Received a text from James yesterday about having lost his gold wedding band, on Monday, while camping at a Sandbanks Provincial Park camp site. While tossing a ball back and forth with his friends, he went to catch the ball and felt his ring being knocked off his finger. This was right at the edge where sands stops and weed beds begin. James went and purchased a metal detector and tried to find his ring. Unfortunately, cheaper metal detectors cannot be submerged (the head portion) deep enough for his recovery. After arriving at the camp site, quickly Facetimed with James to get further details. 30 minutes later, found the ring and it’s now in the mail to Ottawa. Life is good.
Received a text from Alyssa yesterday about her having lost her new Samsung cell phone while swimming at Sandbanks Provincial park the day before. She had the phone within a protective water proof case and lanyard but it tore off when she got pounded by a big wave. The first issue is that both days have been very windy, with high waves, and sand bars at this location do travel quite quickly, possibly burying her phone deep in the sand. The other issue is that Alyssa could not be there to show me where she had lost it, being in the GTA area, which makes the task more difficult. However, with the magic of GPS and a quick video conference with her while at the beach, we were able to narrow down the search area considerably. Fast forward two hours of searching, I was able to recover her phone. Even better, the phone was still on and in perfect working order. I will be shipping the phone back to her first thing Monday morning. Another successful story. Life is good.
While conducting a successful ring recovery at Roblin lake earlier this week, I happened to find a wedding band. I decided the next day to post pictures of it on our local Facebook page just in case it was lost by local folks. Well, within 5 minutes of post being active, I had found the rightful owner of the ring. How did I know? There was a special inscription inside the band and they knew what it was. Met them shortly after and returned the ring. Life is good.
Received a text from Hope late this afternoon about having lost her silver ring while swimming with her three young kids yesterday. This ring has immense sentimental value as it was given to her, from her fiancé, whom suddenly passed away last year. We met at the lake within the hour and both went in the water where she estimated having dropped the ring while playing with her kids. Although there were many signals, we were able to reunite her with her precious ring within 40 minutes or so. She was extremely happy and surprised to have her ring back on her finger. One of my most favorite recoveries thus far. Life is good.
Mission Hill Winery in West Kelowna BC, contacted me, they needed to locate a water shut off valve. They showed me the location on the hillside where they thought it was, after 45 minutes on the hillside covered with periwinkle finding junk metal and lighting, I was getting tired. As I got to the top of the hill by the building, I visually saw a capped plastic white pipe sticking out of the ground. I told them that is what they cover the shut off valves with, they said we have to reward you, that`s the 2 bottles of wine by the cover in the picture.
Received a text bright and early this morning about a young lady having lost both her rings yesterday. Oli and his wife Selam were at Buffler’s beach yesterday, enjoying a beautiful day until disaster struck. While playing volleyball in the water, Selam felt both her diamond engagement ring and wedding band fly off her finger, when hitting the ball while being about knee deep in the water. This happened at noon. They frantically searched till 7PM with no luck. After a few of my usual questions, I headed to the beach and met with them. With Selam standing where she thought the rings came off, I started gridding the area and within 40 minutes or so, was able to locate both rings for her. The rings were actually about 25 feet away due to the swinging motion while hitting the ball and only about 1 foot apart laying in the sand. She was so genuinely happy and very emotional and, after some tears, asked for a hug which I gladly shared with her. Lovely young couple and so happy I was able to reunite them with their lost rings. Life is great!!!
Friday night I received a phone call from a fellow detectorist, who asked if I could assist a lady with a lost key Fob. He gave me the ladies number, but the group of ladies stranded could not identify the park where they where at, they forwarded me on to their Aunt from Edmonton. By the time we figured it out it is was dark, I told them I would be there the next morning. Saturday morning I got there at 7am, without any specific location, just by the parked red Mazda, sand or maybe the grass? I started gridding the sand, and after 30 minutes I had the Car Fob. I phoned the Aunts number, phone not in use, so I called the initial detectors request, and he did not know, but his brother did, I called his brother who contacted the lady and said she would call me back. Her friends turned up and sure enough it was their Key Fob. They started the car and drove it to the owner. Key fobs are expensive to replace, especially with the car stranded.
