Mangonui Tag | The Ring Finders

Swift Recovery of Cable Bay Wedding Ring

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Sam texted me yesterday to say he had just lost his wedding ring at Cable Bay.
Forty five minutes later I was kitting up to start the search.

Cable Bay is a much more dynamic beach than Coopers Beach in the previous recovery, so Sam contacting me as soon as possible gave him the very best chance of getting his ring returned.

I started down the beach to the low tide waterline, turned and started the first return sweep.
Two or three paces and a smooth golden tone was clear in the headphones.
First scoop wasn’t enough, but the second bite left the hole silent.
I sifted through the shells at the side of the hole and Sams wedding ring stood out in the afternoon sunlight.
I held it up to the unbelieving couple with a big smile, « This yours? »

Most recoveries are pure hard graft, physically and mentally.
It’s nice to have one like this once in a while.

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Wedding Ring Lost at Coopers Beach

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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The first of two recoveries at Doubtless Bay this week….

I was contacted by a friend of Dean after she heard he had lost his wedding ring in the sea a couple of weeks previously.
Hand crafted in the Shetland Islands off Scotland, he only wore it on special occasions.

Dean had taken a dip at Coopers Beach before the wedding, and felt the ring slip off his finger while in the water.
He had given it up as lost, as so many unfortunately do, but his friend Joanne heard about it and contacted me.

Although we had had rough seas since the loss which would have put it a little deeper under fresh sand, two weeks head start was still a very high probability of success for Coopers.
Unfortunately no-one who was there on the day was available, so by playing « Chinese Whispers » with Dean over the phone and some guidance from Joanne as to their regular swim spot I made a start.

Dean mentioned he had been « pretty much straight out from the kayaks », I arrived and found the cluster of kayaks tied up under the trees and set to work.
The search area progressively grew larger and larger – I operate to 95+ probability of detection and the search pattern markers in the sand expanded further outwards with no sign of the ring.
I had just closed off the area, and started to work on the wildcard possibilities. Unlikely to hold the ring, but I always close off the What-If scenarios, so often they aren’t where people think they should be.

Looking back across the search grid, I was happy I hadn’t missed it. Had a casual walker spotted it and picked it up? Was it really here?
Joanne arrived as I was starting to expand the area yet again, and informed me that Dean was referring to her kayaks further up the beach – that were no longer there as they had been removed before the rough weather!

Back to square one.

Search 2 now started in front of the kayaks that were no longer there…
I worked the new grid, but after another hour, there was nothing but the usual metallic rubbish of ancient bottle caps, can pull tabs and a couple of aluminium rivet heads worn off dinghies years ago.
Joanne had to head off with the kids, so I said I’d finish the next sweep and call it quits.

That sweep finished, I wasn’t ready to let it go so started another, and another… It takes a lot for me to walk away from a ring.

Joanne was long gone when, a quiet tone in the headphones, very faint – almost imperceptible but a definite fluctuation in the threshold hum of the machine but consistent.
I glanced at the display, the detector software didn’t even know it was there! My experienced ears could hear it though.
The scoop went in, me standing on it with all my weight to force it through the layers of tightly packed shell, and the signal remained in the hole.
Another bite, and another until in the fluid sand at the bottom of the hole I saw a flash of yellow nearly 40cm down.

I reached in and pulled a handful of sand out – As my fingers unfolded, the outline of Deans wedding ring emerged.
I sent a text to both Dean and Joanne – « Gottit! »

Dean was back up from Auckland the following weekend, and we arranged a meet to reunite him with the ring.

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Gold and Greenstone Ring Lost at Coopers Beach, Quickly Recovered

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Jamie posted on the local Facebook page that he’d lost his treasured gold ring, passed down from his uncle, while on holiday at Coopers Beach the previous day.
Unfortunately he had posted very detailed information as to the location.
Knowing this beach was regularly worked by casual metal detectorists, time was of the essence.
I got hold of him directly and was quickly on the road, making the 80km drive to the beach.

Arriving at Coopers Beach, it was heartening to see that there were no tell-tale scoop marks or gridlines in the sand and I got started.
Just under an hour after seeing his Facebook post, I was sending a photo of the ring to Jamie – It was now safely secured.

A couple of weeks later, I was working further down country and Jamie made the drive to meet me so I could hand over his lost ring.

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Valuable Heirloom Gold Ring Lost for 6 Weeks, Found in Compost Pile

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Maureen habitually took off her heirloom ring in the kitchen, a beautiful gold, diamond and emerald ring handed down from her Grandmother.
One day, she caught up the ring as she swept the peelings off the benchtop into the bin.

She didn’t realise until later when she went to collect the ring and noticed it was no longer in its place.

