Uncategorized Category | Page 437 of 584 | The Ring Finders

When it comes to rings, the North American Great Lakes rank high as ring-eating monsters. And Lake Michigan gulped down yet another precious love token the week of June 24th when Petersburg, Illinois, residents Joe and Alissa Bilyeu were vacationing at Amsterdam Park near Cedar Grove, Wisconsin.

Somewhere during the construction of a sandcastle, Joe’s platinum wedding ring was slurped off his hand into the abyss of sand and water. A frantic search proved fruitless. The couple departed for home with heavy hearts at having lost the precious token of their recent marriage.

I received a text message from Joe asking if I might conduct a search. My work schedule prevented doing so immediately; the soonest I could make the 63 mile drive from my home in Waukesha to Cedar Grove was late on Friday. My wife, Kathleen, came along for the ride. Upon arrival at Amsterdam Park, Lake Michigan was pounding the shoreline with waves approaching 3’ high. Only faint traces of Bilyeu’s sand castle remained. The throbbing deluge had nearly obliterated all signs of it.

First I checked the shoreline dry sand. Then I switched machines and bracing myself against the waves I began searching the lake bottom with my trusty Minelab Excalibur SCUBA detector. After nearly an hour working against the punishing rollers a faint signal in chest-deep water invited excavation. But the wave action quickly filled the hole making it necessary to work quickly to gain on the target. At last, the Lake Michigan Monster was forced to relinquish its treasure; Joe’s platinum ring lay safe in my sieve.

I quickly texted a photo to Joe in Illinois. His response? “Holy Cow that’s it!! OMG thank you so much!!” And arrangements were made to send the ring back to its happy owner.

Thanks, Joe, for the awesome privilege of retrieving your ring. It’s just one more ring the Lake Michigan Ring Monster won’t get to digest. May your ring’s story continue for many, many happy years together.

A young couple, Kelly and her husband, were spending their vacation at Indian Beach, NC.  This is becoming an annual tradition.

Their enjoyment quickly became a panic moment when the beach chair Kelly had placed her wedding set in turned over and the rings spilled into the soft sand.  The couple, from Northern Ohio, found The Ring Finders and called me to assist.  I was currently about 3 hours away but changed my course to head directly to them.  When I arrived on the beach, Kelly had purchased a metal detector from a retail store and was out trying to find her lost rings.  After a brief discussion I began my search.  Seconds later my 1st and 2nd targets were the lost rings!

Tags:  metal detector   lost rings   lost on beach  detector rental

Late on Sunday night I received an e-mail from Renee B asking for help in finding her wedding ring.  She and her family were boating with her parents, and they pulled into the shallows to play in the water.   While wading in about 4 ft of water Renee felt her ring slide off.  Wanting to mark that spot as closely as possible, they looked toward the shore and saw a No Trespassing sign on a tree high on the cliff.  If you want to retrieve a ring lost in Lake Michigan, time is of the essence because of the wave action,  so my fellow Ringfinder, Gregg Larabel, and I met Renee’s husband, Paul, early Monday morning.   The spot where Renee lost the ring is in an isolated area where there are no houses and no close roads, so we had a walk of about a mile from where we were able to park to the spot below the No Trespassing sign.  Paul said Renee was about 40ft out into the water when she lost the ring.

The lake was not too friendly with about knee high whitecaps that kept pounding us as we were searching.  After a short time I received a good signal for a target which could have been a pull tab — or the ring.  I was having trouble retrieving the target with the waves pushing me around so I called Gregg over to help me out.  He confirmed it was a good signal and after several attempts the ring finally showed up in my scoop.  Paul was standing on the shore and I gave him the high sign with the ring on my pinky finger.  Paul made a phone call to Renee who was at work to give her the good news.   The timing was perfect because in a few days their anniversary date was coming up.

A text to Tracy M. C. today: « Tracy, Your rings have been lost for over 8 days in Lake Michigan, in good and bad water conditions. I have searched for hours, my friend has helped, he came back the next day with another detector guy, my Ring Finder partner, Dave Boyer, came out yesterday and grid the area between buoys 9-11 and could not find them and I came out again this morning and grid the same area, 50′ X 50′, from the shore to up to my neck. I am calling it quits. Call me back ».

Tracy called me back and was thankful for all we had done and accepted the fact that the rings were gone. I told her, « no they are not lost, I QUIT LOOKING, because I found them. » Her rings were soldered together.

After some happy moments on the phone Tracy and her husband Kevin C. made arrangements to come to my house tomorrow to pick up the rings and add her to my « Book of Smiles ».

Received a text from John regarding three rings lost on a beach one hour south of me.  Definitely out of my area but another ringfinder who was unable to do the search recommended me .My first thoughts were of a storm off shore which were going to give the coast some big wave action and if these rings were above the wave line or not. I called John immediately and He said he was on the beach searching . I said I would be an hour .   The area was above the usual tide /wave area and John had recovered one ring before I arrived.  First sweep produced a great signal that proved to be the second ring.  Fifth swing was another that was the third.  Less than two minutes.  John was surprised I think and very thankful.  Here are pics of the rings .       Bill