Hi. My name is Michael Nichols. I am a metal detectorist in San Antonio. I am also a member of The Ring Finders. You can find my profile and contact information at their web site. If you need help finding a lost ring or other piece of jewelry please contact me and I will do my best to find it for you. I can also find any lost item that is metal or contains some type of metal such as keys.
I happened to be surfing again yesterday, and after my morning session, I got back to my car to find a message from Olivia regarding the loss of her husband’s wedding ring when they were at the beach the day before. I got right back with her to let her know that I would be available to search for the ring as soon as I dropped my surfboard off and picked up my equipment. We agreed to meet at a specific time, so I rushed home to get ready.
We met at the beach, and Olivia explained how there was a miscommunication between her and her husband Tim after he asked for some of the items that he gave to her to hold while he went into the water, the ring being one of the items. The result was that after they got home, and Tim was ready to go to work, he asked for his ring, and it wasn’t there. They then figured , it must have dropped into the sand when he was handed his things. They found me on TheRingFinders.com web site and made the call. When I got to the spot, I could see that the sand was smoothed out from the beach sifters, and realized that the ring having been lost the previous day, might not be there. I did tell them though that although it doesn’t look real good for a recovery, I always have hope. After asking some questions I began my search. I searched for about 1 1/2 hours, and then began to work the other side of the area closer to the slope, when I found Tim’s ring.
Tim and Olivia had been sitting under an umbrella in some sand chairs while I searched, so when I turned with Tim’s ring in my hand, they were both gone. I looked up and down the beach, and saw neither one of them, so I started walking towards the place where they had been sitting, when I saw that Tim was lying on a towel next to the chairs. When I got to him I could see that he was deep in sleep, and I felt kind of bad that I was going to wake him to let him know I found his ring. I spoke to Tim and he awoke. I showed him the ring to make sure that it was the one he lost and he acknowledged it was. He then figured out that Olivia had gone to the car in the parking lot to get something, and went to give her the good news. It was so wonderful to see the two of them coming back to the site with smiles all around. They had just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary last week, what a blast!
In Olivia’s Words:
Yesterday, Tim gave me his wedding ring to hold in my purse while he went in the ocean, along with his keys, watch and phone. When we were getting ready to leave, I thought he said let me get my things. But it turns out he only wanted his keys. I pulled out all his things including his ring and thought he took all his things. Until that evening when I was in bed and he was getting ready to go to work and he asked me for his ring…. **Gasp*** what do you mean? I gave it to you at the beach…. so his platinum Tiffany ring was left somewhere in Will Roger’s State Beach…. In stepped Steve Smith from theringfinders.com. I called him at noon after I conducted a search for metal detectors. He was worried that it was a day later and after the clean up of the beach. But he said not to lose hope. I never lose hope. It’s a strength and a weakness I suffer with. But guess what, after only 1.5 hours the impossible happened and he found the ring!!!!! Thanks Steve!
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard, using the most up to date metal detectors, to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.
Mike S. called me late Sunday evening asking if I could find a diamond ring in about 5 feet of water that His wife, Beth, accidentally dropped off her finger while untangling the tubing ropes. She was holding the ring on her finger for a family friend, Megan P, who didn’t want to loose it while tubing. Dave Boyer, my Ring Finder partner, drove 40 miles North to Hess lake Monday morning and met Patrice P. who showed us the area that she thought the ring was lost. Patrice had been riding in the boat as the kids were tubing so she was sure about the area. Dave and I searched the lake in a triangle shaped area about half the size of a football field. The lake had zero visibility at the bottom because of the silt that was knocked around as we swung or detectors. There were dozens of hits but after 4 hours we gave up the search and said we would come back. I called Mike and asked him if he could meet us at the cottage the next day and reenact what had taken place. Mike agreed and said he would cook up some hot dogs and hamburgers for us. We got up to the cottage and added another Ring Finder, Fred Johnson (Fred was going to be our ringer). It was around 4 PM so we got into the water and started our search. Mike backed the boat out and showed us how things went and that gave us a different perspective of an area that we had not searched. After an hour we still had nothing to show for our efforts so I started to search an area that we looked at yesterday and got a pretty good hit but was searching in a large hole that was dug the day before. I dug about three large scoops and checked in my scoop after clearing away decayed wood chips and a glob of sand, there it was. Mike was sitting on the dock and Dave and Fred was still searching and I started walking towards the dock and asked Mike if we could have those hot dogs and hamburgers (like I was giving up). Mike said « sure let me fire up the grill » and then I said is this the ring? Mike was so happy he couldn’t believe it, he immediately got on his phone and said « they found it »!