A frantic search yielded no sign of it, and with subsequent searches over the next few weeks she narrowed it down to either having been thrown out with the rubbish, or buried in the compost.

She gave me a call, obviously there was nothing I could do in the worst case scenario of it going out in the rubbish collection, however I could search the compost (I’ve searched through far worse than domestic compost in the past!).

A quick scan with the high powered machine gave a target deep in the bin, could be a ring, or could be foil.
Only one way to find out, roll up the sleeves and on with the nitrile gloves.

I had a rough idea of where it sat inside the compost and it was well down after six weeks of additional food scraps and lawn clippings.
A dense cloud of fruit flies instantly erupted out of the compost as I scooped most of the recent material away and investigated deeper with the handheld probe.

Wasn’t long before I had pinpointed the location and I dug further into the slimy mass, checking each handful until I caught a glimpse of gold in the ooze.

I lifted it out and showed a tearful Maureen.
A quick rinse under the garden tap and it shone brightly once again, no worse off for it’s little adventure and another story added to its hundred-plus history.

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Two Rings Lost at Taipa Beach, Recovered and Returned Within Minutes

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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A very quick recovery a little while ago…

Kaiah gave me a call asking if I was able to locate her two sentimental rings she had lost at Taipa, she was about to head out of the district and was very anxious to recover them before she left.
Having put them in her cap for safe keeping while she went for a swim, she subsequently forgot about them on her return and grabbed the hat with the rings still inside and headed back to the car.
She met me on site and showed me where she thought they might be and I started the search, retracing her route back towards the car.

As I expanded the search area I quickly located one ring, then the other a few metres away.

 

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Important Key Lost in House – Found by Intensive Search

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Kim phoned me on behalf of a friend asking if I was able to do a house search for an important key.
I generally don’t do domestic searches for lost items purely because they can be. by necessity, very intrusive into peoples ‘space’.

Whilst conventional metal detectors are ineffective inside houses, I have a range of small coils, pinpointers and remote cameras to aid a physical search.

Kim explained the circumstances: Her elderly friend had lent their car to another elderly friend – who had misplaced the key.
It could have been anywhere from the car to inside the house, maybe in a wood shed…or, who knows?

Knowing the significant expense and hassle involved in an insurance claim, especially for an 80-something year old, I agreed.
Though it was over 100km away, the travel would largely be covered by a Pay-It-Forward recovery I had done recently.

I arrived the following morning and met with Jan, she was most apologetic as we went through retracing her steps as best we could, and I explained how I would be conducting the search.
Starting with the car, the last known point where she would have had the key, I began the systematic and meticulous elimination of areas.
With the car and driveway cleared, the search progressed up onto the deck and then into the house.

From here it was a matter of examining everything Jan had, or had potentially interacted with the previous day. On, in, under, beside, behind…

An hour later, in the bottom of a box of assorted dog leashes, treats and toys etc. a shape caught my eye.

I held up a key,  » This it? »

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Lost earring at Cable Bay, Mangonui – Found using Metal Detector.

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Alexandra had been with family at Little Cable Bay in Doubtless Bay, enjoying the sun and a warm but deep rockpool during the day.
She was understandably very upset to learn later that she had lost a very precious gold and diamond earring.
Her partner contacted me as to whether it was possible to recover it.
Unfortunately, I had spent the day conducting a dive search for a lost propeller in a marina at Whangarei, so was too tired to make the drive safely that night. however I was able to negotiate with my long-suffering boss to take the afternoon off the following day and headed up to search for it.
There were two high probability areas; Where they had been based on the beach, and the rockpool.
I quickly scanned the indicated area on the beach, although nothing found.
So, a quick trip back to the car to change in preparation to get wet in the rockpool, accessible only at low tide.
Alexandra had to head back to work so left me to it.
An earlier promising signal in the rockpool turned out to be an ancient 2c piece, followed by an old fishing knife, and many small fishing leads.
Confident the time-critical pool was cleared, I returned to the beach and started a systematic high level search of the dry sand.
About an hour later, the earring surfaced in the scoop, some 15m away from where it was supposed to be, and probably flicked off a towel.
Alexandra met me later in Coopers Beach for an exchange of big smiles and the earring.

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Car Keys « Lost » on State Highway – Found

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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The sole purpose of a ringfinder, is to find the lost item, not to judge. Believe me, we’ve heard it all…

I’ll call him Bob.

Bob phoned me just on sunset, « I’ve lost my car keys on the side of the road… »

He was just down the road, so 15 minutes later I pulled up behind their car.

Bob came up to meet me while his partner sat in the car.

