Mark lost his wedding band while splitting wood in his backyard this past weekend. He removed his gloves a few times during the process and thought the ring must have come off that way. He searched the area for a few hours and even went as far as to disassemble the cord of wood to look for it. I received a call from his wife Lindsay yesterday who told me about the situation, and we planned to meet today. After a few passes with the Equinox, I found the ring in the soil under a pile of leaves. The ring is now back where it belongs!
If you have lost a ring or valuable don’t wait to call!
U.S. Air Force Officer, Paul, Beyond Excited to be Reunited With His Palladium Wedding Band!
Paul’s Palladium Wedding Band Still Showing Chocolate Cream Pie on the Rim!
Just after I finished a search for a missing ring in Annapolis, Maryland, I received a call from an Air Force officer who lost his palladium wedding band at a military fundraiser earlier that day which was hosted by his battalion at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Paul is a high ranking officer who had participated in a pie fight during the afternoon festivities. He went on to explain that the peaceful picnic ended up with the officers throwing pies at one another and he went on the rampage to take revenge on some of his men for smacking him good with a creamy pie to the face! As the battle ensued out by the picnic tables located under a park pavilion, the messy chocolate and cherry cream antics extended out towards an open grassy area. These men had the time of their lives while the family members were watching, laughing, clapping and getting quite entertained by the childlike behavior of these Air Force officers. Paul was throwing one of the pies at another guy when he noticed his wedding band fly off of his finger and land somewhere in the grass approximately 15 or 20 feet from where the pie crust and filling was being smothered all over the men. When the game finally came to a conclusion, it was all about hunting for Paul’s handsome palladium wedding band. Eight officers including other family members joined in the search but no one could find the ring. Even after everybody had left the park area, Paul and his wife continued to search for the missing ring for another few hours, but all of their efforts led to no avail.
This is where THE RING FINDERS directory came into play. Paul looked online to see if he could find any tips on how to recover a lost ring. THE RING FINDERS website came up on his Google search which led this desperate military officer to contact me.
I assured Paul that I would do everything in my ability to recover his missing wedding band and I told him that I could meet him out at the air base the following day since it was already late in the evening. He was quite happy that I could fit his need into my schedule and that I was so positive regarding the recovery of his ring (if it in fact was still there in the grass).
The next day, Paul and I agreed to meet at a restaurant nearby to the air base so that I could follow him to the entrance of Andrews. There was very tight security, and I had to provide all kinds of identification to be granted approval to enter the base. Paul had to explain to the guards what my purpose was for entering and eventually I was given access after they did a search of my vehicle and checked out all of my credentials and paperwork.
Once I was through the gate. I continued following Paul and his family over to the picnic pavilion where the big party was held the day before. Lots of people were out playing ball and eating lunch at picnic tables. It was such a beautiful day with sun shining so happily above the perfect blue sky. As I observed all of the military families enjoying their time of recreation, I had to feel so grateful for all the sacrifices that these people have made for civilians like myself. This feeling within led me to thank Paul and his family for their awesome service for our country!
Before Paul took me over to the area where he believed he saw the ring fly off his finger, I got all of my gear out of the car and set up my metal detector so that I would be ready to start the search once we observed the grassy area where the pie fight had eventually reached its conclusion. Paul introduced me to his wife Marie and their son who were both carrying their picnic basket of lunch and plenty of other things to keep them preoccupied since they thought that the search could take a few hours to find the ring (as she experienced the day before but without a happy ending).
In recounting the story of how Paul’s ring slid off his finger, we both concluded that the chocolate mousse pie filling most likely lubricated his finger enough to cause the palladium wedding band to slide off and “fly away” in the midst of the action-packed moments during the pie fight.
Once he finished showing me the basic area that I needed to search, I put the headphones on and began my grid, swinging the detector back and forth in a straight line and then moving back in the opposite direction. At some point I felt that I had covered the suspected area well enough to conclude that the ring was clearly not in that section of the grass. I did have a few potential targets but none of them were directly on the surface of the grass, so I had to eliminate those possibilities. As soon as I moved away from the parameter where Paul thought the ring must have settled on the ground, I went outside of that area (as I commonly find rings beyond the places where people think the item ended up), and I began searching perhaps 10 yards past the suspected hot zone. It took no more than a minute before my detector sounded off a signal that was in the range of Paul’s type of ring. The numbers that were coming up on my machine were exactly what I was looking for. Almost at the same time that the target signal could be heard in my headphones, I looked down and saw something circular and silver-like in the midst of the grass! The wedding band was still there, patiently waiting for me to find it and have it returned to this very kind military man! I couldn’t have been happier for Paul and Marie and they could not have been more surprised when I revealed the good news that the search was over! Believe it or not, there was still some chocolate cream residue leftover from the pie fight, still stuck to the rim of the handsome palladium band!
If you would like to see the video of this search and the ring revealed to the family, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking on the link below and you will receive a notification when the video is uploaded.
