La Jolla Tag | Page 4 of 5 | The Ring Finders

Rings lost at Mission Beach Found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Esther called me and asked for help finding her future sister-in-law Gerry’s engagement ring. Reason #2 again! Yup, ring put into beach chair pocket, chair folded up later when they left, and no ring by the time they got to the car. I get the particulars and find out it’s been two days since the loss. That’s an eternity on the blanket line at a popular beach, but, always worth a try. I met Esther at the beach and she directs me to the search area. Since she wasn’t with them when this all happened, I could only get a general idea of where it might be. Esther’s Brother-in-law and future husband of Gerry was on his way to help narrow the search area since he was there at the time of loss. I searched a bit in the mean time, but, only came up with a few coins. That was a good sign however, telling me that it was unlikely anyone else had detected that area lately. The beach groomer hadn’t been through there either, another thing in our favor. Hollis arrived and pointed out the area he believed they had been, and Oh, there were actually 5 rings that were lost! 1 white gold, and 4 silver, so, I’ll be digging just about all signals.

Naturally, there were other people camped right in that spot today! I started searching an open spot next to it while Esther and Hollis went to get permission to hunt under the people’s tent and around their camp. The people were nice enough to allow that, but, no ring came to light. I went back and continued to grid the open area while they tried to figure out where the next likely spot would be. After many passes and getting about 100 feet away from where the rings should be, I was just about to stop and move to search their path back to the car, and the trash cans where they stopped on the way, when I get another good « dime » signal. I scoop and sweep over the hole. Still a signal, so, I dump the sand and take another scoop. Hmmm, two rings in the scoop that look like the silver rings described by Hollis as being the other rings Gerry had lost. I called him over and he confirmed that those were two of them. I swept the hole again, but, nothing. Swept the sand I dumped out on my first scoop, and I get another signal. Yup silver ring number 3. Another sweep and silver #4. To heck with silver! Where’s the gold! Next scoop is where! A beautiful engagement ring comes to light. My first 5 ring recovery! Hollis and Esther are amazed and very happy to see those rings again, and Gerry was too when she was contacted with the good news. A pleasure to meet you, good luck on your future marriage Hollis and Gerry, and thank you for the reward.

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Ring lost at La Jolla shores Found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Alec and Liz were visiting here in San Diego and spent the day at the beach in La Jolla. Liz removed her special family heirloom gold ring that she got from her grandmother, and put it in her purse for safekeeping. Well, it must not be too good a place to stay safe as after they packed up and left the beach, they discovered it was not still in the purse. The good news was that it should be in the dry sand. The bad news was that I didn’t get contacted until a couple of days had passed, and the beach grooming machine had already gone through the area. Another possible minus was that it could be in a HUGE area. Not only where they were camped, but almost a half mile of beach they walked to get back to their car. Though I wouldn’t have given good odds on this recovery, I was more than willing to give it a go. Going by a few Google maps, I started at the parking lot at 8pm and walked the 1/2 mile to where they were camped, detecting along the supposed route. Nothing on the first pass. I get to the most likely spot where they had been for most of the day and started my grid. After many passes, I realized it was 9:30pm and that the parking lot would close at 10. I make another pass back to the parking lot without success, get my truck out of the lot, and drive north up to where I left off gridding. After another half hour or so, I get the signal I was hoping for. A good healthy scoop later and her precious ring was in my hand. A few days later, they made the trip back to San Diego and were reunited with the wayward circle. Now grandma’s ring story can continue! A pleasure to meet you both, and thank you for the generous reward.

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Lost rings at Pacific Beach Found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Fie was visiting here in San Diego and went to the beach with her son. She decided to put some sun screen on her son and removed her wedding, engagement, and anniversary rings and put them in her jeans pocket. She and her son went and played in the sand and water (where she got knocked over a few times) and at the end of the day, she realized her jean pockets were empty! Panic sets in at that point trying to figure out what to do. Fie’s cousin starts a Google search and up pops TheRingFinders.com website and my contact info. Since she had just lost them only 2-3 hours before she contacted me, I wanted to get on site as soon as possible, even though it was going to be high tide soon. Being a Friday night, hot, humid, and summer time, I knew it would be crowded and hard to find parking. No matter, I wanted to get there before someone else found the rings and made off with them. I met them shortly after sunset and headed to the area they had been that afternoon. Even though there were still a few people on the beach, I was able to search almost all of the suspect area. No rings…shoot. Well, the tide was just starting to head out, but, not enough yet to do a water search. I told them I would return early in the morning and sweep the area at low tide. Not knowing exactly when and where the rings came out made it a HUGE search area, probably 3-4 football fields in size was a possibility. I returned at 2am and started just south of the most likely area and planned on gridding my way north all the way to the pier if necessary. She had only gone knee deep, but, it’s a pretty shallow beach in that area so tons of wet sand to cover. After about an hour and a half, I hit my best sound of the night. One big scoop and I had a beautiful engagement ring in my hand. Even covered in sand and with only my headlamp to see it, I was pretty sure it was one of her rings. Now, where are the others? I looped around this one a couple of times, but, nothing. Hmm. Ok, I continued on with my grid and about 8 feet away, I get another great signal. Sure enough, another matching ring comes to light. Alright, just one more! Circled around that area a bit and again, nothing. Dang, continue with the grid again. Another 8 feet toward shore and I get the third one. All of them were in a straight line from about a 160 feet out from the dry sand. This was a 3’s wild kind of night. Her’s was the 3rd set of 3 rings I’ve recovered and it started at 3:33am! I looked at my watch after finding the first ring. Kinda weird, but, in a nice way! When I got home, I texted Fie and told her that I would contact her later in the day after I got some sleep. We made arrangements to meet that afternoon. She and some of her wonderful family came and had a joyous reunion with her rings. It was a pleasure to meet you all and thank you for the generous reward! 

