Megan’s four diamond rings found in her Patagonia fleece jacket after ring finder Brian Rudolph guided the distraught young lady to search other specific places in our house, including her walk-in closet and checking all coat and jacket pockets.
Megan extremely happy and relieved that her four precious diamond rings were back where they had once belonged shortly after member of THE RING FINDERS, Brian Rudolph, shared his advice and wisdom as to where the couple should continue searching for the rings.
Brian Rudolph, Lost Item Recovery Specialist (Land, Water, Sand, Snow, Leaves, Cliffs, Houses & Vehicles) Will Find Your Lost Keepsake! Call ASAP (301) 466-8644!
I received a call from a fellow named Josh who was very concerned about the loss of his wife’s four diamond rings: There was an engagement ring consisting of an 18 karat yellow gold band with diamonds inset down both sides of the band and a 1.25 carat diamond with a halo of diamonds encircling the center solitaire stone of the ring. Secondly, a wedding ring consisting of an 18 karat yellow gold band with multiple medium size diamonds encircling half way around. Thirdly, an anniversary ring consisting of an 18 karat yellow gold band with multiple petite size diamonds. And lastly, an accent love ring consisting of an 18 karat yellow gold band with 7 baguette diamonds encircling the ring.
The couple was completely crushed over the loss of these rings because the jewelry meant everything to them. Like all special rings, they represent the love between two people and the irreplaceable moments in time when perfect love is expressed in the giving of these « symbols of love ».
After a week went by without being able to find the four rings anywhere in the couple’s SUV, on their lawn, in the garbage, and in their house, they really started to worry. Josh and Megan were selling their house and they hoped that the real estate agent or the house stager didn’t have anything to do with the disappearance of the jewelry. There was no way of telling and because of that it was a tremendous preoccupation especially for Megan who felt so guilty about losing the rings.
At some point, Josh went online and searched for help. He found THE RING FINDERS website, an international directory of metal detectorists who specialize in finding lost rings and other items of value. The desperate man called me immediately to discuss the disappearance of the four rings and how I might be able to help the couple in recovering the lost items.
I was so happy to talk with the couple that was obviously distressed and desperate to find the diamond rings. During the hour and a half conversation, as always, I asked every question imaginable in order to get a perfect understanding of all of the places that Megan had been and all of her actions leading up to the disappearance of the jewelry. I was conducting an investigation and there wasn’t a single question that I held back. In dealing with situations like this one, a professional ring finder like me tries to climb into that couple’s world and then attempts to hypothesize what might have happened to the missing items.
When I received all of the answers to my inquiries, I gave Megan some suggestions as to where she should search based on the information that she had given me. Two highlighted areas that I strongly recommended Megan to check and double check were her walk-in closet and any jackets and coats that she may have missed looking in or that she forgot that she had been wearing the day that the rings went missing. Even though the young lady was very confident of what she was wearing and what she had already searched, Megan was still willing to do what I suggested just to make certain that she hadn’t missed anything.
Even while we were on the phone all that time talking, my potential client was already looking through the house and checking various places that I had suggested that she should carefully examine. I was extremely proud of her willingness to be guided by my experience and wisdom when it comes to conducting in-house searches. We all agreed that if the couple had no success finding the rings in the next few days (after focusing on the areas that I suggested for them to investigate), I would then come out to their place that Friday and conduct my own in-house search, lawn scan and vehicle check.
Before we got off the phone, I asked if the couple would join me in a prayer, asking the Lord to guide the two of them in their hunt for their very special keepsakes. I generally invite such prayers because I believe that God delights in objects that represent the covenant of marriage and symbols of betrothal. Why is this? Because it was God Himself who designed and instituted marriage and the betrothal step towards marriage. So why shouldn’t I believe that God will show favor to those who are faithful to uphold such covenants and promises and who desire to want to find such important irreplaceable symbols?!
After we finished praying over the phone, I told Megan, « I look forward to you calling me back with many tears of joy the moment that you find your beloved rings! I hope that I don’t even have to come out on Friday so that your nightmare will end much sooner than that! » Both Megan and Josh we’re quite encouraged by my words and our prayer time together. However, they admittedly expressed their continual skepticism based on the fact that the rings had not turned up for nearly a week after diligently searching everywhere. I just told them to remain in faith and to check the places that I recommended them to focus on.
To my delight, no more than 15 minutes after we all got off the phone, I received a call from the elated couple! The kind of excitement and joy that I witnessed hearing on the other end of the line was beyond measure! Megan was crying uncontrollably and Josh could not believe what had transpired! There is no accurate way to describe what had happened other than it being a true miracle of God!
This is what took place fifteen minutes before I had initially gotten off the phone with my clients: Megan went into her walk-in closet as I instructed her earlier to do. I told her to « doubt her doubts » as to where she thought the rings could “not” have ended up and to then check those very places – especially jackets and coats. So, with that advice, Megan went through boxes of winter clothes that she had packed up in the last week which would soon be transported to their new house in Pennsylvania. Those containers would not have been reopened until the following winter a year later. When the young lady inspected the clothing, one of the cold weather belongings happened to be her Patagonia fleece jacket. Immediately, Megan realized that she had worn that particular garment sometime during the previous week. Next, in following my advice to check and recheck all coat and jacket pockets, Megan placed one of her hands inside the left pocket and lo and behold…there they were! All four diamond rings could be felt by all five elated fingers of the desperate young lady! At that moment she was in complete disbelief! Apparently, Megan had forgotten that that particular jacket was quickly thrown on to wear as she went down the stairs while running late for daycare drop off. The ring would have taken a few seconds to put on, so the hurried mother thought to save time by planning to slip the rings on while walking the children out to her vehicle. Of course, that never happened… Megan completely forgot to put her rings back on and they remained in the pocket of the fleece jacket until that night when the couple contacted me. It was all so surreal! The tears began to flow from Megan’s eyes the moment that she realized that she wasn’t dreaming. Then the couple would soon embrace with much happiness and with a tremendous flow of emotional relief!
