Rachel’s High School Class Ring Recovered from the Depths of the Atlantic Ocean!
Rachel Happily Reunited with Her Special Class Ring!
BRIAN RUDOLPH, LOST ITEM RECOVERY SPECIALIST (LAND, WATER, SAND, HOUSES & VEHICLES) WILL FIND YOUR LOST KEEPSAKE! CALL ASAP (301) 466-8644!
CLICK THE LINK AND WATCH THE SEARCH VIDEO BELOW!
As I was already driving two hours inland from completing a couple of searches in Ocean City, Maryland, I received a call from a young lady who was soon to graduate from an elite private high school in Baltimore Maryland. Rachel was with her senior class, celebrating Beach Week in Ocean City just three days earlier when she lost her ring in the Atlantic Ocean. When we talked, she was already back from the trip in her hometown of Northern Baltimore. The student found me listed in The Ring Finders Directory for the Ocean City, Maryland area hoping that it was not too late for someone to help her retrieve her class ring from the water where she had to let it go and return home.
Rachel explained that she was in the ocean with her boyfriend just playfully having fun when her 18 karat gold senior class ring slipped off of her finger and disappeared into the waves of the Atlantic. She was terribly down about the whole thing and she was scared to tell her parents about it. She wanted to do everything she could to get it back.
By the time that I would be able to return to Ocean City and get back into the water for the search, 4 days would already pass by since the ring came off her finger and landed in the water. I wanted to get out there as fast as I could. I checked when low tide would occur the next evening which would be Sunday night around 9:30 p.m.. I told Rachel that I would do everything I could to get her ring back and she was grateful but wavering as to whether or not this was possible for me to recover it.
The one positive thing that was going heavily in Rachel’s favor in regards to the probability that I can retrieve this ring from the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the night, was that she could clearly remember her exact position as to where she was when the ring fell off her finger. After receiving answers to all of the questions that I had for her regarding where she was located on the beach and where the ring fell off in the water, I was very confident Rachel was clear about her positioning and I felt good about where to go in the water to look for her ring.
She knew where she was in relationship to the lifeguard chair and how many feet over and back she was from it to where her beach towel was. Rachel knew how many feet over from where her beach stuff was from where she walked towards the shore where the ring slipped off her finger. I even asked her about where her beach stuff rested in relationship to a trash can that was out there on the sand and she could tell me almost exactly where her things were without hesitation. This was a huge bonus for me when it was time to hit the surf!
On Sunday, June 2nd at 7pm, my son Danny and I drove a 3 hour trip to Ocean City, Maryland. I dropped Danny off at First Street so he could walk the boardwalk while I drove to 33rd Street to start the search. Unfortunately, there’s no telling what the weather will bring at the time that you want to get out into the water. This was one of those times! Two vicious storm systems rolled through the beach city with heavy downpours along with lightning and roars of angry thunder. I had put my wetsuit on and brought all of my gear out to the sand and within several minutes I saw lightning behind me, and thunder ensued. I returned to the car and took cover.
I had to wait for the first storm to finish which took about 2 and 1/2 hours to clear the beach and move far off into the Atlantic. I then got my things out of the car again and headed into the darkness onto the beach to try for the second time and then the second storm approached from inland on the Chesapeake Bay side. I couldn’t believe that yet another storm approached! The lightning and thunder made its appearance once again and I quickly got off the sand and back into my vehicle, where I headed off towards the main highway to take cover once again. I never will forget the amount of rainfall that took place within that two-hour period. I thought the world was coming to an end because there was so much rain! I just sat in my car and waited and waited and waited. Finally at around two in the morning, I drove back to the beach and got my equipment out of the car for the third time and went on to the sand to test whether or not the second storm was far enough away for me to make my entrance once again. You could see all of the sky electricity brightly shining in flashes over the ocean, but far enough away that I felt safe to make my entrance into the Atlantic. It was getting close to 2:45 in the morning in complete darkness when I approached the water. If you wonder what kind of feeling it is to start a search at such an hour in total darkness except for the headlamp that you’re wearing, it’s a pretty empty feeling which you have to just get over and raise the bar of confidence within yourself to believe that somehow, some way I can find this missing keepsake. You’re just blindly going about it, hoping that the coordinates are correct based on someone’s memory. If not, one could take hours upon hours to find the target and that is with the assumption that the ring is still in the ocean and not picked up by another detectorist. I made sure that my position lined up exactly where Rachel told me she was in the water when the ring slipped off her finger.
The ring search began and I moved around in the dark waters, starting the grid, hoping to get the signal that I was after as I walked in straight lines back and forth in the hotspot area that I hoped the ring would turn up in. If you don’t have the approximate weight of the ring, and you don’t have information from the owner as to how much gold is on the ring, the detectorist just hopes to get a reading that is in the approximate range of what type of ring might give off that particular signal on the metal detector.
I believe my search in the water took about 20 minutes or so before I heard the signal that I was searching for! The numbers that came up on my detector screen were the solid numbers in the range that a class ring for a young lady might give off. The numbers were similar but slightly variant but close together in similarity and that is very consistent with class rings that I have studied with my detector! I may have found exactly what I was looking for! I got very excited!
I started working on scooping up the ring, one attempt after another. The waves were rushing in and out, making my middle-of-the-night adventure a bit more complicated. But I was not going to give in or give up this precious target signal. Every time I made an attempt in bringing up the scoop and checking what was in it, I had the anticipation of hoping that the ring would show its shiny gold face. But each time I came
up empty-handed. Just pebbles, sand and rocks showed up in the scoop. I kept working on it over and over again and finally the ocean gave up the target that was approximately 6 inches deep in the sand in about 4 feet of water at semi low tide. My eyes went right for the deepest part of the scoop and there mixed in with all of the elements of the ocean, between the sand and stones my eye became fixed on the loveliest class ring that perfectly matched the photos of the ring that Rachel had previously sent me! I was beyond thrilled! I caught the little guy!
There was such a feeling of triumph! With all of the details leading up to the find, it really excited me that I overcame many obstacles: Rachel’s ring had been in the Atlantic Ocean now for 4 days, I had spent an hour on the phone going over details with Rachel regarding the ring and the location of where she possibly lost it, Rachel would not be able to be present with me at the search site and I would have to orient myself only based on Rachel’s recollection and information that she gave me, I studied multiple facts including the photos of the ring that she sent me, studied and compared multiple tide charts for the region, traveled nearly 175 miles, taking 3 hours to reach the beach, waited 5.5 hours for 2 storm systems to clear the area, having to abandon the search site twice before hitting the water, then entered the roaring waves of the Atlantic in total darkness other than the use of my headlamp at nearly 3am in the morning in 4 feet of water – AND THEN, AFTER ALL OF THAT WHICH I MENTIONED ABOVE, I SUCCESSFULLY PULLED OUT OF THE SEA, THE VERY PIECE OF GOLD THAT I WAS AFTER, MEASURING ONLY LESS THAN AN INCH IN HEIGHT FROM THE RESTLESS WATERS OF THE ATLANTIC! THERE IS NO GREATER FEELING THAN TO HELP SOMEONE ELSE FIND THEIR MISSING TREASURE WITH SO MANY FACTORS INVOLVED IN HAVING TO ATTEMPT A SUCCESSFUL SEARCH IN RETURNING SUCH A SPECIAL OBJECT TO ITS OWNER!
I could not be any happier for Rachel! Especially the moment I surprised her with the ring!
