Uncategorized Category | Page 527 of 633 | The Ring Finders

Thursday afternoon I received an email from Ana in St. Joseph.  On the 4th of July, Ana was playing in the water at Silver Beach and noticed her engagement ring was gone.  She and her fiance’ were about to insure the ring but lost it before they had the chance.  After contacting me and Fred Johnson, the Ring Finder for the Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Hastings areas, we agreed to meet her near the beach that evening.  There was severe weather forecast for that evening and we were hoping to find it before the weather turned on us.   I met Fred and Ana near the beach but we were unable to find a place to park anywhere near Silver Beach.   Fred and I had to park a 1/2 mile from the beach and then walk an additional 1/2 mile south to the spot where Ana had lost the ring.   Ana had also borrowed a Garrett AT Pro metal detector to help with the search.  After a quick tutorial on how to operate the AT Pro, Ana started detecting near the shoreline while Fred and I started a grid search, Fred working to the south while I worked a grid to the north.  After 15 or 20 minutes, in waist deep water, I saw gold and diamonds in my scoop!  Ana was so surprised and happy she started to cry.  Even the the onlookers on shore cheered.  What a beautiful ring and a very happy bride-to-be.

Grand Haven puts on one of the best fireworks displays on the 4th of July anywhere in West Michigan.  Thousands of people flock to Grand Haven and the Grand Haven State Park that day.  By 11:00 a.m. the Sate Park was full and I was turned away and unable to spend the day detecting at my favorite beach.  At 7:00 p.m. Devin, from Detroit, called me from Grand Haven State Park and said he lost the gold charm from his necklace on the volleyball court and asked me to please come find it.  I’m thinking there’s no way I’m getting near the State Park this late in the day; the police would already be setting up road blocks and barricades to direct traffic in and out of the waterfront area; but I’m willing to give it a try.  After several detours and roadblocks, I was able to get into the State Park about 2 hours before sunset as people left the park and head to the other side of downtown for the fireworks show.  After meeting up with Devin at the volleyball courts I see they have a 6′ circle marked out in the sand at one corner of the court where he says he lost the charm.  With the very first sweep of my coil I was able to find the charm!  Everyone on the court broke out in cheers!  Without doubt this was the quickest recovery I’ve ever made  🙂

Received a request from Jon K asking for help in finding a ring for his good friend Krissie from Chicago.  Krissie and her fiance were vacationing at Jon’s cottage over the holiday and keeping cool by playing catch with a tennis ball in about 4 ft of water.  On one throw she felt her ring fly off and did not see where it landed. Considering the 4 to 6 inches of silt on the bottom of the lake, their chances of finding that ring were near zero.

Jon and his friend met me at the cottage and gave me the story of how Krissie had lost the ring.  I started to grid the search area and each time I got a signal, Jon, wearing mask and snorkel, would dive down and retrieve the item for me – much easier with the thick silt on the bottom than using a water scoop.  With only some bottle caps and other junk found we decided to call Krissie to see if she could give us any more details on where the ring might have been lost.  She said her fiance was standing next to an underwater tie down for a boat, and she was about 30 feet away throwing the ball to him.  That information was key to giving us a more specific area to search. I soon got a high tone signal and I gave Jon the sign that this one had to be it.  I marked the spot with the wood handle end of my water scoop and Jon dove down with the pin-pointer to locate the target.  He came up with the ring in his hand and a big smile on his face.

With a few hoots and hollers for the neighbors watching us and a few pictures we ended the day on a high note for everyone.  When I got home I had already received a heart felt thank you voicemail from Krissie.  She said she bought that ring at Tiffany’s about 12 years ago, has worn it daily since then, and it means the world to her.

After finding the rings in the James river, I had some interesting calls. For example, one call was a woman who wanted me to help her find an expensive ring she lost somewhere on her property. It could be “anywhere on the grounds, or even flushed down the toilet”. She couldn’t remember what she did with it, because she was “pretty drunk and angry”. If the school year hadn’t started, I might have tried to help her, but I declined and suggested she call some other Ringfinders in the area. Other calls were either out of the area or during a critical time at work and I couldn’t get there fast enough.

If I can be of service, the fastest way to get me is by text at 703-598-1435. I will contact you back ASAP.

Aloha. I was called out to search for a ring lost while helping save an elderly male from drowning. Seemed like he was having a heart attack while snorkeling a little ways from shore. I met with Brandon the very next morning to search, about 2 hours into search No Luck. I went back late that evening to search the dry sand, No Luck. I went back a 3rd time the next morning to search deeper water. About 1 hour and in 5 feet of water ring found! No charge on this one. Help Me, Help You! Malama Pono

Chanel discovered her 2 carat diamond engagement ring was missing off her finger at 11pm. thinking back to earlier in the day, she knew she had it after a swim in the bay at about 3:30pm. She couldn’t remember anything in particular that she did in between those times that would cause the ring to come off except for shaking her towel to remove some sand. The location where she had camped on the beach was relatively small, but, no ring was found after I completely gridded that area. After some more Q&A, she mentioned that she had also been in her house and had washed her daughter’s hair in the bathtub. Aha, that sounded like a likely place to check. While that was being checked, I expanded the search area on the beach. After an hour, I called off the search. While walking back to my truck, I pass right by her house. I stopped and knocked on the door to tell them the bad news, and found out that they had just found the ring while searching the babies bassinet! I didn’t find it, but, I like to think I helped by eliminating one possible area and getting them thinking about other possible areas.

I received a call from John about a lost heirloom ring passed down from his Father. John recently bought a boat and parked it at a slip on the Mississippi river. While putting down his swim platform at the back of his boat, his Gold Diamond heirloom ring slipped off his finger and into the river. (I have to mention, John recently lost a lot of weight) The river is very muddy & the visibility while diving is zero. I jumped into the river at the back of his slip and hoped the ring didn’t fall too close to the metal supports that hold up the slip. There were many hits on my metal detector as I searched. I pulled out an Iphone first, though it was water logged and destroyed, so; no getting that back to it’s rightful owner. After about 15 minutes and finding a lot of junk, I decided to feel around in the approx. area. I got incredibly lucky as my ring finger actually went right inside the ring. Diving with no visibility is hard to say the least, you have no clue where you are or what’s right in front of you. Congrats on getting the ring back John, a pleasure to chat with you.

Darrin