I couldn’t have been happier for the couple! Megan and Josh could not stop thanking me and telling me how unbelievable the whole experience was for them! They said that they wouldn’t have discovered the rings until a year later when Megan would once again wear her Patagonia jacket during the following winter up in Pennsylvania! The two expressed endless words of gratitude for my assistance and I could only humbly give the glory back to God! All of us rejoiced together on the phone as we gave thanks to the Lord for answering our joint prayer! I was so happy that I could be helpful to the couple in bringing such a dramatic and horrifying week to a conclusion through offering some of my best in-house ring finding advice and wisdom to Megan and Josh! It really was a very special moment for me that I will truly never forget!
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Alfredo’s 22 Karat gold crucifix that he was given when he was 10 years old (42 years earlier), recovered by detectorist Brian Rudolph.
Alfredo proudly displaying one of his most prized possessions, his yellow gold crucifix, which Brian Rudolph was able to recover from the soccer field where he had lost it almost 2 weeks earlier.
Brian Rudolph, Lost Item Recovery Specialist (Land, Water, Sand, Snow, Leaves, Cliffs, Houses & Vehicles) Will Find Your Lost Keepsake! Call ASAP (301) 466-8644!
I will never forget getting the phone call from Alfredo that one Saturday evening. He was in great distress because he could not find his 22 karat yellow gold crucifix pendant that he lost on a soccer field earlier that day. He tried everything to find it, including using a metal detector and as much help as possible from all of the other soccer players. Unfortunately, all of their efforts led to no avail.
Once Alfredo gave up after his many hours of searching, he went online later in the evening and searched on Google. He typed in the search box: metal finder. THE RING FINDERS website, an international metal detectorist directory, popped up immediately and before long Alfredo and I were talking on the phone. The gentleman made it very clear that I was his last hope and he said to me, « Brian, I need you. I need you to find my cross. » This precious keepsake was very dear to this man. It was a gift from his father when he was around 10 years old and Alfredo had worn it on his chain for over 40 years. This was something that he had to get back.
Next morning, I met my client and his son out at the soccer field located in Urbana, Maryland. Alfredo took me to the approximate location where the soccer ball had hit his chest which supposedly caused his chain to break and as a result, the cross got lost in the grass somewhere. After asking all of the questions needed to start the search, I grabbed my gear and I did a line grid across the field. Unfortunately, after a few hours, I still had not found the special piece of jewelry. I needed to pack my things up to head to another appointment, so I promised Alfredo that I would return the next day. Because it rained, we ended up scheduling the second search attempt for the following day.
On Search Day 2, I continued doing the grid search that I had started two days earlier, but I still could not find the cross anywhere on the field. I metal detected every inch of the grass for that entire half of the soccer turf, and yet I could not find any gold. I managed to search a particular hillside leading down to the field and yet I could not recover the family heirloom. Alfredo had shared with me that he put on his shoes by a set of bleachers and He also helped to move a goal from one side of the hill all the way down to where the team had been playing that past Saturday morning. With that information, I did not leave that evening without finishing most of the portion of the hill where Alfredo had been moving about. It was dark by the time I had to leave and at that point I had reached a total search time of 9 hours (total hours from 2 days earlier and this particular visit). I was pretty exhausted.
Search Day 3. Another two days went by before I could return to the soccer field to continue my search. Alfredo was very grateful that I had not given up after 9 hours of searching. I told him that I don’t give up easily, and that the cross had to be out there somewhere unless somebody had picked it up during his game. I continued my metal detecting task on the hillside. Once I finished that section and I was convinced that the cross had not fallen off in that region, it was time for me to metal detect the grassy parking lot where Alfredo had parked on that day when he lost his crucifix. It took a couple of hours to clear the parking lot area where he walked from his car over to the top of the field and I was confident that I didn’t miss Alfredo’s precious keepsake. I also checked my client’s car as well but there still was nothing to be found. Alfredo introduced me to the owner of the soccer field who also played with my client on the day that the cross went missing and he was convinced that the pendant must not have been lost on the soccer field. By the time I finished doing the parking lot, I told Alfredo and his friend that either the cross came off Alfredo’s neck before he left his house that day, or I must have missed it when metal detecting the field on Search Day 1 and 2. I immediately packed up my gear and headed for the field even though it was dark outside and I only had a little less than a half an hour to see what I could discover. Sadly, I did not come away with the gold piece of jewelry that I was looking for. I would now have to wait another five days before getting my next opportunity to search for the missing cross. I promised Alfredo that one way or another I was going to find his beloved heirloom which his father had given him so many decades earlier. By the time I finished that evening, I had done 13 hours of detecting.
Search Day 4. Five days later, I drove back to the soccer field in the early evening hours to give it my all and to start all over again right where I began over a week earlier. This time, I would change the direction of my search and do a perpendicular grid. I was encouraged by legendary detectorist and THE RING FINDERS’ founder / CEO to search from a different direction just in case the crucifix was lying on an angle, making it difficult for my detector to hit a good signal from the direction I had originally searched from. Stan Ross, another great detectorist and ring finder, felt very convinced that the cross must still be out there and for me to just keep pounding the field just in case I missed it somehow. I greatly appreciated both words of advice from the best ring finders out there!
I kept metal detecting until it started to get dark out once again. I only had one more section left to do and this was after I had cleared a considerable amount of territory already. Just as I finished the second grid line of this very last section that I was searching, I got a very good low tone signal that was in the range of what I was looking for. With my high lumens headlamp on, I knelt down on the ground and pinpointed the section where I was getting that excellent target signal. Moments later, just as I was zeroing in on where the target was, my eyes locked in on a shiny yellow colored stick that was impressed into the mud. The object was resting on a slight angle. It sure looked like gold to me! As my fingers began to pick it up, I saw a cross member section of the metal piece and instantly I knew I had found Alfredo’s very special gold cross! I almost couldn’t believe it! It had been 16 hours since I had begun the search the week earlier and I had finally discovered it almost at the point of exhausting every search section!