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I received a phone call from a gentleman who was very upset that his ring was lost in a pond while he was fishing by the shore. He cast out his line and while he manuevered the rod forward, his beloved wedding band went flying off of his finger and landed at the bottom of the neighborhood pond where he was hoping to catch the big one. Unfortunately, he let the most important one get away!
Lazar was so upset. His wife had consoled him and told him to let the ring go and that he could buy an identical replacement wedding band. This did not sit well with him at all. It was not the same ring that was put on his finger by his beloved bride a couple of years earlier. They had been a loving couple for fourteen years and got married just under two years ago. Their anniversary would arrive just weeks after the ring was lost, which was another sad thought for Stephanie’s husband.
Lazar was determined to get this ring back on his finger even if he had to get in that pond and fish it out himself! And that’s exactly what he attempted to do. Before having to go to work on the first day that it was lost, Lazar got in the pond and used a rake to attempt to push the ring over to the shore. Sadly, after hours in the pond, his efforts failed. When he searched the large piles of mud from the bottom of the pond that he pushed closer to shore, there was no ring to be found. He had to go to work in wet clothes and messed up boots because he didn’t have the time to go home and change before commuting to work. When he got there, his boss allowed him to leave and return back to the pond where he was completely obsessed with resuming his search to get this priceless possession back on his finger. For the rest of the day, Lazar continued to try to retrieve the ring from the water, but round two of all of his attempts led to no recovery.
The next day, the determined warrior went back to the pond and continued his efforts until he realized that nothing was working and he needed to try something else. That’s when the frustrated ring owner searched online for a new approach and he located The Ring Finder’s Directory and contacted me in the early afternoon. My impression of this gentleman was that he was tired, worn out and distraught about losing his ring and he was worried that he would never wear that sentimental symbol of his love for his wife ever again. I felt so bad for Lazar and I could hear the passion for his wife coming through the airwaves. To be completely honest, I have never heard of anyone quite like this man’s love for a woman the way he expressed himself to me that afternoon. This ring represented his eternal love, commitment and obsession for his bride of almost two years and best friend for the past 14 years.
I said to Lazar, « Lazar, listen to me. » There was silence on the other end of the phone as he waited for me to share what I could do to help him. I pronounced the hope that his heart needed to hear. I said, « Your ring will be back on your finger tonight. » What happened next was completely unexpected and I have never experienced before what transpired on the phone after I made that declaration to him. Lazar broke down crying and wept uncontrollably, sobbing with tears on the other end of the line. I was on the verge of crying myself because the entire moment was so touching. This man found relief knowing that he would not have to replace his original wedding band with something that had never witnessed the vows made two years earlier. I was just blown away by the love he displayed for his wife.
He must have cried those tears of joy for a good five minutes before we finalized all of the details and worked out the time frame that I would be arriving at the neighborhood park where the pond was located. I was beyond moved by all of Lazar’s emotions.
It would be a good hour and a half drive from where I was coming from but I couldn’t wait to do this search and recovery!
Now, what you are going to read next is also something so special that I may never encounter anything like this ever again. Lazar decided to take off work for the rest of this second day of missing the ring and guard the pond from any trespassers. He would stay at the pond area and spend his time watching over the area where he lost the ring. And while waiting for me to arrive, he would contribute to the cleanliness of the park by picking up garbage while he expected me nearly five and a half hours later that night! I couldn’t believe it! He did not want any Intruders to take the space where his belongings were by the water, near to where he lost the ring in the pond! And, he also did not want anyone to possibly obtain his prized possession if there was any logical reason for someone to be able to get a hold of it from the water, let alone have knowledge that the ring was accessible in the pond! But when it came to his love for his wife and how special this ring had meant to him, he wasn’t thinking about any of the particular logistics described above, but only what mattered and that was to guard what was rightfully his like a lion over his own territory. I’ve never met or heard of anyone so passionate about a special personal item even as important as a wedding band. But we are not talking about any average person. We are talking about a man who was completely driven by love and only love for his newlywed bride, Stephanie!
In addition to what I described above, Lazar did something else that was so touching and so far outside the box of the norm! He asked me sometime early evening if I would like for him to provide any food or drink for me by the time I arrived at the park that night. I told him that a bottle of water would be great if he had it. He obliged and not only did he provide a bottle of water, but he kept his car running with the air conditioning on high blast for all five and a half hours while he waited for me and placed a bottle of water up against the vent inside his car so that it would stay as cold as possible until my arrival! I almost did not believe that he did this but his wife volunteered to tell me that this is what her husband actually did for me as she saw me drink some of the cold water from the bottle that he handed to me later that night! She said that he wanted the bottle of water to be as cold as possible for me just to make me happy, refreshed and blessed, and so he came up with the idea of cooling it inside his car in the manner described. Have you ever heard of anything like this? Talk about appreciation and kindness as a response to his gratitude for what I was about to do for him! I was so beyond touched by this!
As I drove closer and closer to the area which was somewhere north of Baltimore (pretty far out there!), I texted Stephanie (Lazar’s wife) my location and approximately the time when I was going to arrive at the park.
When I first got to my destination, I was on the other side of the pond and I could see the family (husband, wife and child) all hanging out by the water’s edge anticipating my arrival. I came around the other side and got out of the car and immediately Lazar and I greeted each other with a man-hug as if we were long-time buddies from years past! It meant a lot to me that he thought of me as someone close to him already with what I was about ready to help him with. I met his wife and child and soon after all of the greetings, I got all of my equipment out of the car and prepared for the water search that was about to ensue.
By the time I got in the water and positioned myself close to where Lazar recalled the ring entering the water, it was dark outside. I had my wetsuit on, headlamp on my head, my sand scoop in one hand and the metal detector in the other. I could not have had a better group of fans cheering me on! After just a few false targets that I pulled up out of the water, I finally nailed the signal that I was looking for! Instead of using the scoop to remove the object from the water, I decided to reach down with my hand and grab the target with my fingers under the metal detector coil. I was confident that I found what I was looking for because the object felt round and hollow in the middle! I pulled it out of the water and yes, it was the handsome diamond filled tungsten carbide wedding band that I was looking for! This thing was one heavy piece! For a minute there I actually thought it was something else besides a ring because of the extreme weight that it possessed. But just like the degree of love that Lazar had for Stephanie, so was the heaviness of this love story represented here coming out of the water!
I remember raising the ring with my hand facing Lazar who was at the water’s edge, and once again I will never forget that particular scene. The man broke down crying with tears of joy as he could see the wedding band facing him and it was just too much for him to take. He moved over to the grassy area away from the shoreline and he got down on all fours and wept with such an intense emotion of happiness! Immediately, his family came alongside him and touched his shoulder and embraced him so very lovingly.
I came out of the water and moved over to where everybody had congregated and filmed this moment of man and metal being reunited once again! At some point I really didn’t know what to express anymore because it was just too moving to say the right words just watching this man unload his heart of love and feelings of relief and gratitude. I embraced Lazar and we celebrated the return of the wedding band to his finger was placed back on his hand moments later.
I also had the privilege of returning to the water to search for their son’s fishing lure which got stuck somewhere in the pond while the boy was fishing earlier that day waiting with his father for me to arrive. It could have been a long drawn-out recovery because of all of the potential targets that were beeping on my detector screen, but the young man had a pretty good idea as to where the lure ended up and within a couple of minutes, I was able to bring his lure back to surface and into his hands it went! He was so happy!
That night searching for the wedding band and the lure was really something special for me which I will never forget. Lazar, his family and I bonded in a very deep way and I think we will always be friends because of the happiness that we all took part in receiving through the celebration of the return of Lazar’s ring. I will never be able to completely describe it with words because of how special everything was that night by the pond.
