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Lost Wedding Band Found on West Dennis Beach, Cape Cod, MA

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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Kathy F. e-mailed with a request for help in finding her husband’s wedding band. The specific location of where the ring had been lost was perfect. Unfortunately the weather, tide and sea state were not so perfect. As timing is an essential factor in searching the salt waters we had to try at the next low tide. Team member Jim W. and I met at the beach, looked at the conditions and almost gave up, but did not. Jim detected in his bathing suit and shoes, I forgot my shoes so I wore my fishing waders and could not get out as far or deep as Jim could. The seaweed was a challenge to work in as were the high, crashing waves. It took Jim about 20 minutes to find the ring at chest depth in the very rough water. Before our search started I had to ask a fisherman to move from where he was fishing so we could search for the ring with out getting « caught ». Needless to say he and his girlfriend were amazed that we found the ring. In the time we were in the water the fisherman had not caught his dinner. The best part of this story lies within the children’s hand made Thank You cards given to both Jim and myself and of course the Happy Ending with many Smiles will never be forgotten.

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Lost Engagement Ring Found on Beach in Eastham, Cape Cod, MA

  • from Cape Cod (Massachusetts, United States)
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Others using several different detectors over many hours had  search the beach area during a ten day period before I had my chance to detect  the area. In an hour and forty minutes on the beach I dug over 50 pull tabs and  bottle caps before locating the platinum ring holding onto its nine beautiful  diamonds. Somehow it had hidden from the onslaught and waited for me to unearth  it from beneath 5 inches of wet sand, just one inch above the water table. Cell  calls to Maine and frantic runs up the hill for better reception to communicate correct  information culminated in another Happy Ending with a big Smile on Nicole’s  face for my memory book. I will also cherish the wonderful hand made ceramic crab ornament and two candy dishes I was given.

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Missing Wedding Band at Egg Harbor, Wisconsin—FOUND!

  • from Menomonee Falls (Wisconsin, United States)
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July 4th weekend was supposed to be a family holiday, a fun time.  But for Phil & Becky Saubetin of Madison, Wisconsin, the day ended on a sad note.  Missing, was Phil’s wedding band.  It went astray at Egg Harbor Beach on the Door County peninsula.

Becky wrote, “No matter how much I tried to tell myself that it was just a token of our marriage…a thing…it’s not.”  She remembered the gold-band’s inscription, “FOR MY PRINCE CHARMING LOVE B.”  Adding to the frustration was the fact that they had glimpsed the ring momentarily in the water.  But as they tried to reach it, the currents of Lake Michigan pushed it out of sight into the sandy silt. Despite their best search efforts and those of strangers who came to their rescue, including one with SCUBA gear, the ring seemed destined to be lost forever, as if swallowed by a sinister monster.

A search on the internet raised the Saubetin’s hopes when they discovered TheRingFinders.com and Metal Detecting Specialist, Paul Humphreys. He lived 3 ½ hours away in Waukesha, WI. Would he even consider helping them?  Yes, he would.  But on the day he and his wife, Kathleen met with Phil and Becky on location at Egg Harbor, the waves were unusually high, whipping the lake’s bottom into a swirl.  The water quickly washed over Paul’s equipment and despite protective measures, the moisture silenced his machine. But Paul was more determined than ever.  He promised to continue the hunt another day armed with underwater equipment.  And he did  just that, returning in the wee small hours of August 4th, exactly one month later.

After nearly two hours, a “loud and proud” bark from his Minelab Excalibur detector was like a trumpet blast announcing an important event.  As sand filtered out from Paul’s stainless-steel scoop, early morning rays reflected off a gold wedding band.  Was it Phil’s?  This question was answered immediately when Paul caught sight of one of the words inscribed inside the band, “CHARMING.”

That night, Phil received an email from Paul.  Its subject line read, “Prince Charming Rides Again!”  And the photos attached bore tangible evidence of what Phil and Becky thought was lost forever.

