how to find a lost ring in Contra Costa County Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost Engagement Ring in Solano County…Found!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

The thing that I enjoy most about doing this work are the stories, and this was a really good one!

Mary and Frank are an elderly couple living in Solano County!  Mary had first contacted me to discuss a very important engagement ring, a yellow gold solitaire ring given to her 23 years earlier.  She had been doing a bit of gardening in the backyard when she thought to herself that it was probably a bad idea to have her wedding and engagement ring on while performing this work.  Like so many others have done, she removed the rings and put them into a pant pocket and went about her work. Later, when she tried to retrieve her rings only the wedding band was found.  She admitted to being so disappointed that she had used a bit of profanity and had been loosing sleep over the entire ordeal.

Mary had been previously married and enjoyed scuba diving. Her outings found her in contact with Frank, a boat Captain.  Frank is a Veteran Naval Aviation Navigator serving 3 tours in Vietnam and a sailing enthusiast who at the time co-owned a 40′ Valiant sailing vessel used to travel as far North as the San Juan Islands and South to Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.  The group enjoyed many trips together and a 30 year friendship. 23 years ago things had changed in their lives and Frank proposed to Mary and they have been married ever since.  To Mary, the ring represented 53 combined years of friendship and love.  I had to find this ring!

Mary led me to a beautifully manicured backyard and told me the story of how and when the ring was lost.  We decided to start with three target areas which included a small lawn area that was searched with no luck.  The second area didn’t reveal much either.  In our third target area between two small shrubs, a 12/13 on the Equinox 800…we made the recovery!!!

As I held up the ring, Mary was overcome with emotion and gave me a long and strong embrace, her nightmare was over. We took some pictures to commemorate the occasion and spent the next 20 minutes talking about travel, life, and family…the important things.  When we went into the couples beautiful home to give Frank the good news he too was excited, gave me a good handshake and made a really funny joke about kissing me!  Thank you kindly for your service to our country Frank!

To Mary and Frank I wish you all the health and happiness in the world.  Your story made me extremely happy and was an inspiration.

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

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Gold Ring lost in Hayward, CA…Recovered!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

Our first ring recovery of 2025 came while I was providing First Aid support for a Cub Scout knife safety/whittling class for our Pack.  I had received a call for assistance in Hayward, CA to locate a yellow gold chain ring lost in tall grass along a trail.  I informed them that I was committed for another two hours but would head their direction shortly thereafter.  I had them text me an address and informed them I would let them know when I was on my way and again when I was 10 minutes out.

My two older boys would accompany me to provide assistance and loaded their detector as we made for the location.  It took just under an hour to reach the site and a short 3 minute walk put us in the target area.  I provided some orange soccer cones for them to define the search area as I prepared our detectors. I was excited when my oldest boy got a promising hit on his Vanquish 540.  Upon further inspection it was found to be spectacle frames for a pair of glasses.  Moments later, I got a great signal on the 800 (12-14) and when pinpointed…we had made the recovery!!!

It was a beautiful day and I had almost wished it took a bit longer to locate while spending time with the boys among the tall Kelly green grass of the East Bay hills.

 

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

 

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Beautiful Vintage Ring Lost While Gardening…Found!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

It was early in the morning Saturday the 9th when I got a text message about a lost ring in the garden.  I was on my way out the door with two of my three boys to hand out flyers for the BSA’s big annual community service project Scouting for Food.  I text the couple back arranging to meet them for a search after the scouting project was completed.

I arrived at the home around 11:30am and met the sweet couple.  They told me the story of how they had been gardening together in the yard performing a number of different tasks.  The yard was huge and very nice and as we identified areas on interest, I created a kind of priority list in my head.  I explained a number of things about how the metal detector worked and how the search would be performed and we started in. As systematically we checked off site after site in the yard and had not made a recovery I could tell the couple (who wished to remain anonymous) was getting discouraged.  We looked at the very last location on our list when I got a very low blip and honestly if I wasn’t performing a search for them, I might not have bothered investigating it.  It was coming in at a 1 or 2 on the Equinox 800.  As I moved some yard debris I saw the ring and quickly recovered it.

When I revealed the ring to the couple they were both surprised and relieved that…WE MADE THE RECOVERY!!!!

Thank you to the couple for trusting me and the process to locate this beautiful lost heirloom!