After taking some pictures together, we all packed up our things in order to prepare to leave the park. I smiled as I looked over and saw the family work as a team to pack up all of the camping chairs, and fishing equipment that was out by the pond for the entire day and evening.
We said our goodbyes with hugs and with the assurance that we would stay in touch with one another. I look forward to getting together with this family at some point to have a meal together and reflect on that memorable evening when we all celebrated the successful return of Lazar’s wedding band! What a special time it was for me to be a part of such happiness!
Lazar’s Testimonial:
« As any young married man would do, I made a mistake. I went fishing and during a botched fishing rod cast, my wedding ring came off my finger. I jumped in the pond to try and save it but it was a failed attempt. After numerous hours of searching, I had the idea of searching for people that could maybe help me find my precious ring. I googled « ring finders ». It led me to THE RING FINDERS and Mr. Brian Rudolph. I sent a text not thinking that I would get a reply and no more than 20 minutes later, I received a phone call. I stated my name and told him what happened and before I could finish, he said these words which I will never forget! “Your ring will be back on your finger tonight. » I immediately broke down into tears on the phone. I never thought I was ever going to see my wedding band again. A few hours later and after a couple of phone calls back and forth, I met the man that I spoked to on the phone. An angel. He got set up as my small family watched. He got right to work and 10 minutes later he found my ring! It was unbelievable! This man saved my soul! There’s so many more things that I could say about Brian but there wouldn’t be enough lines on the paper. How can you describe someone that does what he does for others? He’s an angel, inspirational, positive and a life saver! There’s not enough words to best describe Brian! I could never ever thank him enough! »
– Lazar W Cooper
Taneytown, Maryland
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO OF THIS FANTASTIC SEARCH STORY:
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
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My searches don’t just deal with rings, and rings, and more rings! But every so often, I get the special phone call to conduct a search for a lost key or set of keys.
Jennifer is a professional dog sitter in the Washington D.C. area. She checked out a directory online called The Ring Findersand then contacted me early on a Sunday in late March to see if I could search for a key that she lost while taking one of her client’s dogs out for a daily walk in Rock Creek Park in the District of Columbia.
This key was not just any key! It belonged to her client’s house who owned the dog that she was taking out that night in which it got lost! Not good! Especially because all of the locks pertaining to this key would have to be replaced if it was not recovered! Expensive indeed! There was also another serious factor. Jennifer mentioned to me the urgency of finding the lost key because there had been a number of auto thefts in recent days and weeks in the neighborhood. If the key fell into the wrong hands, this could put her client’s family at risk for a break-in! Again, not good at all!
So, I immediately made my way into the District in the early evenin hours. Meeting Jennifer and her fiance’ was a real pleasure! They were just as committed to the search as I was about to embark upon. The two of them searched all throughout the evening, the night before, and neither one of them had any luck in retrieving the key. That’s why I was called in to help out.
I explained to the engaged couple that our job was to find the key together and that it didn’t matter who ends up finding it! We just needed to get it back! I find that just my presence and abilities to find lost things, re-motivates the one who lost the item to partner up and make a new determination to get their prized possession back!
As a team, we set off to the park and retraced Jennifer’s steps as best as possible to conduct the search. I probably spent a good 30 minutes metal detecting various parts of the park where Jennifer had walked the dog, before heading down a hill, along a path that took us towards a road at the bottom of that park section. I was pretty confident that the key was definitely not in the areas that we searched.
Jennifer’s fiance’, Edward, carefully looked to the left of the path that started to wind around a bend, while I detected along the right side of the walkway. No more than a couple of minutes had passed, (just as I had been encouraging the couple that the key could turn up in the very spot that they had looked over multiple times) when Edward excitedly announced that HE FOUND THE KEY! We were all elated! I was so happy for the lovely couple!
This story is an example of an item that was found as a result of us all working as a team and not just « handing over the keys » to the metal detectorist to solve the mystery! In this case, they actually said that they wouldn’t have returned down to the lower section of the park (because they had already searched and searched the spot where the key was actually found and to no avail over and over again), had it not been for me having to search in the lower regions of the park path. So, we all played a part! They unnecessarily apologized to me for sending me to the search when it turned out that one of them ended up retrieving the key. I explained to them that I truly meant what I said earlier when I shared that this was to be a team effort! I stood behind my words because it’s not about who finds the lost item, but rather it’s about getting that item back! And in this case, time really was of the essence!
Jennifer contacted her clients with the fabulous news, which brought such relief to their minds, and then we headed back towards our cars at the entrance to the park.
This recovery of the key was a story of team work! It didn’t get any better with the outcome! I even had enough time that evening (it was 8pm by that point), to pick up a pizza, and drive to 2.5 hours to Philadelphia through the night to bring a birthday cake to my son, Danny, who turned twenty-one years old on this 31st of March! I had just celebrated with him on Friday through this Sunday, 1am this morning, because he finally became legal! I didn’t want him to go to bed at the tail end of his birthday without some more cake! (He is in his third year of college at the time that this story is written). It was a fantastic day and night all around!
I told Edward that he was the hero that night in spotting the key! I also told him that this was great practice for him in regards to their future marriage! I said with a smile, « There will be a whole lot more opportunities, Edward! A whole lot more! » We all laughed while Jennifer hugged her best friend and hero of the night!
Check out the video of my search for the key with Jennifer and Edward!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Blue Sapphire Encircled with Diamonds Engagement Ring
Not all searches are outside! This story is about an IN HOUSE search! They are not as common, but I do get calls to come out and search for missing items inside homes where people have looked and looked and nothing would come out of their « hours into days » searches. What a fantastic story this is!
I got a text and call from Megan who sounded frantic about the disappearance of her irreplaceable engagement ring! This ring was handed down from her grandparents and Megan and her fiancé’ designed a new ring setting for the beautiful blue sapphire stone and diamonds surrounding the large stone. She checked out The Ring Finders directory and then contacted me immediately. I asked a billion questions about where she and her fiance’ Danny looked in their apartment. I asked if toilets were flushed, if the garbage and litter box were searched and then thrown away. I asked about the garbage disposal, checking clothes, looking in the washing machine and searching the dryer. So many more questions were asked. Megan and Danny reviewed their own in-house checklist and the ring strangely never surfaced. This went on for a very long time and then they started getting worried that the ring would never turn up.
Megan shared the disappearance story like this: Most nights, she comes home and begins cooking dinner. She takes off her engagement ring and places it in her pants pocket. She hovers over the kitchen sink and does all of the food preparations. The night of the disappearance, Megan remembered putting the ring in her pocket in order to slice and dice vegetables. She finished making dinner and the engaged couple enjoyed their meal together. It was sometime later that evening, after all of the dishes were washed and all of the pots and pans were put away, that Megan remembered that she had not placed her ring back on her finger. She reached into her pants pocket to retrieve the ring and it had vanished! She checked again and again and again! Danny would get in on the search and he too checked her pockets several times before searching the rest of the apartment.
On the phone with Megan, I continued to give suggestions as to additional places to search following a very extensive interview with her to gain the entire story of what she was doing prior to the disappearance of her beloved engagement ring. I then went back to asking questions, and finally we had exhausted every angle to this mystery. I gave Megan a list of places to re-check and check again and again! Many a times people are so close to finding the object but their eye or hands are just not in tight enough focus or not connected enough with their touch to realize the item is really right in front of them! I asked Megan to spend another few hours dedicated to searching the apartment one more time with Danny and then to call me if nothing turns up.
