excalibur ii Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost ring at the Torch lake Sandbar returned to owner

This call is different than what I normally do.

I was at the torch lake sandbar and found a men’s wedding ring. I didn’t have a call to look for it I just found it on my own.

The ring had GPS coordinates inside the band. I drove to the location that was about 4 miles from the lake. I was greeted with a locked gate saying, « welcome your on camera. »  Well, that didn’t work, so time to figure out a plan B. I use an app on my phone called ON X hunt. I found the name of the owner of the property and then searched but could not come up with a phone number just an address 2 1/2 hours away from my house. I actually had to drive by the address when traveling for a family function a couple of weeks later.

I stopped at the location, and a woman answered the door. I asked her, « did your husband lose a ring at the torch lake sandbar? » She said no, but my son Sam did!

 

Lost ring found at the Torch lake Sandbar in Torch lake Michigan

I received a call today from this gang enjoying the day at the Torch Lake Sandbar in the rain.

They need help finding a lost men’s wedding ring.

I got to the location, and it was an easy search. They stayed in the exact location and waited for me to arrive.

I set up my marker stakes, then walked about 5 feet to find the ring.

Torch Lake Mi lost ring found with a metal detector

  • from Traverse City (Michigan, United States)

I got a call from Alex about his lost ring at the Torch Lake sandbar. He was out on the boat with family enjoying the summer on the water.

Alex saw his ring fly off his finger and land in the water by the back of his boat. It took less than 5 minutes to find the ring.

Lost wedding ring in Frankfort Mi found with a metal detector

  • from Traverse City (Michigan, United States)

I received a call from Julie about her lost wedding ring. It was lost a week ago. She was frustrated because she was using a metal detector and not able to locate the ring.

We agreed to meet a little later in the day, so not as many people would be at the beach. When, I got to the beach, I had Julie place a marker in the spot she was sitting. Then I set up two other markers to give me a grid line. I fired up the old trust CTX3030 and made one pass then turned around and got quarter signal with a gold signal. I pivoted around the quarter and honed in on the Gold signal. Dug 4″ down and found the ring. After I handed Julie the ring she was elated and doing the happy dance.

Custom designed Platinum wedding ring found at a Traverse City beach.

My wife showed me a Facebook post from Keri. She had lost her Platinum wedding ring while at a local campground beach when throwing a football. Her post told the location of the lost ring. I told her I could help, but she needed to take the post down asap. I informed her someone would go in and get the ring and keep it. She took the post down and I went to work.

This call should have taken me 20 minutes to complete but ended up taking 2 1/2 weeks. The beach she was at metal detectors are not allowed. I’m not going to go into all the details here. I’ll just say due to a miscommunication between the park staff and Keri the permit took 2 1/2 weeks to get. Once I got the permit, I read the whole thing to make sure I followed all the rules on the permit.  One of the rules was, I could not be in the swim area when the the area is open for the day. So, I waited till 10:00 pm and went to hopefully get the ring. 2 1/2 weeks is a long time for a ring to sit at a public beach. I know people have snuck into this area at night to detect it, also people camping metal detect the area not knowing they are not allowed to detect the area. One of the other rules is, I could not take any compensation for helping Keri. I left work early twice costing me 4 hours of pay and 5 trips driving to the park trying to get the permit. One other rule was anything I found that was not Keri’s ring had to be turned over to the Ranger station.

In talking to Keri after she lost the ring her daughter paced off steps from a buoy in the swimming area. 34 paces deeper into the lake and 21 paces toward the middle of the swimming area. When backup Dave and I got into the swimming area I paced off to the location and set up marker. We were in the water less than 20 minutes and had the ring. I checked out with the Rangers, turned in the pendant we found and emailed Keri I got the ring. We met up at 11:00 pm and I gave her the ring back. I accepted no compensation for this 2 1/2 week ordeal. I did not ask for a picture of Keri because all issues completing this call.

 

Custom one of a kind Gold Wedding ring found in lake Michigan at Lower Herring lake.