 

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

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Platinum Wedding Band Lost in Benicia, CA… FOUND!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

Imagine this if you will… Your anniversary is 11-11-11 and only days away.  You are only hours away from leaving for an amazing out-of-state anniversary trip with the entire family.  In fact, you were supposed to leave earlier this morning. However, flights were canceled and rescheduled due to inclement weather in another state. Plans will have to change.

Now imagine it is a beautiful cool Autumn day.  The sky is blue and the grass is Kelly green.  Crisp and colorful fall leaves are everywhere.  In an attempt to make the best out of your rearranged plans, you pack the truck with bikes, balls, and games and head to the local park.  Upon arrival, the chaos of unloading everything required for a fun time with the family ensues.  Everyone is excited!

In less than an instant, excitement turns to panic when you realize your Platinum wedding band is no longer on your hand and is missing.  Everything stops and a search for the ring becomes the new priority.  Anxiety and stress takes the place of joy and excitement.  Hours into the search and the ring is still at large.  Most of the family have now returned home leaving you to continue the unwavering search.  Eyes glued to the ground you cautiously rake the area inch by inch hoping that the ring turns up. Leaving for your trip seems unfathomable without the object.

At some point, a stranger shows up with a metal detector.  Located on THERINGFINDERS.COM, an international network of elite metal detectors, your wife has requested help.  In less than 30 minutes help has arrived on the site.  You give the dashingly handsome detectorist a quick run down of the events and locations pertinent to his search.  He asks you to complete a search contract while he gets started, and before you can even finish the brief form the platinum wedding band is recovered and the nightmare is over.

To the family…I’m so glad that I was able to assist you and with an overwhelmingly positive outcome.  Happiest of Anniversary wishes and have a safe and amazing trip!

   

                     

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

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Lost Diamond Stud Earring…Found with a Dyson???

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

When you are « The Bay Area Ring Finder » and your wife looses her diamond stud earring…you had better find that thing!!!

With no fewer that 5 metal detectors, 2 sand scoops, multiple shovels, pin-pointers, a video-endoscope, and no shortage of other tools, trinkets, and gadgets for performing recoveries ALL laying around the house and the countless hours spent helping others, there would be no excuse I could think of for not locating this tiny precious stone for the love of my life!

When asked the when, where, and how, there would be few answers she could report.  Not a good start!  Suspected locations included the car, the couch, the master bedroom, and the bathroom.  My initial searches turned up nothing in the vehicle or the couch and I decided that if the diamond stud was going to turn up, it would not be the countless thousands of dollars of equipment that was going to find it.  Instead, it would be the trusty Dyson that was the tool of choice.  I systematically cleaned and vacuumed every surface I could find within the house over the course of several days.  Each canister was put into a rubber bin for investigation at a later time (I didn’t check each canister in an attempt to spur on my deep cleaning process).  Well, yesterday I felt like I achieved everything I could and took the rubber bin out for a look.  Visually nothing came up, but I ran the Equinox over it and it confirmed some sort of metallic object.  With a little more investigation… WE MADE THE RECOVERY!!!

   

The lesson learned in this case was this:  When any item is thought to be lost inside a home, it’s only with rolling up your sleeves and digging in that these items are found.  Metal detection equipment is not reliable equipment for the job and even though the video-endoscope might just be the ticket for some indoor searches, the key is just having a strong process to clean and organize anything in your path. A keen pair of twin optical scanners helps too.  Also, a reminder to never loose hope…there is always a chance!

And to my wife, I adore you and am so glad I was able to help you!  Thank you for indulging me the time and resources to provide this service!

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

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Platinum Wedding Band Lost in Sunnyvale, CA…FOUND!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

   

I have been requested for a string of esoteric recoveries involving planning, special equipment, and unusual conditions as of lately.  This was NOT one of them!

The most difficult part of this recovery would be the hour commute to the site.  I was requested to search for a lost platinum men’s wedding band on a sand volleyball court in Sunnyvale, CA.  This recovery was completed before the client could even complete the search contract.  Everyone was extremely surprised and happy to have located the ring so quickly!  The couple had only been married 6 months and it was the second time the ring had been lost.  I jokingly told them to keep my number on speed dial!  We made the recovery!

To the family… Thank you for trusting me with your ring recovery!