The moment that I unveiled the ring to Paul, the couple was simply overjoyed with happiness and relief that Paul’s wedding band had been found! He gave me a hug, a handshake and thanked me over and over again right up to the time that I started packing up my gear! I was so honored to help such a patriotic family. Marie was quite surprised that I had found the ring within five minutes of starting the search! She had just settled down when I returned the wedding band back to its rightful owner! And like I said above, because so many people had been searching for such a long time the day prior, she didn’t think this would be such an easy find! The biggest decision of their day was no longer how to go about discovering the missing ring, but rather whether or not they would stay at the park or head back to their house located somewhere on the base!
Once my things were packed up and I was ready to head off to my next search site, the four of us said our goodbyes and the family thanked me again for my successful efforts. It meant a great deal to me that I could help such great Americans! There’s nothing like leaving a military family with smiles on their faces, knowing that every day they are making sacrifices for people like me. I would never be able to help others recover their missing items if we did not have men, women and children like this family supporting America’s efforts to preserve our freedom and democracy!
May God bless Paul and his family and may God continue to bless our great United States of America!
Revealing the ring to Paul and his family was a blast! If you would like to view the RING REVEAL and the reaction that followed, feel free to subscribe to my YOUTUBE VIDEO CHANNEL to see all of the latest and previous ring recoveries. This story and more will be posted over the next couple of months and you will be notified when it’s uploaded to the video channel!
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.
Theresa and her husband had just finished up with a wonderful visit from their kids. It was dark outside as the kids and grandkids pulled away from the house and Theresa walked out the front door and down the side walk a few steps to wave goodbye. (Apparently Theresa has lost some weight in the last few months and her rings were just a bit loose on her finger.) And as she continued to wave goodbye, all of a sudden, she felt her diamond engagement ring come off of her finger. Stunned, she let out a cry and immediately began looking in the bushes and thru the mulch hoping to find it. Her kids stopped and returned to the house to help look and no matter how hard they tried…they just could not find her lost ring…even after two hours. They even used a small metal detector and it made lots of strange noises and led to more frustration rather than actually helping. And the later it got, the less hope they had of finding Theresa’s lost ring.
A quick google search led Theresa to theringfinders.com and that gave her hope. And after a brief call I made arrangements to meet and conduct a thorough search the very next day and upon meeting Theresa and hearing her story I felt quite confident that her lost engagement ring could be found.
I searched the larger side of the sidewalk for twenty minutes, with my Garrett ATMax metal detector, where Theresa felt her ring had most likely fallen off and into the bushes and still no ring. I even had her try on two test rings and both times the rings flew off in a small area. After 25 minutes on my hands and knees and no ring, I said, « I wonder if it flew off in the other direction? » And sure enough, there behind her, next to a flower pot buried under two inches of mulch was Theresa’s beautiful diamond engagement ring!
It was an honor to help Theresa and to find her lost ring and return it to where it belongs. Have you lost something recently?
Call, email or text me, ASAP!
After setting up towels, chairs and getting the beach umbrella perfectly oriented, mom (who, given unending tears of joy wishes to remain anonymous) suddenly noticed that her diamond engagement ring had slipped off her finger. As luck would have it, I was « in the right place at the right time » as her son-in-law came over and requested my assistance. What was once lost has been found, and the story continues.
Remember, it’s only lost until you call – Naples Ring Finder Mark (239)770-7873, serving Naples, Marco Island, Bonita Beach, Ft. Myers and greater South Florida.
Diamond Gold Engagement Ring lost on beach in Naples, Florida found by Metal Detector Mark Greul
Super happy people, glad to get their diamond engagement ring back that was lost in sand at Naples beach.
Ryan’s Platinum Wedding Band Recovered from Deep Creek River, Annapolis MD
Ryan and Son, Sebastian Finally Celebrate the Return of Dad’s Platinum Wedding Band
I received a phone call from a gentleman named Ryan who found out about my ring recovery service through THE RING FINDERS directory. He was playing in the water with his son and while they were wrestling and having a good time, Ryan’s platinum wedding band slipped off his finger and ended up at the bottom of the Deep Creek River located close to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Annapolis, Maryland. Ryan’s thirteen year-old boy named Sebastian felt really bad that the ring slipped off during their time of fun in the water between 25 to 35 feet from the shore. So, he helped his father look everywhere in the river, using their hands to reach down and search for the missing ring. Unfortunately time continued to tick and nobody could find Ryan’s wedding band. After a very long time hunting for the ring, the family gave up and decided to seek help from others. This particular swimming area is on a private beach where only members of the community can enjoy accessing this part of the river. Ryan and his wife found somebody who was local in the community who owned a metal detector and he was quite happy to volunteer to search for the missing ring. I got the impression that the gentleman searched quite a bit, but he could not find the ring in all of the time that he was detecting. I believe there was a second gentleman who saw the search taking place and he also attempted to find the ring with his metal detecting equipment. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find it either.