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Lost ring at Coronado, Found.

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Reason #2. Oh, you need more info? Ok, Neil was visiting here in town and spent the day at the Beach in Coronado sitting in the sand in front of the Hotel Del Coronado. He placed his platinum wedding band into the beach chair pocket for « safekeeping ». I know, those chairs should come with a jewelry safety warning on them! Later, when he was ready to leave, he folded up the chair and headed out. When he realized that his ring was no longer in the pocket, it was too late. The beach had swallowed it. An internet search and TheRingFinders.com popped up. He texted me at 5:45am just as I arrived home from an all night detecting hunt. Still sandy and a bit tired, I knew we needed to jump on this search right away if we had any chance to find it before someone else did, so I told  him I’d be right over. I picked him up at his hotel and headed down to the search area. We walked out to where he was camped, he circled a bit, and declared this was about the spot. I made a couple of short passes and after not much more than a minute, I got that « great » pulltab/gold/platinum reading of 12-15 on my Etrac. Poked the pin pointer into the sand and pulled out Neil’s ring. A much happier ending to his visit to San Diego than it could have been. A pleasure to meet you Neil, and thank you for the generous reward.

P.S. For future reference, reason number 1 is: « I removed my rings to apply skin lotion, put them on my lap/the blanket, and forgot them. »

 

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Ring lost in La Jolla Found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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What I thought was going to be an easy search and return didn’t exactly work out that way. I’ll let Edie tell her story……….

« We called Mark after hunting for 5 days for my ring.  One evening I was tossing out two old oranges into the ivy-covered hillside behind our house and above our back patio.  My hands were a bit wet and unfortunately this loosened up a very special ring that I’ve worn on my index finger for over 20 years.  So when I was throwing out the second orange – my ring flew off along with the orange! Horror of horrors!!  I only saw it like a split-second whir going off slightly to the left of the two oranges. Didn’t see exactly where it landed, only an approximate area.  We hunted for several hours that night, and then on and on for 5 days, including after we bought a Pin-Pointer metal detector. The vines are very thick, though not too deep underneath them, and the vegetation has been there for decades on a rather steep hillside….  Mark looked everywhere for over an hour, even trying all of his highly sensitized equipment and doing a simulated test of my throw to approximate where the ring might have fallen.  He was very patient and calm the whole time, but even he was finally ‘running out of options,’ as he said.  Then he went up the hillside one last time, and further up and further to the left than we had ever considered it could go.  There it was lying on the ground in perfect condition, not even encased in dirt.  I had not expected to see the ring ever again, but Mark persisted in his search and continued to look beyond where we thought it could be.  We are very grateful to Mark for coming the morning after we called him and for being so persistent in his search.  We recommend him highly to anyone who has lost a ring or any other valuable metal object. »

I couldn’t have said it better myself!  The ring was found at the top of the hill in the upper right of the photo. About 4 feet from the back fence. Quite a nice throw Edie! A pleasure to meet you and your husband Jim. Thank you for the generous reward! 

 

 

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Necklace lost at North Island Breakers beach Found!

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Vanessa and her two children were spending the day at the beach on NAS North Island Breaker’s Beach. She had with her a necklace that was a recent gift. It was in a pouch, inside a box, then inside her bag. Should be safe there huh? Not with an active 1 1/2 year old toddler it isn’t! Apparently the child had gotten into the bag, box and pouch, finding the necklace and deciding to play with it in the dry sand. Once it was realized what happened, too late, the necklace was nowhere to be seen. I met Vanessa outside the gate so she could get me on the Navy base. We proceeded to the beach where the search area was defined. Lots of dry sand to sift and lots of junk targets to raise and dash our hopes. As you can see, after expanding out from ground zero, it was eventually found and a relieved Vanessa could head home happy. A pleasure to meet you and thank you for the reward.