Several hours later that same day, Megan and Danny called me once again and shared that they had come to the place of exhaustion. They needed another pair of eyes! This is exactly what I bring to the « scene of the crime » – another vantage point, another angle, another way of looking at the same things that others have already observed and searched. So, I headed to Washington D.C. after coming from Annapolis, MD, and met the young, frustrated couple outside their lovely apartment complex just north of Georgetown.
Danny and Megan were sitting out front on a ledge waiting patiently for my arrival. I felt so bad for them because they had given it everything they had to find the ring, but still nothing turned up. We greeted one another and then the three of us headed to their apartment to conduct the search.
The first order of business was to check the garbage disposal. Nothing! Next, I had them bring all of the garbage in house to me (trash from the kitchen, bathrooms, office and bedrooms). I checked with my metal detectors and only trash metals were discovered – no jewelry. Before searching each room, I took off my gloves and called for Danny’s attention who was getting additional trash from one of the rooms. I essentially said, ‘Hey Danny, do you mind if I metal detect your fiance’s pants?’ (refer to the video account for the exact quote). It sounded quite odd at the time, but I wasn’t intending there to be anything weird sounding about it, but we all laughed! Danny answered back something like, ‘If Megan is o.k. with it, I am good.’ (again, refer to the video for accuracy on this). I proceeded to declare, « Bring me the pants! »
Megan brought the pants and I instructed her to lay the pants over a wooden chair for me to use my detectors to analyze the garment. There were two zippers on this very petite pair of pants, but no other metals were sewn on the garment. The couple swore by their multiple attempts in searching to find the ring in the pants but they said they both kept coming up empty handed. I explained to them at some point in their apartment and on the phone earlier that day that by them checking all of those times really didn’t mean a thing anymore! Why? Because they came up empty handed and because I find items all the time where people have checked over and over again but came up with nothing! That’s why I was called to come over and conduct a search myself as if one had never been conducted previously!
You’ve got to watch the video for the conclusion to this story! See below!
Spoiler Alert!
I worked my way into Megan’s pants pockets and placed my finger in the very petite spaces right down into the crevices of where the seams met. I finished checking the first one and proceeded to check the second one. I recall hearing the couple share that both of them had checked over and over and both of them concluded that the ring was definitely not in Megan’s pockets because that was the whole reason that they invited me in on the search! Well, as we were all talking, I made my way deep into her second pocket (remember the pants were draped over a wooden chair). I recall spending a good amount of time making sure my finger didn’t miss a thing in there. And it was a good thing that I took my time, because as we were all talking, my finger felt something hard deep into the tiny pocket! I mean tiny! It was wedged all the way into the deepest space where the seam closes up. I dug the object out and my finger naturally slipped into the center of the object and that’s when I knew that I had found what this beloved couple was looking for! I found the gorgeous sapphire and diamonds engagement ring! I brought it out of the pocket, kept it between my fingers and shared the awesome reveal! I didn’t have the positioning to do a fake-out because the couple was looking on and I thought it best for Megan and Danny to just get the pure pleasure out of seeing the ring reappear out of the very place that Megan had remembered tucking it in her pants pocket all along! They were so happy! I could not have been more excited and relieved for them after the panic that they experienced for th elast couple of days!
I am beyond thrilled for this lovely engaged couple, that I could be a part of finding something so precious as this family heirloom engagement ring that had gone missing (I believe the ring gets modified with additional diamonds each time the next generation in the family receives the ring)!
I found out later that the ring may never have been recovered or that it could have been permanently damaged with the precious stones lost forever, because the pants may have ended up at the dry cleaners or in the washing machine / dryer soon thereafter! So glad we found the ring before anything unfortunate could have happened to such an « endless story of love »!
YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS VIDEO OF BRIAN RUDOLPH’S IN-HOUSE SEARCH!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
14 Karat White Gold Engagement Ring Encircled with Diamonds
14 Karat White Gold Wedding Band Encircled with Diamonds
(Both were soldered together to form one ring)
This next story that I’m about to share will definitely go down in “metal detecting search history” as one of the most entertaining and unusual search and recovery accounts ever told. I may not get another one like this, or at least for a very very long time. So this story brings so much pleasure to me to share this one with you!
The ironic thing about this amazing story is that 5 days earlier I was doing a search in Boyce, Virginia for a woman who lost two missing rings. Unfortunately, neither one were recovered. We believe they were picked up by someone shortly after the rings fell to the ground. Without giving Dominic’s story away, I’ll just say this: While I was doing this search for the woman in Boyce, I actually asked God at the Virginia search site if He would help me find her rings in a particular area that I have always wanted to find a ring that had gone missing! I have made that same request to God several other times in the last few months while I have been on searches. Well, it didn’t happen in Boyce, but it sure did happen at Dominic’s and Abbey’s estate in Owings, Maryland! Never would I have believed that God would have given me the desires of my heart so quickly after I prayed these prayers! What a great God He is! And of course, most importantly, I was able to help Dominic recover his wife’s precious 14 karat white gold, diamond covered engagement ring and diamond covered wedding band (they were soldered together)!
I got a phone call from Dominic who contacted me from the The Ring Finders directory. I immediately asked him if a particular scenario had taken place before he shared what happened to the ring, and he did in fact confirm my suspicions. For the sake of privacy, I will just tell you what happened without going into too much detail about why the ring went missing. Regardless, the video tells all and Dominic felt comfortable enough sharing on social media this amazing search and recovery story!
Three days before I got his phone call, Dominic and his wife Abbey were in the backyard of their three and a half acre estate. One thing led to another and Dominic happened to launch his wife’s 14 karat white gold, diamond covered engagement ring and diamond covered wedding band (they were soldered together). We aren’t talking about a few trees! It’s a ridiculous forest back there! Dominic immediately went looking for the ring after it took off into the woods, but he couldn’t find it anywhere in the very dense forest which dips downward into a swampy, muddy creek area at the bottom of the hill. He ordered a metal detector on Amazon after the first day of looking, and even that proved to be another failed attempt.
His account on the phone was identical to his account when I reached his property later that night at around 9:45 p.m. (3 days after the ring was lost in the woods). He was absolutely convinced of what he remembered happening. He was between two sheds that were at the place where the tree line began. He even had sticks on the ground marking exactly where he was when he threw the ring. When it went flying, he specifically remembered it going right between two trees and then straight through the forest and presumably down the hill. The strength in which he exerted gave Dominic confidence that the ring could have absolutely hit the bottom of the hill into the swampy creek. As I shared above, he bought a metal detector on Amazon and searched for an additional 10 hours but to no avail! He was done. He had given up looking, detecting and using words that I cannot describe on social media! It was time that he called a professional; someone who could lend a hand to this strange “ring gone missing” mystery.
When Dominic called me, I told him that after the search was over, he needed to send his metal detector back to Amazon for a refund! The ring would have to be somewhere on his property even though he spent three days searching with no luck, because nobody would be trespassing on that private property area that Dominic and his wife Ashley owns. The ring was somewhere out there. It was just a matter of where and how much time it would take for me to find it!
As I shared, I got out to the property at around 9:45 p.m. and immediately started pulling my gear out of the car. I love night searches. In fact, it can be a great advantage to search for missing items in total darkness with the help, of course, of my headlight. I was hoping I would see a shiny brilliant diamond ring glistening through the leaves that were scattered everywhere in the forest! Dominic took me to the “scene of the crime” and he reviewed with me the story from beginning to end as to where the ring was before it was tossed and where he believed it ended up.