I was delighted to receive Ryan’s call for help because I love assisting with searches that have to do with lost items that are so important and meaningful to the owners who lose them. All I wanted to do was to bring Ryan’s ring back to him from the depths of the river and allow for that special item to continue its special story that started many years back when it was placed on Ryan’s finger on his wedding day.
Ryan shared with me all of the details about what had happened over the weekend when the ring slipped off his finger. Once I finished inquiring about the incident, I felt very good about how I was going to retrieve the ring for him. We set up a time when I would come out to the beach and begin my search for the missing ring.
I will never forget the moment that I entered the private beach area and observed how absolutely beautiful the surroundings were. The sun was rising early that morning and the water was so peaceful and most inviting. Just as I finished putting on my wetsuit, Ryan arrived and he took me over to the beach where he was playing in the water with his son Sebastian when the ring came off his finger. He provided for me the square footage that I needed to work with and he was pretty confident of the section where the ring came off. Ryan had told me that after the ring fell into the water, he immediately took notice of the debris of sticks that were in the vicinity of where the ring fell and where he was searching the majority of the time. That was very important in my own recovery attempt. I finished asking him questions and headed back to the car where I pulled out my detector, sand scoop and my other water gear. Then, I headed back to the sand where I tested out my equipment and moved into the warm summer water.
Immediately, I started to grid the area, one foot at a time. Going back and forth 30 feet and then 30 feet back the other way. I went slow and proceeded carefully, hoping I would not miss an inch of potential space where the ring may have rested. The depth of water that I was searching in was approximately three to four feet. It was quite shallow but the biggest challenge of the hunt was to make sure that the detector was discriminating out signals that were not associated with the platinum band. Also, because there was trash here and there in the water, I needed to be extremely careful not to overlook the possibility that certain metal signals could in fact be the ring.
Ryan was in the water with me and he was on standby to help me if I needed to get clarification regarding where he was with his son when the ring disappeared. I tried to stay in the proximity of where the sticks were because he clearly remembered leaning down and searching with his hands where those sticks were when the ring had slipped off just moments earlier. Each time I brought up the scoop to see what I discovered inside of it, there was a lot of silt and muddy content to contend with. It took a while to sift out all of the mud that was at the bottom of the water in order to just identify the target in the scoop. I hit a lot of targets and over and over again I was pulling out all kinds of coins and other types of metal debris but no ring would be discovered. I was so hoping that another detectorist did not walk off with the ring. These ideas start playing with your mind especially when the area has been searched prior to one’s arrival. You just don’t know who you are dealing with at times, and you hope that some other detectorist was honest and would have turned the item in to the owner if he had found it.
One hour turned into two hours of searching, and two hours of searching turned into three completed hours and I still did not find the missing wedding band. I believe it was sometime after the third hour that I needed to call it quits for the day. I apologized to Ryan that I had not found it quite yet, but I assured him that if it was still in the water, he would get that ring back and he would definitely get it back on my watch. He seemed pretty confident in my confidence, and so we left each other that late morning with the agreement that I would try to return in the next few days to a week to try again.
It’s very common for searches to go into many more hours before a detectorist discovers the missing object. In this particular case, I may have walked right over the ring and didn’t detect the object if it was masked by some other type of metal that prevented me from locating my target. It’s possible that when I did my grid search, I could have just missed the target by inches, even though I was going back and forth in a straight line. When you’re in the water, it’s a lot harder to keep exact lines because you don’t have the same kind of markers that you can set up when you are on land.
I gathered my gear up and got out of my wetsuit before heading to my next appointment for the day. I was not discouraged but I was disappointed that I couldn’t pull the ring from the water that morning. Like I said before, your mind starts playing tricks on you and you need to keep positive. One of my metal detectorist friends and highly successful California RING FINDER named Stan always reminds me, “Don’t think the negative thoughts. Stay positive and believe that you are not wasting your time. You must believe it’s still there, and that no one plucked it from the water”. I stayed positive until my return!
I kept in touch with Ryan throughout the next few days so that we could set up another scheduled search window of time to again attempt a recovery of his ring. At first it was not looking good for my schedule to be able to try again to pull the ring out of the water before I was to go on vacation for 10 days. But, I worked it out so that I would make it over to the private beach area on my way to the East Coast during my vacation. The first leg of my family’s vacation journey would be to stop over at the area where Ryan lost his ring and attempt to pull the ring out before continuing across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge over to the Eastern shore and then to Ocean City, Maryland. I was so hopeful that I could find the ring so that Ryan did not have to wait until I returned from my vacation. Also, it would make me feel so good to complete that mission before heading to the beach for my own personal downtime. Ryan was quite encouraged with what I was able to set up for him and we agreed to see each other at the end of the week.
