After a lot of searching by friends without any luck, we were called to help locate this beautiful ring in the lake next to a boat dock. The reason the well-meaning friends weren’t able to find it is b/c someone stepped on it thus sinking it an additional 4-5 inches; thru the mud and the muck, Don was able to dig down and retrieve it. Allows for a wonderful ending to a fun holiday weekend.
Jordon’s beautiful wedding ring was accidentally pulled from her husband’s back pocket when he reached for his phone. Luckily, their boat had been tied to the dock so the ring hit the edge of the boat and fell into the water. Her husband immediately jumped in after the ring but could only stay in for a very short period of time b/c of the water temperature…cold! He contacted us and by Don using his scuba gear was able to dive down and stay until the ring was found. Great day in Oklahoma!!
Received a call form an officer yesterday who had used the Ringfinders in the past to find a ring in Michigan for a relative. He quickly explained that I was not in any trouble. (That’s a relief). He explained that they could use some help in locating some bullet casings for a suspected shooting in a local park. He asked me if this something a ringfinder could do. I said ABSOLUTELY!! He asked me how much it would cost. I said that was up to them. I’m a big believer in helping the Police if they need me.
I met the officer and his partner at the park. They said if I found any casings they would put up some tape to protect the area. I believe they were just following up on some complaint and were unsure if there was any shooting.
I brought extra metal detectors and they brought a detector form the police station. Neither officers knew how to use their machine, so I gave them some tips. They brought a bag of bullet casings. They had casings from a 22 all the way up to a 45, since we didn’t know what we were looking for. So we tested the machines on all of the bullet casings to get a range of what we were looking for.
I was using my XP Deus. I notched out the numbers that were not in the range of the casings. Since it was a surface find, I turned down my audio to 1 so that I could tell by the sound if it was close to the surface. I new from the tests that 9mm would fall in the 60’s. I was hunting in 12 kHz.
Based on the witnesses, the officers estimated where the event happened. I found my first casing in 5 minutes.
Up came the tape! They taped a large area but I continued to hunt in the area of my first find. Total casings found 8. They were scattered along an area within 10 feet of the sidewalk. Apparently there was a gunfight.
Sam called me on Sunday, July 5th saying he had lost his gold wedding band in the ocean. My first questions were “what time” and “how deep?” His replies were around 4 p.m. and knee deep. Whew, these were good answers because low tide was about 2 hours before he lost it, so I felt like I had a fighting chance. We set it up that I’d meet him on Monday at 1 p.m. and I’d work the outgoing tide.
I called him as I was walking out on the beach and saw him waving. As we met and walked towards where he and his wife, Elizabeth had set up their umbrella for the day, I started asking more questions. Sam assured me that they were in the same spot they were yesterday and that he was straight out from there in knee deep water. He told me that when he lost his ring, he wanted to take one more swim before they left. He continued saying that as he was riding a wave in, another wave hit him and he felt his ring come off. I started a grid search and did 3 or 4 grid lines parallel to the beach to get a starting point. I then headed out in the rough surf in a perpendicular grid. I’m on my 6th grid line when I notice Sam out in deeper water, diving in an attempt to feel for his ring. When I got to him, I asked if he thought he was out that deep, he responded that he really thought he was. From his previous answers, my thoughts were he wasn’t, but I did a complete grid in the area to put his mind at ease. After finishing the area I continued on with my original grid search. After a few more lines, I noticed Elizabeth was standing at the water’s edge. I stopped and asked her what she remembered. She said she remembered Sam was more at an angle when she saw him frantically looking for something in the water, and she knew he had lost his ring. I knew then I needed to expand my search area to the west, just not sure how far. I knew I was in the hour and a half window before low tide, keeping in mind he was knee deep. So, I just kept plugging along and starting to second guess myself. Like, did I miss it, was I not out far enough, and all the other things that go through your mind when you’re looking for someone’s treasure. By now, I was at least 30-40 yards west of Sam’s suspected loss area. Then BAM!!!! I got the 16/17 on the Equinox 800 VDI I was looking for. One scoop and I had the target, I washed it out in the surf and there was Sam’s gold wedding ring, all by itself, sitting in the bottom of the scoop. I made it look like I was still detecting as I walked up to where they were sitting. I told them I needed a break, as I was grabbing my cell phone from my rolled up towel on the beach. I had his ring half way on my finger as I’m recording, waiting for his response. Elizabeth saw it first, but was speechless with her mouth open. It took Sam a couple of second as the video shows, and then all smiles.