I did not mention to him at the time that I was thinking how strange it was that he searched for so many hours with the metal detector and he still couldn’t come up with the precious keepsake. Even with a bad detector, this was dense woods we were talking about here. Not some overly populated residential or commercial area. Any detector will pick up the metal signals and there should not have been so many that it would cause him frustration by looking at all the metal on the surface of the leaves or just below some of the leaves. And in fact that is what he said. There wasn’t too much metal as you go down the hill. There was quite a bit of scrap metal and small pieces of aluminum towards the top of the hill where the woods begin, because the previous owner threw scrap metal into the forest at the edge of the lawn.
The other side of the coin is, that metal detectorists like me are sent out because even with a little bit of metal out there, people are convinced to metal detect only in certain areas and not to look “outside of the box” in areas that you would never think to look at.
I started out into the woods with Dominic after he took me from the top of the hill all the way down to where the muddy creek was located. That’s where I started metal detecting in every area down at the bottom. I was wearing my very tall waterproof boots (they looked like fireman boots), and the mud was so thick that when I tried to pick my boot up out of the mire, my foot would come right up out of the boot! It was almost as bad as quicksand!
Dominic showed me where he even cut down trees at the bottom of the hill across from the creek area. This guy was totally determined to find that ring! But even with all his cutting down small trees and tall bushes, his efforts were still not enough to find what he was looking for!
My next focus was to metal detect all over the leaf covered hillside. There was metal here and there but nothing that came up as a precious piece of jewelry like his wife’s engagement ring / wedding band! I searched farther over to the left and farther over to the right and made my way up to the top where the tree line began and then headed back down to the left and right areas once more. My new found friend got out his metal detector that he bought from Amazon a few days before and started searching, as well. If we were in a different location, I would have encouraged the owner of the lost property to refrain from using their detector if it was a cheap device as most homeowners purchase to find lost property. But, in this case, it was an advantage for us to have more searchers because there was only so many pieces of metal out there in the woods. We were looking for a surface find which may have only gone below the surface of the leaf beds. And there were tons of leaves! So, it was quite possible that Dominic could find the missing ring if he looked in areas where he had not searched prior to this evening.
Without reviewing the video (which I have not done yet at the time that I am typing this account), I can only estimate that we spent around 1 hour and 45 minutes of search time and we still came up with nothing. I believe on the video I began to talk with Dominic (and even to myself) about the next strategy that I believed we needed to implement since we were coming up with nothing. I was confident that I had done an excellent search grid all over the property starting from where the tree line began, heading down to the bottom of the hill and working towards the left and right sides that were even out of the range of where Dominic recalled launching the ring.
It was at this point in the search that I told Dominic that we needed to start searching the trees! We came up with absolutely nothing on the ground and I was pretty convinced that unless he chucked the ring way off beyond a 45 degree angle to the left or to the right of the area that he claimed to have seen the ring fly, Ashley’s precious property had to have landed upwards and not on the ground. I started thinking to myself how cool it would be if my theory was correct. I began to dream about finding it on a branch or in a nest of leaves somewhere in a tree above, just as I had daydreamed about it the other day in Boyce, Virginia and in those previous searches many months prior, where I thought it would be so cool to actually find a ring in a tree!
The odds of finding a ring in a tree are almost impossible. But not so in this case. Dominic told me that he had placed his wife’s engagement ring on a cord where he tied it around his neck for safekeeping while Abbey went away for a short while. The ring was to hold thoughts of her dear to his heart while she was on her trip. In reviewing the video account, at the time of the search, I was given an initial impression that the engagement / wedding band got separated from the cord before it was launched. But that apparently was not the case. The ring remained on the cord the whole time. So, at this point, when I got more clarification, I started reacessing the « crime scene » and I was more skeptical that the ring could have landed so far from the launch site. I had always questioned whether or not the ring could have really landed so far from the top of the hill, but now I really wondered, knowing that the ring was still tied to the cord. Dominic was convinced of what he saw and justified his account based on what he remembered and he verified that he used extreme force in the actual moment of release. In addition to that, he also used a test ring on a cord to see how far the ring could possibly travel. Excellent strategy on Dominic’s part! So I kept with the search in the areas where he swore the ring had traveled until the time that I realized we needed to start searching upwards.
I could tell that he wasn’t too fond of my theory even though he himself did some cutting town of some small trees and long branches the other day. But I was so grateful that he agreed to get on board with my vision and he started to assist in any way possible. I first wanted to use our metal detectors and just reach as high as we could to see if the ring landed on branches that were close enough to us without us having to climb or cut limbs down. We exhausted all of those possibilities and then within minutes of completing our metal detecting search in the reachable tree branches, he had come back from his garage with this amazing Silky brand tree cutter and pruner and he began to cut down small trees where I instructed him to do so. Some of these trees were towering maybe 20 feet or so in the air, though nothing was too tall or thick to attack at that point. Once the trees fell, I took my metal detector and swung the coil over all of the fresh branches and leaves to see if metal would be revealed. But unfortunately, nothing turned up.
At some point, we exhausted even that idea of cutting the small trees and branches to possibly expose the lost ring. But, I was still convinced that the ring was not on the ground, but that somehow the ring got lost in the trees. This would mean that Dominic’s recollection of seeing the ring fly straight through a set of trees and down the hill into the darkness was inaccurate. This is not uncommon. People swear by their stories but then they come to find out that they were completely wrong based on the actual reveal of the lost items. Because of their emotional state or sometimes what one may had been drinking or smoking, the mind can absolutely play tricks on you! In this case, drinking and smoking were not involved at the time of the disappearance.
Dominic decided to continue metal detecting down the hill and to go back to his theory that the ring had landed down in the leaves or in the swampy creek. I stayed up at the top of the hill right where the tree line began and I still felt it was important to look up and start scanning the branches and leaves hanging from the trees farther up in the air. Most of these trees were at a 45 degree angle or farther away from the place that Dominic launched the “missile”. Obviously, my search was completely off the course that Dominic swore by.
I was determined to find this ring no matter what it took, and at this point Dominic was fine with me staying out into the early hours of the morning if I had to keep searching. Finally, after many scans with my eyes focusing in the trees, slowly panning from the left to the right and then back to the left again, my eyes focused in on a brilliant little ball of light coming from around 15 feet in the air! As I began to look carefully at this reflective object, I noticed that it was swinging from a camouflage colored cord! I found it! I found the beautiful 14 karat white gold diamond engagement ring / wedding band which was covered with diamonds around the setting! I could not believe it! I was so beyond excited that it took everything in me to keep whispering into the GoPro and to not shout down to Dominic and share the amazing news! All I could do was stare up into the trees and smile back at what was wrapped around a branch or two with leaves everywhere around it! It looked like a snake that had wrapped itself around the branches and leaves! As I continued to be mesmerized by the shear beauty of the ring, it was almost as if it was smiling back at me, knowing that she was about to return to her proper love keeper!
Apparently, according to the location of the find, Dominic had not recalled correctly what had happened to the ring. This is very common as I shared above. When he fired it, his right hand, he released it with a motion that sent it on a 45-degree trajectory to his left and far up into a tree that caught the ring cord just as the tree line began! It did not even travel more than 15 feet into the woods! But it did go farther up and not farther down the hill!
I bet the video will not do justice to convey the stunning appearance and pure brilliance of the diamonds sparkling in every which way as my head light shined directly on the ring!