Early this morning the Saubetin’s arrived at our home to collect their precious token. Phil placed it on his finger amidst family smiles that made the whole room sparkle.  Then their youngest daughter put her arms around her Daddy’s neck, squeezed tightly and asked, “Do you feel married again, Daddy?”  His answer; a mile-wide grin!

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Ring Found at Pacific Beach, Ca.

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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My wife and I went to visit some friends at Pacific Beach last Sunday and naturally, I brought my detector along to try my luck. I donned my gear and started to walk over to the life guard tower to begin my beach hunting when a man named Ray approached me and asked me if I could help find his wedding band that had slipped off his finger. He thought it was in the sand over by the blanket he and his wife were using. I said sure and headed there to take a scan of the area. A nice sound produced nothing but a wadded up clump of foil. After nothing else came to light in that area Ray said that it could be over in the shallow water too. I gave him my card, got a description of the ring (large yellow gold band with a hammered look on the outside), and asked if he was going to be there on the beach for a while. He said yes, so I told him If I found his ring, I’d let him know and headed toward the surf. Before I made it to the wet sand, I got a nice signal from Excalibur and in my first scoop, I see a nice big gold ring! I couldn’t believe that I found it that quick. After giving it a quick once over, it appeared that it wasn’t Ray’s ring as it looked smooth on the outside and had some initials (not his) stamped into the inside surface. No use getting him excited over someone else’s ring so I continued to search the area he defined. After an hour or so, I looked up and saw he and his wife were leaving and they just waved goodbye to me as I continued to hunt the wet sand. I hunted the rest of the afternoon with only some change and a couple of toy cars to show for it but with one nice ring already in my pocket, I was still a happy camper. When I got home and cleaned the ring off a bit (and got my glasses on!) I discovered to my amazement that It did appear to match Ray’s description even though he never said anything about there being initials stamped into it. Since I didn’t have his number, I figured I’d post it on Craig’s List and maybe he would see it or maybe he’d remember to contact me through my Ring Finders card. Sure enough, a couple of days later, my wife gets the call and has him contact me. We arrange to meet and reunite gold with the finger it had been on for the last 18 years. Smiles all around as I learned they were visiting from out of town and were heading home shortly. The trip will be a much more pleasant one now.

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Lost Sentimental Ring – Pike Lake, Wisconsin – Recovered!

  • from Menomonee Falls (Wisconsin, United States)
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A sentimental and heavy custom-made gold ring originating from India seemed to be lost forever in Pike Lake near Hartford, Wisconsin, USA.  The beautifully sculpted and cherished heirloom went missing on July 10th while its owner, Anurag Thakur, was swimming with his youngest son.

The loss was made more difficult by the fact that metal detecting in any body of water or river in Wisconsin is strictly prohibited by the State’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR). These laws discourage would-be metal detectorists from taking up the hobby, a recreational activity enjoyed by families elsewhere across the country and around the world.

But when Anurag contacted Paul Humphreys at TheRingFinders.com, Paul made arrangements with DNR Head Ranger, Joe Sieweger, to receive a special Metal Detecting User Permit. The cooperation, understanding and support of Ranger Sieweger made it legal for Paul to enter the hallowed State waters with a Minelab Excalibur ll detector.

It took four searches before Paul’s detector barked out a ring-type signal in chest-deep water.  Amidst the gravelly contents of the first scoop, Anurag’s ring glinted brightly as though happy to see sunshine once again.  The ring was easily identified by its owner and upon permission from the DNR, Paul was authorized to return the lost personal property to its rightful and delighted owner.

Thanks, Wisconsin DNR, for the help and cooperation received and that helped to make this happy return happen!

 

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Lost Ring Selah Washington

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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Would You like fries with that ring?

Dumpster diving anyone? Yep that was the latest ring search. I received a phone call from a young lady who had just lost her ring. She wanted to know if I could help her find it. Of course I would, and I wanted her to tell me the story.