I was on Facebook last night and noticed a post from John saying he has been married for 51 years and his wife lost her Wedding ring in Lower Herring lake at lake Michigan. He gave very a detailed description on where the ring should be. I get very nervous when people give very specific directions online. I am always afraid somebody will go find it and not give it back.

About 45 minutes later, I get a call from John asking if I could help. I said sure, but I think this needs to happen tonight and not wait till morning. I told John if he would meet me and show me the exact spot they were at I would head out right away. He said he was good with that and gave me the directions to the cottage they are renting for 2 weeks.

I got to the cottage at about 9:30 pm and John told me we needed to use his boat to get to the location. We got everything loaded into the boat and headed out. Lower Herring lake dumps into lake Michigan through a small channel. People park boats before a coffer dam and walk to the mouth of the channel at lake Michigan. We got to the location and John showed me the area to search. Search time started at 10:00 pm. The water in the channel is about knee deep but moving very fast. Its very difficult to walk across you have to scoot your feet on the bottom. Helen got onto a tube and floated from the channel out into lake Michigan. When she got off the tube she noticed her ring missing and was devastated. John is a metal detectorist and searched the dry sand and into the water. He was having problems in the fast moving water and a knee that needs to be replaced.

I started using the ctx3030 but was concerned about breaking the shaft from the pressure of the water moving so fast. I was hanging onto the detector with both hands just to be able to get it to move in the water. I scanned the whole river and out into lake Michigan to about 15 feet. I decided to switch to the Excalibur II and go out into lake Michigan further. I was trying to do the best grid pattern in the fast water and being at night. Finally after 2 hours of searching got the signal I was looking for about 40 feet out into lake Michigan. I got the ring in the scoop pulled it out and thought this is no normal ring. I took the ring up to John who was waiting on shore and asked him about the ring. His wife had the ring custom made its a one of a kind. We headed back to the cabin to make his wife very happy with the find. I had a fun time on this search and spending time with John and Helen. The time on the clock in the back ground shows 12:23 am when we got back to the cabin. I thank John and Helen for the generous reward.

Lost Diamond wedding ring found in Traverse City, Michigan at Bryant park with a metal detector

I received a very nice polite call from Swapana asking if she could hire me to find her Platinum Wedding ring. I said sure and told her I could be at her location in about 1/2 hour.

I got to the location and her husband Brent met me in the parking lot. We went over the details while walking to the area they were set up at on the beach. They are in Traverse City for a family vacation and were enjoying the day at the beach. The kids were digging holes and having fun in the water. Swapana noticed her ring was missing. They spent time sifting through the sand with there fingers and had other people on the beach helping. They had no luck finding the ring. One of the neighbors on the beach recommended doing a google search on someone with a metal detector to come find the ring.

I got the search area was 8 feet wide by 8 feet long. She also walked to the car a couple times. I asked Swapana to move the metal chairs back a couple feet so they don’t mess with the detector. She replied they already did. So that told me to search a little closer toward the water. I started searching for about 30 seconds and got a good signal and the red dot on the Ctx3030. The numbers were right on the pull tab range. I knew by the tone it was her ring and not a pull tab. I bent down and stuck my fingers in the sand and pulled the ring out. Swapana was just finishing moving the two chairs and was turning to look back toward me and I handed her the ring. She stood there for about 10 second and could not talk in disbelief. Then I heard oh Shoot(not the word she used) he found it already. Her two boys walked up and were disappointed they did not get to see it. I told them if I found the ring to fast, I will close my eyes and they can throw it and I’ll find it again. The two boys though that was a great idea. Swapana was having no part of that and was hesitant to give me the ring back to do my close up picture.  I was happy to save the vacation for Swapana and her family.

