Who would of known that in Carlin bay on lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho under 25 feet of water hid the monkey that has been riding my back since March. Oh and also Tyler’s wedding ring. This search was a great example of how knowing where a ring was lost can dramatically improve its ability to be recovered in the water. Tyler lost his wedding ring right behind his boat in the private marina he uses. Tyler was putting on some sunscreen when his tight fitting ring flew off. So after diving in and failing to see the ring, his wife found my Ring Finders link. After hearing his story I decided to use a dive weight with a 1ft PVC pipe attached to mark the spot where Tyler thought the ring entered the water. The fist attempt I made to find Tyler’s ring was unsuccessful. First of all the silt down at 25ft was 2 feet thick, and inside that silt was fishing tackle and wood boards. So before the second attempt Tyler relocated the marker. In fact he placed that marker so accurately when I dove down and started searching I found his ring in less then a minute. Just a hand full of silt was all it took to pluck Tyler’s ring out of the abyss. Feeling that ring slide over my finger as I moved my hand back and forth in front of the coil nearly sent me to the surface. However keeping my wits about me I made sure the ring was safely secured on my hand and checked out my surroundings before ascending. That’s when I saw it, the way I was going to surprise Tyler. A lost led light was sitting just a few feet to my right. I swam over to it and grabbed it with the same hand the ring was on and then headed top side. As I surfaced, Tyler’s face showed worry because I came back up so quickly and faster then I had before. Seeing this I held up the led light and asked him what do you think this is. His lack of response was priceless because then I turned my pinky finger with the ring on it towards him and said what do you think this is. Confusion turned to joy quickly and I congratulated Tyler on putting the marker right next to the ring. After packing up my gear Tyler showed me the inside of his ring. Psalm 119:105 and his wife’s finger print were laser etched on the ring. After I got home and unpacked, I grabbed the led light and thought about Tyler’s verse. The verse says
Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.
I then laughed out loud and said Amen.
I received a phone call from a gentleman who was very upset that his ring was lost in a pond while he was fishing by the shore. He cast out his line and while he manuevered the rod forward, his beloved wedding band went flying off of his finger and landed at the bottom of the neighborhood pond where he was hoping to catch the big one. Unfortunately, he let the most important one get away!
Lazar was so upset. His wife had consoled him and told him to let the ring go and that he could buy an identical replacement wedding band. This did not sit well with him at all. It was not the same ring that was put on his finger by his beloved bride a couple of years earlier. They had been a loving couple for fourteen years and got married just under two years ago. Their anniversary would arrive just weeks after the ring was lost, which was another sad thought for Stephanie’s husband.
Lazar was determined to get this ring back on his finger even if he had to get in that pond and fish it out himself! And that’s exactly what he attempted to do. Before having to go to work on the first day that it was lost, Lazar got in the pond and used a rake to attempt to push the ring over to the shore. Sadly, after hours in the pond, his efforts failed. When he searched the large piles of mud from the bottom of the pond that he pushed closer to shore, there was no ring to be found. He had to go to work in wet clothes and messed up boots because he didn’t have the time to go home and change before commuting to work. When he got there, his boss allowed him to leave and return back to the pond where he was completely obsessed with resuming his search to get this priceless possession back on his finger. For the rest of the day, Lazar continued to try to retrieve the ring from the water, but round two of all of his attempts led to no recovery.
The next day, the determined warrior went back to the pond and continued his efforts until he realized that nothing was working and he needed to try something else. That’s when the frustrated ring owner searched online for a new approach and he located The Ring Finder’s Directory and contacted me in the early afternoon. My impression of this gentleman was that he was tired, worn out and distraught about losing his ring and he was worried that he would never wear that sentimental symbol of his love for his wife ever again. I felt so bad for Lazar and I could hear the passion for his wife coming through the airwaves. To be completely honest, I have never heard of anyone quite like this man’s love for a woman the way he expressed himself to me that afternoon. This ring represented his eternal love, commitment and obsession for his bride of almost two years and best friend for the past 14 years.
I said to Lazar, « Lazar, listen to me. » There was silence on the other end of the phone as he waited for me to share what I could do to help him. I pronounced the hope that his heart needed to hear. I said, « Your ring will be back on your finger tonight. » What happened next was completely unexpected and I have never experienced before what transpired on the phone after I made that declaration to him. Lazar broke down crying and wept uncontrollably, sobbing with tears on the other end of the line. I was on the verge of crying myself because the entire moment was so touching. This man found relief knowing that he would not have to replace his original wedding band with something that had never witnessed the vows made two years earlier. I was just blown away by the love he displayed for his wife.
He must have cried those tears of joy for a good five minutes before we finalized all of the details and worked out the time frame that I would be arriving at the neighborhood park where the pond was located. I was beyond moved by all of Lazar’s emotions.
It would be a good hour and a half drive from where I was coming from but I couldn’t wait to do this search and recovery!
Now, what you are going to read next is also something so special that I may never encounter anything like this ever again. Lazar decided to take off work for the rest of this second day of missing the ring and guard the pond from any trespassers. He would stay at the pond area and spend his time watching over the area where he lost the ring. And while waiting for me to arrive, he would contribute to the cleanliness of the park by picking up garbage while he expected me nearly five and a half hours later that night! I couldn’t believe it! He did not want any Intruders to take the space where his belongings were by the water, near to where he lost the ring in the pond! And, he also did not want anyone to possibly obtain his prized possession if there was any logical reason for someone to be able to get a hold of it from the water, let alone have knowledge that the ring was accessible in the pond! But when it came to his love for his wife and how special this ring had meant to him, he wasn’t thinking about any of the particular logistics described above, but only what mattered and that was to guard what was rightfully his like a lion over his own territory. I’ve never met or heard of anyone so passionate about a special personal item even as important as a wedding band. But we are not talking about any average person. We are talking about a man who was completely driven by love and only love for his newlywed bride, Stephanie!
