As the southern most representative ( Near Marseille,France) of TheRingfinders.com in mainland Europe we receive calls from potential customers in Croatia, Rhoads, Spain, Italy, etc, . Although I like travel, many distant locations are not feasible for my travel. We often assist potential customers in referring them to closer services that available nearer to their locations of loss. We do this in an attempt to help people to find their lost items.
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Michael found me on Facebook through several recommendations to my Ring Finders South Jersey page. His daughter and friend had lost some jewelry on the beach in Ocean City, NJ. They were enjoying the day when they placed a promise ring, earrings, a class ring, and a necklace in the cup holder for safekeeping. While they swam in the ocean, they forgot that the jewelry was there and it fell out when they folded up the chair to leave. After realizing the jewelry was missing, they went back and found some of it, but couldn’t find the others. Thirty minutes later, I met Catherine and Erin on the beach in the general area and began a quick search with my metal detector. I found one earring, then another. One more sweep and then I found the promise ring! A happy ending in Ocean City, NJ!
Read more testimonials on my website at Ringfinderssouthjersey.com
Today was a very special recovery and a four weeks in the making. Chris was swimming in the Rideau river. As he slowly let himself go from the ladder off the back deck, the clasp of his heirloom Rolex watch came undone and watched in horror as the watch slip off his hand and sank into the water. This special watch was purchased by his mom, and given to his dad to celebrate his retirement after 33 years of loyal service with the Canadian Navy. It was given to Chris when his father passed. After having Scuba divers try to find the watch, on three separate occasions and some with underwater metal detectors, he started to loose hope of ever seing his watch again. Fortunately, he was able to put me within a twenty foot radius of where he believed the watch had fallen into the water. Unfortunately, had to deal with about five inches of silt which brings visibility to zero once you start swinging your coil. But, after finding multiple various metal items, I was finally able to feel the watch with my fingers under the coil of my detector. After surfacing, I was able to give Chris his father’s watch and get it back on his wrist. He was extremely happy and emotional and was a great moment for all. Another happy and special recovery. Life is good!
September 15, 2024
A wonderful day at a nature center turned into a stressful night for Carolyn. While helping her children through the Nature Trail and before leaving the center one of her cherished pearl earrings came dislodged from her ear, however the earring back did not. Thinking of how to find the earring, Carolyn went to a hardware store that rents a metal detector. Luckily the store person knew a bit about the detector they rent and would not rent it to Carolyn. The reason was it just was not sophisticated enough to detect such a small piece of metal especially in an environment that would have many metal objects in the area i.e. pull tabs, nails, pieces of fencing etc. An effort was put forth and proved the rental cost would not be justified by the known detector’s results.
Another suggestion by the employee was to contact “TheRingFinder”, in this case. me. The sun would have set by the time I could have been on site. So an 8AM meeting was set. Carolyn and a few others returned to the event area before the sun set and frantic looking all over the parking lot and areas that could be seen before the sun set, but did not find the pearl.
In the morning I, along with Carolyn, started by first looking through the car’s seats, floor, voids between the center console and seats, cup holders to mention the obvious. Nothing was found and a quick walk over the parking area and on down to the kids nature trail. This was straight forward from the place the loss was discovered going back along the path of the previous day’s activities. Even with my adjustments made to my detector of choice for this search, the search was hampered by the many bits and pieces of metal in the area I had to search over. I stopped to do a bit of control tweaking because I was now on wood chips and not gravel and I wanted to have the best setup to find the earring.
Up to this point I was following Carolyn pretty closely, and she got about 10 feet ahead, looking down and at her foot was the earring. The was the end of my searching the area. Carolyn said if it had not been for the store emplyee’s honesty as to the rental detector’s capabilities, my logical thinking and implementation of a methodical search “we” would not have found the earring. We both agreed it was “Meant To Be”.
With a happy Book of Smiles photo, pair of earrings, need to get back to her children, the hugs, Thanks, Best Wishes, and a weekend to remember ended is short order as we parted to go on with each of our own day’s agenda.
