Samm Read an award-winning reporter for WTNH Channel 10 in RI spent an afternoon interviewing and filming my friend and fellow ring finder Gary Bonin for a news piece about how we have become friends and work together to help return lost items to people throughout New England on land and in the water.
Sam Read NBC10 – Two friends have helped over 100 people… | Facebook
WTNH Channel 10 Two friends return lost jewelry
I was asked to be interviewed by Ann Nyberg a celebrated and award-winning anchorperson for Channel 8 news in CT. We discussed my start in detecting 37 years ago, my membership in three CT clubs Nutmeg Treasure Hunters, Yankee Territory Coin shooters, and Southern New England Relic Hunters and most recently my membership in the @theringfinders,com organization. Ann asked my favorite find over the years and there’s been so many that it was hard to choose just one. But I chose a very meaningful one for me that was about a young boy losing his heirloom Grandfathers ring in the ocean and giving up hope until his mother contacted me and after three tries of narrowing the location where he had been playing catch in the ocean and using his hand drawn treasure map , I was able to locate the ring. His mother cooked a meal for our club, and we awarded the ring back that night and she honored me with a beautiful St Anthony medal.
Vanessa and Jacob had been visiting a neighborhood beach and while playing pass with a football she noticed her platinum diamond ring had slipped off her finger. They started searching in the water to no avail. They went out and bought a metal detector and came back in the evening to look for it. After finding just a hair clip they did a search for ring finders. My name came up and they gave me a quick call to inquire about my services.
During the conversation she mentioned that her husband had been a former student. That’s a small world!
I came right away at 9:00 am since they had tickets to a basketball game and needed to leave the area by noon.
They had placed a rock at the suggestion of a kind lady on the beach as a marker to where they had noticed the ring was missing. The entire area was about a thirty-yard stretch of beach and knee to waist deep water. I gridded the area very thoroughly and could not get a solid target. They needed to leave and were still hopeful because I told them that I was committed to finding this ring and for them to pray. They very concerned that it might now be lost.
Since I know in excitement of the moment judging distances can be difficult and rings are seldom found where you expect them to turn up. I widened the search area and since the tide had gone pretty far out started detecting the wet sand. A solid platinum level signal echoed in my headphones, and I exclaimed to everyone in ear shot that I had found the ring we had been looking for during the last 3 hours.
After a quick call to catch them before they left for the game they excitedly came back to the beach and were absolutely astonished that the ring was only a few feet from the placement of the lucky rock. They decided they also wanted to keep the rock as a memory of the day. The special lady on the beach saved the rock to give to them. we plan to get together again to reenact the moment and share the excitement of the recovery for their family and friends.
John started the day having fun at Misquamicut and body surfing in the large waves that are pretty typical of this location. He suddenly felt the gold and platinum wedding ring slip off his finger and into the surf as he was washed forward with the wave. At that point he considered it to be a hopeless and lost cause. But some friends encouraged by my recent finds that had been posted on Facebook contacted me with the details of where he was in the surf at the time and gave me a pretty good place to start.
After a short gridding pattern and an adjustment for the tide and reported location that his friend had shared with me, the next solid signal resulted in his gold ring in the scoop. I went over to everyone on the beach to tell them the good news.
I then facetimed his wife who could not believe it and, in her amazement, expressed the joy that her prayers were answered. I teased John by sending him a picture of the ring and astounded he asked how his ring was now out of the surf and in my hands. He admitted he had given up all hope. I could feel the joy over the phone and his renewed faith in the prayers that his wife and others had shared.
A miracle in the surf praise prayer and glory to God to grant their wishes. When I met him at Dunkin donuts to give back his ring, he treated me to breakfast and honored me with a wonderful rosary from Assisi and a beautiful ceramic Saint Anthony medal. I also gave him two Saint Anthony medals for his wife and for their friend that had given me some really good directions and a lead as to where to start in the surf.
