Arnie lost his 1958 class ring, and read an article about us in the local paper and wondered if we could help him find his lost ring from 4 years ago. Check out the write up below, which includes video of the actual ring hunt … did we find his ring? You’ll have to read it to find out … wait, of course did, why else would I be posting this … check out the size of that ring!
Link to Complete Story:
Direct link to video:
Sean was putting his boat back on the lift when he noticed that the lift cable had coiled up on the shaft. As he was working to realign the cable his ring came off his finger and he watched as it quickly disappeared out of site in the water under the boatlift.
A couple of days later his wife Sandra found the “Ring Finders” website and contacted SRARC and spoke to Tom Jones. She explained to him that this ring had been given to her husband in 1988 by the company he worked for and it was the top award given for that year. Each time he won the same award after that the company would take the ring in and add a diamond on it. The ring contained 8 diamonds.
After hearing this Tom knew that the ring had to found and returned and he told her that the best chance to find the ring would not be until the next weekend to take advantage of an extremely low tide during daylight hours.
On June 14, Tom went to the site and measured the water depth at high tide and it was over 9’ deep. He decided to come back on Monday 6/15 and dive the site.
Tom and Joe Szemer arrived Monday to find a good low tide. Once Tom got in the water he quickly realized the he would have to dive for the ring. They brought in a compressor and regulator and Tom dropped in and anchored himself to the bottom and started hunting. He found that the bottom consisted of 10” of gelatinous silt with a hard sand bottom. After 10 minutes searching the bottom with his detector he got a good target and started feeling through the muck until he found the ring. Tom returned to the surface wearing the ring on his pinkie finger showing it to Joe who in turn gave Sean and Sandra the thumbs up signal.
They could not believe that the ring had been found and his memento of 28 years of service was back on his finger.
That was quite the recovery…Nice job Tom and Joe!
While out shopping with my wife, daughter and granddaughter I received a call from Allison who was very upset that she lost her wedding band. She said she was digging in the sand with her son and thought she should take both her engagement ring and wedding band off. She told me she put them in a bag next to her towel and when she went to retrieve them only the engagement ring was in the bag. I told her I could be there in about an hour to hour and a half. When I arrived at the beach behind the resort where she was staying I called her and she quickly met me. I also met her husband Gordon who had already marked a 15X20 foot square in the sand around the area they had been sitting. I asked her to describe her ring, what exactly happened and the general area she was in. I set a north/south grid and started searching. The first grid line produced a beer cap, the second grid line produced a house or room key and when I looked at her I could see her hope in finding the ring was fading. There was nothing on the third grid line and as I turned to do the fourth line I got a good signal with my White’s PI dual field and took a shallow scoop. After shaking out the sand I couldn’t see anything with the sea grass in the scoop so I shook the scoop one more time – bingo!!! There was her size 5 wedding band. I reached in the scoop, looked at her, gave her a little smile and a wink and nodded my head for her to come over to me. She covered her mouth with both hands and I’m pretty sure tears started rolling out of both of our eyes. I held my closed fist out and dropped the ring in her outstretched hands and then got one of the biggest hugs I’ve ever had. I got extra hugs and handshakes from her husband, dad and a couple of other relatives. It was truly amazing and something I’ll never forget. Total search time was less than 5 minutes.
I just got home from work on Friday when the phone rang and Hiroko asked if I was immediately available to recover a ring in Kailua at Lanikai Beach as the couple was flying out that evening. I told her I could be there in 30 minutes or so and she explained the situation. Her friend Mariko had guests visiting from Japan and her lady friend Yuko dropped her Gold Wedding Band in the sand. Mariko was going to meet me at the beach access lane and would show me the approximate location the ring was lost. I asked my wife Wendy if she wanted to come along and she did as their is a really nice shopping mall on that side of the island we hadn’t been to in ages. So off we went. Another helpful tool my wife has GPS on her smart phone and helps me get to the out of the way locations. We arrived in record time and Mariko introduced us to Yuko and her husband who had been looking for the ring for several hours already. When we arrived on location the area was half sand and half leafy rooted plant cover. This was going to be a challenge. Yuko boxed off the area and I began my search. I think every pull tab and bottle cap on Lanikai Beach ended up in this ground cover. After about twenty minutes and numerous tabs, caps and 11 cents I got an unusual growl on my Excalibur. It sounded really weird. As I made a scoop I noticed a bottle cap loose in the sand where I just dug in. I bent down and picked it up. As I made another scoop to the other target a glint of Gold could be seen in the scoop. As I reached into the scoop and pulled out the ring I glanced over at Yuko and tears were streaming down her face. Her husband was bowing at my feet saying « Arigato » over and over. Actually, I was overwhelmed and said please stand up and just give me a hug Hawaiian style. Their appreciation was over the top. I won’t soon forget this find. Aloha to Yuko and her husband!
On 05/24/15, I received a text message from a gentleman requesting my help in finding his lost platinum wedding band at Gordons Pond State Park in Rehoboth Beach, Del. I then called him to learn the circumstances regarding how he had lost his ring. The gentleman said that he and his wife had been sitting in the sand on the beach at the state park as he stood up he went to brush the sand off of his pants his wedding band flew off his finger and landed in the sand behind him where it disappeared. I told the gentleman that I would meet him the very next morning so that I could assist him in finding his lost ring. After meeting at a shopping center, we drove to the beach to begin the search for the ring. The gentleman’s wife had used her cell phone to take a photo of the sand dune up from the area of the beach where the ring was lost. Using the photograph we were able to locate the area of the lost ring by identifying two small trees and using them as landmarks. After searching the beach for about fifteen minutes the lost ring was recovered and returned to its owner.
