….Is where Ethan found himself on Father’s day after signing up for a tour of duty battling a group of youngsters during a hand thrown paintball game. Ducking, diving and hitting the deck, he was doing a fine job at dodging the colorful bullets, but during return fire, his ring slipped off on the large battlefield. Nearing dusk, as the children flanked him from all directions he had no choice but to try and run thru a gap before being overtaken by the little warriors, darkness and mosquitoes. On site I began my grid search and after getting many large iron signals I learned there once was an old house upon the property, so I concentrated on the area where I saw the spent paint bullets. Closing in on the grid search I got a mixed signal of iron and a non-ferrous signal. Lifting the metal detector coil up a bit revealed a good metal signal and that the iron was trying to overtake the smaller, better signal. Pin-pointing thru the grass and reaching into it revealed this handsome titanium ring! As Ethan turned to see what I was holding he was hit with astonishment of the recovery and although his first time throwing lost him the battle, in the bigger scheme of things he won the war!
Meghan contacted me the same night her ring went missing. It was the eve of her grandparents’ 73rd anniversary when disaster struck. Meghan realized her heirloom platinum diamond ring went missing while engaging in a hobby also passed down from her grandmother, gardening. I had no choice but to clear my schedule and make sure this ring ended up back on its rightful finger.
Turning the fresh topsoil by hand in her newly assembled garden beds, Meghan felt the ring slip off and luckily spotted the precious heirloom right away. She placed it back on her finger, realizing the cool weather was causing her fingers to shrink, resulting in a loose fit of her grandmother’s ring. Meghan could have just taken the ring off, but gardening with her grandparents was the pastime Meghan remembered most. This was a way for Meghan to honor their memory on an extraordinary day that goes back to the 1940s.
My trip came to an end as I pulled into Meghan’s driveway and began analyzing the property. I consider all the information a property owner provides during our initial conversations, but I always keep an open mind that the lost article could be anywhere in the yard. With this in mind, we walked through the yard and discussed the day’s events. I put the puzzle pieces together and began prioritizing the places I wanted to search. I started in the raised garden beds because the ring was guilty of escape this place once before. Meghan showed me the beds she was digging in and hand-turned the soil when the ring slipped off the first time. It was only moments later when she noticed the ring was missing once more. When something traumatic like this happens, and a person is forced to recall the events, it’s challenging to assemble the events in the exact order they occurred. Meghan had difficulty remembering if there were tasks outside of the garden that could have happened before she realized the ring was missing a second time. Luckily for me, the garden in this area was not planted yet, so I could cleanly sweep the beds with my XP Metal Detector coil. The beds were raised high off the ground, so the gardener to work comfortably in the soil without bending over. The raised beds are great for gardeners but make the use of a traditional metal detector difficult. The XP high-frequency elliptical coil is small, lightweight, and wireless, allowing me to use only the most necessary parts of the metal detector to scan the soil and reach the tight bed corners. It was time to get started now that I had the essential information and Meghan and Caroline’s young boys had gathered to watch the search. The audience patiently watched as I scoured the beds for their great-grandmother’s ring. I had to do a slow, methodical sweep in the dirt with the metal detector power low to minimize interference from the protective metal screens on the bed rails. Eventually, the slow sweep and lack of action lead to boredom and a sudden dispersal of my young fans. Coming up empty-handed in this area and losing my local support, I decided to move on.
I shifted to the next most likely place where Meghan remembered pausing her gardening work to toss a toy for her dog. This was a more traditional metal detecting search, so I was able to move quicker in this phase of the investigation, once again catching the attention of the youngsters. Meghan showed me the direction she threw the stuffed dinosaur for the pup. I marked off the area and began sweeping. I heard a few signals, but all were buried underground and couldn’t possibly have been the recently lost ring. Coming up empty-handed in the grass, I kept the conversation going with Meghan looking for any other details or clues.
