AL Tag | The Ring Finders

Diamond earring lost and found – Daphne, AL

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Last night, just as I was heading to bed, my phone dinged with a message.

“Sorry for the late text,” it read. “Lost 1.5 carat diamond earring in a flower bed. Call tomorrow… or Monday… or now.”

Well… of course I called now.

David explained that his wife Jennifer had lost her earring while working in the flower bed earlier that day. They believed it was somewhere in the pine straw around her hydrangeas. It was insured, he said… but it was a sentimental gift that meant a great deal to her.

Earrings are my least favorite type of jewelry to recover – they are sooooo tiny. But there was no way I was saying no. We made plans for me to head to the next county over the next day and give it a shot.

Fortunately, they had the matching earring. That gave me a huge advantage. I ran it under my Minelab Equinox 900 to check the VDI and tone.

Park 1? Nothing.

Park 2? Bouncy low tone.

Beach 1 and 2? Nada. 😬

Gold mode? A nice solid signal.  Now we’re talking.

The search area was small but tricky—pine straw, landscaping debris, and plenty of potential junk targets hiding underneath. Jennifer stood nearby, clearly anxious, asking what she could do to help.

My answer?

“Pray.”

(Which, honestly, I do with every swing when I’m working a recovery.)

Almost immediately, I got a promising signal—perfectly matching the test earring. My excitement didn’t last long… after chasing it with my pinpointer for what seemed like forever, I pulled out a teeny, tiny scrap of tinfoil.

Next target? A small nail.

Then more foil.

A screw.

Even a Christmas light connector.

I started weighing my options—carefully remove the pine straw or move to another area she had worked. Just then, I caught another shallow 2 VDI tone right along the edge of the flower bed where it met the monkey grass.

I knelt down, reached in with my pinpointer, and gently pushed the grass aside…

…and there it was.

A flash of sparkle.

That unmistakable wink of a diamond looking right back at me. 🙌

I’m not sure who was more surprised—me or Jennifer—but I can tell you this: there were happy tears from both of us.

That feeling never gets old.

The best reward isn’t the find itself—it’s the look on someone’s face when you place a lost, sentimental piece of jewelry back into their hand.

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Lost wedding ring – Dauphin Island, AL

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It was Wednesday evening and I was enjoying dinner with my BFF and detecting partner in Gulf Shores when I got a call from Justin who was vacationing at the beach from St Louis, MO. In spite of my phone displaying an unknown number, something told me to answer it. He explained that he had lost his wedding band over on Dauphin Island and sounded quite desperate to find it. Since I was visiting my friend for a week, I suggested I could probably look for it on Friday when I was planning to pass through on my way back home to Mobile. Hearing the disappointment in his voice, I decided my friend and I could go ahead and hop on the ferry first thing Thursday morning instead and try to help him out.

Justin anxiously met us upon our arrival at his rental and explained that he had thrown a football and felt the ring come off as he did so. They had been looking in the sand for it but, being platinum, it blended right in with the sand. He showed us where he had been standing and had even staked out an area where he believed the ring to be. By the time I was getting my machine set up, Cheryl had already completed her first pass of the area we were going to grid. I took about three steps toward the area to start when I heard Cheryl right behind me say, “I found it”….. pretty much right where I had been standing when I turned on my detector lol. There’s a good reason she is becoming known in the area by her well deserved nickname – “Beach Angel”. For the second time this week, I was thankful to have her with me as she seems to have an uncanny ability to go right to the exact area when we are doing a search. And Justin was very thankful to put his ring back on his finger where it belonged ! And please check out his awesome ministry channel on YouTube – Trial by Faith ……

https://youtube.com/shorts/lSIAHajTR1s?si=4LUfxCD8RLXUu2Pd

 

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Lost Aggie Ring – FOUND!!!

  • from Orange Beach (Alabama, United States)
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This past Saturday my wife and I went over to Biloxi for the day to celebrate her birthday. On the way back we must have seen over 100 cars with Texas tags. My wife said, “oh look, there’s another one of your Texas A&M friends headed to the beach”. I smiled and said that I hoped they had their rings on tight. For those that don’t know, I have a special place in my heart for the Aggies and over the years I have helped quite a few get their lost rings back. They have always been really nice and I have learned a bit about their rings and the stories behind them in the process. Sure enough, I got a call Sunday night from Erica who was down for the week with her Aggie friends in Gulf Shores. AL. She believed that while they were throwing a football back and forth her ring must have come off in the sand. Luckily I was in that area for work the next day and I told her I would come take a look over the lunch hour. She didn’t know exactly where it might be so I quickly started gridding out a large area and apologizing to people that I was getting in the way of. Erica is a senior and she is becoming a nurse and committed to the Air Force. As I went back and forth I thought about how she really deserved to get her ring back. I’m glad that the Man upstairs agreed with me because after about 40 mins of searching I got a strong gold tone. It was already a bit deeper than I expected with the wind blown sand but I was able to gently recover it and give it back to a very happy Erica while her friends looked on. Erica, I truly wish you all the best in your future endeavors and thank you for your future service.

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