Once I loaded up the car for vacation, me and my son Danny headed off to our first stop which was Ryan’s community beach area where he lost his ring. My wife Jennifer would not be on the trip so it was just me and our son. When we entered the parking lot to the private beach on Deep Creek River, I put on my dive suit while Danny took a walk in the neighborhood. I gathered all of my gear together and assembled it on the sand as I waited for Ryan to arrive. Once again, he thanked me for taking this segment of time to help find his ring before heading to the East Coast for my 10 day vacation. I told him it was my pleasure and that it had been bothering me since I was here the last time when I didn’t find it. I was really looking forward to getting in the water. I remember saying a prayer and asking for God’s help to recover his lost wedding band. I’m a firm believer in prayer.
Once I got the detector on and grabbed a hold of the scoop, I was walking into the water from the shoreline and went to the spot where Ryan and I agreed would be a probable area where the ring may have disappeared. I began to grid back-and-forth in the same way that I did my grid work the last time I came out. I did about a 40 foot by 40 foot area this time and centralized my detecting where a lot of the sticks were that Ryan had pointed out last week. At some point during my detecting, Ryan headed out to go pick up his son Sebastian and he would eventually return back to the beach. I said goodbye to him and he wished me much success.
Because of the other metal that was below the surface of the water, I had to be extremely careful not to go too fast over the areas that I was detecting so that I would not miss the target that I was looking for. My detector is very good at recovery speed (which is how fast the detector is picking up the signal with the speed that you are moving the coil back and forth over the potential targets). However, one must be extremely careful not to put the detector to the test to the point where human error might play a role in missing the item that you are searching for.
I may have searched for about an hour and I was getting concerned that I would end up with the same results that I accrued the previous week. However, I still had to keep telling myself that it must be here and that those other detectorists just missed it or that they did not take Ryan’s ring. I told myself that the others must have just missed the target because of other metal that was possibly masking it. Or perhaps they did not set their detectors deep enough or maybe their detectors could not go down far enough to detect the signal we were looking for. I kept searching back-and-forth going from where the pier was and then extended out a ways and then back towards the pier in parallel with the beach. I was still getting all kinds of positive signals, but none of them panned out.
At some point, after finishing another set of grid passes, I hit another signal that was in the range of Ryan’s platinum wedding band! On my machine it was registering the numbers: 14 and 15, which is in the ballpark of a nice man’s size platinum ring. However, the signal was very choppy and inconsistent. I could have walked right over it, thinking it was trash. Perhaps the other gentlemen did the same. It sounded either too deep or too trashy to scoop up. One could almost assume that the target was probably a rusty old bottle cap and not worth looking at. I went over the target from a couple of different angles just to make sure that this was something legitimate enough to scoop up. Even though it didn’t give off a signal that normally would have convinced me to take the time to pull it up, I decided to go for it anyways. I was at the point where beggars could not be choosers! In addition to the bad signal I was faced with, I was having problems scooping up my targets that day because of the conditions at the bottom of the water. I had to be wise on how I was spending my time and this was one target that I didn’t want to spend time on, but I did so regardless of the conditions.
Speaking of time, I realized that with every minute that passed, my vacation time was being used up and I knew that my son Danny was looking forward to getting to the beach as quickly as possible. However, he is such a patient and kind young man and he was quite supportive in wanting to see a happy ending to this story before going to the beach. So, I tested the signal out a few times and I was convinced that it was strong enough of a signal to scoop up but I had no confidence that this was Ryan’s platinum ring. Again, the signal was so choppy and disconnected. It wasn’t a strong bang of a signal. Yet, it’s so important in metal detecting to not count anything out and to really doubt your confidences. I scooped up the first bit of debris and when I checked with the detector to see if I had gotten the target inside the scoop, it was still in the water. I did this again and repeated the process a couple more times until finally the detector indicated that there was nothing at the bottom of the water where I was detecting. The object must have finally been caught in the scoop. I then sifted out everything inside of the scoop and to my huge surprise, there it was! I found it! I found Ryan’s missing platinum wedding band! I was almost in unbelief because the signal was so poor! I found it 6 inches below the sand and mud in probably about 3.5 to 4 feet of water at that point with the current tide. I was so jubilant at that moment! I couldn’t wait to share my happiness with Ryan! My son Danny had just come back from his long walk and I shared my excitement with him at finding the ring! He was thrilled! There were a few others around, including boat instructors for the young children who were there for summer camp who were learning how to sail. They looked over to see what all of the excitement was all about! People along the shore that were hanging out, fishing or just watching their dogs play in the water, came by and shared in my celebration with me finding Ryan’s lost ring!
Within minutes of recovering the ring, Ryan’s SUV was coming into the parking lot and he had no idea what he was about ready to witness. He and his son Sebastian got out of the vehicle and walked towards the beach as I was coming out of the water and that’s when I got to present Ryan’s missing platinum wedding band to him! He was beyond thrilled! I think he may have been in disbelief because he had searched for so long and so had others (including my last attempt), but nothing turned up until this very moment! Ryan could not have been happier! We hugged and I got to meet Sebastian who also joined in the celebration! The ring that had been in the water for over a week could now return to the finger that it belonged to – on Ryan’s hand!