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Ring lost in Paradise Hills found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Elizabeth called and asked for help finding her husband Carl’s lost ring. After eating some cherries in the front yard, Carl tossed the remains, and felt his loose fitting gold ring come off his pinky finger. He and his family searched the grass, raked it several times, and even rented a metal detector, but, without success. They even had video of him doing it through their security system! A first for me, actually seeing the loss happen. Even after repeated viewing of the video,                              we couldn’t really see the ring fly, but, it at least showed the throwing motion and approximate direction. It looked like it should be straight out in the grass, but, after 10-15 minutes of gridding the small front yard with no ring, I expanded the search to include street, gutter, a drainage ditch. Still no luck, so, I continued past the side fence and up on a landscaped side hill. Sure enough, it was waiting for me there! After receiving a promising signal, I could just spot the edge of the ring poking out of the apple ivy ground cover. Carl wasn’t home, but, a very happy Elizabeth greeted me again at the door and their daughter contacted Carl with the good news and posed for the photo with the ring. A pleasure to meet you and thank you for the reward.

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Lost Rings found at Pacific Beach

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Last night I received a call from Jose asking for help finding his wife Deisy’s engagement and wedding rings. They were enjoying the beach with their two children yesterday and Deisy had removed her rings and put them in her pants pocket, and then put the pants in her beach bag. Good idea to keep them safe, right? Well, it didn’t turn out that way. Later in the day when they were ready to leave, she got her pants out of the bag and put them on.  A few minutes later, when they got to the house, she reached into the pocket and, no rings. Back down to the beach to search for them, but, as is typical, it was fruitless. They could be where she put on the pants (most likely) or anywhere along their hike off the beach and to the house a block away. After searching for help with the lifeguards and online, they came upon TheRingFinders.com website and me. Being a popular beach to detect, I hot foot it down there and meet Jose who takes me to where they were camped out that afternoon. It was now just after high tide and the area had been washed over a bit by some waves, but, not a lot of erosion, so, the rings should still be there. I began an ever-expanding grid search from that point, and after 20 minutes or so, I get a good solid 8 on my Equinox. Out comes the pin pointer and I find the engagement ring just under the sand about 20 feet from my starting point. Great, the wedding should be close by….not! I gridded that area 6 ways from Sunday and not a sound. Oh well, we’ll do it the hard way. I expanded the area even more and made 4-5 passes all the way to the stairs thinking it might have fallen along the way. Nope, found a few coins, lots of foil junk, a junk ring,and a couple of stud earrings, but, no wedding ring. Since the tide had gone out significantly since I started a couple hours earlier, I decided to go back to the original site and expand down the slope toward the water. Sure enough, after a few passes, I get a nice solid 6-7 reading and up pops the wedding ring about half way down the slope. We headed back to the house where I met a tearfully grateful Deisy. Glad to have met you both and thank you for the reward.

 

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Ring lost at Mission Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Eric realized he shouldn’t play around in the sand with his wedding ring on, so, he thought it wiser to take it off and let someone else hold on to it until he was done. Little did he know that the person he handed it to would be the one to lose it in the sand. They knew approximately where it should be, but, sifting through the sand with their fingers and even borrowing a metal detector from the lifeguards didn’t help bring it to light. Off to the internet and a hit on TheRingFinders.com website. A quick look at the map and my name is listed for Mission Beach. I get the call about 8:15pm and arrange to meet Eric at 8:45pm at the site. We meet and I get the low down on how/where it was lost and what we’re looking for. On my first pass and only a couple of minutes later, I get a promising signal. Yup, it’s what we’re looking for. Both Eric and his friend are happy and relieved to get the ring back. Pleasure to meet you both and thank you for the reward.

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Lost ring at Pacific Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)
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Matt called TheRingFinders for help getting his wedding ring back. Seems he was playing ball out in the waves with a friend when, while catching the ball, it smacked his hand sending his gold wedding band flying into the surf. The bad news…..it was at low tide…..the good news…..it was only knee to thigh deep, and since he called both myself and fellow ring finder member Tony Eisenhower, who brought his grandson, we had a team to help in the search.

We met Matt at the appointed time and place so he could show us the search area. The good news……thankfully he took some reference points to help narrow it down a bit……the bad news……fairly rough surf and quite a bit of kelp to tangle us. Out we went, Tony and me using our new Equinox 800’s and Tony’s grandson with the trusty Excalibur. After about 20-30 minutes and no signals, guess who finally gets a good sound? Yup, the grandson, showing us both up! Tony came over, scooped the nice sound, and success, Matt’s ring is back in the sunshine. Now Matt can head home to MN without having to come up with an explanation to his wife on how he lost his ring here in San Diego. A pleasure to meet you Matt, and thank you for the generous reward.

 

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