Mike started up the grill, the food and conversation was great and stories were exchanged and pictures taken. I am happy for Megan, she got her ring back and happy for Beth to be relieved of such an unfortunate accident. Have a great Labor Day everyone!
Getting the word out about the Ring Finders website works great!
Jay and his fiancé Michelle visited Minnesota from New Mexico back in July. While here, they visited friends on Cedar lake and went for a swim. After the swim, Michelle noticed her White Gold / Diamond engagement ring was not on her finger. Jay went to Minneapolis Metal Detectors and rented an underwater detector. He pulled out a few targets, though he couldn’t find the ring. As he was returning the metal detector, the shop owner gave him the website of the « Ring Finders » – (I was actually in his shop early this spring and gave him a card). Jay contacted me from New Mexico a month and half later as he kept thinking there is really no chance of recovery. He finally decided to give the ring finders a try. After Jay described the conditions of the lake. Muck bottom, very weedy and no visibility at all – I decided to use scuba instead of walking with a scoop. The ring was in waist to neck deep water and scooping could be difficult. Scuba provides guaranteed recovery of every target and it’s much quicker. It took me approx. 1 hour and I found the beautiful ring – See Pic’s! 🙂
Glad I could help out Michelle and Jay – Hope you have a long and happy Marriage!!!
Darrin
Greg had taken his heirloom white gold wedding band off to put on sunscreen. When he and his wife got back to their car he realized his ring had to be in the sand. They could not find it with their fingers.
It was very sentimental as it had been his father’s wedding ring, passed down to Greg. Again, TheRingFinders.com came up when Greg googled metal detecting services.
Parking was a little troublesome, even though I have a annual Newport Beach parking pass. I’ve lived on the beach most my life, it’s always part of the price you pay to live near tourist destinations.
Greg met me, we walked a hundred yards to where he believed they had been. It was an easy find because he put me on the exact location. It was a matter of turning on the detector and swinging it a couple times. One ring hiding under about 5″ of sand.
Every search is unique. You can’t tell what you’re going to have to do or how long you may have to search. Sometimes people have very little idea where the loss occurred. At least I can offer to eliminate an area that might hide a valued keepsake. Allowing the person to direct their energy towards other areas the item could be..
Got a call from a gentleman that was helping a local women’s shelter build a new patio in the backyard. Seems he and a few members of a local church were helping with the build and he was using a ground pounder to compact the dirt for the patio bricks and of course his hands went numb and he didn’t feel the ring fall off. They had looked and looked for it but he hadn’t noticed it was gone from his hand until after all the dirt was dug and the patio bricks laid. He called me and we set up a time for us to meet. After about 20 minutes I was able to find the ring. It was just below the ground at the edge of the yard and luckily not under the pavers!
I got a call from a young man Friday evening and the call kinda went like this…I found you on TheRingFinders.com and my friend lost his wedding band while taking wedding photo’s at a river in South Surrey…Do you think you can help?
I said sure thing and we discussed the time and day we’d go look for it. I was hoping we could take a look on Saturday but they would still be celebrating their big day.
That was good because I had a search for a 3 carat diamond ring that was dropped out of an apartment building 44 floors up ($5000 reward) unfortunately there was only about a 5% chance of finding that ring because it was a concrete jungle all around the area it was dropped.
I met up this afternoon with Sunny and his friend Sandy and they showed me where the ring was lost…I was surprised to see that it was lost off a dock! I thought it was close to the shore. Fortunately the tide was low and I was able to get into the water very close to the ring.