After taking pictures, talking with people that were hanging out along the shore who witnessed the return of the ring, and giving our last goodbyes to Ryan and Sebastian, I packed up the car and headed with my son to Ocean City, Maryland. As we drove away, I was thinking of how wonderful it was to drive towards the East Coast to enjoy our vacation, knowing that we took time out of our lives to help bring some happiness to someone else’s life. Now Ryan could celebrate the return of his beloved ring that had gone missing for some time. It was quite satisfying to me. More than anything, I was proud of my son. I looked over at him, shook his twenty-one year old hand and said, “Thank you Danny for thinking about someone else’s happiness. And because of that, I was able to help someone else get something back that was important to him. You were very kind to give up some of our time for someone else and I will never forget that”. Danny smiled with content as he adjusted his seat back to take a snooze. It was a good beginning to our fun vacation!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: 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.
The ring means a lot to Victor it was given to him by his grandmother. It was lost after dark last night while he was walking his dog. The ring slipped off his finger when the leash got caught around it. With a quick search the ring was found in the grass. Thank you to fellow ring finder Rich Hageney for the referral.
Hannah’s 14 Karat White Gold, 1 Carat Diamond With Surrounding Diamonds Engagement Ring
Hannah and Her Bridesmaids Excitedly Show Off Her 1 Carat Diamond Engagement Ring After Found in the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean City, Maryland!
After a Day in the Atlantic Ocean, Hannah’s Engagement Ring Returns to the Shore With the Help of The Ring Finder, Brian Rudolph!
It was Hannah’s bachelorette party weekend with the girls in Ocean City, Maryland! Her wedding day was two weeks to the day of that unforgettable summer afternoon! With such fun and celebration in the air, also came a time of heartache and despair. While Hannah was out in the Atlantic Ocean with some of her entourage, the bride-to-be was hit by a wave, causing Hannah to fall over into the water. As a result of the wave striking her and with her having to push herself off the sand, the bride’s beautiful fairytale-like engagement ring slid off her finger and landed somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, forty yards away from the shore.
Hannah was in a panic. She called Derek, her fiancé’, and told him everything. He kept it calm, went online to see if he could find a metal detecting service, and that’s when he found THE RING FINDERS and Brian Rudolph. Hannah was given all of the contact information and then she called me. I was just coming into Ocean City to do a search on 101st Street for an iWatch that had gone missing in the Ocean. As I was entering into the city limits, Hannah gave me the story of what happened. I explained to her that she had a great chance of getting the ring back because she was calling me just 45 minutes after the Ring settled to the bottom of the ocean. Rings can be found days later but she had the best chance because of how quickly I received the call and her group’s clear recollection of where the ring came off.
We talked about what she needed to do in order to remember approximately where she was when the ring slipped off her finger. I asked her to count how many feet out into the ocean where she was in relationship to where the lifeguard chair was at the time. I asked her to walk down the beach from the lifeguard chair and count how many feet over and then to count how many feet out into the ocean. Thanks to Hannah, her mother, and the other bachelorette party girls, they all agreed on a particular area for me to do the search.
After I finished the search for the iWatch, I headed over to the beach side of 47th Street, in front of the Gateway Grand condominium building where I met Hannah, her mother and all of the bachelorette crew. She took me through each step of what happened and so did the other girls. Then, Hannah walked me from the lifeguard chair area out into the water where she was accompanied by her friends to show me where they believed the ring may have come off. When the loss happened, her mother had been sitting on the shore watching the ladies out in the ocean when the ring came off and so she gave a very good idea as to the hot zone where I should start my search.
Once I got all of the information down while we were standing in the ocean looking out to the area where Hannah’s ring may have come off, I felt confident as to where I needed to begin and the yardage from left to right where I needed to search. It was looking like it would be a 40 yard area from left to right and 30 to 40 yards out in the Atlantic.
We all came up on shore and that’s when I got my gear and did a two-hour search even though it was during high tide. I thought maybe I would get lucky, but there was no way to get that far out because the waves were just way too aggressive. I would have to wait until the middle of the night when low tide would arrive again.
Everybody on the shore in the bachelorette party, including two guy friends that were in town at the time of the unfortunate incident, all took off to get ready for the evening fun. I knew that Hannah would be extremely preoccupied with the loss of her ring and I tried to comfort her and encourage her to go out and have a good time and that if anybody could find this ring, with the help of God, it would be me that could recover it for her. I told her later, that I never do tell people how difficult this kind of thing is to find a 1-inch piece of jewelry out in the roaring Atlantic Ocean. But, I knew that if I used my skills correctly and if I was divinely-guided, it was a good chance I could get it back for Hannah, just in time for her wedding that was two weeks to the day!
The two hour search that ensued that evening was very difficult and I didn’t even find a single target to scoop up. I resolved to leave the beach and return at 4:15 a.m. at low tide. I left the beach knowing that Hannah’s ring was left behind, buried far out in the water and sand, way out in the dark, needing to be recovered, as I headed to my car.