In addition to what I described above, Lazar did something else that was so touching and so far outside the box of the norm! He asked me sometime early evening if I would like for him to provide any food or drink for me by the time I arrived at the park that night. I told him that a bottle of water would be great if he had it. He obliged and not only did he provide a bottle of water, but he kept his car running with the air conditioning on high blast for all five and a half hours while he waited for me and placed a bottle of water up against the vent inside his car so that it would stay as cold as possible until my arrival! I almost did not believe that he did this but his wife volunteered to tell me that this is what her husband actually did for me as she saw me drink some of the cold water from the bottle that he handed to me later that night! She said that he wanted the bottle of water to be as cold as possible for me just to make me happy, refreshed and blessed, and so he came up with the idea of cooling it inside his car in the manner described. Have you ever heard of anything like this? Talk about appreciation and kindness as a response to his gratitude for what I was about to do for him! I was so beyond touched by this!
As I drove closer and closer to the area which was somewhere north of Baltimore (pretty far out there!), I texted Stephanie (Lazar’s wife) my location and approximately the time when I was going to arrive at the park.
When I first got to my destination, I was on the other side of the pond and I could see the family (husband, wife and child) all hanging out by the water’s edge anticipating my arrival. I came around the other side and got out of the car and immediately Lazar and I greeted each other with a man-hug as if we were long-time buddies from years past! It meant a lot to me that he thought of me as someone close to him already with what I was about ready to help him with. I met his wife and child and soon after all of the greetings, I got all of my equipment out of the car and prepared for the water search that was about to ensue.
By the time I got in the water and positioned myself close to where Lazar recalled the ring entering the water, it was dark outside. I had my wetsuit on, headlamp on my head, my sand scoop in one hand and the metal detector in the other. I could not have had a better group of fans cheering me on! After just a few false targets that I pulled up out of the water, I finally nailed the signal that I was looking for! Instead of using the scoop to remove the object from the water, I decided to reach down with my hand and grab the target with my fingers under the metal detector coil. I was confident that I found what I was looking for because the object felt round and hollow in the middle! I pulled it out of the water and yes, it was the handsome diamond filled tungsten carbide wedding band that I was looking for! This thing was one heavy piece! For a minute there I actually thought it was something else besides a ring because of the extreme weight that it possessed. But just like the degree of love that Lazar had for Stephanie, so was the heaviness of this love story represented here coming out of the water!
I remember raising the ring with my hand facing Lazar who was at the water’s edge, and once again I will never forget that particular scene. The man broke down crying with tears of joy as he could see the wedding band facing him and it was just too much for him to take. He moved over to the grassy area away from the shoreline and he got down on all fours and wept with such an intense emotion of happiness! Immediately, his family came alongside him and touched his shoulder and embraced him so very lovingly.
I came out of the water and moved over to where everybody had congregated and filmed this moment of man and metal being reunited once again! At some point I really didn’t know what to express anymore because it was just too moving to say the right words just watching this man unload his heart of love and feelings of relief and gratitude. I embraced Lazar and we celebrated the return of the wedding band to his finger was placed back on his hand moments later.
I also had the privilege of returning to the water to search for their son’s fishing lure which got stuck somewhere in the pond while the boy was fishing earlier that day waiting with his father for me to arrive. It could have been a long drawn-out recovery because of all of the potential targets that were beeping on my detector screen, but the young man had a pretty good idea as to where the lure ended up and within a couple of minutes, I was able to bring his lure back to surface and into his hands it went! He was so happy!
That night searching for the wedding band and the lure was really something special for me which I will never forget. Lazar, his family and I bonded in a very deep way and I think we will always be friends because of the happiness that we all took part in receiving through the celebration of the return of Lazar’s ring. I will never be able to completely describe it with words because of how special everything was that night by the pond.
After taking some pictures together, we all packed up our things in order to prepare to leave the park. I smiled as I looked over and saw the family work as a team to pack up all of the camping chairs, and fishing equipment that was out by the pond for the entire day and evening.
We said our goodbyes with hugs and with the assurance that we would stay in touch with one another. I look forward to getting together with this family at some point to have a meal together and reflect on that memorable evening when we all celebrated the successful return of Lazar’s wedding band! What a special time it was for me to be a part of such happiness!
Lazar’s Testimonial:
« As any young married man would do, I made a mistake. I went fishing and during a botched fishing rod cast, my wedding ring came off my finger. I jumped in the pond to try and save it but it was a failed attempt. After numerous hours of searching, I had the idea of searching for people that could maybe help me find my precious ring. I googled « ring finders ». It led me to THE RING FINDERS and Mr. Brian Rudolph. I sent a text not thinking that I would get a reply and no more than 20 minutes later, I received a phone call. I stated my name and told him what happened and before I could finish, he said these words which I will never forget! “Your ring will be back on your finger tonight. » I immediately broke down into tears on the phone. I never thought I was ever going to see my wedding band again. A few hours later and after a couple of phone calls back and forth, I met the man that I spoked to on the phone. An angel. He got set up as my small family watched. He got right to work and 10 minutes later he found my ring! It was unbelievable! This man saved my soul! There’s so many more things that I could say about Brian but there wouldn’t be enough lines on the paper. How can you describe someone that does what he does for others? He’s an angel, inspirational, positive and a life saver! There’s not enough words to best describe Brian! I could never ever thank him enough! »
– Lazar W Cooper
Taneytown, Maryland
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO OF THIS FANTASTIC SEARCH STORY:
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.
