metal detecting Tag | Page 5 of 58 | The Ring Finders

Lost Gold Watch Bezel-Found

  • from Chattanooga (Tennessee, United States)

I was contacted by a guy that does professional yard services and he had lost the bezel from his watch in a client’s yard while trimming the shrubs. The bezel was custom made gold with diamonds. He was working the day of the search and not able to be there with me. He had given me the address of his customer and they knew I was coming. This search to me nearly two hours of searching because the detector coil would not fit down in the shrubbery so I had to search a lot of it visually. I eventually found the bezel way up under a low growing Japanese maple tree. It was lying face down and very difficult to see in the mulch, but my detector saw it clearly.

Lost Ring in Backyard-Found!

  • from Chattanooga (Tennessee, United States)

I was contacted by Jessica to find her husband’s ring he had lost in the backyard while throwing balls for his dog. Along the way they had borowwed a metal detector to look for it themselves, but they didn’t know how to use it, so they hid her ring in the grass to test it out and see what it sounded like, and that’s where it got more complicated. The detector and their ears were overloaded with all the metal in the ground they didn’t know was there. Then they couldn’t find her ring either. That’s when she contacted me.  They had marked out a spot where she thought her ring would be, and it was a fairly small area, maybe six feet by four feet. I covered that area quickly and no ring, so I expanded the search area to beyond where she had marked out.  I had made one pass, turned around to parallel my path and I was facing the sun. After two steps I caught a relection in the grass of something silver colored before my coil passed over it. It was her ring. The entire search for her ring was less than ten minutes. While I was talking with her and taking a couple of photos the sun was directly in my eyes so I shifted position a little.  When she was looking at me I noticed she had fixed her attention to somewhere over my right shoulder. She said hold on a minute, and took off to the side of the yard and came back with his ring. If my memory serves me correctly it was dark colored, titanium maybe.  From the position we were standing she happened to see it laying on the ground in a clear area that was free of grass. So both rings were recovered in around fifteen minutes.

Lost Gold Pendant in Public Park-Found!

  • from Chattanooga (Tennessee, United States)

I got a text from Jae late Thursday evening and she said she had lost her gold pendant in a local public park.  She and her friend had looked all evening until around midnight that night.  The pendant was made from the engagement ring her grandfather had given her grandmother in 1942. So it was very sentimental to her and all she had left of her grandparents.  The grass in that area was pretty deep, so finding it by sight was nearly impossible.  I got there by around noon the next day on Friday.  She had the area marked where she noticed the broken necklace.  I had marked out a block for my search that was about 75 feet by 50 feet.  That search area bordered a sidewalk on one side.  Being a public park I assumed the ground there would be very contaminated with metallic trash and other items, and it did not dissapoint.  Fortunately, with the Manticore metal detector I was able to differentiate between what was on the surface and what was deeper.  That still lengthens the search time because every target has to be inspected before moving on.  I completed the grid search in the block I had marked out and found nothing except pull tabs and a nickle.  So I moved down a little and marked out another block, this one a little smaller.  About halfway through that search area I was about 12 feet from the sidewalk and I got a 41 on the Manticore that was on the surface.  The grass there was about 3 inches deep so I pulled out my pinpointer to locate whatever it was.  The pendant was there, completely covered with grass and was not visible to the eye.  My total search time was about 2 hours.

 

Lost Grandfathers Ring in Concrete Mix

  • from Dallas (Texas, United States)
Contact:

We got a call from a gentleman who was mixing concrete for a row of 2 X 2 Steps.  He was making about 20 steps for a customers’ walkway.  In the process, due to some recent weight loss, his treasured ring which his Grandfather had worn his entire life and then passed on to our him disappeared.  Short story, he had the ring on, made 20 concrete steps and 2 hours later when finished the ring was gone.

He was pretty sure it was in the 3rd step as a bag of quikCrete had burst open and he had scooped concrete with his hands.  Upon arrival with our Garrett AT Pro Metal Detectors we began scanning each step.  Few normal beeps and noises until I reached the 1st step.  It was not a normal Gold Signal but it was extremely strong.  I told the customer, I’m not sure it’s your ring but there’s definitely something there.

He said OK and picked up the 2X2 step and threw it on the ground breaking it into pieces, then he yelled “There it Is”. He did a little dance in the yard, gave us a big hug and told us we made his year.

This hobby/business is so much fun…

Diamond Wedding Ring Recovered – Wake Forest!

  • from Raleigh (North Carolina, United States)

I received a text from a woman who had lost her wedding ring after a « discussion » with her husband. He saw the ring fly up in the air, but it was nighttime and they hadn’t been able to find it the next day. As I was out of town on vacation, I contacted two friends and asked them to visit the woman and see if they could locate the ring. They each went to her house and searched but were unable to find it. When I got back to town I contacted her and asked if I could come out and give it one more try. She agreed and I made the hour drive to her house. Her husband explained the backstory and then detailed where they had looked for the ring, which seemed to cover all the obvious possibilities. I didn’t see much point in going over ground that had already been searched, but it seemed like he had thoroughly searched all the out-of-the-way places (in the rain gutter, on the roof, in the flower bed, etc.). Anyway, I decided to really scour the yard on the off-chance that it had been missed. On my third sweep across the front yard I got a solid signal and found it! As you can see in the pictures, it’s an impressive ring and when the husband told his wife that I had found it, she was absolutely beside herself. Very glad to be able to reunite the wife with her ring. Another Happy Ending!

