Lost Diamond Wedding Rings .. Santa Monica Beach .. Found
Michelle was visiting from Boston. Saturday she went to Santa Monica Beach near the pier with her mother and sister to take advantage of our weather. After most the afternoon on the beach they went up to the pier for dinner and a few drinks. That was when Michelle realized her two ring wedding set was missing. The last time she saw them was when she set them on the edge of her towel to apply sunscreen.
They walked a couple blocks back to the spot just before sunset but after 2 hours could not find the two white gold diamond rings.
By the time they got online to locate me, it was after 10pm. Michelle said they would stay to meet me at 11pm. We met on the beach in an area between the first two lifeguard towers south of the pier. The next day was Sunday and there would be other people with detectors on that beach.
It was dark, cold, and they were tired. Also a few extra adult beverages while waiting may have contributed to the confusion getting me in the exact location. I assured them that I could search the whole area but it would take a couple hours. It had been a long day for them so they decided to go back to their hotel. Basically they had given up hope that the rings could be found.
Later while working a methodical grid search, two other guys with metal detectors were working the same location at midnight. They were wondering through the general area and didn’t know what I knew, but I still worried that they might find the rings first and claim them as a treasure. Soon they wandered off down the beach. Shortly after 12:30am the magic moment came, when I scooped up a metallic signal that turned out to be Michelle’s beautiful diamond engagement ring. Three feet away was her diamond wedding ring.
I texted a photo of the rings to her and immediately she returned a call with excitement in her voice that is hard to explain. I met with her the next morning to return the rings. Part of doing this, is being able to hand the ring back to the rightful owner and seeing how grateful they are to have something so very sentimental to them back after thinking it was lost forever.
Jennifer was enjoying a cool afternoon walk along her favorite grassy back road and thinking about how loose her engagement ring felt on her finger. As she walked along she was thinking, I wonder if my ring would come off if I shook my hand a bit and sure enough, the motion was enough to send her ring off into the thick grass! Shocked at what just happened, she immediately stopped and tried searching through the grass, desperate to recovery her now, lost ring! After searching for several hours she realized she needed to at least mark the spot and by using her foot she scuffed a bare spot on the grassy road and then went to her truck to find something to better mark the area. All she could find was a machete and some red surveyors tape, so she returned to the mark and stuck the machete into the ground along side of the road directly across from the bare spot. She then called her fiancee and together they talked about renting or buying a cheap metal detector. Later they went on Google and typed in « Metal Detection Professionals » and up came theringfinders.com. Jennifer gave me a call and we met later on that afternoon and drove out to the unique machete marker along side of the road. I set out four flags and began my grid search and did not walk more than 5 steps before I got a really nice signal on my Whites DFX metal detector. Because the grass was so thick I decided to use my Garrett Pro Pointer and there was Jennifer’s lost engagement ring! I motioned for Jennifer to come pick up what I had located and you talk about one happy young lady! Here’s what Jennifer wrote two days later. « While out walking,my favorite ring fell off my finger and even though I knew the location where it fell off, I was unable to find the ring after several hours of looking through the tall grass. I contacted Mike after finding his information on the internet and he responded as soon as he was able. Mike asked a few questions, set up a boundary and started looking. And within minutes of him arriving at the site, my ring was found!! I am so grateful to Mike for his help and my fiancee and I would like to give him a big thanks! Again thanks so much! »
In February, I believe, a young man contacted me about a lost ring. He found my information on ringfinders. He lost the ring shoveling snow. I told him we would have to wait until snow melt this spring. Today I traveled the 80 miles to him. Once there I was worried that I was too soon. He lived in an apartment complex with lots of parking and parking lot. There were still snow piles of three feet or more. I thought I might as well do everything I could now and may have to come back later. The young man « Will » stayed with me the whole time moving trash and debris out of the way as I uncovered it. Will stated that his ring was large like two ounces of silver. I mentioned that was like eight quarters worth of silver and he said yes that big…. I took eight quarters and put then on the ground and the deus would overload passing over them, raising it showed a 98 on the screen. Two and a half hours into the hunt with 95 percent of the available ground covered ,I was planning my next trip. One more spot behind a dumpster. On my final pass I saw the round outline just as the coil passed over it . It overloaded . I scoped it into my hand and stopped ..I said that ‘s it I ‘m done. I knelt down and started shutting the machine down. I said « Know why I am stopping? » Will said « because your batteries are dead? » and I said « No because of this, » as I opened my hand. The surprise look is always great . It is a huge ring . Here are the pics . Bill