I got a call from Lake Country BC, a one hour drive away, the gentleman told me he had lost his 18k yellow gold and ruby ring that his wife presented to him years ago. He hosted his sons wedding in his back yard around the pool, and lower patio area last Fall, he lost the ring removing lighting from around the pool. He had photographs from the patio showing that he had the ring before the lights removal, he suspected it was in the Basalt rocks around the patio, below where the lighting was, he thought it probably came off during the removal. His search had no results, I told him would respond the first good weather day. Yesterday was that day, I spent almost 2 hours gridding the area, and advised him the I was convinced that it was not there, he responded that I was probably his last resort. I told him stories of past recoveries where the lost item often turned up the trash bags where leaves etc had been placed, and suggested he take down his packing boxes where he stored the lights and search them, he agreed and said that was also his plan. That evening he called to say he had found the ring, and thanked me for my time and travel, and that I was his inspiration to take down the boxes and search them, his last hope was the boxes.
At approximately 8:15PM on January 8th 2024 James had received a call from another RingFinder member by the name of Stephane Coutu in regards to a man by the name of Mohammad, residing in Kingston Ontario, who had just lost his tungsten ring in the snow and was wondering if I would be able to go and help recover the lost ring. Stephane gave me the gentleman’s contact information to reach out to him.
I immediately reached out to Mohammad and told him I would be available the following day in the afternoon to go and help.
After looking at the weather I realized that there was another heavy snowfall expected to arrive sometime overnight and was expected to continue for several days. This would pose a problem for the recovery as I knew that city plow trucks and sidewalk machines would be out in full force and may cause the ring to be more difficult to find by the time I was able to make it over to help Mohammad recover his ring.
I reached out to my ring recovery partner, and now fellow RingFinder Ryan Pugh to see if he was available to go over immediately to help Mohammad out? Thankfully Ryan had his equipment charged up and ready to take on the task.
Ryan called Mohammad and was heading out his door to go meet with Mohammad at exactly 9:27PM that night. at 9:57PM, I received a text from Ryan saying the customer had his ring back.
A quick message to Mohammad revealed he was very happy to have someone get to him so quickly, & thanked me for getting someone out so quickly to him.
Mohammad’s Ring in the snow
Sorry about the pic but the lighting was poor and apparently Ryan’s hands were frozen after this recovery. Here is a link to a a video (short) of Ryan’s recovery.
Hi folks, I wanted to take a quick minute to let people know that I have partnered up with a good friend, wicked ring finder, and all round good dude, Ryan Pugh.
Ryan Pugh
Ryan started detecting around the same time I did, (just a few short years ago) As we all know the learning curve to knowing one’s machine can be a daunting task. Many hours spent digging trash, & trying to understand what your machine is trying to tell you. We know it takes time to understand how to detect properly, efficiently, and professionally.
Now after a few years have gone by, both Ryan & I have the confidence in our abilities to help people find their lost items, and have done so successfully on several occasions.
Both Ryan & I have been detecting every chance we get when we are not working, or have family obligations (speaking from my personal experience of course), life can get very busy at times.
Over the past year (2023) I have taken Ryan on several of my ring finder expeditions. Considering we hunt fairly often together, which in turn has resulted in Ryan coming, and helping on several of my ring finder hunts.
Ryan expressed a real interest in helping people recover items they themselves had lost, & yet, could not find. He has expressed interest in joining The RingFinders all season.
Recently with working shift work, going back to school “for work”, running a local metal detecting club, taking care of my 2 year old son, & making time for my wife & family, I have found that although I have been able to attend most of the requests that have come my way, I find I have been calling on Ryan fairly often to help out with some of my recoveries.
Ryan has been outstanding, not only has he been willing and able to take on each request, he is always at the ready to drop what he’s doing to go help someone in need. And that’s not all, Ryan’s success rate is very high to date. I have called on Ryan to make sure our clients get the quick, reliable, & professional service they deserve.
Working as a team this past year has worked out not only to our benefit, but to our customers benefit as well. Therefore it only seemed logical to make it official and team up with Ryan here on The Ring Finders to ensure our areas get the best service possible for any potential future clients.
“Thanks Ryan Pugh, and I look forward to seeing how collaborating as a team will work out for us in our RingFinding adventures”, also, Welcome to the largest team of RingFinders on the planet.