Happy Birthday Sam, I’m sure it’s not the gift you wanted for your birthday, but it turned into a pretty good present!
Sam & Elizabeth – Thank you for trusting me to find your 2 year old treasure.
Bob called me and said his wife, Shelly, had lost some rings two months ago while kayaking in the Stoneycreek River in Johnstown. She lost her wedding rings and her rings from renewing their vows for a total of four rings. Julie and I met Bob and Shelly at the site and Shelly had a pretty good idea of where the rings had come off her finger. There are large concrete flood control channels built in the 1940’s on either side of the river, but thankfully there were a set of stairs pretty close to where we needed to get in the river. The water was about knee high and much lower than when they were kayaking so I thought it would be a pretty quick hunt. When Julie and I climbed down and turned on the machine, there were a few more signals than I had expected. I wonder if the reason for all the signals was because of the floods in the past? Johnstown has had a history of floods, including the worst flood of the 19th century in 1889, and other floods in 1936 and 1977. I pulled out a golf club, rusted shovel, various pull tabs, and unrecognizable bits of metal but no rings.
After three hours of searching and finding nothing, I got to thinking that if the river was higher and Shelly was close to the sloped concrete channel wall, the rings could have been carried down along the wall by the current a little farther than where they came off her fingers. Sure enough, I found three of the rings just past where we had been looking most of the day. When I looked at the top of the wall to Shelly and Bob who were watching us hunt, I could hear Shelly starting to cry at the news we found three of her rings. I knew then Julie and I weren’t leaving the river until I found the last ring but we needed to break for lunch. Upon returning, two more hours of searching and countless bits of metal in the gold range later, I found the last ring. Bob and Shelly are really nice people and I appreciate their patience (and Julie’s) on what was a very long, difficult hunt.
Mike McInroe—Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost Your Ring?…Call ASAP! 321-363-6029
Alicia was enjoying a relaxing day at Disappearing Island with friends and as she was swimming she somehow felt her small gold ring come off of her pinky finger. She tried grabbing it as it fell thru the water but to her horror it vanished in the soft sand at her feet. She desperately tried feeling in the sand, running her fingers back and forth but her precious ring just seemed to disappear!
This small gold ring was very special to Alicia as it was a gift to her when she was 12 years old from her mother and she has worn that ring every day for the last 23 years, until now. The location where she lost the ring was on Disappearing Island at Ponce Inlet in north New Smyrna Beach. And it is a very popular place for the boaters to park and enjoy the calmer waters and especially at low tide. During high tide the island is quite small but during low tide there is plenty of area for boats to park and especially on weekends the island is lined with boats of all sizes.
I made plans to meet Alicia at the Smyrna Dunes Park and we each brought our own kayak and with my Whites TDI Beach Hunter metal detector, scoop and other essential gear we set out across the busy inlet water way. It took a bit of figuring as Alicia texted her friends and had them each send a pin on a google map photo of where they had anchored the boat and where they would have been swimming the day she lost her ring. Alicia was worried about me being able to find her lost ring but I assured her that if she could put me in the general area where she was swimming then there was a good chance of actually finding her lost ring. So we pulled our kayaks up onto the beach in the 95 degree heat and I set about my grid search going from the wet sand and out into the water and back again, dragging one foot to mark my trail so I could actually overlap each pass so as not to miss one inch of sand. (The day she lost her ring she was in waist deep water at high tide and today we were there just before low tide so my target area was the wet sand out to knee deep water.) After an hour and a half and only digging up bottle caps, pull tabs and other miscellaneous junk I was needing a water break and while talking to Alicia we determined I had gone far enough on the one end of the beach and now I needed to go in the other direction. Alicia was feeling a bit useless and asked me several times what she could do to help me in the search. She offered to cover each hole I dug and tried to assist in finding the hidden target after I would dig a scoop of sand and dump it on the ground. After a while I tried to encourage her that the best thing she could do was « Pray » as I assured her that God knew exactly where her ring was hiding and that He would just need to get me over the top of it with my coil for us to find it. It truly is a matter of inches, as Chris Turner always says, and finally there in ankle deep water I got a faint signal and as the sand drained out of my scoop I could see a small gold ring nestled in the bottom. I motioned for Alicia to come over and look at what I just found and I will never forget the look on her face! The joy and relief and happiness all mixed in with thankfulness!