I received a good signal 6 feet or so under the dock and it was hard to try and dig the target so what I did was scoop towards me and after 10 minutes I found his beautiful ring!!!
I told him I was going to get out of the water and get another metal detector from my car, but instead I presented him with his ring! I love the reactions!
I wish I could do this all day long and help others who need this service!!
Thanks for watching!
Yesterday, not long after finding the ring for Keith, I received a call from DJ who said his wife had lost her engagement ring at the beach just two hours earlier. I asked if they were still there, he said they were not, but some of his wife’s friends were still at the spot. I then asked if they could meet me there, and he said his wife would go and make sure she could show me where the loss occurred.
I was able to get there in about an hour, and walked out to meet Katie, DJ’s wife. She showed me to the area where the ring was lost, and as we got closer, I could see lines in the sand over a rather large area where they had performed a continuous grid search. I could tell they had been very meticulous in their search, but to no avail. I began to question her about the loss, and as she explained everything to me, I could tell that they had searched the wrong area. I began my search in the spot that I figured the loss occurred from my inquisition, and within about 5 minutes I was able to pull a 2 1/2 carat diamond solitaire engagement ring in a platinum setting out of my scoop to Katie’s shock, and the shouts of success from the friends and other beach goers that knew of the situation.
What a joy to bring joy to those in despair over the loss of something so meaningful in their lives, as you can see from Katie’s smile, and the communication I had with DJ after the recovery. The other important fact in this story is that Katie and DJ will be celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary in a week. What a great job!
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard, using the most up to date metal detectors, to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.
I had spent the morning surfing yesterday at a local beach, and had just come out of the water when I checked my phone to see that I had received a text from Keith. He was wondering if I could help him find his wedding band that he had lost the previous day. I told him that I had to go and drop off my board and gather my equipment, and that I would meet him at the spot in an hour.
When I arrived Keith was waiting. He explained that he had taken the ring off to go into the water, and have his child come in closer to shore, because they had paddled out too far for his liking. He put the ring on the beach chair on a towel, but when he got back the towel was moved, and the ring was gone. They looked but were unable to find it. One of his children mentioned that he should buy a metal detector to search for it, but Keith figured that he had seen a lot of guys detecting the beaches, and thought that there might be someone who might be able to help him, so he turned to the Internet, and did a search where he was able to locate my number. That was a good thing because the area he was looking is so highly mineralized, it would have caused any inexpensive detector to false constantly.
I began my search, and then readjusted my detector to accommodate for the conditions, put the coil back down just bit lower in the search area when I got a good report from the machine. I put my scoop in, and there it was. I pulled it out to Keith’s surprise. It truly made his day that someone was so willing to come at such short notice, and it made my day to see his joy restored.
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard, using the most up to date metal detectors, to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.
This ring find started when I got a call from Nicolas who is a CAPT in the US Army. While enjoying the day at the beach his wife Ashley put her Wedding ring in the pocket of their sunshade for safe keeping. When the day was over Nicolas shook the sand off the sunshade and started back to their campsite. Ashley realized she had left the ring in the sunshade pocket so they went back to the beach to see if they could find the ring. They searched methodically in the sand but no luck finding the ring. The next day Nicolas originally wanted to rent a detector and I convinced him it would be easier if I just came down and looked for them. I loaded my gear and we decided to meet in an hour at Bellow AFS. We met outside the gate and drove to their campsite. We then grabbed the gear and headed down to the beach. Fortunately although the beach was relatively crowded the area they were in was open. I surveyed the area then started my grid search. First & second target were sandy Lincoln cents, then a bottle cap. About 5 minutes into the search I got a great tone and because of the solitaire diamond I took a gentle scoop and poured it on the ground. I grabbed my pin-pointer and made a spiral search in the sand pile. That’s when the stunning ring exposed itself. I picked it up and handed it to Ashley. She was overcome with joy and said, « Thank you so much your my hero ». An applause rang out from all the nearby beach goers. I love this hobby! Aloha to Ashley & Nicolas!