted by Kevin Niefer)
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Calgarian Chris Spronk read last weekend about the return of a precious grad class ring lost 37 years ago in Calgary — found by a member of a metal detecting group called the Ring Finders — and it reminded him of a terrible loss in his own life.
He decided to reach out, and posted something in the comments section of the CBC Calgary Facebook page.
The ring he lost 25 years ago, while tossing a football at Sikome Lake, was very special to him.
« I lost my mom when I was young, when I was 20 years old. And the Christmas before she passed away, she had all of the gold that she had ever worn or owned in her life melted down and designed into these two rings — one for me and one for my brother, » Spronk told theCalgary Eyeopener.
« They were, you know, signet rings with our initials carved into them, with raw gold in the background — very distinctive rings. So it had a lot of meaning to me. And, you know, I wore it proudly. »
Two years later, Spronk lost the ring at the manmade lake in Fish Creek Provincial Park.
Chris Spronk, left, with his mother Brenda and his brother Brian, on the last Christmas they shared together. Brenda Spronk, who passed away months later in 1993, gave each of her sons each a ring that Christmas, made from her own gold jewelry. (Submitted by Chris Spronk)
« Unfortunately, stuff happens, » he said. « I was throwing a ball, I looked down, and the ring was gone. »
For 25 years, Spronk says, he thought about the ring every time he drove past Lake Sikome in southeast Calgary. He and his brother Brian, who understood the personal value of the ring, returned to the lake many times to look for it, even using metal detectors and screens to sift through the sand. Eventually, he lost hope.
« I’d given up on this ring long ago, just because it was gold and if it was found, it was going to be melted down, » he said.
Then last week, Spronk read the story on CBC Calgary’s Facebook page. He’d had no idea a group like Ring Finders existed.
« I was genuinely happy for the person, to see something like that returned, and just kind of put an off-the-hip comment saying, ‘Oh, that’s really cool. You know, I lost a ring in Sikome 25 years ago. Maybe I need to wait another 12 years for mine to come back,’ or something like that, » Spronk said.
Chris Spronk, moments after being reunited with the ring he lost at Lake Sikome 25 years ago. (Submitted by Chris Spronk)
Someone on the page encouraged Spronk to check out the Calgary metal detector’s club Facebook page.
He made a request to join, and outlined his story on the club page.
« The admin at first kind of said, not a chance, never going to find it, the sand has been changed there, it’s been 25 years, » he said. « I know it was a long shot, a huge long shot. But she also tagged this fellow, Kevin. And 10 minutes later, I got a message from somebody I didn’t know, named Kevin. »
Spronk opened the message from Kevin Niefer.
« I may have your ring, » the message read.
The personalized message engraved in the ring that Brenda Spronk gave to her son Chris. When Kevin Niefer found the ring, he knew it would have been special to whoever had lost it. (Submitted by Kevin Niefer)
Niefer, a local realtor who has been a metal detectorist for 30 years, joined the Calgary Eyeopener to describe his side of the events, which started with him finding the ring at Lake Sikome about 25 years ago on a routine outing.
Niefer said he has « a few hundred » rings in his collection — but this one stood out in his memory.
« It just rang a bell because it was so unique at the time. And the inscription inside said, ‘Chris, love mom.’ And I’m just going, ‘Wow, poor guy.’ I remember finding that and going man, that’s pretty brutal, to lose that. »
‘Most guys just melt them down’
Niefer said he has kept the ring in his collection for 25 years. He has never been one to melt down the gold he finds while out with his metal detecting gear.
« Most guys just melt them down or pawn them off, and I’ve kept them over 30 years, » he said. « It just didn’t feel right, I guess, to do that, to melt them down. »
And Spronk, now reunited with his ring, is grateful for that.
Chris Spronk on the Christmas in 1992 when his mother gave him the gold ring with her initials engraved on it, made from her own gold jewelry. Chris lost the ring two years later at Lake Sikome. (Submitted by Chris Spronk)
« You know, it means the world. It’s this gratitude that I can’t express, just the fact that I do have it back and just the emotions that I’m feeling because it was so unexpected, so unplanned, » he said.
« And just I’m thankful for people like Kevin because it shows there’s good in the world. There’s people with integrity, there’s people with conviction that stand by things like this — that want to see good. »
I talked briefly this morning with this attractive young lady but our phone connection was bad all I got was she was out in the yard catching up with her friend and sunning herself when a bee kept buzzing around her and a piece of jewelry was lost. I texted for the address and a time we could meet. When I got there I asked what’s all the buzz about? That got her to smile.
While swatting at the bee she clipped her ear and out came one of her earrings that she received for Christmas last year.
Getting a read from the matching one I now had the info I needed. Searching carefully there were similar items below ground that came in at the same or approx. numbers as the earring. Closing in on the available search area we looked at each other and without words we all could sense the tension in the air wondering if the earring would be found. I moved the metal chair out of the detector’s way and I got a very solid signal. Reaching down into the grass revealed this beautiful platinum and diamond stud earring! I waved them over and I pointed where it was. She leaned over, pulled it from the grass and exclaimed ….you found it! Lots of exclamations of excitement, high fives and dancing in place followed!
Upon leaving I said this is my kind of buzz, save the gossip for the bees.