Wedding Ring Recovery!

  • from Raleigh (North Carolina, United States)

Got a call from a gentleman whose wife’s ring had gotten lost in the front yard. He was positive he knew where the ring was, but had not been able to find it, which is when he contacted me. We set up a time to meet and he took me through the scenario about how it came to be lost in the yard. It’s a somewhat personal story, so suffice it to say that there was a marital discussion and we’ll leave it at that. The good news: front yards are usually grass and are usually mowed, which makes recoveries easier. The bad news: front yards are typically where water lines, cable connections, and electrical power come in from the street, so it can be difficult to pick out a ring signal with all the interference and background noise. Apparently the ring-finding spirits were with me this morning and I was able to find the ring in 15 minutes or so. Although the husband is the one I spoke to, he assured me that his wife would be thrilled to have her ring back on her finger. Happy Ending! PS – Please excuse the gaping mouth in the photo – I was talking when I took the picture.

Lord of the Rings

  • from St. Louis (Missouri, United States)

Jeremy, thank you so much. Backstory: this is a custom wedding band that reflects our shared love of Lord of the Rings trilogy story. We’ve read the books and watched the movies many, many times. I was doing yard work and pulling weeds. I noticed the ring was missing when I went to throw the weeds in the yard waste dumpster. I was searching through the yard waste dumpster, the trash bag I had just taken out, and crawling around the area I was doing yard work for 2 days. That’s when we found your website. You found the ring within 10 minutes or less and were a pleasure to work with. We’d recommend you to anyone who is in need of your services. Thank you!!

Gold Necklace Recovered – Cary!!

  • from Raleigh (North Carolina, United States)

I got a call around 7:30p last night from a woman who asked for my help in recovering a piece of jewelry. A high school football player had lost a necklace on the field during practice and despite friends and family members searching (including one with a metal detector), they had been unable to find the necklace. I grabbed my detector and headed over to the school to help search. After an hour and a half, I had only covered about half of the football field, but called it a night and returned early the next morning to continue. After about 45 min of continuing my search in the field, I located the necklace. It was 10 or 12 feet outside the playing field, but was nestled down in the grass and impossible to see from above. Up to this point, it’s a fairly normal search and recover story. It turns out that the young man who lost the necklace had a twin brother who tragically passed away 2 1/2 years ago. The necklace had the initials of the brother who had passed and angel wings as part of the design – a beautiful tribute. As you might imagine, the necklace holds tremendous sentimental value for the family.

As I recovered the necklace just before the start of the school day, the Head of School called the young man and asked him to come by the office when he arrived at school. (Not the kind of request a student ever wants to get from the principal!) When he arrived, the Head of School and I met him in the parking lot and I was able to return the necklace. It was an emotional moment and I was glad to be a small part of it.

I’m always happy to reunite folks with the items they’ve lost, but some recoveries really stand out…like this one. A very Happy Ending!

 

Engagement Ring Recovered – Clayton!

  • from Raleigh (North Carolina, United States)

I got a text from a woman saying that she was newly engaged and had lost her engagement ring. Everyone I’ve related this story to has had the same reaction: « Oh My God! » Anyway, I told her I could come out to search for it in about an hour and I drove to her house. I met her there and she showed me where she thought it had come off her finger. [As a side note, virtually everyone who contacts a Ringfinder is sure they know where they lost the item. As it turns out, that’s rarely the case…] I told her she was welcome to watch me detect or she could go back in the house with the A/C. She said that between her newborn and her parents who were visiting, inside the house was the better option. I turned on the detector, found it in less than 10 minutes, and it was pretty much right where she said it was! As a new fiance, a new Mom, and host to her visiting parents, I was really glad I could take a little bit of the unnecessary stress off her plate. You can see in the picture that she was so happy to have the ring back on her finger! Another Happy Ending!

   

Lost denture recovered in Princes Risborough

Sometimes the slightly odd request comes along!

I had a call from a chap who was slightly embarrassed, but asked if I could search for his lost denture? I said as long as there was some metal, I could probably detect it.

He said he lost it while talking to his friend from his apartment window, and out it flew!…..this I found amusing and had to apologise for laughing a bit.

We agreed a time, and I set off.

I arrived and was greeted by the chap, there was a distinct gap in his smile, but not a very big gap. So this was quite a small denture I was looking for, with probably not much metal for a good signal.

I chose my smallest high frequency coil, which was necessary, as said denture had been lost in a dense bush.

This was quite a  challenging search, as it was also a very trashy location, lots of bottle tops, drainage and other utilities in close proximity, but with a de-tuned , this made things a little easier.

Thankfully after about 45 minutes, and not a bad signal the denture was re united with its very happy owner!