This ring find began Wednesday, when I got a text from Marion, who was helping her friend Betty who lost an identical Wedding Band that had slipped out of her PT shorts pocket while doing her Physical Readiness Test. During their hunt, Marion used her band as a prop to get the proper visual and when she got distracted for a moment, her ring was lost in what she called, « The crunch field of despair. » They both hunted the field for two days with no luck. Schedules were chaotic, however, we agreed to meet up at lunch today. When I arrived, Marion was already there searching the field. We laid out a search area and I went to work gridding. Thankfully, over the last two days, Marion and Betty cleaned up much of the shiny metal that had littered the field. The grass was dry and short so just looking down most targets could be seen. Finally, after about 15 minutes I got a nice solid and tight #28 on the Manticore. I bent down and as I moved a tuft of grass Marion’s shiny wedding band came into view. I yelled over to her and she rushed over to see it for herself. We noticed it was actually nearly dead center in the box. We searched for Betty’s ring in the field but it wasn’t found. There is still much more area to cover especially a jogging path as Betty doesn’t know when the ring actually fell out of her pocket. One down, one to go. Praying! Aloha to Marion and hopefully soon to Betty.
I received a call from a young husband and new father saying that his wife had recently lost her ring in their backyard.
I drove out to their lovely Craftsman-era rental in Berkeley after work and went to work. This young couple, tired in their new roles as parents, were distraught over the loss of the ring.
When looking for lost items like rings, it is important that I get all of the information before beginning my search. Where were you sitting/standing when it fell off? What were you doing? Where did you hear it land or bounce?
We all believed it was most likely under the porch and that when it flew off of her finger it hit the deck and slipped between boards. I spent several hours under the deck sweeping away leaves, clearing out wire, nails, and other metal odds and ends and yet I could not locate the ring.
It was getting dark so I offered to return on the next available day as they were heading out of town. The following Tuesday I was back out and determined to find it. On this second trip I knew I had to think outside the box. I sat on the porch where she had been sitting when she lost the ring, imitating her movements from that evening, and even spent a little while under the porch again, this time with her help. During the week between my visits the Meyer lemon trees in the planter at the end of the deck were trimmed back a bit making it easier for me to really get in there with minimal pokes and pricks from the thorny branches. The planter was rotting and there were many gaps for items to fall into so I concentrated on these areas. I was running out of options and I really hate not being able to successfully return an item that I am called out to find. Digging through rotted wood, leaves and the odd ping pong ball, I reached down and pulled out this beautiful gold ring.
In the end, it was less about having a metal detector, and more about perseverance. People often think it will take mere minutes to locate their lost items with a metal detector. Many people give up within the first 20 minutes and I have to encourage them to let me keep working. Sometimes they leave me, thinking they will never see their precious item again. But if the item is there, I will find it.
This ring find began when I got a voicemail last night from Ronnie who was on vacation from Vallejo, California and staying at the Four Seasons Resort at Ko Olina. While enjoying the cool water of the lagoon at some point his recently purchased White Gold Cartier Love Ring came off and he only noticed when he got back to his room. He tried looking for it but the waters were stirred up and impossible to see. Four Seasons Security convinced him I would come out and hunt the ring for him as he had been a bit hesitant at first. I immediately called Ronnie and agreed to come out after work the next afternoon. Ronnie gave me all the details I needed to start the hunt. The tide and surf was up but I was in the most protected area off the lagoon so the hunt was relatively easy. I found a few foil targets then on about the 7th leg of my grid I got a booming tone on the Manticore. Surprisingly, it took three scoops to recover the ring in belly depth water. I went back to my car and texted Ronnie a pic of his ring then followed up with a call. We met down buy the beach attendants booth for the return. A few handshakes and hugs and Ronnie was so relieved his vacation was saved. Aloha to Ronnie!