She had been at a local McDonald’s enjoying a glass of water with her friends. She had taken her silver ring off and had placed it over the straw that was in a clear plastic cup. Engrossed in her conversation, and half looking at the ring she wondered if she could push the ring into the cup over the straw. Somehow see was distracted and sort of forgot about the ring halfway into the cup. A few minutes later ready to leave, she well, left. And being the neat person that she is she put her cup into the trash bag on the way out.

A while later, she thought about the ring and to her horror, it was gone. She was able to remember that she had put the ring nearly into the cup and must have thrown it away. AAHHHHHHH. She has a very nice friend who remembered an add that I ran on craigslist for “TheRingFinders”, and that I searched for lost rings. They were able to track down the add and gave me a call.

It was kind of funny because she wanted to know if I could find a ring in a dumpster. I told her that unfortunately for me, I had experience with dumpster diving and that I would be happy to do the search.

Most of my searches seem to be hours from home, so this one being only ten minutes away was quite a treat. I arrived at McDonald’s in Selah, Washington and met them out at the dumpster. After the introductions the search was on. (I had her get permission from the manager to go through their trash prior to leaving for the hunt).

So in the massive dumpster, we found 8-10 trash bags full of, well, trash. So gloves on hands, we started to pull those bags out of the dumpster and lay them out on the ground. I fired up my metal detector and started going over the bags. I received the typical foil signals from all of the ketchup packets, and then the high tones of pop cans and other metal objects, but no ring.

So it was now time for hand to hand combat. It is at this point I was wondering what was going to be in the trash bags. It pretty much was what you are thinking, just room temperature and all squishy. An observation. I must say that most people finish all their meals, and that McDonald’s is losing millions on wasted ketchup. If you ever need a few hundred little ketchup packs then I have a secret spot for you, AND if you find the right bags, the ones from the kitchen you can have loads of French fries and a few old burgers as a bonus. But I digress.

Well, we were pawing through mounds of squishy cold garbage and each handful was placed under the metal detector. No ring. We spent what seemed like six years going through garbage, and the bad news was that we were running out of the good bags. I was starting to eye some of the remaining fries, when Finally, all the bags had been checked. I was crying because well, you know, I did not find the ring, and everyone looked so disappointed, and the fact that just a few moments earlier after avoiding any major gooey blobs of who knows what, a blob had flown into my left eye, which I did not want to wipe with my hands full of who knows what.

I was stunned we had not found the ring, and started actually thinking about going through the pile again, which would have required ME climbing into the dumpster. My helpers were all in there by now, but I have standards. No not really, I don’t have standards… we had managed to stay out of the container.

Part of being a good ring FINDER, is thinking, so I remember the ring loser saying that she had information from a reliable source in the store that ALL the garbage bags were out here in the dumpster. That sounded to final to me, so I asked the young lady who had lost the ring to go back into the store and grab the plastic trash bag from the container she dropped her cup into. My reasoning is that when I worked at McDonald’s, if the bag wasn’t full, I did not take it out to dump.

She was not to impressed with my idea, but after some brow beating, she marched in there and made off with the bag.

This now the final bag, the tension was palpable. Bit by bit, and fry by fry we started to go through the trash bag. Every bit of trash was slowly searched until we were halfway through the bag. Then just as suddenly as the blob went into my eye, I saw the ring. Tucked down deep in a pile of French fries. I slipped the ring over a sliver of fries and lifted it out of the bag, to the shouting of joy. We DON’T HAVE TO SEARCH THROUGH THE TRASH ANY LONGER.

The ring loser, now all smiles, was very happy to see her very special ring back. It was her 16th birthday ring, with her first diamonds. A gift from her mother.

Is this a great hobbie or what. It was a very special moment. Thanks for calling me to do the search, and I think I have to go take a shower now.

If you have lost your ring in Yakima, or Selah or anywhere NOT in the trash at McDonald’s (just kidding) give me a call.

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Lost Ring Snoqualmie Pass Washington

  • from Yakima (Washington, United States)
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I wonder if rings have wings or feet because even though you drop one straight down, they seem to always turn up somewhere else.