I couldn’t have been happier for my client! Minutes later, I would surprise the gentleman who was almost ready to give up trying to find the lost crucifix. He had only agreed to return to the soccer field because I insisted to start over again. Alfredo was beyond grateful for what I was able to finally recover from the field and he was so appreciative of the fact that I never gave up and that I constantly gave him more and more hope that we would somehow find the cross in the end. Once my client dried off most of his tears that had rolled down his face, he Facetimed his father and shared the wonderful news about that special piece of jewelry that his father had given him 42 years earlier! The elderly gentleman was extremely happy for his son’s excitement and relief!
That night, Alfredo and I drove to a restaurant and the two of us celebrated the return of one of his most priceless possessions that he had ever owned! We made several drink toasts. One, to finding the lost crucifix pendant, two, to not giving up, and three, to our new friendship that we forged together through those 16 hours of searching with the determination to never stop until we found what we were desperately looking forward. I’ll never forget that search project, nor the kindness and patience of my client, Alfredo.
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Kristen’s Beautiful Family Heirloom Topaz Diamond Ring Recovered by The Ring Finder’s Detectorist Brian Rudolph
Kristen and Nygel Smile Brilliantly as Grandma Dorothy’s Ring is Held Once Again by Her Beloved Granddaughter!
BRIAN RUDOLPH, LOST ITEM RECOVERY SPECIALIST (LAND, WATER, SAND, SNOW, LEAVES, HOUSES & VEHICLES) WILL FIND YOUR LOST KEEPSAKE! CALL ASAP (301) 466-8644!
Kristen and Nygel drove from Baltimore to Frederick Maryland looking forward to celebrating Oktoberfest out on a farm. In the six years that the couple had been dating, neither one of them encountered a situation quite like this one. Just moments after Nygel parked the vehicle on Summers Farm’s grass field, Kristen lost her very special yellow gold ring with a large blue topaz and two diamonds (one on each side of the center stone). The young lady inherited it from her late grandma Dorothy who passed away the previous year.
Luckily, Kristen knew the very moment when the ring slipped off of her index finger. Just after she got out of the vehicle and began adjusting her pants, Kristen felt the ring come off. However, when she looked down on the ground to recover the jewel, it was nowhere to be found. It was if the family heirloom disappeared into thin air.
Nygel came around the car to assist his girlfriend and for the next hour, the two of them searched for the missing ring. Unfortunately, none of their efforts proved to be successful. The couple decided to leave the grassy parking lot for the time being in order to make the most of their visit to Summers Farm and they decided to deal with any further search attempts following their special autumn excursion.
During Kristen and Nygel’s time out on the farm, they played in the cornfields, shot apples from the pumpkin canon and enjoyed eating all of the fun fall foods provided at the refreshment stands. Though the couple was quite entertained by all of the autumn festivities, the loss of Grandma Dorothy’s ring weighed heavily upon Kristen’s heart and mind.
Once Kristen and Nygel got back to their vehicle, the two of them searched for another hour with no happy results. They realized that they would have to return to the farm the following day with a metal detector in hand in order to try again to recover the gold topaz diamond ring. It made Kristen sick to her stomach to have to leave her precious keepsake behind until the next day. She couldn’t even be so confident that the ring was still there in the grass. It could have already been spotted and picked up by someone else. Nonetheless, the two hoped for the best and planned to return the next morning.
Later that night, Kristen and her boyfriend searched online with the purpose in mind to find a metal detector rental service. Instead of locating a rental shop, THE RING FINDERS website popped up on the screen. They had never heard of the international directory of metal detectorists who specialize in finding lost rings and other precious keepsakes. They figured instead of trying to learn a detecting device that they knew nothing about (and with no guarantee that the detector would even help them find what was lost), they decided to seek out the professional help of one of the directory’s ring finder in the local Frederick, Maryland area. This is where I come into the story.
Kristen contacted me immediately and I asked the distraught young lady every question regarding her particular situation. She did a great job of painting a clear picture as to what happened and what the environment was like where the ring was lost. Because I am familiar with Summers Farm, I knew that it was essential for us to meet at the farm as early as possible before the grass and dirt-covered parking lot would start to fill up with cars and trucks. I received the initial text from Kristen sometime around eight in the morning and by 9:30 a.m. I was already pulling into the farm’s entrance and meeting up with my new clients.
The day was quite lovely outside and I remember encountering special feelings that rushed through my mind as I reminisced about the days of old when my family and I visited Summers during the Oktoberfest time of year. It brought me so much happiness to experience such a sentimental journey in returning once again to the same farm in order to help Kristen with this very important search.
Just as I was driving up the hill to the parking lot section where the couple directed me to meet them, I began to light up with the greatest smile ever due to what I witnessed in front of me. The couple was sitting in two chairs that were facing each other, separated by approximately 30 feet of grass between the two of them. They were guarding the search site, making certain that nobody would be able to park in the area where they believed the ring was lost the day before! I was very impressed! Also, I learned that Kristen and Nygel were sharp enough to think of tying some markers around the place where their vehicle was parked the day before so that they would know exactly where to resume the search the following day! That was brilliant thinking on their part! I commended both of them for taking that step to bring clarity as to where the ring was originally lost. The couple told me that they were doubly convinced that there was no way that they would find the ring after they searched for another 30 minutes while waiting for my arrival. They were so happy that I was willing to come to their rescue!
Once I got all of the details regarding where the couple believed they were parked and approximately where Kristen was standing when the ring fell off her finger, I returned to my vehicle to retrieve my metal detector and other gear to help me with this particular search. Methodically and consistently, I swung my detector’s coil from left to right as I moved straight ahead towards the end of the first grid lane before turning around and beginning with the second grid line. I knew exactly the type of numbers and sounds that I was looking for on my machine and I had all the confidence in the world that if the ring was still there, I would eventually find it!
After I completed searching several more grid passes, I eventually hit a target signal that I was quite certain that it would end up being Kristen’s ring. To my excitement and joy, the target that I knelt down to investigate with my handheld detector did in fact turn out to be Kristen’s grandmother’s ring! My eyes beheld an exquisite yellow gold band with a beautiful blue topaz and two diamonds flanking the large stone! The pretty jewel was hiding under some blades of grass that were bundled together and camouflaged amongst the dirt and wild plant life! I was so relieved that not only was the ring still there and that nobody found it, but also I was thrilled to discover that there was no damage to the family heirloom had a couple of radial tires trampled over it!