I wasted no time. I got my point-and-shoot camera out to take still photos and take some video with it, as well. I was not going to lose this opportunity to document such an incredible search and recovery which I may never get a chance to experience quite like this ever again! I was only disappointed that I couldn’t get the best pictures because of how high up the ring was and it kept getting blurry when I tried to focus in on it due to using all artificial lighting from my headlight and camera flash.
Once I finished, it was time to share the great news with Dominic who was getting extremely tired and was about to hang it up for the night.
As soon as Dominic got to the top of the hill, I brought him back to the very place where we began talking about the ring launch where he placed the sticks to mark where he threw the ring. I asked him to recount how he threw the ring and where he saw it go between the trees.
Then, I surprised him with my next statement by telling him, “That’s not what happened at all”. He responded with this extremely perplexed look on his face trying to process why I would make such a statement. And then I revealed the news that I had found the ring! Dominic was so shocked and so happy all at the same time! I have to tell you that I was so full of elation at that very moment of giving him the rundown as to where the ring ended up! I was given such a gift to come out and actually retrieve a ring in a tree! I don’t care what the reader thinks regarding the existence of God, because I knew He existed prior to this scenario and I was absolutely convinced that I was given the desire of my heart to be involved with such a search where I would discover a ring in a tree, just as I had asked God to give me such a search just several days before this one, and again, over the past many months prior! What are the odds of that?! At one in the morning, I called Chris Turner, the founder and CEO of The Ring finders in British Columbia, Canada, and he said that he had never experienced something like this in a search in the many decades that he has been doing this. Although, he said he did find a ring stuck in a tall hedge tree (the ones that grow really tall that provide privacy between homes).
Dominic could not believe it! He was dumbfounded and yet so relieved all at the same time! He was kind enough to give me some more time in taking some additional pictures and video. While he kept his Maglite shining up there in the trees, I shined my headlamp on the ring, as well, to get the best images I could with the limitations of artificial light shining on such a brilliance and sparkling piece of beauty!
Dominic eventually did the honors of cutting the branch down, which the ring cord had tied itself around for the past couple of days! He did the procedure with his extremely tall tree cutter that he used earlier in the evening. The ring was now safely back into the hands of the one who had picked out that gorgeous prize many years ago and who presented it to his beloved bride-to-be over years ago!
I won’t forget how excited the two of us were out there at the foot of the woods just high-fiving each other and hugging knowing that we found the mysterious lost ring! This had explained why all of his metal detecting and all of my time searching ended up with no results! Dominic even said that he would have never looked where I ended up spotting it. My thoughts are that he probably would have seen it one day, but no one will ever know just how much time would have gone by if he wasn’t totally focused and looking up at that very spot in the tree and not tuned in towards the common areas to search on the ground.
The two of us gathered up our gear around midnight and headed back to his garage with the biggest smiles on our faces and on our hearts! This could not have been a more successful and more exciting conclusion to my search that night! After I took some additional photos under Dominic’s carport, the two of us shook hands, gave a gentleman’s hug and wished each other well as I got into my vehicle and headed back home (about an hour and fifteen minutes away) traveling into the night.
What a fantastic recovery! I know I will never forget this night ever! I think I thanked Dominic just as much as he thanked me because I got such a thrill out of this search-and-recovery! Like I said before, I don’t care what any of you think, I really believe that God truly gave me the desire of my heart with being a part of this kind of search because I only started doing searches for people starting last year and I just started daydreaming about being a part of such a story just in the last few months leading right up to several days ago! This is something that could have never happened or if it would happen, who knows how many years or decades might have gone by before witnessing this kind of search! But no, When the Bible says,
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you, as well.” – Matthew 6:33
I really believe God did give me a gift to be a part of finding Abbey’s gorgeous ring and to forever hold a story that will be cherished for many years to come, all because I have been seeking Him first in my life! I consider this a little « extra love gift » from above! It has no Heavenly value, but just a little expression from Him that says, ‘You wanted it, ok, here, have fun with it, and know I am in your life even in the smaller, less important things of life. »
Thanks Dominic for contacting me to help you on your search for the missing ring! Also, I personally want to thank Chris Turner for creating such an amazing directory – The Ring Finders, in order for people to connect with metal detectorists around the world to experience such stories as I have just shared with you all!
CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE VIDEO STORY ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL: THE RING RETURNER
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Bridget’s 2 Carat Diamond Platinum Engagement Ring
On the morning of the 30th of January, I received a phone call from a woman who was extremely stressed out about her beautiful 2 carat diamond platinum engagement ring that went missing the day before somewhere between home and work.
Diamond and Setting Separated in Snowstorm but Ring Finder Brian Rudolph Miraculously Found the « Ice » in the « Ice »!
Bridget and her husband reside in Centreville, Virginia which is located 30 minutes from Washington D.C.. The night before, they frantically searched for the missing ring at their home and when they couldn’t find it anywhere inside and outside of the house, they resolved to go to Bridget’s work to search throughout her office, in the waste paper baskets, in and around the company kitchen area, and outside in the parking lot where her car was parked that afternoon. They tried everything, but they couldn’t find the ring anywhere. That’s when they finally resolved to look online for a professional metal detectorist and they found me in a directory of metal detectorists known as The Ring Finders. We can find what most people just cannot recover.
I was so happy to talk with Bridget and to try to help her find her abs
Ring Finally Brought Above the Snow!
olutely gorgeous diamond ring that meant the world to her. The first thing I did was to spend a whole lot of time on the phone talking with her about all of the different possibilities of where the ring may have ended up.
Brian and Bridget Celebrate the Gorgeous Engagement Ring Found!
She was extremely detailed about each scenario and it really helped me to paint an accurate picture as to all of the main areas that we needed to search first. The ring could have been lost outside of her home from the car area over to the house or it could have been lost inside of her work or outside in the parking lot. But she really believed that she was wearing it while driving home the day before because she felt that she would have recognized the ring missing on her hand as she was holding on to the steering wheel. A very important clue!
Bridget’s Lost 2 Carat Diamond Engagement Ring Back In Her Hands!
I arrived in Centreville, Virginia in the early afternoon and met Bridget outside of her home. She was trying to stay positive in the midst of many doubts within her that she might never see her engagement ring ever again. It’s because she and her husband Jim checked everywhere and nothing turned up. I reassured her that there was no compromise here and that it was not a matter of « if » we would find the ring, but « when »we would find it. She felt reassured about it and I told her that I would try my very best to find the ring and return it to her.
I got my gear on and started the hunt. I purposely started away from the house where people might get curious as to what I was searching for. Most people were still at work and so searching in the open areas first would allow me to get the exposed areas eliminated before people got back to the neighborhood. I didn’t want to alert any of the neighbors that something important was lost, just in case they might want to search themselves. There was a high probability that the ring was lost near the steps of the house, perhaps buried in the bushes. You see, she remembers reaching for her phone from within her jacket pocket when she was outside shoveling the steps leading to her house door. It was possible that the ring had fallen off at that point and then maybe she shoveled the ring along with the snow, off into the bushes.
I did check the bushes but to no avail. I also checked Bridget’s car with her approval because there are times when the item is lost somewhere in a vehicle even after the owner looks over and over again. It was definitely not in the Audi. I checked the parking lot and the surrounding sidewalk areas and lawn areas near the walkways but nothing turned up. The next order of business was to check the grassy areas on either side of the sidewalk leading up to Bridget’s house. This took a considerable amount of time because there was still a sizable amount of snow on the ground from a previous snow fall.
Bridget’s Amazing 2 Carat Engagement Ring Found in Two Parts in Snow!