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

 

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Buried Sewer Clean-out’s…Located By Metal Detector!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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As a member of THE RING FINDERS community, I often get calls for missing items such as; men’s and woman’s rings, earrings, cell phones, and keys.  I even have gotten a number of requests for missing or locating property pins.  I also get to meet a great deal of interesting personalities while on these requests for assistance.  Ken’s story is a little bit different and takes place on a large plot of land.  A few years earlier, he had trenched and ran new sewer lines with a clean-out every 100 feet.  Before burying these lines he capped the clean-outs with a big brass fitting.  The thought was that these large brass caps would be simple to locate with a metal detector should the need arise.

Fast forward to May of this year, Ken purchased a metal detector and fabricated a probe to rediscover his clean-outs.  After several attempts at locating them and hundreds of probes pushed into the ground, I received a request for assistance.

Our First attempts found highly mineralized ground and a lot of debris around our target area.  Usually, I would move to a smaller coil, ground balance, and turn up the target separation on my equinox, however in this application we needed depth to locate what was thought to have been 16″ to 18″ down.  We searched for 2 hours in the hot days sun before concluding our search.  Ken and I had a lot of great conversation but both were disappointed in the result.  I left questioning if I had the depth required to even see our target.

I stewed about the issues we had faced for a couple of days and decided I needed another shot.  I utilized the money I received from our previous search to supplement the purchase of a new larger coil.  I turned my target separation down to 1 to achieve maximum depth and power and on Saturday I returned to the field.  Ken had located some older photos that proved we were indeed in the right area.  We gave it another shot and we found a target and probed…nothing!  Found a target and probed…nothing!  Our third and best target we probed…it was an area we had probed during the previous search…suddenly Ken hit something!  We both smiled, hopeful that the search was indeed over.  We both grabbed a shovel and began to dig and at just about 20″ in depth we located the first brass clean-out cap.  I think we were both equal part excited and equal part relieved.

Afterwards, we marked out 100′ up hill in the direction the sewer pipes traveled and began again.

Thank you Ken!  I enjoyed our conversations and the opportunity to work on a different project than those I typically perform.  I learned some valuable knowledge and procured new equipment to continue helping others.

The first clean-out located at 20″ of depth

15″ coil utilized to locate the target

Our field as seen from above

100′ uphill to the second location

The newly stubbed-up clean-out with marker!

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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

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Golden Pearl Earring Lost at Danville School…Found with Metal Detector!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

On the Hawaiian Islands there are no shortage of kiosks and jewelry shops where one can pick out your own clam and harvest a pearl.  These shops allow you to also pick out and set your newly harvested pearl into ring’s, pendant’s, and of course a pair of earrings.  They make a great souvenir from what most likely was a memorable trip to the islands.

This story started roughly 8 years early, when a young 8 year old girl did exactly that.  The pearls where mounted into a pair of very cute golden turtle earrings.  These earrings over the years became prized possessions, memories of a great family trip to the beautiful islands.  So, when the young teenager was spending outdoor time with her family over the holiday weekend and lost one of these earrings, it was deflating. The teen pleaded for her parent to find some way of recovering the lost item.

Being caring and intelligent parents, they discovered THERINGFINDERS.COM and contacted it’s local operative.  This proved to be a huge win for the family and the lost golden turtle.  Once we met at the Danville, CA school field it wouldn’t take more that 20 minutes to MAKE THE RECOVERY!  You see, we were able to run the metal detector over the mate of the lost earring and knew the exact signal we would be looking for.  True to form, after a number of passes in our grid search the earring was returned to the appreciative family.

Special thanks to the family for entrusting me with this search!

The precious Hawaiian souvenir!

An appreciative father!

The scene of the incident!

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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

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Multiple Pieces of Stolen Jewelry…Recovered!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

The story behind this recovery in some ways is very similar to that which I perform on a somewhat routine basis.  However, In some ways this was much different and took much more patience and thought.

At a little past 11am on the 10th of May, I was out metal detecting with my soon to be 5 year old son.  We had just pulled out our machines a Vanquish 540 (my sons) and my equinox to start a little park hunt.  He had dug his first target, a rusty nail.  I was just about to put my headphones on when I received a text message and then, a voice message.  It was a call for help stating that the previous Saturday there had been a home invasion where the thief took jewelry and ran, dropping the jewelry as the alarm went off.  They had recovered some of the jewelry from their yard but requested that I come help to locate any and all of the fallen jewelry I could.  And with that, we packed up our gear and headed 30 minutes south to assist.