I think God woke me up in the middle of the night because both of my alarms failed to go off on my phone. I happened to wake up at 3:45 a.m. and I was so glad that I did not oversleep the low tide hour. I quickly got my wet suit on, geared up and headed for the sand in total darkness. I prayed for God’s help and guidance as I did the night before, to take me to the spot where the ring rested below. Throughout my search, I prayed and asked God over and over to bless Hannah with the recovery of the ring. I prayed to Him out of compassion for Hannah and Derek because of the disappointment that this loss weighed upon them. I fully identified with them regarding the feeling of losing something so precious and wondering if it could ever be returned. It’s a helpless feeling and all of the « what ifs » attack you over and over again.
Not a soul was on that beach. It was just me, the ocean, and Hannah’s ring which was somewhere out there. Pardon the pun but looking for a ring in the ocean is like looking for a needle in a haystack when doing a search of this magnitude. When you’re out there in the water, with the waves coming at you in the dark and all you have is a headlamp on, it’s a weird lonely feeling. A metal detectorist just has to get over it and focus on what the mission is and not think about the loneliness and the improbability of finding such a small target out in the middle of so much territory.
You are not only battling the darkness, but you are facing so many different factors at one time. You’re dealing with the waves, the current, the noise of the ocean while trying to listen to your detector, the pounding pressure from the water that is constantly going against your coil as you’re trying to swing to the left and to the right. You have to hear and read signals correctly. You’re fighting against the tide and the clock, because you have a small window of time to search farther out in the deep. You constantly deal with doubt and wondering what actually happened to the ring when it fell to the sand below. You are hoping the estimations of where the ring disappeared are somewhat accurate. You’re hoping that the ring stays in one place and that it did not get carried some distance away by chance. You are wondering how much sand may have gotten piled on top of it and if the metal detector will even be able to reach the depth where the ring rests below the sand. You fight your own pressure of knowing that you are the only one that can bring this ring back with the help of God. If I failed, that bride won’t be wearing her engagement ring for the upcoming wedding in 2 weeks. Love and compassion must be your drive to get you past all of the adversity that you face out there in the dark.
So I searched that morning from 4:15 a.m. until 7:45 a.m., detecting the ocean as the sun came up and I only got a few targets to search, and none of them were Hannah’s ring. After all that time I was physically worn out, as well as disappointed that I had not pulled the ring out of the Atlantic…but I didn’t give up. Once again, I resolved to return in the late afternoon during the next low tide to give it my all and see if I could get the ring back.
Once it was later that morning, I would call the bride-to-be and let her know that I was unsuccessful at my second attempt in finding her ring. I could hear her disappointment on the phone. We agreed that I would do another hour and then she would tell me what she wanted me to do next – to keep searching or to let it go.
That afternoon, I got back out onto the beach after resting up for a few hours that late morning and early afternoon. I was mentally strong and ready to attack the water once again. Just seeing all of the people on the beach and in the water made for a completely different scene from the night search. The beach was alive again, teaming with people everywhere. That made me happy.
I got my detector ready, geared up and once again headed for the same water that I got to know quite well in the middle of the night. I was not going to rest easy and allow the water to keep what rightfully belonged to Hannah. I would give it all I had and hoped that I could find her beloved engagement ring.
The tide was helpful to me, as was the tide in the middle of the night. However, the waves really battered me like a rag doll every time I was getting as far out in the deep as I needed to be. There was one thing I didn’t have to deal with which I dealt with in the middle of the night, and that were a few small sand sharks that were bumping into my leg as I metal detected through the night. It’s kind of eerie because you can’t see them but you can feel them every so often pumping and brushing up against your wetsuit.
Each target that I came in touch with ended up being a disappointment, one after the other. I would get hit by a wave, my headphones would go flying off, and my hat would go swinging to the back of me because it was tethered to a cord around my neck. Between the waves being aggressive when I was up where they broke, and the depth of many of the signals, it took quite a while to be able to get to each of the targets that were buried below the sand.
Finally, just before I reached the end of the first hour of searching that afternoon (my sixth hour in total), I got my 7th target signal. This signal was very weak and almost unrecognizable. It was the kind of signal that you could just walk right by if you weren’t listening extremely carefully because you’re dealing with the noises of the waves, and the headphones can only give you so much volume. Also, those low tones that you are looking for to detect white gold, are masked by false signals that sound the same when your detector coil is brushing up against moving sand in the water. So, you almost can’t tell the signals apart unless you stop and test whether or not there is something deep below that is made of metal.
