One night last week I got a call from a very nice gentleman that needed some help. He had been out putting in pine straw and when he got done he noticed that his class ring wasn’t on his hand. This was really bad because he’d had this ring on his finger since 1968 when he graduated from the University of Alabama. He immediately told his wife and she put out the call for help. Someone eventually told her about what I do and gave her my phone number. When Mr. Spivey called he asked if I was the Ringmaster, I was tempted to say yes but I didn’t want to jinx myself. 😃 He was very nice and explained what happened and I told him how I thought I could help. We agreed that I would come early the next morning and I asked him to text me the address. He explained that he didn’t have all of that techy stuff and offered to give me the address and directions. I told him the address would be great but he very thoroughly proceeded to give me the directions. I was thrilled to hear someone describe exactly how to get to their home and go over each part of the route that they felt was important to describe the way to their home. I thought about how technology had changed a lot of that but I thoroughly enjoyed hearing him describe that route he had been so many times. 👍 When I got to the house in the morning I was met in the driveway by a pretty Lab. I was pretty sure that she was friendly but I gave a quick call to the number I had. Mrs. Spivey assured me that “Penny” was a sweetheart and I opened my door to lots of tail wagging and some curious sniffs. By that time, Mrs Spivey had come out and walked me out to the back so I could see all of the fresh pine straw. They weren’t 100% sure that it was in the yard but it seemed like the most logical place so I started my search. Mrs Spivey went back inside and instructed me to knock if I needed anything. I was using a small sharpshooter coil so I was able to go through everything and stick it down between all of the shrubs as well. As Murphy’s law would state, I was at the very last bush when I got a beautiful, very obvious gold tone. I pulled back the leaves and parted the fresh pine straw to see a gorgeous, well loved, solid gold ring with a Crimson stone on top. I thought for just a second about how much it had been a part of Mr. and Mrs Spivey’s lives and then I went to knock on the door. She came out and asked if I needed anything and finally noticed the ring when I pointed to it on my detector. As you can imagine, she was thrilled and even got a bit choked up when she talked about getting it back to her husband. I am so glad I got to make sure that it wasn’t the end of the journey for your family heirloom. Merry Christmas to you both.   

What better way to transition into fall than one last ring return on a Volleyball court. I had just returned home when I got a call from my buddy Charlie who is out in CA. He had received a call from a friend of his named Joey who had in turn gotten a call from his wife Nicole and she was in a panic. Nicole had been playing Volleyball with her daughter at a local park and looked down to notice that her wedding ring and her engagement ring were no longer on her hand. This is about the time the panic had ensued and I think everyone will agree that it was totally justified. Luckily Charlie is a great guy and rather than telling Joey that he was out of town, he tracked me down and put us in touch. We were running out of daylight so I loaded up as fast as possible and called Joey to tell him that I could help and get an idea where to go. I pulled in the park and although there were lots of people there enjoying the playground equipment I had no doubt who I was looking for. As soon as I pulled my gear out, a big group of ladies and young people started waving me down. I noticed that they all had makeshift seines and colanders and I wondered which one was Nicole. Then I noticed the lady who was crying and I knew I had found her. I immediately introduced myself and told her not to worry that I was totally going to help her. She told me that I didn’t understand, they had searched everywhere that it could be with the strainers and they had even found the wedding band but she feared the engagement ring might be anywhere in the park and she was distraught. I asked her if they had been there the entire time and they said yes. I tried again to reassure her as I explained what I was doing and started my grid pattern. I made about one pass but as I was talking to her I could see she was in agony so I decided to take a different approach. I told her to tell me where she had found the gold band, she told me that they had already looked there and I told her to humor me. She did and I asked her if they changed sides at all and she said no. Lastly, I asked her if she wore her band closest to her heart and she said yes. I took a step towards the way I thought the ring first off her hand would fly and I said, “watch this” with a big smile. I went about two steps and got a good tone. I don’t think she realized I had something until I kneeled down with my pinpointer and then stood up saying, “Does it look like this?”  She broke down in tears and I was reminded why I love doing this so much. Congratulations Nicole and Joey. Thank you very much for trusting me to help you. God Bless!  💍