What a fun moment it was for me to recover such a priceless “symbol of love” that was handed down to Dorothy’s beloved granddaughter a year earlier! I will never forget the tears that began to flow from the young lady’s eyes and the smile that I could see on Nygel’s face (even though his countenance was mostly covered by a face-mask) as I presented the keepsake back to its rightful owner! It’s precious moments like these that constantly remind me why I love serving people in this way…recovering “lost stories” and returning smiles to people’s faces like Kristen’s!
Before I left the farm, the three of us thanked the Lord for answering our prayer that we jointly offered up to God prior to starting the search! Kristen and Nygel thanked me several more times for helping them recover the ring. In addition, we all agreed that though this problem occurred (which was quite stressful for the two of them to go through), at least it brought us all together and also we were at least surrounded by God’s beautiful creation out on Summers Farm’s property while conducting the search that morning! Lastly, with a giant smile on my face, I told Kristen and Nygel that I hoped that their next ring story would be a happy one – perhaps something to do with Nygel placing an additional band (engagement ring) on Kristen’s finger sometime in the near future! I can’t wait to hear that special news one day!
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Josh’s 14 Karat White Gold, 1/2 Carat Diamond Stud Earring and 14 Karat White Gold Backing
Josh’s Handsome Stud Earring and Backing Sparkling Again Above the Earth Once More!
Josh and Adriana Celebrating the Unbelievable Sight of the Lost Earring and Backing that were Presumed Gone Forever!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
I will never forget the phone call that I received from a young man who was desperately seeking my help to recover something very special to him. As I was shopping at the local Walmart, Josh shared with me what happened the day earlier when he was playing a football game in Frederick, Maryland. It was supposed to be a fun event for he and his friends who gathered on this particular field from cities located as far away as ones in Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland. The two teams placed the boundary cones on the middle school sports field and marked off a 50 yard by 30 yard football field section, with 10 additional yards for each end zone. The afternoon was filled with much excitement and thrill until the game was finished, and Josh realized that one of his two white gold diamond stud earrings (and the gold backing) had gone missing. Instead of him taking off and heading back to Pennsylvania where he resided, he resolved to find his very sentimental piece of jewelry that was picked out by his wife Adriana. It was a very bold task that he was embarking upon to try to eyeball a tiny object like a stud earring in the midst of so many yards to search on that field. Anything that small would have settled down into the underworld of grass, completely unseen by the naked eye. Josh’s admirable efforts led to no avail. He eventually left the football field completely defeated as he headed back home. None of his teammates had any luck in finding the stud diamond earring either. If you want to learn just how determined Josh was in trying to get his keepsake back on his ear, then you must know that he and his very supportive mother returned to the field once more that evening, driving all the way from Pennsylvania (which is a 45 minute commute back to Frederick Maryland) to do a second search. The two of them brought flashlights and scanned the entire football field that Josh was playing on earlier that day. Again, their efforts were futile. There was just too much territory and the object that they were looking for was way too small to locate within all of the blades of grass. There was nothing more that he could do but to return back home empty handed once again.
It was sometime after Josh arrived back at his house from the unsuccessful recovery attempt that he and his wife researched information on the internet regarding metal detecting. One of the links that popped up happened to be The Ring Finders directory. The couple had never heard of this company that provides a resource to locate a local Ring Finder metal detectorist member who is able to search for people’s lost items. My name happened to surface when they sought to find a detectorist in the Frederick, Maryland area where the earring was lost. Josh got on his smartphone and immediately called me to request my help.
It would be unfair of me if I didn’t share a particular moment that I had while talking with this disappointed young man on the phone about losing his beloved earring. You see, when Josh first started talking to me about his football game in Frederick, Maryland, and the fact that he lost something out on the field where he was playing, I had no idea that what he had lost was not a ring. Most of what I recover happens to be rings, but I also search for plenty of other objects including: smartphones, watches, hearing aids, bracelets, other type of bangles, chains and pendants, and lots more. I will hunt for anything that has metal attached to it. If the object is worth something to somebody else, then I am alright about going off to search for it. Josh innocently forgot to mention what it was that he specifically lost until much later in our conversation. When I started asking questions about the type of ring that had disappeared on the playing field, Josh corrected me and shared that he didn’t lose a ring, but rather a 14 karat white gold, ½ carat stud diamond earring! You should have seen my face at the department store’s checkout counter when I learned of this! I smiled with utter amusement at the realization of what this gentleman was asking me to do for him! A tiny object like his earring, lost somewhere on a football field that was 2100 square yards wide, was not likely to ever be recovered! I truly love a great challenge, but this one was way outside the box! Most detectorists would never even attempt to tackle this recovery scenario because the odds of finding something this small on that much property without having a hint of where the lost earring may have fallen, was astronomical! It would just end up being a big waste of time. However, while Josh was still on the phone, I gave it a quick thought by saying to myself within, ‘Wouldn’t this be a great story if I could somehow pull that little stud earring off of the field and return it back to the ear that it belonged to?!’ ‘What if I could metal detect that much surface area and actually overcome such odds against me with trying to recover that piece of jewelry?’ I played with the idea in my head and at the end of my moment of day dreaming, I absolutely fell in love with the idea of going after the earring! I didn’t even know if my detector would be able to pick up that little bit of white gold coming from his ½ carat diamond stud earring setting. It’s hard enough to get a strong enough signal to recover a lady’s petite white gold band, let alone something this tiny. And I wasn’t even sure the angle of where the post had settled in the grass which would certainly help to determine the type of signal strength that would be picked up by my detector. The backing to the earring would also be comprised of 14 karat white gold. Finding both pieces would be nearly impossible to accomplish. However, I didn’t want to tell Josh that I could not recover his sentimental piece without first giving it a shot and see what I might be able to find on that field. I love “the thrill of the kill” and this hunt would certainly be one of my top prized stories if I could pull it off! Without a blink of the eye, I agreed to help Josh!