Though I wanted to pass this signal up because it really didn’t sound like it was anything important, I decided not to compromise the search by giving up something that I just didn’t know what it was unless I scooped it up and found out. I attempted to pull the target out several times and it was probably the most difficult time getting to the target because of its depth and the waves were just pounding me. Every time I laid the scoop down into the water, another wave would take me by surprise. I kept going and going, scooping over and over again, until the detector did not read any signal i
n the hole any longer. I didn’t even think that the object was in the scoop because I had been digging so much that I didn’t believe anything was even in there. But once the detector did not sound off any signal any longer, I took a look in the scoop. I brought it down to the water to get some more sand out of it and then brought it up again. I believe it took a couple of times to do this and then when I got my focus back on the scoop and looked down for maybe the second or third time, I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was there! It came into focus! This beautiful princess-like object that was given to Hannah at the proposal by Derek himself was finally caught, cradled by my stainless steel net! It had been raised from the dead and it would be given life again above the waters that concealed it for 24 hours! It appeared from the dark! It was like living a dream because I knew I was looking for the ring but I didn’t know exactly what it looked like. One thing I knew and that was if I found it, I would know it was Hannah’s! After searching so many hours and finding nothing, the reality of finding that which I was searching for, for so long, became very emotional and almost to the point of being overwhelming!
There was victory, at last! I defeated the elements! I know that it was God’s hand and His immense favor that led me to that target and it was my determination to not reject that which was handed to me! I truly believe it was divine intervention. God loves marriage and loves symbols. Like the rainbow, which God told Noah it would always be a reminder of the covenant between man and God. I believe the ring is similar. It’s a representation of the covenant between two people.
And it was there in the Atlantic Ocean, 40 yards out, that I was introduced to the ring and the ring was introduced to me as my eyes laid ahold of it. Soon my fingers would greet the priceless keepsake as I grasped it out of the scoop! I will never forget how the diamonds and gold treated me so warmly as they reflected millions of brilliant colors back at my face!
I couldn’t hold back the excitement after what I finally found from the depths of the ocean! The impossible had happened and now I let it all out for everyone to hear on the beach! I started running to the shore and sharing my overwhelming joy to find that which had been lost 24 hours prior! People started clapping and some gathered over to see what emerged out of the waters of the Atlantic! This was one of the best « show and tells » that I had ever had! It really takes your breath away when something like this can be recovered! Many people on the beach rejoiced with me, knowing that Hannah was going to get her ring back soon enough! There were even people on the beach the day before who witnessed seeing the bride-to-be’s sadness and how all of her friends and mother reacted to the loss. Now, the same people witnessed redemption, a second chance, a new unbelievable fairytale of how the storybook ring would reappear and be carried back to the princess just before the wedding day!
I gave God the glory and credit for what had taken place. I just felt like I was the servant who He sent to the ocean to pluck that ring out and return it to the one who cried out for help! Apparently, on social media, a prayer group was assembled and requests to God were made known. Yes, the power of prayer! I do believe that God is not all about material things but most importantly, that which comes from the heart. But from my personal experience, I see how God gets involved when love and compassion are made the center points, and not idolatry of an object. This was one of those examples where I believe He divinely intervened. I know my skills and I know what I am capable of. But, in this search, I needed something more than what I was knowledgeable about, and more than the detector that I held in my hand 40 yards out in the ocean. I was thanking God the whole time for what He did to guide me to the jewel!
So, what did I do next? I took a survey from everybody on the beach and it was clear that I needed to do a fake out and make this a surprise worth keeping forever! So, I called her up and I told Hannah that I did everything I could to recover the ring and I just asked her if she would like me to continue beyond the one hour search that I had done so far. We had agreed that I would stop after the first hour and she would reevaluate everything with Derek about moving forward or not. Hannah decided to not continue the search. Had I not found the ring during that hour, it would have stayed out there in the Atlantic possibly indefinitely because the couple decided to let it go rather than to continue. I couldn’t wait to do the reveal!
This was an amazing story that I will never forget. Please watch the video for what happened next! It’s worth watching!
As much as it was a fairytale come true for Derek and Hannah to fall in love and to recover the lost engagement ring from the ocean just two weeks prior to their wedding, it was also a fairy tale story for me, as well. Just a few days after I returned the ring to Hannah, my wife and I received an invitation from the couple to join them in their celebration at their wedding! I was beyond honored and touched by their hearts of kindness! I was able to attend this most amazing wedding and celebration! It’s so hard to describe the emotions that were running through me when I saw the bride and groom exchanging vows and wedding bands! Also, to view Hannah, dressed as the fairytale bride, wearing the engagement ring and now accompanying the matching wedding band, it was simply magical! The set was complete, and so was this beautiful love between the newly crowned husband and wife!
This story was a fairytale come true twice over! I will never forget it as long as I live!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and how I surprised Hannah with the return of her ring, click below:
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 OTHER SEARCH VIDEOS ARE UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Claudia Couldn’t Be Happier to Wear the Old Gold Ring Again!
I received a phone call coming from a woman named Claudia who found my contact information online by clicking on The Ring Finders link somewhere at the bottom of a web page. Like me, she grew up in Bethesda, Maryland area and she went to the same high school that I went to but just a different time period.