Lost something? Call, text or email me ASAP!
Mike McInroe…wowed to be a member of theringfinders.com
I received a call from a gentleman who had found my name on theringfinders.com. He said that he had lost his white gold wedding band when he stood up with it in his lap on Nags Head beach. He said that he knew exactly where he had lost it.
When I arrive Mike took me to the beach as showed me an area where his chairs and canopy was. He was sure that the ring had dropped ring there. I took my MineLab Equinox 800 over the area a few times and got no hits. This area of the beach was very clean!
I expanded the search area to include the sides and fronts of the chair/canopy area…still no targets. His friend’s area was just north of his area so I did a quick search and got an immediate hit!!
I reached down and got the ring and Mike said, « Look at you! I don’t know how it could have gotten there, but I am so happy! »
Matt called me at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 3rd saying he had lost his wedding band around 4 p.m. A quick check of the tide tables and it showed he lost it right at the mid tide line. I asked him how deep he was and he told me that at low tide the ring should be in the wet sand. We worked out the details and I told him I’d be there the next morning at 10:30. Knowing that he seemed confident he knew where the ring slipped off his finger; my only concern was trying to find a place to park at the beach on the 4th of July.
When I got there, parking was non-existent, and I found a spot on the side of the road, hoping I wouldn’t get a ticket. I met Matt and his wife, Kim on the beach in the same area he had lost his ring the day before. Matt showed me the area and I started a parallel grid search along the slope to rule out the top of the beach. After 4 or 5 row, I changed to a perpendicular grid working from ankle deep to about thigh deep straight out from where Matt and Kim were sitting. My 4th trip out to deeper water, I got a solid 15/16 on the Equinox 800, telling me I had a ring. I wasn’t sure I had Matt’s ring because he had originally told me his ring was platinum. So I was looking for a lower number somewhere from 3-7 on the 800. After some consideration of the description Matt gave me. Plus, the likelihood of two men’s wedding bands lost on this portion of the beach, I was confident I had Matt’s ring. Sure enough, as I’m asking him what his ring looked like, he described it to a tee. I asked him if was platinum, and after looking and seeing the 14K stamp, he conceded it wasn’t platinum. Made me feel better and confirmed the numbers on the machine.
Matt and Kim, thank you for trusting me to help find your lost treasure. Have a great weekend and a safe trip home.
Saturday, I was just sitting down to dinner when Josh called. He was on the beach in Ventnor and was playing football. His older brother grabbed at him and caught his chain. The chain broke off of his neck, and the game stopped. Both the thin chain & a Star of David pendant are missing. He kind of marked off the area.
My wife was nice enough to keep dinner warm while I made the journey to the shore. Parking was difficult as NJ continues to open up after being shut down for COVID-19. I found a parking spot 2 blocks away after doing several circles waiting for someone to leave.
Josh was waiting on the beach for me with his father and his younger brother. They showed me the area they thought the items would be. The chain is thin, and the pendant is about the size of a dime.
I started my search in a circular pattern from the spot they thought the items should be. After about 20 minutes, they adjusted the location, and I moved there. 5 minutes later, I had the pendant in my scoop. You would have thought that Josh and his family won the PowerBall the way they were celebrating. I searched for another hour for the chain. It did not appear. Thin chains and stud earrings are some of the hardest things to find. I tried multiple settings on my detector. I found everything but the chain. Because it was small, I believe it broke into numerous little pieces, not leaving enough metal for me to locate on the heavy mineralized sandy beach.
Josh was a little disappointed but said it was ok. He really wanted the Star of David pendant back, which he now has.
Alicia was enjoying a relaxing day at Disappearing Island with friends and as she was swimming she somehow felt her small gold ring come off of her pinky finger. She tried grabbing it as it fell thru the water but to her horror it vanished in the soft sand at her feet. She desperately tried feeling in the sand, running her fingers back and forth but her precious ring just seemed to disappear! 