Steve’s Emergency Metal Detecting Service For You if you lost a ring or something precious to you. Please don’t wait until tomorrow, time will work against you, please CALL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, CALL RIGHT AWAY! 310-953-5
I received a call from Hector’s girlfriend telling me that he had lost a very personal medallion in the sand at the beach. It was already dark when she called, but knowing that the County machine cleans that beach daily, I let them know I was able to come and do a search right away.
I met Hector at our agreed to meeting point, and he then walked me out to the area of the loss. His girlfriend was out there holding the place, which was very helpful because finding areas at the beach at night can be a little tricky. I was able to see where they had been searching, and began my search there. It wasn’t long before I got a great signal, dug, and had Hector’s medallion in the scoop. It had been his Grandfather’s, and meant a lot to him. Another successful search, with a happy ending. Hector did not want his face in the shot, but he was smiling.
Don’t let the County beach cleaning machines take your lost valuable, call as soon as possible! I will work hard, using the most up to date metal detectors, 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, Northridge, Pasadena, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, Zuma Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, Southern California, and Ventura County.
CALL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, CALL RIGHT AWAY! 310-953-5268
Sebastian contacted me, requesting my assistance in locating his wedding band, which he had inadvertently lost a few minutes prior to our conversation. He informed me that he was present with his two daughters at the park, where he was pushing one of them on the swing. Suddenly, he felt his ring slip off his finger and into the sand, becoming invisible.
Sebastian diligently searched the area he believed his ring had landed, but unfortunately, he was unable to locate it. Fortunately, I was only five minutes away from his current location. I promptly informed him that I would be there shortly. Upon meeting Sebastian, within a few minutes, his ring was miraculously returned to his finger.
August 5, 2025: Yesterday afternoon my home phone rang and the number showed up on my TV. 907 is an Alaska area code, I had to find out about the caller and answered the call. As the call started about a loss and need for help, I was ready to pack and head for Alaska. I had been in Alaska back in the 1980’s and enjoyed every day there. The call went on about Kenneth’s mother, Virginia, loosing a hearing aid while doing some yard work. Though I was not lucky enough to have to go to search in Alaska, but rather in my town of Yarmouth, MA.
So far this year I have a 100% success rate for finding lost hearing aids – two of them. For now, after the phone call I would call Virginia in the morning and arrange to search for the hearing aid that would spend the evening in the garden. OK, all set 9:30am and the search will begin. Virginia, a bit older than I am but really sharp and very interesting to talk with from her life in Alaska working on the pipe line, sky diving with her grandson on his 16th birthday wish of her grandson, getting caught overnight between two avalanches, and to a more mundane life style of being a volunteer librarian who has now has lost two hearing aids. Virginia found the first in a evening’s rainstorm just outside her car and not inside the library where she thought it had been lost. Good news, it still worked and she had not stepped on it.
Now it was my turn to search for a hearing aid after her best try the day before did not turn it up. I started the area search with a 7” coil on my detector, I should have put the 4” coil on at it would have got into areas that the 7” one would not fit into. Not to worry, my handheld pin-pointer could cover all the smaller areas I could not reach otherwise. I started searching the ground and moved upward onto one of the climbing plants. Maybe the hearing aid had been caught on a branch. No, back to the ground and after three other metal objects, I had a signal that turned out to be caused by the close proximity of a metal object, in this case the minuscule battery of a hearing aid.
Virginia was nearby and was over whelmed by my success. The hearing aid survived the night in the garden and now ready to help Virginia hear her granddaughter’s speech more clearly. It was the granddaughter’s questioning of her grandmother “Why do you always ask me to repeat myself?” that prompted Virginia’s son, Kenneth, to arrange a hearing test that ultimately lead to Virginia’s use of hearing aids, especially when with her granddaughter. Little devices that can really help the quality of life of everyone around as well as the wearer of the hearing aids can remedy the need to request someone to repeat themselves. I also wear them and can relate. Going back I can remember my grandmother’s hearing aid, a little box that hung on her chest, had a wire going to her ear and made horrible squeals. No matter, GRANDMOTHERS are the best!