We decided to remove the metal screen from the rails of the garden bed where Meghan remembered working that day. Removing the large pieces of metal eliminates the interference in my metal detector. It lets me take a second pass over the raised beds with my metal detector and penetrate deeper into the soil. Running out of places to search, I knew if the final scan of the gardening area didn’t reveal the lost ring, there was only one thing left to do. Scoop the dirt from the beds and scan each shovelful as it’s dumped on the ground. With Caroline working on removing the metal screens, Meghan and I laid out a tarp to prep for the soil removal. If activities did come to removing all the soil from the beds, we could avoid making a massive mess of the grass and make it easier to get the soil back into the beds by laying out a tarp. I pulled my last tarp corner tight and headed over to the garden area to fetch my metal detector.
As I walked, I passed by a metal wheelbarrow full of what appeared to be the same soil from inside the beds. I stopped to investigate. Walking around the wheelbarrow, I saw a couple of kid toys sitting on top of the dirt. The two items that stood out the most were two plastic sifters that looked like something I’ve seen kids play with on a sandy beach. These toys could also be used to sift larger objects out of the soil. A lightbulb turned on. I asked Meghan about my new findings. She explained that when the ring first went missing, they decided to remove some of the soil. They had a couple of methods for checking the dirt. One way was to scoop a bucket full of dirt from the bed and then sift the dirt into the wheelbarrow to hopefully filter out the lost ring. The dirt proved to be clumpy and did not sift very well. The other method used was to take a handful of dirt, then used the other hand to pinch and sprinkle the dirt into the wheelbarrow. How many pinches of dirt would it take to move a couple of truckloads of dirt? ALL SUMMER, that’s how many! The Meghan and Caroline managed to fill up the wheelbarrow that day with the pinch and sprinkle method. My first thought was there is no way that ring could be in there, but I wanted to test my metal detecting method over the tarp. Stating with the wheelbarrow full of already filtered dirt seemed like a good place to start. I wheeled it over and dumped it on its side near the edge of the tarp.
Spreading the dirt across the tarp with my metal detector coil, I began listening for the sounds of gold in my headphones. Almost immediately, I got a strong signal. Too strong to be under the tarp and buried in the grass I just searched, so I figured the kids must have thrown a metal object in the dirt after Meghan and Caroline finished sifting. One last sweep with my metal detector, I pushed another layer of dirt to the side. Staring at me for the freshly poured soil was a beautiful platinum diamond ring. It was hiding in the wheelbarrow the whole time! I walked over to Meghan’s wife, Caroline, and awkwardly stood in front of her until we made eye contact. I reached out with Meghan’s ring and handed it to Caroline. At the same time, I made the shhh gesture with my finger, hoping Caroline would understand. I wanted her to surprise Meghan with the ring. The emotions almost took over, but Caroline quickly reigned in the feelings and nodded in understanding. I nodded back and stepped to the side. Caroline started walking over to Meghan for the big surprise. Little did we know, Meghan knew something was up the whole time. But come to find out later, Meghan thought one of us cut our finger when she saw us standing side by side, looking down at our hands. The cat wasn’t out of the bag yet! Caroline quickly revealed the ring, and Meghan let out a scream of joy!
Meghan and I talked for thirty minutes or so after she got her ring back where she described her special relationship with her late grandmother. I had no idea how a hobby such as gardening could bond family members. It made perfect sense why Meghan wanted to keep the ring on, even after losing it the first time. Keeping the ring on was the only way Meghan and her grandmother could share their gardening once again and as they did in the decades past.
How to Find a Lost Ring
Lost ring while gardening? It happens all the time! Don’t waste your time renting or borrowing a metal detector. Stop and mark the area where you believe the ring was lost. My jewelry finding service covers Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and other surrounding states.
I was notified to see if I could search a school athletic field in Clarks Summit, PA for a silver wedding ring. While playing water sports with the kids during their end of year field day, the ring had fallen off in a large field. I arrived to meet my client and he showed me the primary areas where he was playing. Using my Garrett ATPro I began searching in a grid pattern covering a large area. After a little more than an hour of searching I got the loud hit for his ring. He was sitting on the bleachers with his 3 year old when I approached him with his ring. He got chocked up and said he had just been praying with his young son that I would find the ring. A few minutes later his wife arrived and said she had just been praying as well while driving to our location. It was truly a blessing to return his ring and to see the smiles on their faces. Call me at 610-207-8677 whenever you need to find lost jewelry.