This search started as they almost always do. Hi, I lost my ring and I found you on the Ringfinders web site, and I hope you can help me find my ring. It was in the afternoon that I received just such a call. It was snowing hard on Snoqualmie pass near Seattle. He had been having a great time until he was getting ready to leave. His hands had become cold and wet while working at the back of his vehicle. His Platinum ring slipped off his finger and dropped straight down into eight inches of fresh powder. Knowing that the ring should be right at his feet he began to feel around in the snow and try and find the ring. The problem was he could not find it. So, he dropped another ring and nearly lost it.

After searching the small area he widened the search area and before long the fresh powder snow was all mixed up and he could not find the ring. Being of sound mind he left his vehicle right where it was, and marked the spot with wooden stakes. He then closed the tailgate and left. He called me the next day, and I agreed to do the search that night after work. He was able to locate a metal detector and was searching the area for several hours before I arrived on the scene.

What the search initially looked like

Search area after snow plow came through the next morning

Would have been nice to have bright lights.

After listening to his story, and looking at the area to search it seemed like it should only take a few minutes to find the ring on the flat ground, even with the snow still falling on over half a foot of new snow. The problem was that the snow plow had been through the lot the night he lost it, and plowed within inches of his vehicle. Since the tail gait was down when he lost it, and closed when it was plowed it left plenty of room to collect most of the snow where the ring was dropped. This had been piled into a drift of snow that was at least 12 feet tall and twenty feet at the base. This ran for about 200 feet around the edge of the parking lot. Needless to say we had our work cut out for us.

We worked in the falling snow and falling temperatures with head lamps until 1am. He shoveled and I detected. But no ring. I left that night and got home at 3am. We decided to search it again once the snow had melted off. This was in February. I went up again in May to search again, and most of the snow had melted and all that remained was a 3-4 foot pile of snow around the outside of the lot. But once the snow was mostly gone and the weather warmed the underbrush had started to grow and now made searching very difficult in the area he lost it. I was able to again go over the snow, and into the icy creek that now ran through the search zone. I picked my way through the brush with a small hand held detector and no ring. I once again left the snow to melt away and did not get to search again until July.

We were going over the pass on the way home from a short break, and I talked my wife into letting me search the area for about an hour. This time the brush was so large that I could not search the area where he lost the ring. So I decided to finish off the rest of the parking area. After about an hour I found the ring sitting on the top of the dirt about 80 feet away from where he lost the ring.

It was a nice sized heavy platinum ring. I gave the owner a call and let him know that I had found the ring and mailed it off to him the next day. It was a great find, since I thought I was going to have to help him cut all the brush down to search it again.

Rob with the ring. The snow bank now brush

Nice heavy ring

On the question wondering if rings have wings or feet. In this case they had wheels. On the second search I ran into the man that plowed that parking lot the night the ring was lost. He remembers wondering why someone would put wooden stakes behind his vehicle. I also learned that he used a front-end loader. He said he scooped the snow straight into the bank and dumped it. So the ring must have clung to the side of the metal bucket with the left over snow and fell out where I found it.

It was a great hunt and a happy find. Thanks for the call to search for the ring, and the reward was great as well.

If you have lost your ring in the Yakima or surrounding area give me a call and I will see what we can do to find it.

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Ring found on Miller Farm, Cedar Springs, Michigan

  • from Manistee (Michigan, United States)
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Happy again!!

While telling my mom and sister about my latest find up on Muskegon River, I recieved a phone call from Laura Miller. While washing her horses she discovered she had lost her diamond wedding ring and search all over the ground in vain. She got the sissors out and was cutting the grass around the wash rack until late in the night to no avail. I told her I would be there the next morning at 9AM.