When I could not find the ring, even though I checked plenty of possible signals, I took a break from detecting and spent a little bit of time researching my database of previous finds and the signal numbers that were seen with similar rings that were lost before.
I was then back at it, looking intently with my metal detector to locate Bridget’s beloved diamond ring. It wasn’t too long after I returned to detecting the front and side lawn areas of their house that I got the signal I was looking for! The numbers on the machine lined up perfectly with what I was studying earlier on my database. The target was at a shallow depth and I was confident more than ever that I had what I was looking for! I quickly searched the area where I detected and there it was, just below the surface in the snow! I found the ring! I was beyond elated! Because the ring could have been anywhere according to Bridget, we scored a huge home run! I went to the car and got my camera and returned at once to take some pictures before telling Bridget the great news. This is when things got a little dicey. My search was not over!
I was so excited when I found the ring that I didn’t think to dust it off to review the condition of the jewel. You see, it was just lying under the snow and nobody had walked over it since yesterday afternoon. So I didn’t think that there was any need to do a thorough review of it before returning to the car to retrieve my camera. But when I dusted it off to get some better pictures of the diamond ring, there was one big problem! There was no diamond in the setting! I was blown away by this discovery because there was still plenty of snow and ice on the ground and it would have been nearly impossible to find a 2 carat « piece of precious ice » in the midst of all of that cold, white ice outside! My heart was so discouraged. The ring setting was mangled on one side and it was most likely accidentally damaged when the owner was shoveling the front steps.
Bridget Smiles Again After 2 Carat Engagement Ring is Found
The only thing I could do at that point was to carefully sift through the snow where the ring was, with the hope that the diamond was resting close by to the setting. This assumption meant that the diamond would have just come out of the setting when it landed in that place. And to my very happy surprise, that is exactly what happened! I found the diamond! I found it just inches away from the setting! I couldn’t believe it! I traced an imaginary circle with a 6 inch diameter around where I found the setting and sure enough this huge, gorgeous, priceless rock appeared in the midst of all of the snow and ice on the ground! It gave off the most amazing display of fireworks and sparkles! I found it! I really found it! The setting and the diamond were now both recovered and were both ready to be returned back to the worried owner who was inside the house doing work, hoping that she would get a knock at the door with a solid report.
I couldn’t wait to share the great news with Bridget! I knocked on the door and as soon as she opened it I told her that I found the ring! She was so beyond happy! I did tell her that there was good news and also some bad news and to grab a sandwich baggie from the kitchen. She met me outside and I showed her where the ring had rested near a tree in the front of the property and I explained what happened to the setting. She couldn’t believe that I found the diamond in the snow! It could have landed anywhere if the diamond came apart from the setting at any other place in time other than when it landed beside the tree where I found it!
Bridget was so relieved and grateful for what I was able to do to return the ring to her. I went inside and we took some pictures and video conferenced her husband Jim who was very happy at the conclusion of my search! Then, we said our goodbyes and I headed off to my next appointment.
Bridget’s Diamond & Setting Reunited on Her Finger Again!
Bridget and Jim’s smile and their feelings of elation, knowing that the ring was back in their hands just made my day! My job is just the most fun one could ever have! Bringing smiles to people’s faces can’t get any better than this!
Bridget had a birthday just a couple of weeks later. While she and her husband were celebrating at a five star resort, they sent me a photo of Bridget’s incredibly huge diamond that was now resting back in its proper ring setting, together once more on Bridget’s finger!
I can’t fully express just how special it felt to be a part of that reunion!
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THANKS FOR WATCHING!
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CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
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Meg’s 1 Carat Diamond 14 Karat White Gold Engagement Ring
Just a few days before I met Meg and Kenny, our Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia area had a significant snow storm. As in the case with this engaged couple, another ring goes missing as a result of newly fallen snow.
I received a call on the 17th of January from Meg, a resident of Arlington, Virginia who shared that she and her fiancé were out on their deck, as the snow began to fall so beautifully the night of the huge snow storm. It was very cold outside and when Meg pulled off her glove, her engagement ring went flying over the deck railing and into the snow. She and her fiancé searched for hours upon hours but they could not find the ring anywhere. It was as if it completely disappeared into thin air. When they could not find it that night and into the next day, they rented a metal detector and searched for Meg’s gorgeous 1 carat diamond engagement ring for the next couple of days (the two are getting married this October 11th!). Even though they gave it all of their efforts, their plan led them no closer to where the ring had gone missing.
Fiance’ Meg’s Beautiful Engagement Ring Found in the Snow
They finally gave up on the third day and by the fourth day they looked online to see if they could find a professional metal detectorist who could help them find the bride-to-be’s beloved engagement ring. The one they contacted happened to be in a state far away from them. However, since the gentleman and I are both members of the same national directory of metal detectorists called The Ring Finders, he referred the couple to me as I do searches for people in the Arlington, Virginia area, so it worked out well for me to come out that evening to recover their ring.
Meg’s Beautiful Engagement Ring Back on Display
I will not forget that night because it was freezing cold out. It was somewhere in the low twenties fahrenheit. After finishing up with a client in Washington DC, I traveled in the snow, across the Potomac River and met the couple at their Arlington, Virginia home. All three of us reviewed all possibilities of what may have happened to the ring. The very fact that they could not find it for so many days started to make them wonder what could have possibly become of their ring. I started to question if somebody picked it up along the narrow path behind their deck. They didn’t believe that scenario was possible.
I spent a good amount of time asking the couple many questions as to what they believed may have happened to the ring. They recounted where they stood and how the ring flew forward, most likely over the side of the deck railing.
As I have learned over time, there can be so many different theories that play in the minds of those who lost their possession, and sometimes none of those scenarios line up with what really happened to the lost item. We would surely discover at some point what held true in this case.
Fiance’ Meg So Happy to Have Her Engagement Ring Back!
After getting all of the information I could possibly gain, I headed out into the night, first searching on their deck with my headlamp, my harsh weather attire and metal detecting equipment, in search of the lost engagement ring. Kenny and I moved the furniture from one side to the other and I detected over the ice and snow that had built up on the deck; at least what actual snow was left on the deck. You see, earlier that week, Kenny and Meg took a huge flower planter of hot water and poured the water all over the deck to melt the snow and ice in order to hopefully expose the ring. But it didn’t work. They also collected snow and poured it out into the bathtub and melted it and covered the drain hole so that if the ring was in the snow, it would not go down the drain. I was so hoping that when they melted it in the bathtub that the ring didn’t accidentally go down the pipes but they assured me that they were extremely careful.
Brian and Kenny Celebrating the Return of Meg’s Ring
I must have been outside in the frigid cold for nearly two and a half hours searching from the deck area to down on the ground below and on the path behind the deck area, but there was no ring to be found. There were also a lot of underground cables and wires that the detector was picking up every which place. This was probably very frustrating for Kenny and Meg when they tried to use the rented detector, because there were too many distracting signals. Also, there were so many pull tabs and pieces of aluminum foil scattered about that it had to make their lives miserable trying to discriminate between treasure and trash. This is why most metal detectorists do not recommend people renting a metal detector or buying a metal detector for the purpose of searching out an area, because more times than not, their searches end up empty-handed, as well as their pockets!
After a few hours, I called it a night and promised them that I would work out my schedule to return the next day to attempt a second search. I’m a stubborn man and I will not be beat by any important piece of metal gone missing! Especially precious pieces of gold, silver and platinum!
Fiance’ Kenny and Meg So Excited to Have Back Meg’s Engagement Ring!