Got a call about a ring lost from a pouch while cutting grass. These finds can be difficult since the ring was not actually seen before it was lost like when throwing a football or loosing it off of a towel in the sand. The yard was a good size yard so i started gridding it off where she started. After about 30 minutes ! got a good signal and BAM I saw gold in the grass. AShe had been looking for it for 6 days and even went out and bought a metal detector!
As my wife and I were walking through Laurel Hill Cemetery Association today, 9/15/24, on a 5 mile walk, my phone rang. The caller identified himself as George and someone in his group, had just lost a White Gold Wedding Ring, with three small diamonds in it. George asked if I could come and search for it. I asked him where he was located and when the ring was lost. George stated the ring had been lost an hour ago and they were on Ogunquit Beach, in front of the Norseman Resort. I told George that I could absolutely help him out, I just needed to walk back home, first. I would leave to search for the ring, without even changing out of my sweaty workout clothing. After all, time is of the essence when an item is lost in a public place. The sooner I can get there, the better chance of a recovery.
So, Cheryl and I went straight home, put my beach flops on and headed to Ogunquit, Maine. Since I had been on a search and recovery yesterday, in Eliot, Maine, all my equipment was still in my car. I wasn’t sure about the traffic on route one, since we are now in mid September. The summer traffic is horrendous when trying to drive route one in Wells and Ogunquit. The traffic turned out to be better than I thought and only added about 15 minutes to the drive, from our home, in Saco, Maine. Weekend summer traffic may add anywhere from 30-45 minutes, trying to get through the route one coastal traffic.
Once we arrived, I called George and let him know that we were there. George told me his son would be there in one minute and bring me back, to where the ring was lost. Once George’s son brought us to the area, there were a group of people and a young woman stepped right up and said that it was her ring, that was lost and her name is Sophia. Sophia told me that the ring is a heirloom wedding ring and is part of a set, that goes with a matching engagement ring. She then tells me the wedding and engagement rings were originally her late Grandmother’s and was just heartbroken that she had lost it in the very fine, soft sand. Sophia also told us the she and her mother were visiting Maine, from Japan. Wow, the pressure was on now, to find the ring. I couldn’t let Sophia go home to Japan, without her heirloom ring.
I asked Sophia to walk me through what happened, when the ring was lost. Sophia told me that after arriving at the location, on the beach, she proceeded to take off her footwear and socks. As she was taking her socks off, her grandmothers wedding ring, came off and flew into the sand and out of sight. The entire group had a good idea, of where the ring had landed and proceeded to visually and manually screen the sand. They would run their fingers through the sand and push the sand around, in the hopes of finding the ring. Once they realized this was not going to be fruitless, Sophia did a very smart thing. She took a beach blanket and laid it over the area she thought the ring had landed and that they had searched. The blanket provided protection, from people walking through the area, on this extremely busy beach day. Now, no one would step on the ring, pushing it deeper into the sand or even moving the ring out of the area.
Once Sophia removed the beach blanket, she gave me her grandmother’s engagement ring and I place it on top of the sand, ran my coil over it, so everyone in the group could see and hear how I find rings. It also helps me knowing what a matching ring will sound like and what I am looking for, on my detectors VDI screen. The engagement ring rang up with a very low sounding tone and a solid repeating 12-02 on the screen. I then threw a .925 Silver ring into the sand, so that the group could hear the different sound that the different metals make. They were impressed with how different the gold and silver ring sounded and I always like to show my clients, just how a metal detector works. It’s a win, win.