Josh and I scheduled a time to meet the following evening at the middle school where he lost his stud earring. Losing this piece of jewelry weighed so heavily upon him that he was willing to give up some of his son’s birthday celebration time in order to show me where he was playing football the day that he lost his earring. I should mention that when I asked Josh about his whereabouts the day he lost the diamond and asked when was the last time that he remembered wearing the stud, everything was a bit fuzzy in his memory. He could not specifically remember if it was on his ear when he left his house to go play football. He checked his video camera at the front door but the door camera did not show evidence of whether or not he left the house with the earring on or not. I asked him to keep searching around in his car and also in the house just to make sure that he didn’t miss any spots where it may have fallen off his gear before he even went to the football field. He agreed and did as I had suggested before we met that evening.
Both of us arrived at the school sometime around 7 p.m. I had the opportunity to meet the birthday boy who turned sixteen. From the parking lot, Josh took me across one field and then eventually we reached the particular field where he was playing. He started to point out all of the white chalk lines that the guys used as end zones and sidelines. On the day of their game, cones were set up on one side of the field to mark off the width of the parameter. As I shared above, they played 30 yards from left to right and 70 yards from end zone to end zone. Essentially the dimensions were 1/2 of a pro football field. Due to the fact that Josh had no way of measuring 30 yards from left to right (the night I was detecting), he estimated the approximate location of where the cones were placed to indicate the left sideline. He stood in a particular spot and then I counted a certain number of feet until I reached where he stood to show how wide his playing field was that day. I counted 30 yards in total. Josh was fairly confident that what I measured was the width of their football field that day.
Once I had all of the dimensions, I wanted to do a test on Josh’s one remaining stud earring. I needed to get a reading on my metal detector as to the type of signal his earring would give off. Then, I could search for that type of metal in the field that would resemble the same reading. In addition to that, I wanted to increase the sensitivity level on my detector and see just how high I needed to crank it up in order to capture the signal coming from the lost earring in the field.
The three of us huddled together on the grass to conduct the tests. Josh carefully took his only remaining stud earring out of his ear and placed it on the grass so that I could swing my metal detector over the earring. Surprisingly, the Minelab Equinox 800 detector wouldn’t even recognize the metal. Because the diamond stud setting and post were so small, there was very little precious metal for the detector to read. Even I was taken back by this outcome.
I knew that most studs, if they were below the ground, would barely be readable at all. But I was testing an earring that was above ground and I was still getting nothing. Then, I took out my Garrett handheld pinpointer and placed the end of the detector on top of the earring. The result was just as surprising, if not more so than when I swung the detector over the white gold. The 14 karat white gold piece would not even react to the metal unless it was positioned in a certain direction. I couldn’t believe it. All of this was documented on video which I will publish in the next few months.
Things did not look good for an effective search to take place at that point. I couldn’t read the earring on the Equinox 800 and my pinpointer was pretty much useless. I wasn’t sure what to do at that point. Josh and his son were looking at me for answers and they frankly were dumbfounded themselves. At that moment, things even got worse. After I recalibrated my detector with certain adjustments that I hoped would help pick up the target signal from the earring, I placed the detector down towards the ground and I realized that I couldn’t find the stud earring that had been tested moments earlier. The three of us had not moved an inch since we started testing the piece of jewelry, so it was still in front of us on the ground, but our eyes couldn’t spot it! It went completely missing! I asked the two fellows to help me focus in on where the earring was and they too could not find it. Using my pinpointer was completely useless, so we needed to find it by eyesight only. I looked at Josh, and I said to him, “Now you have a really good idea of how almost impossible this is going to be to find your earring out there on the field. If we can’t find the sister earring that was just placed in front of us and it then disappears, how much more is it an impossibility for me to find the other earring out there!” Josh totally got the logic that I was conveying and he realized how bad we had it in trying to recover the earring.
Eventually, after 10 minutes of searching, Josh’s son found the test earring and we were all relieved that we didn’t have to spend any more time looking for the jewelry that had gone missing. Josh got a very good picture of how impossible this would be to recover something this small unless I came up with some other technique to help me detect the earring.
Figuring out a new strategy with how I could find Josh’s sentimental earring was my top priority. I thought about it for a bit and then a new idea came to mind. Thanks to Chris Turner, the CEO of The Ring Finders directory, for publishing his own search videos, I came up with an alternative plan that could possibly help me with our search. I recalled watching a video that Chris had shot regarding a stud earring that he was trying to recover for someone during the summer. He was getting so much interference from the electrical power lines above the property that he took his metal detector and tried to detect with a setting called: Gold Mode. It’s a very special setting that is used for mining gold. Usually, the metal detectorist will not need this setting because it’s not the usual type of hunting that most of us do on a regular basis. Though the technique proved to fail for Chris because of the constant electrical interference he was experiencing, his idea was filed in my head for a future time as this one. Chris ended up finding the earring that he was looking for by implementing a different strategy. He ended up stretching out his entire body on the ground like a sniper, scanning the yard with a handheld pinpointer like a windshield wiper until he finally located the jewel! Incredible! A must-see-video on his YouTube Channel called: The Ring Finders.
I told the guys what my next plan was and I immediately set my detector to Gold Mode. Then, I swung the coil over the diamond stud earring and I did get a signal! It was barely anything, but I did in fact get a reading of the earring! This was my only technique for trying to recover Josh’s missing sentimental piece. I would have to go very slowly over the ground and have the coil as close to the surface as possible. The problem with using this particular mode was that I would end up picking up signals coming from all sorts of other targets. The numbers that kept coming up on my screen were in the range of Number 1 and 2. I would end up getting a lot of trash that would be in that range, but I had no choice but to try this setting out on the field. After a couple of more tests with this function, Josh picked up the earring, safely placed it back in his ear and the three of us would say our goodbyes shortly thereafter.
