How to find lost ring in Snow Tag | The Ring Finders

On December 8th, I was driving home to Waukesha, Wisconsin, from a successful ring search in McHenry, Illinois when my cellphone rang. The call was from Kenosha, Wisconsin, resident, Cheyene Hoppe. Cheyene and friends were enjoying a visit outside a downtown building two nights previous. That’s when a family heirloom ring went missing in the snow. The gold wedding ring was inscribed with the initials of Cheyene’s great grandfather along with the date of his wedding in 1914. He was married in Lithuania and later immigrated to the United States. Cheyene lovingly wore the ring in his memory. Now it was gone. She was heartbroken.

In the European way, Cheyene uses her hands a lot as she talks. But a flip of her hand resulted in the heirloom piece coming off. She had the sense that the ring ejected from her hand in an upward motion. But there was snow all around, including thick bushes, steps and landscaping. The ring could be anywhere.

Using my XP Deus II metal detector and hand probe, I carefully sifted through the snow on both sides of the walkway, probing in and around the snow-laden juniper bushes. The ring was nowhere to be found. Only three search locations remained, two planter boxes and a larger, 5’ tall box with several inches of snow covering them. The box was behind Cheyene at the time her ring came off. It had a sheet-metal top, which made using a metal detector out of the question. Instead, I used a small hand-held probe which allowed closer contact with the metal. Moving through the snow a few inches at a time, I cleared nearly two thirds of it from the box when a distinct beep noise announced the presence of a target. To everyone’s surprise, it was Cheyene’s heirloom ring! It was sitting in the snow on top of the box behind where she had been standing two nights before.

The smile on Cheyene’s face certainly tells the rest of the story! And I am so thrilled that the ring’s amazing 111-year-old story continues.

Austin Gebert, was installing Christmas decorations in the front lawn of his McHenry, Illinois home when he lost his gold wedding ring. Nearly a foot of snow covered the ground. At one point, as Austin flipped snow off his cold bare hand, he felt the ring fly off. He told me on the phone, “It left my hand like a bullet.” The ring just vanished into the whiteness.

Austin reached out to me by phone on Sunday evening, December 7th. I arranged the hour-long drive the next morning and was greeted by Gabriela, Austin’s wife. She gave me a tour of the suspected lawn area. I noted several metallic Christmas decorations in the vicinity. These needed to be removed so as not to interfere with a metal-detection search.

An initial search failed to turn up Austin’s ring. I moved to a larger snow pile alongside the Gebert’s driveway where it had been shoveled. About 14 inches into the pile, I heard a faint signal in my headset. My trusty pin-pointer helped locate the target. Reaching in with my bare fingers I felt an unmistakable ring-like object and pulled it up and out into the light of day. Sure enough, it was Austin’s ring!

Since Austin was at work, I presented the ring to Gabriela whose face lit up like Christmas lights. Her smile tells the rest of the story.

Thank you, Austin, for the privilege of searching for and finding your missing wedding ring!