It turned out that Claudia’s childhood Bethesda house would be put up for sale soon because her mother (who still lived in the Bethesda home) would be moving into a retirement community nearby. So, it was Claudia that had to tie together all of the loose ends and make sure that everything was taken care of inside and outside of the house before the house sale would be soon finalized.
One of the To-Do’s on her checklist was to search and dig up her ex-husband’s wedding band that was buried somewhere in the front lawn of the house! Yes, you read it correctly! Her former husband’s wedding band! Initially I was taken back by that, but it wasn’t as strange as it seemed. According to Claudia’s account, even though she had been divorced from the man for over twenty plus years, (and by the way, she was the one that ended the marriage), Claudia liked wearing her ex’s big-old-hunk-of-gold wedding band! She kept wearing it and it just became a part of her hand over time.
Claudia described to me on the phone what happened to the ring a year earlier. She shared that she was parked along side the front of her mother’s house, on the street, and she opened up her minivan to bring out some groceries. At some point she saw the ring fly off her finger and onto the lawn near the street.
She wasted no time in searching for the ring. However, what she thought would be so simple in finding the ring ended up being an unsuccessful recovery. Time marched on and Claudia had always meant to go look for the ring again but other priorities came in the way of this from happening and so it wasn’t until her mother had to move from Claudia’s childhood house that she needed to make the ring reappear from the lawn.
I was so happy to help Claudia when she called me to ask if I could come out sooner than later to help recover her ex-husband’s yellow gold wedding ring from the earth. We set up the appointment for the following day and that’s where the fun began!
When I met up with Claudia and her brother who happened to be at the house at the same time, she took me to the spot that she believed was the general area where the ring went flying to the ground. I got my gear out and began the search. I was looking for a pretty hot signal because the ring was said to be a real « chunker »! In no time, I got a couple of signals that matched up with what I wanted to see on my detector! One of them ended up being a penny. I was almost certain that the next target was worth digging up, and I proceeded to do so. About 4 inches down, after clearing a good amount of dirt with my trowel, it was then that I caught a glimpse of some yellow gold peeping through the earth! I hit gold! I was delighted that nobody had picked up the ring when it was on the surface over a year ago! The grass must have effectively camouflaged the treasure piece and I was delighted to conclude that now that the ring had been exposed for the first time in a year!
I called Claudia over to where I had been working and eventually her brother joined us as well. I got to share the exciting news of my find! Claudia was thrilled to say the least! I went ahead and carefully removed the gold ring from the rest of the surrounding dirt and proudly handed it to its owner. Moments later, the ring was back on the finger of the woman who had accidentally dropped it just over a year earlier!
It was such a satisfying feeling to be able to get this keepsake back to Claudia before the land would become someone else’s property. Both Claudia and her brother were quite pleased by the whole experience and the return of the ring truly made their day and mine completely thrilling!
If you, a friend, or a loved one has lost something special to them, please remember to pass the word around about The Ring Finders directory. Let’s get back to you and to others what has been thought to be lost forever!
If you would like to watch this SEARCH VIDEO feel free to click on:
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 THE LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Got to witness an amazing find today. A family was heartbroken over the loss of a woman’s engagement & wedding rings, which were not only monetarily valuable but more so sentimentally valuable. I couldn’t believe how quickly John recovered these items on the shoreline after a day on rough waves. He really knows what he’s doing. Job very well done!!!!
I received an email from Robert requesting my services to locate a family heirloom which had been given to him by his late grandfather. Robert told me he was gardening with his wife and he had his hands in his raised garden beds also in his flower beds. After he was done he gathered all the dead foliage into plastic bags and then he realized the ring was missing of his finger.
I told Robert I was out of town until Wednesday so I assured him that since the ring was lost on his property it was in a safe place and to not throw any of the garbage bags out until I checked them.
Once at Robert’s house he showed me where the ring could possibly be, and he checked the area for a couple of hours with no luck.
The soil in the five raised beds was eight inches deep and Robert told me that he was digging with his bare hands to the bottom of the beds. I used my propinter to check his beds and had no luck. I also checked the flower beds with no luck so then I checked his four garbage bags. The third bag contained his ring! Robert was very grateful to have his grandfather’s ring back on his finger.
Thank you Robert for entrusting me and The Ringfinders.
Theresa and her husband had just finished up with a wonderful visit from their kids. It was dark outside as the kids and grandkids pulled away from the house and Theresa walked out the front door and down the side walk a few steps to wave goodbye. (Apparently Theresa has lost some weight in the last few months and her rings were just a bit loose on her finger.) And as she continued to wave goodbye, all of a sudden, she felt her diamond engagement ring come off of her finger. Stunned, she let out a cry and immediately began looking in the bushes and thru the mulch hoping to find it. Her kids stopped and returned to the house to help look and no matter how hard they tried…they just could not find her lost ring…even after two hours. They even used a small metal detector and it made lots of strange noises and led to more frustration rather than actually helping. And the later it got, the less hope they had of finding Theresa’s lost ring.