I stayed on the field in the dark with my headlamp powered on while Josh and his birthday boy walked back to their car to head back to Pennsylvania to celebrate their son’s birthday. In the meantime, I would spend the next three hours grid searching the field for the missing earring. I moved very slowly forward with slow swings from left to right and back again, hoping that each signal that I picked up would potentially be the stud that I was looking for. I was also looking for the backing piece of the earring, as well. Once I finished the first grid line, I headed back the other direction and started the next one. The search was tedious, with tons of target signals coming up on my screen because of the type of mode that I was working with. Every signal that was in the Number 1 and 2 range would sound off that familiar signal through my headphones. Then I would take my handheld detector and place it on the ground where the signal was coming from and I would see if I could perhaps isolate and identify the target. I figured that if I couldn’t find the item with the pinpointer, it was either that the target was too far down in the ground or I may have found the earring because the pinpointer was having a hard time picking up the signal of the test earring unless it was in a particular angle.
I searched and searched and still there was no sign of Josh’s belonging. I have to admit that I wasn’t enjoying this type of hunt. There was no way of knowing for sure whether or not I walked right past the earring already. It’s even easy to overstep a larger object like a ring, so therefore it was very probable that I could have already missed the target and wasted the rest of those hours in a search that appeared to be futile. Still, I didn’t give up and I resolved to continue my search efforts until I had little left in my “energy tank”.
Another problem that I forgot to mention earlier was that the ground was covered with droplets from an earlier rainstorm, so everything was glistening and sparkling from my headlamp light source that was hitting the water and bouncing off reflections of light. It was a visual nightmare to try to eyeball a piece of jewelry that small with everything else that looked like a small diamond reflecting light from beneath the grass.
I think I may have covered half of the field before calling it quits that night. I felt that I did an extremely tight search with my gridlines. I also felt that the speed in which I used to swing the detector was slow enough that I shouldn’t have missed much metal that was on the surface. Again, there were so many signals that read off the same numbers as the gold earring. With everything I had to detect and pinpoint, I really could have missed something in between all of those numerous targets.
One other thing I forgot to mention earlier. The sound coming from the detector was extremely irritating because of the mode that I set the detector to. The higher the sensitivity that I set it to, the louder the hum-noise sounded off in my ears and it was becoming unbearable to listen to as I continued deep into my search. I was glad to wrap things up because I had nothing left in me at all. I have to admit that I was extremely frustrated and I had no intention of coming back to this field even though I hadn’t finished searching the entire perimeter. I just felt like it was just too much for me and I wasn’t even sure if I could pick up the target signal accurately since it was so faint with the test earring. And nobody knew if the earring was actually lost on that field! I believe when I started heading back to the car, I had already searched for about three hours. I packed my gear up and left the school property with the intention of never returning! I wanted to get on with other searches that were much more reasonable to carry out and not something as crazy as this search and recovery operation. I was no longer excited about the challenge due to the obstacles that I had faced with the uncertainties that were constantly flowing through my mind.
As I drove home, I texted Josh to let him know that I had left the field and that I would give him an update the following day. I would reach out to Josh in the morning. However, I got no response back from him due to a family crisis that he had to endure for the next several weeks. My intention was to tell him directly that I would not be able to return to Frederick to resume my search, but after a couple days had passed, I refreshed my attitude about the whole situation and decided to give it another go around. It kept bothering me that unless I tried to find Josh’s earring, I really believed that nobody else would have ever found it for him and it would be lost forever on that football field. I truly did not want that outcome for Josh and I felt like I needed to finish what I started. Then, if I had no success, I could then walk away knowing that I did everything I could to recover his property. So, I sent a text to Josh sometime mid-week letting him know that I would be heading out the following day to continue my search for the missing earring.
By the time that I arrived back at the middle school later in the week, it was dark outside again but this time there was no evening dew on the ground and everything was dry. This was a huge advantage for me because I could identify metallic objects on the ground including anything that appeared to look like glass that showed some form of reflection of light – like a diamond!
With my headlamp on and detector in hand, I started searching at the very location where I had quit the other night. Because I then had a better understanding of how many feet I needed to count from the chalk lines out to one side, I counted 30 feet to the left and put orange cones up to identify the left sideline of the football field which Josh had set up with his friends. I then knew exactly how many yards I had to search before I completed the entire field.
It’s important to also remember that the entire time that I was searching for Josh’s earring, there wasn’t 100% confidence that the earring was ever lost on the field. There still was a chance that it was somewhere in his house, in his vehicle, or even perhaps on the grass leading from the parking lot to the field. There was no way of knowing for certain where the diamond came off. So while I was searching so diligently for this tiny object that was supposedly hiding somewhere on the surface of grass, there was always that question mark of whether or not the jewel had ever gotten lost during his game in the first place. The only fact that I could stand upon was that it was most likely lost as a result of being tackled, whereby the earring was hit and then it popped off Josh’s ear. It was the most likely theory.
I continued my search, swinging the detector from left to right at a very slow speed as I did a few days earlier. Having the machine set up in Gold Mode provided the only opportunity to detect something as small as this 14 karat white gold earring. Like I shared before, the hum coming from the machine into the headphones was quite annoying, but I had to put up with it in order to use this function properly. Every time I got a VDI (visual identification) Number 1 or 2 on the screen, I pinpointed the location of where the coil was picking up the object and identified the source of the signal. All of my finds came up negative.
As the hours passed on, I continued with diligence in searching every single signal that was registering on my detector and I was determined to finish what I set out to do for the sake of Josh and his wife Adriana who gave her husband this very special gift. All of the signals that I was picking up led to no discoveries of either the earring or the backing. I recall praying as I swung the coil back and forth, just asking God to help me by providing me with the ability to find the earring and to make the impossible somehow possible! If one could think about how many gold stud posts and diamond gold settings would equal one gold ring; that’s how much easier this search could have been had I searched for a gold band. It was absolutely a needle in a haystack!
Target after target signal that I investigated turned out to be nothing at all. I pulled up pieces of aluminum and very small tiny objects that were in the range of what I was looking for. However, I did not find any gold earrings. Eventually, I got to the second to last grid line and in a matter of minutes I would be on the last pass which was 50 yards in length. If someone were to predict that I was about ready to find the 14 karat white gold stud diamond earring at the backstretch of my search, I would have most likely told them that they were a false prophet! I certainly have found rings and other objects at the very tail end of my recovery efforts. It always surprises me how those stories tend to end up successful at the 11:59 position on the clock! I certainly did not think that the conclusion to this search would resemble that kind of plot ending! Yet, a surprise was waiting in store for me!