As he told me the first version of the story, the Search and Rescue training kicked in and I was assessing the scene and the behavioral profiling. My very first question was, « Were they thrown? » with a knowing grin.

He sheepishly admitted that maybe there was some velocity involved, during a ‘discussion’ with his partner.

Personally, I don’t care if it was thrown in anger, or even lost through some embarrassing and less than rational action, but please do be honest with the guy who turns up to look for it for you.

The side of the highway at the bottom of a hill was loaded with trash signals from litter which had washed down over the years, and it was really hard graft with signals coming from all over.

I jumped the nearby farm fence and cleared the extents that they might have gone into the neighboring paddock, nothing found so it was back into the trash…

Changing up the gear to cope with the many drink cans and bits of car etc, I started a more focussed search, and 15 minutes later just on dark I held up the keys.

I got a « No Way! » from his partner as she emerged from the car, and it was high fives all round.

I can only imagine the conversation as they drove away…

 

 

 

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Tiny Gold Ear Ring Found in Sand at Cable Bay.

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Danielle contacted me after losing her tiny gold and diamond earring at Little Cable Bay, between Mangonui and Taipa.
She had spent some considerable time looking for it, but in the dry sand a tiny earring that blended in perfectly would have been virtually invisible to the eye.
I wasn’t able to get away from work for a few hours, but in this instance it worked out well with the tides.
She had sent me a photo which showed some trees lined up as a reference, so I could make a start as soon as I got there.
It didn’t take long to locate myself in the right spot and I started work, a very tedious process with a lot of interference from metallic rubbish that saturated the dry sands above the high tide line.
Danielle arrived soon after and was able to give me her best guess as to where it might be.
With a high probability location now identified, I changed up a few settings and started listening for the tiniest wisp of gold in among all the can tabs and flakes of tinfoil.
It was hard mentally processing each individual signal, digging the probable signals and flagging the unlikely, but possibles to revisit later if necessary.
About 10 minutes in, with the coil running under the surface of the loose and fluid dry sand, I got a repeatable signal only just audible over nearby rubbish.
I ran my hand through the sand, nothing was seen and the pinpointer didn’t pick it up, but I had moved the target. Was it yet another tiniest fragment of ancient drink can?
Slowly I progressively eliminated ever smaller piles of sand until there was one small heap left.
I grabbed it and slowly opened out my hand, scrutinising the grains as they fell through the slightest gap between my fingers, until resting in my palm was the distinctive shape of an earring.
Danielles eyes lit up when she realised her precious lost earring had been found in amongst several trillion grains of sand.
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Gold Ring Found in Doubtless Bay Chicken Coop

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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I was recommended to Kim and Kevin after Kevin had lost his Great Grandfathers ring, passed down to the eldest son through the generations. His father sadly passed away recently and Kevin became the new custodian.  Understandably, the ring carries a huge sentimental attachment.
Kevin wasn’t sure where, or when, he had lost it.
He just knew that it wasn’t beside the sink after he’d finished washing his hands after working in the garden that morning.
He had a few sleepless nights before the day of the search!

On site, I retraced Kevins activities. I made note of each area of interest and ranked them as to the likelihood of holding the ring as we wandered around the property.
There were three probable areas, but I had brought the remote camera with me, just in case it got all forensic with nooks and crannies (Or « Crooks and Nannies » as I like to call them).

First up was the garden where he had been planting seedlings and weeding. Lots of wisps of wire and assorted metal with the big coil, I switched to the small handheld coil.
This was better in among the random signals, but slow going to ensure every coil sweep was overlapped to avoid missing a single square inch.

Then I headed down to the chicken run where he had spread some hay out.
Several problems were encountered in here; The abundance of metal chicken mesh in close quarters, the fact that every time I stopped to investigate a target under the hay at least one chicken adopted me as a fancy perch with foot-warming function… and, let’s just say I was glad I was wearing disposable gloves as well!

Despite the assistance in removing various invertebrates, the chickens and I did not locate the ring in the run.Spotting fresh straw had also been placed in the nest boxes, I moved outside – thankful to be vertical and chicken-free.
I worked my way through each of the nest boxes, when my fingers closed on a heavy, round ring buried under the sawdust.

I left it under the watchful gaze of the chooks, while I took my gear back to the car then called out to Kevin.
« I’ve got something of yours! »,  and led him and his wife to the chicken run.

I opened up the nest box and Kevin reached in to retrieve the ring.

It remains a mystery how and why it came off here, as it is a tight fit on his finger and the nest box was not a ‘likely’ area.
We could only assume that the strings when carrying the bales had worked it down his finger without him noticing – only to drop off as he fluffed up the sawdust.

Regardless, Kevin had now been reunited with his Great Grandfathers ring.

Job done.

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