So the next day I returned and searched for hours. I must have gone over the same areas a dozen times but nothing turned up. I searched the deck again, I searched the path, under the deck on my hands and knees, searching along the fence line and over on the adjacent neighbor’s property just on the other side of the fence in case the ring flew over the fence and down the hill. I was getting a few good signals but no ring surfaced. I dug in the snow all over the area and nothing was turning up. Kenny would come out to check on me from time to time and I told him that the ring had to be here if he is was confident that it did not fall into the hands of someone walking on the path. He was pretty certain nobody had walked back there since the time of the ring’s disappearance. Therefore, my last idea was to return to the deck for another search, but this time I would try something new. I knew that it was unlikely that the ring ended up in the location that I would check, but it was my last idea for the time being.
I decided to move all of the furniture to one side again and then begin to gather up all of the snow and ice that I had already checked along with snow and ice that had accumulated under the aluminum siding of the house that came down to where the deck joined the back of the house. I used my knife to sweep the « runaway » ice and snow out from those crevices and shoveled it all into the master pile in the center of the deck. It would mean that only a little bit of snow and ice that was not accounted for originally would be detected, so I wasn’t very confident that it would make a difference, but I would try nonetheless.
Fiance’ Kenny Calls Meg to Share the Great News!
Meg was at work and Kenny was inside when I took my detector and did a few swings over the master pile of newly gathered snow and ice and to my surprise a new signal and number that correlates with a white gold type of metal illuminated on the screen of my machine! My heart raced and I hoped so much that these numbers and tones were telling me that I had gathered up into the pile the gorgeous 1 carat diamond engagement ring that I had been looking for for so many hours! I got down on my knees and began to search the place that the detector was leading me to, and yes, there it was! The missing engagement ring was finally found! Apparently, it had ricocheted off of the decks railing and bounced onto the deck floor and landed under the aluminum siding of the house where the deck meets the siding. No metal detector would have been able to differentiate between the siding and the ring because the ring was stuffed underneath the siding on the deck, and the detector would have just picked up the siding before it could reach the signal pertaining to the ring! My knife apparently pushed the lovely piece of jewelry out from underneath its hiding place and into the main pile to be checked and that’s when I found it!
I was so relieved to have found the ring because I really only had one last option before having to start all over again and hope to somehow stumble over the spot that I must have constantly missed, even though I didn’t think I missed anything at any place during all of the hours the night before and that day.
Brian Rudolph Celebrates Ring Return With Meg and Kenny
The best part of the recovery was doing a fake-out with Kenny when I asked him to come to the back door to ask him more questions about the disappearance of the ring. His face was just indescribable when he saw the amazing ring that he once had in his hand on the day that he proposed to Meg in Seattle, Washington. He gave me the best hug and we rejoiced together that I finally discovered the hiding place of that stubborn, but most fantastic looking gem!
Kenny then contacted his wife and you could hear how emotional Meg had gotten on the other end of the phone when she heard the wonderful news!
I love what I do for people because it’s so rewarding to see the smiles and hear the sounds of relief when something so precious and so reflective of certain moments in time is recovered and returned to the finger, wrist, neck or ear of the owner who lost it!
I was just so happy and relieved for this lovely couple. I did not want to get stumped over this missing ring. It just was not going to happen. I packed my things up and agreed to stop by later so I could take a photo with the two of them and we could all watch the video of the moment that I found the ring and see Kenny’s memorable reaction when the ring was revealed in my hand and he went bananas! That was a blast!
I left their property feeling so good about the end result! I pictured their upcoming October 11th, 2019 wedding to be a day when Meg’s beloved engagement ring would be joined up with a lovely wedding band that Kenny will be placing on his bride’s finger during that unforgettable autumn day to come! Congrats to Kenny and Meg for the ring returned to them and their wedding that will soon arrive!
Fiance’ Meg and Kenny Proudly Display Engagement Ring Once Gone Missing!
Thank you for reading my beloved story of this happy engaged couple who were so relieved that their ring was returned to Meg for the BIG DAY!
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CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
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The Eastern coast had an entertaining snowstorm the week of Sunday January 13th. Our area got around 11 to 13 inches of snowfall. For our area of Maryland, D.C. and Virginia that’s pretty significant! I got a call the day after the storm from a nice young man named Rohit, living in the Laurel, Maryland area. He sent me a text and left a voicemail message around 11am sounding quite distressed about what had happened to his ring. He said in the text, « Hi Brian, my name is Rohit and I lost my university ring in the snow, yesterday night in Laurel. I found you through The Ring Finders service on Google. Do you think you can help me find it today? »
I immediately called Rohit and scheduled to meet him near the location of where he lost the ring. It turned out that he was taking a walk in the snow with a friend around a community lake late at night during the snowstorm. Rohit recalled to me that he remembered making his way up a snowy hill when he slipped and he believed his Texas A&M University ring slipped off his finger at that point. He searched for a good long while with his friend in desperation of recovering his very special gold ring that he obtained upon graduating with a doctorate degree at Texas A&M University. Unfortunately, to no avail, and Rohit was empty handed that night. He said he barely could sleep as he thought about the possibility of not retrieving his priceless reward for all his hard work over the past many years.
As I shared, the snow fell heavily the night before and we had quite a bit on the ground and on the roads. But I managed to get over to his Laurel, Maryland housing development and met him over on the other side of the lake where he lost the ring. Rohit walked me between some houses overlooking the lake and over to the hill where he believed that the ring was lost. After asking him a long list of questions, I agreed
Rohit so happy to have his ring back! Thumbs up!
that it was best to start the search in the vicinity of where he was most certain that he lost the ring. I started at the top of the hill and then worked my way down. I was so hoping that there wasn’t too much traffic of people walking the same path after the snowfall. There were quite a few boot tracks left in the snow from the night before and in the morning.
Within no time, as I neared the bottom of the hill, my detector picked up a signal that matched what a heavy University gold ring would match up to. I didn’t even need to dig in the snow because just as I bent down to have a look at what my detector was picking up, I saw a glimpse of gold coming through the ice! It was Rohit’s beloved ring! I was so happy that I found it for him! It probably took less than 10 minutes of searching! As he was holding some of my photography equipment, I requested that he come down the hill and take a look at what I discovered. I know Rohit was getting excited as he took each step towards where I was standing. And just as he reached the place where I was standing, a huge smile came on his face
because he was looking directly at what I had discovered
Thumbs up for Rohit as he wears his A & M ring, Laurel, MD
moments earlier! It was just the best scene to see him reunited with his university ring!
I was so happy for him and I was overjoyed at being able to return such a priceless possession back to the hand that had worn it so proudly
before this incident occurred.
Rohit kept thanking me and I told him it was my pleasure to assist him in recovering the ring.
I am confident that if Rohit had waited much longer to call me and if I was not able to get out when I did to try to find the ring, someone else would have discovered his ring because as the photos reveal, it was a large shiny gold ring for any eye to easily behold! Enough boots had walked over it so that some of the gold was already peeking through the snow and ice.
Once we got back to my car I invited him to take a seat on the passenger side so I could drive him back to his place. I had no idea that he was going to walk around the entire lake to meet me earlier! Now, he was returning back home with his ring which was returned to his finger! He gave me a big bear hug
Rohit Stands at the Place Where Ring Finder – Brian Rudolph Recovered His Ring
of thanks as we said our goodbyes and then I was off to Virginia to another appointment.
Another smiley face made for one happy Texas A & M University graduate! Rohit said, « I’m going to sleep a lot better tonight! »
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rsity ring in the snow, yesterday night in Laurel. I found you through 
because he was looking directly at what I had discovered