As I continued detecting, I knew how close I was to wrapping things up and that it looked pretty grim for me to discover the missing earring. I even analyzed my search techniques and asked myself if I had perhaps detected over the jewelry at some point during the last 1,995 square yards of detecting. It was quite possible, yet I went so slow and was so careful with making sure that I stopped at every single signal in the range of this stud earring, that I felt pretty confident that I had successfully covered all of the yardage up to that point towards the end of the search. Again, I kept myself focused and said to myself, ‘I came here for a purpose which was to finish what I started and I am going to keep hoping for the result of finding Josh’s earring until I’m done with this search attempt.’
14 Karat White Gold and 1/2 Carat Diamond Reunited Together Again!
Eventually I got to the location in my search where I was about 20 feet away from completing the second to last grid line which would then be 50 yards in length remaining. After that last pass, I would have completed my search of the entire football field that Josh and his friends had marked off for their game. Just as I neared the end of that second to last line, I got another target signal which was no different than any of the other ones that I had to bend down to pinpoint before. Still, like with all the others, I knelt down to observe the target signal that I was getting and applied the pinpointer to the spot where the coil was reading the piece of metal in the grass. I looked at the depth meter on my detector screen and it told me that the object was just below the ground or on top of the earth. That didn’t mean too much to me because I had picked up all kinds of little objects that didn’t pan out to be anything. Just as I locked-in on the exact spot of where the target was located, my eyes immediately focused in on what appeared to be a small silver object that was laying sideways between the blades of grass! I then looked even more closely, and to my ultimate amazement and complete unbelief, I saw Josh’s treasured 14 karat white gold, one-half carat diamond earring hidden in the grass! I couldn’t believe it! I was blown away by what I was looking at! After all of the hours that I had been searching during the first evening and right up to the end of this second search effort, there it was, right at the invisible edge of the football field sideline! Nothing could describe accurately just what was going through me when I knew at that point that I had found Josh’s earring! It was too good to be true! It was a dream and that dream actually came true! Knowing that I set off on a mission to do something that was so far outside of the box in trying to find something this small on this much real estate, and that I pulled it off – there was just nothing like that feeling of excitement! I want to give credit where credit is due, which is that I believe the Lord helped me pull this search off! He gave me the abilities necessary to continue on, persevere and not give up, keep the focus, and apply the methods I used to effectively search for and ultimately recover the missing jewel from the huge piece of real estate!
I picked up the stud earring and stared at the beautiful diamond that was sparkling in the light as I was observing it! This piece of jewelry that was made up of a valuable stone and precious metal was going back to its owner and would eventually be worn on his ear soon enough! It wouldn’t be left out there on that field, to be trampled over and eventually buried inches in the dirt, serving absolutely no purpose! I found it! I really did find it! Here I was in total darkness with just my headlamp lighting the way! It was just me, all alone out there on that desolate field, celebrating the discovery of something so special! It really was thrilling! I knew at that very moment that I had not missed a single inch of territory! Upon looking for the lost piece of jewelry, I was so encouraged to realize that my meticulous grid searching in Gold Mode was perfectly done and that I had not overshot the very target that I was after! Springboarding off of that thought came another crazy one. That is, that it was quite possible that with my success of finding the earring, the white gold backing to its counterpart may be somewhere in the vicinity of where the earring had fallen off Josh’s ear. The backing had to come off first in order for the earring to eventually slip off of Josh’s ear. Therefore, it was quite possible that the backing was most likely not detected yet by my Equinox 800 and it could be still in the path of my remaining yards to search! I got totally excited about the idea that I might in fact find the backing during this last stretch of detecting. Now that I had recovered the most important item of the two, this would be the cherry on the top if I could pull off another find!
Brian, Josh and Adriana Partying It Up Knowing that the Search for the Missing Jewelry was Over! The Stud Earring was Back Home for Good!
I wasn’t going to leave that field until I covered every last inch of the football field that Josh had marked off last week. I may have searched 10 or 15 yards at the beginning stage of detecting the last grid line when I got another signal that was registering in the 1’s and 2’s. This time, I couldn’t wait to see what it was that I was picking up on my detector. Could it be the backing? Or was it another piece of trash like the handful that I had in my pouch pocket? I was about ready to find out, and to my shock again, it would not be disappointing! I got back down on the ground with my pinpointer, approaching the location of where this object was resting, and yes, once again, I hit gold! I found the backing! I couldn’t believe it! Yes, I found the 14 karat white gold backing to the earring! I was simply overjoyed at this discovery! It was incredible! It was absolutely fantastic to find even the backing to this earring! Most people would not have even taken the time and the effort to attempt a recovery like this because it was just too grueling and too time-consuming to detect every single signal in Gold Mode! This was not normal metal detecting by any means! I could not believe that I found the backing and yet it was a true reality! I was pump fisting and yelling out loud, “Yes! Yes! I can’t believe it! Yes, I found it!” I was praising the Lord and thanking Him for my abilities to find both pieces of gold! It was truly an amazing moment for me to experience something quite like this!
I stayed out there on that pitch dark field for a while, taking photos, video and commenting about the happiness that I was experiencing at that moment. Just thinking about the fact that I was so close to the end of the search parameter and that I was able to pull both pieces of gold off of the football field, was just an incredible thing for me to think about! What are the odds of this discovery? If I had placed the cones closer in and Josh did not give me a proper estimated distance from the chalk line extended out 30 feet from it, I may have undershot the search and would not have ever found the earring. Generally, I will search farther out from the parameter that is given to me so it’s possible that I still would have found the gold, but the techniques I was using to find such small objects was truly amazing with the results that I came away with that night! I kept thinking of how I was originally not going to return to the middle school field to attempt a second recovery and I was beyond happy that I chose to stick it out and continue to try to help Josh recover this earring with one more attempt! Wow! It was just awesome! I packed up my things and joyfully headed back to the car, thinking only thoughts of amazement and how blown away I was to find the earring and its backing!