Lost Platinum wedding ring found at Christmas Cove Beach in Northport, Mi

  • from Traverse City (Michigan, United States)

I received a late night email from Meghann that her husband Lynden had lost his wedding band in Lake Michigan at Christmas Cove beach earlier in the day. They spent from 4:30 pm till 9:00 pm looking for the ring but the waves and undertow was to bad to see anything. Meghann was researching underwater metal detectors and my information came up. I was actually down state 3 hours visiting my parents. I told her I could go search for the ring as soon as I got home. Due to the location I was not really worried about anybody else finding the ring.

I got home at 3:30 and loaded up to head to Christmas Cove. Lynden met me at the location to show me the exact the spot they were set up at. That always helps a lot and saves a lot of time. Gave me the indecent report. He was on his hand and knees with his younger children playing in the surf. He felt a rock bump the ring off his finger. He told me due to the large waves and undertow he wrote the ring off, I knew better though. The water was chocolate colored and the waves were crashing on shore pretty hard. The rain was starting back up so Lynden headed back home and was going to wait on my results. I made 3 passes back and forth with my Excalibur II then got a deep choppy signal. I dug down about 10 inches got the signal in the scoop and headed to shore with it before the waves got me. Dumped out the scoop and found the ring. Gave Lynden a text asking it he wanted this back. He immediately called and could not believe I found so fast it in all the waves and turmoil. He was about 15 minutes down the road so we met at a local grocery store.

 

Palladium wedding band found in Glen Arbor, Michigan

  • from Traverse City (Michigan, United States)

I got a call from Rocky needing help finding his Palladium wedding ring. He was in shoulder deep water in Lake Michigan and felt his ring slip off his finger. We agreed to meet Friday morning at 9:00am.

I asked the normal questions when we first met. We marked off an area 50 feet wide by 70 feet long in the water. Rocky is 6 foot 5 I’m 5 foot 8. I searched out as deep as I could go then handed Rocky my Excalibur II. Rocky searched the deeper area I could not reach. We had no luck in finding the ring, so I started searching shallower all the way to the shoreline. I could tell Rocky was getting discouraged so I had him go search the condo to keep his mind busy. Ended up grid searching the 50 by 70 foot area twice from two different directions and did not find the ring. This took 5 1/2 hours to grid search the area twice.

After the 5 1/2 hours in the water I was whooped and ready to call it a day. Rocky just happened to walk back down to the beach. I had already had a couple conversations with him about what had happened. He stated his ring has never fallen off before and was not loose. I told him again something physical happened to cause the ring to slip off. He was still sticking to the story of having the feeling of his ring coming off his finger. I told him if he wanted his ring back he needed to trust me 100 percent. I told him that people are stressed when they find out there ring is gone and that moment is burned into there brain that is where the ring is at. I told him your mind plays games with you and we need to turn this into process of elimination. That something physical happened to cause the ring to come off. He thought about it for a couple minutes then said I trust you. Then I asked him what else has happened the last couple days.

He said well, I fell out of a Kayak a couple day ago up the river. He said he did not tell me about it because there is no way he went 1 1/2 days without his ring and not notice it missing. I told him we need to go to the spot he fell in asap. We paddled up to the spot then I fell out of the kayak in the same spot. When I stood up I saw a shinny round looking object on the bottom. I turned on the Excalibur II to make sure it was metal. I got a really loud nice signal. Bent down picked it up and handed him his ring. His reaction was about 8 NOWAY!’s On the paddle back down river I heard him ask himself how he went 1 1/2 days without noticing his ring missing.

Lost Wedding ring found in the snow at the Grand Traverse Academy in Traverse City Michigan with a metal detector

I received a call from Anthony’s wife that he had lost his Wedding ring at work. I met Anthony about an hour later and found out what had happened. He had children outside on a nature walk at the school he works at. He felt his ring slip off his finder but could not concentrate on looking for it due to the children he had to keep an eye on. He came back after work and walked the area but could not locate the ring. The snow was about 5 inches deep in the area Anthony took me to. I started a grid pattern and walked about 8 feet and found the ring. It was stuck in the side of one of the footprints from them walking in the area earlier. I always like the easy short hunts.