So, once the demonstration of the rings were concluded, I started the search for Sophia’s heirloom wedding ring. I had brought my CTX-3030 metal detector, with the 17” coil. This large coil covers a lot of beach and helps reduce the time needed to find the target. I started the search with my back to the dunes and I was facing the water. I started swinging my coil, side to side and not even 30 seconds had passed, when I received a beautiful sounding low tone, in my headphones. The VDI screen was reading 12-02, exactly as Sophia’s grandmother’s engagement ring. WOW, Same tone and VDI reading, to a matching ring, within 30 seconds, in the area the ring was lost. I turned to the group and told them “I think this is the ring”. I was that confident. I submerged my pin pointer into the sand and moved it around the area that my coil had detected the target. Once located, with the pin pointer, I grabbed a handful of sand, nothing. Grabbed another handful of sand and I felt a ring, held it up for everyone to see and all kinds of applause and clapping broke out, even from surrounding people, who didn’t even know Sophia or me. Sophia had a few tears running down her face and she was hugging her mother. She so emotionally relieved to have her grandmother’s ring back that I could see her trembling a little. Just a few moments earlier, Sophia wasn’t even sure if she would be going home to Japan, with the ring and now she has it back on her finger. It is so gratifying, to be able, to help such wonderful people like Sophia and her family reclaim such a precious piece of heirloom jewelry. No better feeling, in the world. Smiles on Cloud Nine, once again. 😁
Caitlin called In reference to locating her necklace, that was lost on the beach. She told me she had left to go home, but knew the exact location where it could be. She explained that she took the necklace off, and placed them inside her hat, which she then placed on her blanket for safe keeping. When she was getting ready to leave for the day, she had forgotten about the necklace, and placed the hat on her head and started walking up the dune path to head home. It was very windy that day and at one point the hat had blown off her head. After retrieving the hat, she continued over the walkway. When she got to the top, she realized she had placed her necklace in the hat and it was gone. She went back to take a look he wasn’t able to find anything. I was able to go the following morning, and after about 20 minutes I was able to locate the necklace. Unfortunately, the cross was nowhere to be found. My guess is the cross never came out of the hat and was lost in a different location.
Brian was playing football with some friends on the shores of Mission Beach when his watch got snagged, popped the band loose, and off into the dry sand it went. Surely something as big as a watch could be found by several people running their fingers through the sand like little rakes, right? Nope, all their efforts were in vain. In his search for help, his friend Zack contacted Curtis Cox, a fellow RingFinder member and friend located 25 miles or so north of me. Curtis recommended a call to me since I’m much closer. Thanks Curtis! I arrived at the site, called Zack, and he had Brian meet me to define the search area. At first it looked like a family had come and camped right on ground zero, but, after a minute or two, Brian said it was more likely about 20 feet away, so, I started my search there. After just a minute or two, I got a likely signal and was in the process of investigating when Brian spotted a log that he said was more likely the spot. That log was over right next to the people camped and Brian waved to me to go there. I said, wait a sec, as this might be it, and it was, still ticking away! A happy Brian couldn’t believe how quick it was found. A pleasure to meet you Brian, talk to you Zack, and thanks for the reward.
A little dispute with the neighbor on where the property line is so Dave gave me a call to come and find the boundary stake. About 5 minutes and the stake is found. Hope this will repair the relations with the neighbor.
On Friday night, September 13, 2024, I received the following text,
“Hi Dennis, found you on the Ring Finders website. Would you be willing to travel to Eliot, ME for a service? About 45 minutes south of Saco”
I replied, “Hello, Yes I have and will travel to Elliot. What is the search for”?
She replied, “My wedding and engagement ring went into an area off the side of my house last night. It’s the edge of the property so it’s where the grass becomes a little woodsy, But I can pinpoint the general area”.
I replied, “Ok, I can certainly come and search for you. Is tomorrow morning a good time? I can be there around 8:00am”
She then replied that would be great and sent me her name, Bonnie, and her address, in Eliot, Maine. I then asked Bonnie a bunch of questions, so I could be prepared, for the search, first thing in the morning.
Bonnie then told me that her rings were White Gold and she had lost them, the night before, at approximately 6:00pm. Bonnie had been doing a little yard work and that included throwing many pine cones and downed branches, over the fence, into woodsy, marshy area. That is when they “went flying “, off her finger and into the above mentioned area. I had also asked if any mowing or mulching, had taken place, since she lost them and told her that I have seen rings, damaged by mowers, in the past. Bonnie replied
“There shouldn’t be any damage, the most difficult part is they landed in an area that is a little woodsy and has a lot of old marshy leaf buildup. Luckily the area is dry now and I can tell you the exact direction to look”.