Mark, wife & family visited Studland Beach from there home in Gloucester. Unfortunately Marks wedding ring slipped from his finger some time that day after building sand castles.
After receiving the call I visited the area not hopeful as it had been a day or two since losing it. Fortunately luck prevailed & I found the ring after only ten minutes. They’d had already left for home by then so I posted it to them to which they were most thankful.
A kind donation to the Margaret Green Animal Rescue was made to which I am most grateful.
Received a call from a friend that a pendant was lost somewhere in left field at a baseball field. The story went that he noticed the chain had fallen off and was lying on the ground. But the 24k pendant was nowhere to be seen!
A week had passed by then and the lawn had been cut in the meanwhile. But the grass was just long enough for a pendant to be hiding somewhere. After 45 minutes of searching the client said it was a good try anyways and headed home. I continued searching, now outside the parameters of the search area. A girls softball team had shown up and was putting some pressure on me to find it soon or leave. I got a nice clear tone from my detector and hidden beneath the grass a beautiful pendant showed itself. The client was thrilled to get his pendant back.
This ring find began when I got a text yesterday from Charles who lives in Honolulu. While enjoying the beach with his wife, Charles was sure when he swam halfway out to the buoys and back that his ring probably slipped off then. He wasn’t positive but that was the only place left to hunt. Since it’s 10-12 feet out towards the buoy I told Charlie it would require scuba gear and we agreed to meet the next morning at 6AM sharp at an extreme low tide. Charles arrived a little early and texted me that the parking near where we needed to be was packed. Construction vehicles and new lifeguard stalls were filled to capacity. This has never happened to me at Ala Moana Beach park this early. I parked about a block and a half away and told Charles I would just hump my gear down from there. When I got back to my car I realized the parking modifications included the stall I was in and I had to move. Charles saw a spot but someone grabbed it. I told him I’d cruise around and see what I could find. As I was coming back to our area a gentleman waved his hand that he was leaving. Low and behold the stall couldn’t be any closer to where I needed to be. Thank you Jesus! After donning my scuba gear Charles and I walked down to the beach and I had him draw lines in the sand to the extreme edges he thought he had been. When he was done I asked if he was sure and he asked if he could move the western grid line 10 feet farther. But of course! To do the entire grid he drew was going to take about an hour so I started on the west side and proceeded easterly. I had my orange grid line with me as the water was already starting to lose visibility. I went as far out as I could before it turns to muck and turned around towards the shore again. I got a great tone but it turned out to be a key. On the second leg I got another nice tone but the water was silted up and all I could do was grab handfuls of sand & rubble until I had the target in my hand. On the third grab I had the target in my hand and held it up to my mask to see what I had and it was a Platinum Ring. I surfaced in neck deep water which would be over my head on a high tide and told Charles I think I found your ring. After reading him the date he confirmed that was indeed his. Total time underwater 7 minutes. Had Charles not extended out his grid to the west I would have missed the ring by inches. Another Blessing! What a great ending to a day that started looking really bad. Aloha to Charles!
Daniel was with his son in chest high water when a wave hit them. His son grabbed his chain and it came off. He was able to grab the chain, but watched as the pendant buries in the sand. I was able to get out there 4 days later and recover it. This thing weighed over 120 grams. Massive and the best recovery to date. Another happy customer.
Nancy lost her wedding band while in the water with her husband in Destin, fl. She called me worried, but I assured her I could recover it due to calm weather. I located the ring within 15 minutes and returned it to her. Very sentimental ring and she was very happy!
Seth and his family were boating on Crab Island in Destin, FL when he lost his wedding band. It was lost while swimming around and they didn’t know what to do. Luckily after some research they found me on Ringfinders. Within about 2 hours I was headed there way. After launching the boat and 4 hours of searching I was able to locate the ring and return it to them. They were extremely happy and the reward reflects that. Thanks to Seth and his family for making my recovery even better. Another happy customer.
Mary had put her rings in her pants pocket for safe keeping but when she got home it was missing. She searched her bag and around the house but thought it might have feel out when she took her pants off to go swimming. She was right!!
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