I pulled into the drive of a quaint 4 acre, 120 yr old farm. I was

Ring found brings Happy Tears.

greated by there Golden Lab who wanted to catch a ball. Then I met Laura and Jim Miller who once again explained what happened and where it might have fallen. I got out my Bounty Hunter Time Ranger and in a matter of minutes I found her ring. It’s nice to know at 66 years old I can still make women cry. Laura ran to her husband and hug him and cried on his shoulder with happy tears.

After standing around talking about family and Jims time in the Army and mine in the Air Force we bid farewell and was invited back to metal detect the farm any time I would like.

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Wedding band recovered in Muskegon River, Michigan

  • from Manistee (Michigan, United States)
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found on Muskegon River

L to R Anthony Tundo (owner of ring), John Griffith (cousin), Don McCleod White Birch owner

  While at work Tuesday July 26, I got a call from Anthony Tundo. He lost his ring while canoeing on the Muskegon River near Houghton Lake. During a bachelor party on the river they got out of the canoes to play some catch with a football and take a rest during the 4 hour trip. When Anthony caught the football he felt his Tungston/Carbide wedding band come off and fall into the river. Although it was shallow in that area and sandy bottom there search was in vain. Anthony’s cousin, John, a former Army soldier had his GPS and quickly got the coordinates.

During the call from Anthony he had given me the coordinates (which I looked up on Google Earth) and found that it would take a canoe trip just to reach the site so we set it up for the next day.

Anthony and his cousin John drove over 200 miles from St Clare, to the White Birch campgrounds and I drove 135 miles from Grand Rapids. Don McCleod, the owner of White Birch,  let us use his van and a canoe to go up river. John  dropped us off and was going to meet us down river in about an hour and a half. Anthony had the GPS which he wasn’t real familiar with so was given a crash course and we set out on the river. Paddling down the winding river at 5PM nothing looked familiar and Anthony kept losing the GPS signal. We are in the boonies and after an hour we came upon John waiting for us. So the three of us jumped back in the canoe and headed up the river against the current. After one hour we located the site. I located the ring with about five swipes of the CZ21 and found  the ring. It was now 7:45PM and I kept thinking of what Don had told us « don’t get caught on the river after dark, you’ll never find your way back ». So we headed back down the river finally reaching our destination at  8:45PM and back to the campground at 9PM.

Van and Canoe = $20.00

Four hours paddling the canoe = Backbreaking

Swating flies and mosquitoes = Useless

Finding the ring in 3 minutes = Priceless

I want to thank Don McCleod for trusting 2 guys from Detroit area and 1 guy from Grand Rapids with his Van and a canoe. It makes you feel good that there are people like Don still around.

 

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Lost Ring at Swami’s Beach in Encinitas, Ca. Found!

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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On Monday, a lady named Allison called and asked if I could find her platinum/diamond ring that she lost in the surf at Swami’s beach in Encinitas, Ca. I told her I’d give it my best shot and we arranged to meet that evening. My wife and I took the 1/2 hour drive and arrived about 6:30 to find Allison already there with her daugher in tow. She explained how she took her daughter into the surf the previous afternoon and felt it slip from her finger as they played in the shallow water. The ring was quickly covered and she couldn’t find it. She had a pretty good idea as to location so I started my search in the middle of « ground zero » and worked my way each way of that. After an hour or so of parallel passes from dry sand to 3 feet deep water and nothing to show but one piece of scrap metal, I decided to work a pattern the other way and search parallel to the beach instead. I started in the deepest water I planned on searching and at the end of one pass I got a nice clear signal. As the surf calmed and water cleared between waves, I spotted half a ring jutting out of the sandy bottom and as I reached for it, a wave rolled through and obscured my vision again. I tried grabbing for it several times only to have it slip through my fingers with each wave that passed. After pinpointing it again, I made another grab for it and had it in my hand when a larger wave hit me and gave me a good drenching. I managed to hang on to it this time and was able to look it over to verify it matched the photo of Allison’s ring that she had showed me earlier. Heading back to the beach where the women were waiting, it was hard to keep a straight face as I displayed it on my little finger! Smiles all around as Allison made a phone call to share the good news.

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