This morning, I left for Bonnie’s house, at approximately 7:00am, arriving just before 8:00am. Bonnie immediately came out to greet me and proceeded to take me to the search area. The first thing I noticed was a metal fence, around the property. This dog fence may be a problem. It is very difficult to search, up against a metal fence. The detector could potentially go off, whenever it comes within 4-5 inches of the fence. If the rings were against the fence, the fence could “mask” the gold tone and I would never hear the ring, being detected. Thankfully, not knowing the exact terrain, I would need to search, I brought 3 of my detectors, with 3 different size coils. I brought my Minelab Manticore with an 8 inch coil, my Minelab E-Trac, with an 11 inch coil and my Minelab CTX-3030, with a 17 inch coil. Better to have them all and not need them, than need them and not have them.
Bonnie pointed out the area she thought, one of the rings had landed, as she saw them go flying towards the fence and woodsy area. One ring went to the left and the other ring broke, to the right. I would search for the one, that broke to the left, first. After searching for that one, I would search for the one that broke to the right. I decided to start with the 8” coil and get as close to the fence as possible. Even with my small coil, the fence was just to overwhelming and I didn’t hear anything, but the fence. I performed a grid of approximately 30’, along the fence, turned around and headed back to my starting point, after taking a 1/2 step over, towards the lawn. After a couple more back and forth’s and 1/2 steps, further onto the lawn, no ring was found. I decided to try my 11” coil, in the same area, starting out, on the lawn, working my way, to the fence. This way, I would have covered the area twice, with two different coils. I was now against the fence again and about 1/2 way down the fence, I heard just a slight “fluttering “ low tone, against the fence. I then swung the coil, over the area again and this time, a leaf moved and I could see a small sliver of silver. I moved the leaf, off of the target and saw Bonnie’s wedding ring. Phew, One ring down and one to go. I was now approaching 1 hour of searching and felt the Engagement Ring was in the area. Another sweep of the area, found nothing new. Just the same trash targets, I had found, with the 8” coil.
I then asked Bonnie if she had a rake, so we could rake all the leaves, away from the fence, and towards the lawn, where the metal fence wouldn’t interfere. Bonnie raked the leaves and I went on the other side of the fence and started searching the area, that Bonnie thought the engagement ring would be in. There were many more branches and limbs on that side of the fence and I started removing them and throwing them deeper, into the woods. I then took the rake from Bonnie and started raking the leaves, away from the fence, on the woodsy side. Another hour had passed and still nothing. I came back on the house side of the fence and searched the leaves that Bonnie had raked, away from the fence and still nothing.
I then asked Bonnie to go over the event of the losing the rings again. Bonnie said she saw one go towards the left and one went to the right. As I was talking to her, I decided to go back on the woodsy and marshy side of the fence. The ring certainly wasn’t on the house side of the fence, imho. I was also thinking that “What If”, the first ring I found was actually the ring that had broken, off to the right, and it wasn’t the ring Bonnie thought had broken to the left. That would mean the engagement ring may be much further to the left, than Bonnie thought. I went up into the area and again started throwing branches and larger tree limbs, aside. As I followed the metal fence about 25 feet, to the left of the found wedding ring, I was still unable to find it. I then took a 1/2 step, to my right and headed back to the area, where the first ring was found. I had gone maybe 10 feet when I received a solid 12-02 on my E-Trac. That is an extremely low conductive reading and certainly in the gold range, but it could also be aluminum foil or some other low conductive metal. After receiving the tone, I looked around the coil and couldn’t see anything. I then took the coil, located the target, under some leaves and moved the leaves, with my coil. THERE IT WAS, BONNIE’S ENGAGEMENT RING. I immediately looked over to Bonnie, on the other side of the fence and yelled “SUCCESS “. Bonnie came right over and I asked her if she could see the ring. She couldn’t, because I had covered it back up. I then ran my coil of the leaves and Bonnie could hear the target but couldn’t see it. I then removed the leaves and there it was for Bonnie to see. This ring, never would have been found visually. With more and more leaves dropping, it would only have been buried deeper, under the leaves.
So after 2 1/2 hours of searching Bonnie was just so happy to have her Wedding and Engagement Ring, back on her finger, where they belong. The many thank you’s, smiles and hug, I received from Bonnie just had me beaming 😁. Bonnie told me she was “forever grateful” and always will be, for me coming down asap, to find her rings. I also, will always be “forever grateful”, for being able to help people like Bonnie.