My wife Jeannie and I had another great afternoon today helping someone find their lost ring. As soon as I saw the message from Kristen this morning I could tell by the detail with which she described everything that this ring was really special to her. In actuality it was two rings because like a lot of people do, she had the wedding band and the engagement ring soldered together. This ring really meant a lot because of the family history attached to it. It had different diamonds that had once been worn by her Grandmother, her Mother and even some that had been in her Father’s wedding band. She definitely wanted this ring back. She lost it last Wednesday but finally a friend of hers had seen my website and referred her to Ringfinders. I was more than willing to help but we had a huge problem. The ring was on a stretch of beach that is usually off limits to metal detectorists. I provided some Google help and Kristen and I both started calling different numbers trying to find someone to plead Kristen’s story to in hopes of getting permission. After a lot of hold time and busy signals, Kristen finally got someone on the line who gave us written permission to head out. When we got to the beach, Kristen’s husband had done a great job of dropping a GPS pin where they had been swimming. I quizzed Kristen about how deep she had been wading and did some quick calculations based on the tide charts and I headed out to where I hoped it would be. Sometimes everything works out for the best and even after a few days in the Gulf I very quickly heard the sound of gold in my headphones. I walked over to Kristin who was in the water and I asked her if she wanted to leave her ring on the beach this time or did she just want me to give it back to her now?  As I started to smile she realized what I was saying and got excited. She followed me to the beach and got choked up as the gravity of getting her ring back with so much family history sunk in. I am so glad I could help you Kristen. I wish y’all the very best.

Sunday closed out what was an epic weekend of recoveries. I didn’t think it could get any better until I got home around noon and saw an email from Jesse. He left his phone number so I immediately called him. Now before I go any further, some of you may not know about my relationship with Texas A&M. Last spring I got a call from an Aggie saying she had  lost her class ring at night and I was lucky enough to find it. Then I was on the beach in the summer and a man approached me saying he lost his, you guessed it, Texas A&M class ring. I found it. Later in the summer, I got another call and after I found his too, I joked that I would need an honorary t-shirt or something if I kept finding them. It happened to get on the Aggie website and people were sharing left and right and messaging me to say thanks and I even got a 12th man towel sent to me. Awesome people. 😃. The calls kept coming but I ran into some bad luck. I had the first Aggie ring that I just couldn’t find and then I had another that was lost on the National Seashore and the Ranger would not give me permission to even look. I thought maybe the magic with the Aggies was over. That was until Jessie said the ring he lost was a class ring. I said, wait a minute, are you an Aggie?  When he said yes, I laughed a little to myself and said, I’m coming to find your ring. I talked my secret good luck charm (my wife) into going for some added help and we set off for another hour drive to Alabama. Jesse was still there with his parents standing watch and we talked for a bit before I started my search in the water. There were tons of people and it took all of my social skills to keep a good line while at the same time not risking the Coronavirus. Two hours later I was seriously wishing for the last 2 days where I had quick recoveries. I was determined though and I came back to talk to Jessie and check on my wife. My wife told me later that she had overheard Jesse’s dad consoling him and comforting him saying it would all be ok. She got a bit choked up and decided then to make me keep going no matter what. She is a trooper.   I took a different approach in my questioning with Jesse and felt some renewed hope when I realized Jesse was trying to tell me where he thought the ring would be and not where he was. You can credit his Mom for having him stand in the water where he thought he had lost it. I got a whole new perspective when he said he had walked out in front of one of the volleyball courts but he couldn’t remember which one. I started my second pass and I got a loud signal that sounded like a penny. I had already dug over 50 pennies in the previous hours but I never leave a good signal when I’m helping someone just in case. Sure enough, in the scoop was this young Aggie’s solid gold ring that means an incredible amount to him. I looked up and realized that no one was paying attention and they didn’t see me scoop it. So I took my headphones off and walked over to the family as if I had another question. I said Jesse, one more thing. Looking dejected he said, yes sir?  I said, it was the second volleyball court. As I smiled and held out my scoop they all realized what I was saying and literally jumped up and down hugging each other!  It was awesome!  What other hobby let’s you help so many people. Keep them coming Texas A&M, I don’t ever want you to lose one but if you do, I’ll be here to help. Congrats Jesse, your Mom and Dad and your Collegiate family are awesome!  GIG EM! 😃