Last week I was contacted by Ringfinder, Greg Larabel from Michigan, in response to a craigslist ad that I had posted for SW Michigan lost/found rings/etc. After talking a bit, he asked if I could help with lost men’s wedding band in northern Indiana. I said sure thing, and was given the contact info for the party that lost his ring.
Barry, had lost his ring while working in the water, pulling out old wood pier posts at his lake house. The area was full of weeds and has a very mucky, marly bottom, a good 6 inches of muck. He had pulled out a lot of the weeds and actually took a heavy duty pump and attempted to pump out some of the muck in the area he had lost the gold ring that he has worn for 38 years now!
I was somewhat worried that with all the stepping around, pulling weeds and pumping out the muck that the ring may have been pushed down beyond the reach of my detector. Was also worried that the ring could have fallen down into the 3 ft deep holes left from when he pulled the old wood posts out of the lake bottom.
Well, I gave it a go this morning, set up my camera real quick, started out finding a few fishing sinkers, a couple ring looking pieces of cut-0ff aluminum pipe and an old beer can. After about 8 minutes, I had now covered about 85% of the search area and was thinking to myself « I need to hear something good here real soon….! »
Got a nice sounding tone, took a scoop of muck, broke it up with my fingers and gave it a good sloshing. Could hear something clunking around in the bottom of the scoop. Looked in the scoop and could see something nice and yellow in the bottom. There it was! Gave a quick thumbs up and headed to the pier to reunite the ring with it’s owner.
Thanks again Gregg,
Here is the email from Barry to Ringfinder Gregg:
Gregg,
As you may have heard through Ryan, he did find my ring. It took him less than 10-15 minutes. Unbelievable! He did a great job despite what he said were challenges with lead sinkers, a nearby metal dock, and miscellaneous metal parts from long ago. It was in the area I had already searched. I was absolutely ecstatic and couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know how to thank him. There are no words to convey my feelings. The ring had been on my finger for 38 years. When I lost it, it felt like a part of me was missing. I had trouble sleeping for two weeks.
I have not told my wife yet as I plan to take her out to a special dinner and surprise her with it.
Ryan, I cannot express my gratitude enough and I trust the compensation was just. I hope your feeling of helping people is truly rewarding.
Thank you! And thanks to TheRingFinders.com for leading me to both of you.
Barry Smith
Also got the hunt and find on video….