In was now midday and getting warm when we arrived at the residence, a large and beautiful home on a hillside.  The owners met with us and thanked us for such a quick response.  They showed us the rear full height window that had been smashed and where some of the stolen jewelry had been recovered leading to the fence in the back of the large backyard.  The task was to search the opposing side of the fence which was a large parcel of open space on a hillside.  I was not sure if it had been a blessing or a curse, but only a day or two prior the city had mowed a 50 foot swath of defensible space  right up to the fence line.  The search was now on!

It did not take long to get my first hit, a silver cuff-link, and my next, a gold cuff-link.  And then, a very colorful sandal pendant with multiple gemstones. Most of the pieces were being recovered at the corner of the property line which was likely to be the location the thief jumped the fence.  I called this my « anchor point ».  7 pieces of jewelry were recovered from this area.  I searched the area until no other pieces or targets (there was a lot of trash there too) could be found.  I then established a grid and worked outward from my anchor.  Prior to the search the homeowner  had mentioned a gold bangle bracelet encrusted with gemstones that had been visible prior to the weed abatement operation.  As I spread out and expanded my grid, that was the next piece I recovered buried in the recently mowed weeds.  It was slightly damaged and quite a bit away from the spot it had been previously seen.  My guess was it had fallen prey to the mower, but I used a landscaping flag to mark the location it had been found and retrieved the beautiful piece.

All of this happened within the first 30 minutes of our busy search, and then… nothing!!!  The next 30 minutes of grid search only revealed trash and not much of that either.  And then, bang!!! A beautiful yellow gold and diamond encrusted earring.  A sight for sore eyes and our first new lead in the direction that the thief may have went.  Again, the piece was marked with a flag and recovered.

For the next hour, I worked the grid, expanded the grid, worked the grid, expanded the grid, but no new pieces could be located and the trail had gone cold.  It was now two hours of searching in the fully exposed sun with no new direction and seemingly acres of open space covered in tall dry grass.  The operation was shut down.

In all, we managed to recover and flag 9 pieces of jewelry, some of which were sure to be very valuable.  The beautiful bangle bracelet turned out to be very sentimental, a wedding gift from the brides mother-in-law on her wedding day and was the highlight of our operation.  Our client seemed to be very thankful for our efforts and we had indeed MADE THE RECOVERY!!!

8 of 9 Pieces recovered from the thief’s escape route.

The beautiful gold bangle bracelet with gemstones.

1 of 9 pieces recovered from the open space field.

The last and furthest piece located!

All smiles for a great recovery!

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

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Lost Gold Angel Cameo Ring…Found in Point Richmond, CA!!!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

It was a beautiful Saturday morning when we arrived at the community garden area in Point Richmond, CA.  Late on Friday evening I received a voice message from Frances stating that she had lost a very sentimental ring and wondered if I might assist in searching.  I called her back shortly after listening to her message and assured her that I would do everything I could to help find the ring.

We met in the garden the following day.  She did not know the exact moment the ring was lost, but was almost certain it had been in the garden.  She walked us around the garden area showing us the route and events that were revealed to have taken place 14 days earlier.  Since that time, the cycle of rain and sun meant new tall foliage had sprung up everywhere and to make matters more esoteric several areas had been covered with new wood chips.

My two young boys and I, armed with our metal detectors, set out to perform a hasty search of the garden area.  This did not result in the recovery of the ring and the area was expanded to additional areas that were thought to perhaps be hiding her golden Angel cameo ring.  As the day warmed up and it got closer to the lunch hour, Frances excused herself back home to meet up with a close friend for a bite to eat.  The boys, who had now lost all interest in the search and were helping other residence pull weeds and searching for bugs, were now getting restless and hungry.  I had just finished a complete grid search of the previously searched areas and although I can never say 100% certain, I was fairly well certain the ring was not in the garden area as supposed.

Moments later Frances pulled up in her vehicle with her friend and a smile.  As the story goes, while sitting at the dining table, her friend who was well aware of the missing ring and had helped with previous searches of the garden area and other spaces, had glanced down and noticed something under the table.  It was the ring…they had MADE THE RECOVERY!!!

After 2 plus hours of metal detecting in a pretty garden on a gorgeous day, we were all glad for a positive result.  Frances looked quite relieved to have the ring back on her hand were it rightfully belonged.

Frances, thank you for contacting me and The Bay Area Ring Finders for assistance.  The boys were very pleased with the $5.00 each you gave them for their part in the search.  You were great company and I very much enjoyed meeting you.  Best Wishes!

The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

Now offering Metal Detecting, Video Endoscope, and Magnet Fishing services!

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