Melissa decided to that the kids to Bahia Beach to get them out before it got too hot. As she was packing things up to leave for lunch she went to the water edge to rinse off some beach toys. After packing all their things away she notice that her engagement ring was missing from her finger. She went through the beach bags, clothing and towels but the ring was not there. She began searching the sand but not luck finding the ring. She called her husband to break the bad news. He immediately got on the computer and found Theringfinders. Tom Jones called Melissa who was still at the beach and arranged to meet her there.
Tom arrived and started hunting the water area where Melissa said she washed off the toys which would be the most likely spot to lose the ring. After 20 minutes hunting and no ring, Tom started searching the dry sand from where her beach chair was down to the water. After two passes Tom looked over to Melissa and said, “Wow! You weren’t kidding when you said it was a nice big ring. At that time she ran over and broke out in tears of joy and said, “You don’t know how much this ring means to me.” She then gave Tom a big hug.
Summer temperatures, light breezes and calm seas are calling Cape Cod visitors to come and enjoy any one of the many beaches. Kathleen and family members were among those answering the call on Wednesday. Fair skin needs to be protected, but the sun screen cream tends to mar the brilliance of diamonds. To prevent it from happening to her ring Kathleen took it off, put in in her bag and gave the bag to her mother. Fast forward to the time to go…no ring was to be found in the bag. A visual search and later a search with an inexpensive hardware store metal detector yielded no results.
It was then that Kathleen reached out for professional help. We met at the beach, I was shown the area, and searched far more than the original area. Several nice ladies and infants were occupying an area in the center of my gridded area. The ladies did move over somewhat, but not entirely off the area I had not yet searched. Not wanting to “disturb” the ladies again, I was headed to my car to get a different detector, one that had different operating characteristics. As I started to go the ladies picked up their chairs and bags and left the beach. I returned to quickly search the area and two minutes later Kathleen was wearing the lost, found and returned ring.
Hugs, smiles and a bit of metal detecting talk led to the attached smile and ring photo.
Today I went in to my local jewelry store , Medawar Fine Jewelers in Rancho Palos Verdes to get a new battery for my watch. I was talking with the owner Robert, when he asked if I had been finding anything lately (he knew of my service with The Ring Finders). After a brief discussion, he then told me about last Sunday when he was at the Botanic Gardens with his car club, and an announcement came over the speaker about a man who had lost his wedding band at the gardens the day before at his wedding reception. He said that I might check it out because no one had found the ring when he was there.
I called the botanic gardens to ask about the ring, and if anyone had found it between Saturday and today, and the Lady told me that no one had turned one in during that time, so I asked if it would be alright for me to come and search for it after explaining my association with The Ring Finders, and the service I perform. I was given the green light, and made my way over there. When I got to the area of the loss, it was very big, and the other problem was that no one associated with the loss was there to probe, to narrow down the search area, so it was up to me to try to figure it out. I searched going over the areas I thought might have been traveled over by most people without luck. I then just began a grid search across the whole area. After about 1 1/2 hours, dead center in the middle of the grass I got the sound I was looking for, put in the pin pointer, and out pops this brand new wedding band. I took it back to the office, so they could contact the groom. I know I made their day, but they probably won’t know about it for a while because they are probably on their honeymoon right now.
I went back to the jeweler to get my watch immediately after finding the ring, and showed Robert the first picture of the ring on the bench, and it was great to see him experience some of the joy of the find and return. What an awesome day it was today.
Update: I received the following email from the gentleman I found the ring for, with the picture of him with his ring shown above.
Hey Steve,
Thanks for all your help. Remember to reply with contact info for you & the jeweler. My wife & I cannot thank you enough.
Sincerely,
Uy
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.
While I was on my lunch break eating Spicy Ahi Don with my daughter Asti I received a call from Andrea in Waikiki. She told me her husband Nick lost his White Gold wedding band in the sand at Waikiki Beach right behind the Police Station. Knowing how many detectorists prowl the beach my getting there quickly to find their ring was of the utmost importance. I had my Excalibur in my truck so I told Andrea to guard the spot on the beach and not to dig looking for it. I told her I could be there in 30 minutes. Lunch hour traffic and road construction tried hard to keep me away but we managed through it all. Since I know some of the Waikiki HPD Officers I was able to park in their stall directly in front of the lost ring location. Asti stayed in the car and I went to the beach with Nick. It was a relatively small area and the first target was Nick’s ring. They admitted digging for it as it took two healthy scoops to reach their ring. It’s always neat how all the tourists watching the search applaud and say « How Cool is that? » when the ring is found. As you can see Andrea & Nick were all smiles. Aloha to Andrea & Nick.
I received a call yesterday from Kelly, saying she had lost her car key at the beach. I told her I would be there in an hour, and headed out. When I got to the site Kelly and her friend Eric showed me the general area where they thought the key had been lost. At that time I began to ask them questions, going through a logical progression in order to narrow down the search area. Because searching the right way with a metal detector is a very slow and methodical process, it is important for us to probe as much as possible to see if we can pinpoint the search area. Sometimes the person may have thought it was lost in one place, but as I question, I can figure that it was in another area, so questioning is a very important part of our searches. I am thankful Kelly and her friend were patient with me.
After my questioning, I figured out that it was under the parkour bars that Eric had been using, and it took all but about 3 minutes of searching to find the key. They were happy, because they had a way to go to get home, and everything was in the car. I am so glad to have met them, and made their day.
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.