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Last week during one of the worst snow storms and low temperatures in the state of Michigan, I received a call from Joel C. telling me he lost his 14K gold wedding ring while placing money for his snow plow driver under the blue cap on his LP Gas tank. I told Joel that I could come out and search for his ring the next day although it was -10 degrees and about a foot of snow. Alyssa C., Joel’s wife, explained that he cleared the snow off the gas tank, pushing the snow down towards him, then placing the plow fee under the blue cap (see picture). I set my detector to discriminate out the steel gas tank and proceeded to search in front and behind the tank and around the driveway and snow piles that had been plowed later that night after he lost his ring. After an hour or so of searching I then questioned Alyssa with several probing questions as to whether Joel remembered having the ring on during the day and what took place that evening, I stop the search and said I will be back after the weather warmed up in the following days.  I called a Ringfinder friend, Jon Hamil, from the other side of the state to meet me at their house to help with the search. We both made the 1 1/2 hour trip from opposite sides of the state and began our search in now a snow free area. Jon and I went over the same area as I did before with no success.      After an hour searching outside we went in the house checked the couch, sink drains and garage, still no ring. Going back out to the yard John used a system he developed and discovered the ring on top of the yellow children’s discarded plastic slide (see picture).  I looked on the slide and there was the ring. I was dumbfounded by it’s presents and questioning myself how it landed there in a snow storm. I guess it doesn’t matter because it made Alyssa smile and she gave us each a hug and sighing with relief that the ring was found she immediately called Joel to tell him the good news.

I had the unique opportunity to describe TheRingFinders.com on the radio! A few days ago, I got an email from a producer at BYU Radio. He asked if I would be interested in describing TheRingFinders service and talk about what it’s like being a ring finder. Wow! I hadn’t ever done anything like that before, so I told him, « Sure! ». Over the next few days, we discussed what to focus on, what questions the host should ask, and other things. This morning I drove into the studio, met a few producers, and then met the host, Lisa Valentine Clark. I spent about 15 minutes live on the air on the Lisa Valentine Clark show. You can hear my segment here or learn more about Lisa’s show here. The segment played twice this morning, 2/5/2019, on FM radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. It’s also available as a podcast. The producer told me that I could expect about 100,000 people to listen to the segment, all over the world.

Maybe increased publicity like this will help connect a few more people with ring finders to find their lost rings!

Grand Rapids, Michigan. I got a call yesterday from a fiend, Matt V, I met at a local gas station. He was trying to start his car in this -10 degree temp and it wouldn’t start so he put the key, with a little metal wrench on the ring, in his coat pocket and walked around the car to his shed. When he reached in his pocket to get the key out for the shed, his car key fell somewhere in the snow which he hadn’t realized until he needed them again. His wife reminded him that the guy at the gas station was a Ring Finder and could help find the key. After raking the snow searching for the key he gave me a call and after a short search I found the key by the shed door. 

If you’ve lost your ring or some other metal object, give me a call or text.  I charge nothing to come out, this is just a part of how I enjoy the hobby of metal detecting.  If the area is large or I’m unable to make it to your area, I’ll bring or call other experienced detectorists as I’m in a club with 70+ members all over Massachusetts and New Hampshire who would love to help when possible.

I haven’t been good about keeping my blog posts up to date. Since joining RingFinders I’ve recovered 19 of 24 rings (as of Jan 20, 2019) I’ve gone out to search for. Beaches in the summers, leaf piles in the fall, snow piles in the winter, angry spouses throwing rings, and everything in between.

My most recent find was a man who lost his ring while disposing of his Christmas tree in a brush pile. I spent 45-60 minutes detecting a small flattened area where the tree was dumped without finding the ring.  It was disappointing as the area was a bit small to have not found the ring, and the ground was frozen solid so it couldn’t have been underground. The owner called off the search as we had covered the area three times over, so I headed down the path he took through his back yard to dump the tree. I was swinging my detector along the way in case he had dropped it sooner than he thought. Just as I was about to switch off, I heard a high tone in my headphones and looked down and there was the ring sitting on the surface along the path. The owner couldn’t have been happier to return it back to his finger.