Uncategorized Category | Page 592 of 635 | The Ring Finders

I received a call from Tim on Monday evening after he had lost his platinum wedding band in Lake Michigan at Grand Haven State Park.  He had been throwing a football in the water with friends, about 30 feet from shore, when he noticed his wedding ring was gone.  I had given a card to the guards at the entrance to the park the day before and they referred Tim to The Ring Finders web site.  After returning home to Lansing, he called and gave me a general idea of where to search.  I went out to look for it on Tuesday but it was really windy and the waves were 3-6 feet.  Even though the red flag was out cautioning swimmers to stay out of the water, due to heavy rip currents, there were THOUSANDS of swimmers out having fun in the big waves.  Searching then was an exercise in futility and the weather for the next couple days wasn’t any better.  So I called Tim back and asked him if he could meet me out at the beach on Friday morning to give me a better idea of were he was (including the adjacent Grand Haven City Beach the beach is about a half mile long).  He and his wife, Molly, met me there at 9:45 and that water was COLD!   Tim helped me, using the blue polypropylene shovel I use in the sand as a reference point on shore, moving it north as I worked my way north, going into and away from the shore with my detector.  About an hour and 15 minutes later, I was able to locate his ring in waist deep water.  They were elated to say the least.  A very happy ending to my first call out.

     Deanna called me at 7:30pm and asked me if I can find her husband’s tungsten carbide wedding ring. After getting some preliminary info, I told her I would meet them in about an hour. I arrived at the beach and found them still on the sand where they had pitched an umbrella earlier in the day. Always a good sign when people stay where they lose something. Seems her husband was vigorously brushing sand off his hands and the ring went flying. I started my grid right where he was standing while doing the brushing and branched out from there.

     After a few junk sounds and expanding the search area a bit, I found it about another 15 feet closer to the water, 2 inches down, and dead center in the tire track made by the lifeguard truck! They were both overjoyed to get it back. When the dust had settled a bit and I was getting ready to do some photos, they asked me if I’d like to find another ring. After my rhetorical question « you lost another ring? » I found out that it belonged to Deanna this time and it was lost in the sand too, about 20 away from where they were sitting. After a minute or two, I found it and handed it to her. She then said that it was just one of a two ring set she lost at the same time! About 5 feet away, the other ring turned up too.

      After verifying that there weren’t any more items to be found, we gathered up our stuff and went over toward the boardwalk to take the photos. I’ve found a few double ring losses before, but that was my first triple, and my first for both husband and wife! It was a pleasure to meet you both and thank you for the reward.

     This ring find is out of this world….some of it anyway.  Kyle called me with the tale of woe of losing his wedding ring at the main beach in Coronado. Seems he took his ring off to keep from losing it when he went out in the surf, and placed it in his hat for safekeeping. After he came back out of the water, the hat went back on the head and ring went into the sand. After realizing what had happened, he searched and sifted for quite a while without success. An internet search brought him to The Ring Finders and my number. He lost the ring about 3pm on Thursday and called me Friday morning at 10:30. Knowing that beach gets searched frequently, I grabbed my gear and headed down there for hopefully a quick recovery before the crowds hit the beach or another detector found the ring, not knowing it’s significance or who may have lost it. Upon arrival, I met Kyle and he showed me the search area. There were already people camped out in some of the area but most was still open. Kyle described the ring as a tungsten carbide band with a meterite inlay. (my first)  I ran a grid in all the open areas and then sniped around some of the blankets and tents but the ring wouldn’t show itself. I did find a few coins and good sounding junk, so, I figured another detector probably didn’t find it but was puzzled as to why I hadn’t. It was starting to get pretty crowded, so, we called it a day. I told Kyle that I would contact some people I know who work that beach to see if they might have come across it somehow. I met a fellow club member there and asked him, but he hadn’t found a ring like that. Kyle left, and I hung around for a while longer, expanded the search area a bit,  hoping to hit an area still uncovered by blanket. After another hour or so, I gave up and went home, but decided to return later when the crowds left for the day.

       At about 8:30 that night, I headed back down to give it another try. I arrived at 9 and began another grid over the main blanket line area that was covered earlier. I found a few coins, a key, and then a « big » hit, literally. It was can sized or bigger but the numbers were wrong and all over the board. I scooped a bunch of sand out and the first target I found was a bit of foil. After cursing under my breath, I swung the loop over pile again and got a nice 12-13  reading on my E-trac. I then sifted out a nickel. Rats! I was about to kick the sand back into the hole when I passed the coil over the pile again, I hear a loud signal but, again, the numbers were jumping from 25-35 on the ferrous side and 35-50 on the conductive side. Those are usually iron junk sounds, and for a moment, I though of just ignoring it but, since it was already out of the ground, I went ahead and scooped it anyway just to get it out of the sand and into the trash where it belonged. Lo and behold, it was Kyle’s ring! That had to be the worst ring sound I ever heard. After inspecting the ring and determining that it matched Kyle’s description, I discovered that it was marked Zirconium/Meteorite inside the band….not tungsten carbide. With today’s assortment of jewelry metals, it’s more important than ever to know what you’re searching for. If you have a call to search for a ring with a meteorite inset, you need to dig iron sounds! That is not going to make some areas fun to search.

         I called Kyle with the good news. He was very happy I found the key to getting  him out of the dog house with his wife. It was almost 10pm at this point so we decided to meet up the next day for the return. As you can see, he’s a happy guy now. It was a pleasure to meet you Kyle, thank you for the reward, and more importantly, your service to our country.

While detecting on the beach at Grand Haven State Park, I was approached by two people who had lost rings.  Joe had lost his Stainless Steel ring on the volleyball court and had about a dozen people on their hands and knees looking for it.  I found it in less than a minute to great applause.  About an hour later, newlyweds Byran & Rebecca R. asked if I’d help find Bryan’s white gold wedding band he’d lost while building a sand castle on the shoreline.  Again, it was found in less than a minute.  Glad I could help.

Joe

Bryan & Rebecca R.