I believe that by the time I got to the car it was nearing 10 p.m. I wanted to surprise Josh with my findings, so I eventually called him to see if he was still up since he told me that he was a night owl. However, I didn’t get any response. Eventually, I would surprise him with the good news and both he and his wife would be just as shocked as I was when I pulled his two pieces of jewelry from that field! It certainly was a fun moment to reveal my finds with the couple!
If you would like to see the search video and the moment that I revealed the missing earring and its backing to Josh, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel at the link below.
I will never forget this search and the amazing finish to what was one of the most difficult search efforts that I had ever tackled. Nothing could compare to the type of excitement that I was handed as a result of successfully finding Josh’s gold diamond earring and its backing, as well! As I drove home from surprising Josh and his wife Adriana with what I was able to recover, I hoped inside that I would have more of these types of challenges in the future. However, for the time being, I wished my next few recovery missions would not involve something of this magnitude…at least for a while!
What a search and what a fantastic finish!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
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.
Emily’s 14 Karat White Gold Engagement Ring with Opal Stone and Diamonds
Emily’s 14 Karat White Gold Nesting Band with Diamonds
After a Week at the Bottom of Frederick Maryand’s Monocacy River, Emily’s Beloved Engagement Ring Set was Found and Returned to the Bride-To-Be by Metal Detectorist and Ring Finder, Brian Rudolph!
Emily and Mark Excitedly Show Off the Bride-To-Be’s Beloved Engagement Ring Set That Was Thought to Be Lost in the Monocacy River Forever!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
Emily and Mark got together with a bunch of their friends and headed off to a fun swimming hole near Frederick, Maryland on the Monocacy River, located not far from Monocacy National Battlefield. It was a hot summer day outside, perfect for couples to hang out, take a plunge in the river and make a fun-filled day outside. Unfortunately, their plans started to fall apart quite quickly when Emily’s two rings went missing some time while they were all out by the water. She was pretty convinced that she lost the rings during the 30 minutes of play time in the river with her fiancé. Mark was holding her up while she was lying in his arms in the river, and she believed it was probably at that point when the rings slipped off her finger. Emily didn’t feel the jewelry come off of her finger, but she believed that it was the most probable scenario that the water had something to do with how the rings fell off of her finger.
In Emily’s moment of panic, as she came out of the water, the young lady told the rest of the group what had happened. Immediately a search began to look for the rings out on the riverbank and in the shallow parts of the water where they could see all the way to the bottom. One of the rings that went missing was Emily’s engagement ring. It was made of 14 karat white gold, centered with a lovely opal stone and accompanied by several diamonds surrounding it. The other ring was part of the engagement ring set, a 14 karat white gold nesting band, very petite in size which held three small diamonds along the top of the ring. The sad part of the whole ordeal was that Emily had just received these precious keepsakes on the day that she was proposed to only a month or so earlier (Her wedding date is scheduled for September 2020!).
The fact that the bride-to-be lost both of her rings was very difficult for her to deal with and you can imagine how upset she was for the rest of that day (and for the next week, as well). Everyone kept searching in the water to see if they could spot the rings, but nothing was found. As the group made their way into the deeper area of the river, there was just no way to see that far down in the water where Emily believed the rings may have come off. Besides the loss of her jewelry, the worst part of her afternoon came when she had to leave the river empty-handed.
The couple was desperate to see what they could do to get the newly engaged lady’s rings back. Emily was not about to give up hope yet, and that hope was about to be called by Mark’s future bride! They looked online to find tips on how to pull a ring from a river, and The Ring Finders directory popped up on Google. Emily immediately contacted me and before long we were talking on the phone to make plans for a recovery effort.
I put Emily at ease by telling her that I had successful recovery stories dealing with finding rings in water. Some people told her that the rings most likely had been washed down river which would make it impossible for them to ever be found again. However, I assured her that those rings did not go anywhere after they fell to the bottom of the water. She was relieved at my words.
Once I received all of the details about the missing engagement band set, I asked her additional questions to help me get the entire picture of what we were dealing with. Because she lost the rings at a state park, I told her that I would need to pursue special permissions from the park service in order for me to conduct a recovery mission. She had lost the rings on a Friday, I believe, and then she first contacted me the following day or so. Therefore, I would have to wait another 24 hours before I could contact the park service to request a permit to search the river on Emily and Mark’s behalf. When we got off the phone, we had a plan in place to begin the process of getting me in the Monocacy River as fast as possible!
Monday came and I was on the phone calling various departments connected to Maryland’s state park service. I was initially bounced around between the county of Frederick and the Maryland park service. But, eventually I was able to talk to the right people who set me up with a top administrator who could affirm that I was talking to the correct people to pursue a permit for Emily and Mark. One employee at the park service referred me to a website where I could apply for special permissions to search the water. Metal detectors are strictly prohibited at this particular park as most state parks prohibit the use of any detector. What was supposed to take possibly up to two weeks or more to “hopefully” get a permit request approved, I was able to get an official permit in hand within three days of filling out the paperwork! I was granted full access to the river! Thanks to the hard work of a couple of top administrators at the park service, they were able to push the paper and “cut the red tape” a whole lot faster than the usual process! I was quite excited with the news that I was free to search the water much sooner than later! Though I was only given a specific period of time that I could search the river and after that I would not be able to continue any futures searches, I felt I had a large enough window to get the job done (if the rings were not already plucked out of the water by other metal detectorists).
Every day leading up to when I received the approval to search the river, I kept giving updates to Emily who greatly appreciated all of my efforts. I was delighted to help the couple in every way possible! The next step was to schedule a time to meet Emily and Mark over by the park where the rings went missing the week before. I looked at my calendar and set up the next possible timeslot when I could conduct the search. I needed them to show me where everyone was hanging out on that dreadful afternoon when the rings left Emily’s finger. Then, I could search all of the probable locations where the engagement ring and nesting band fell to the bottom of the Monocacy. We agreed on meeting that Friday, which was the Friday following Mark and Emily’s excursion when the initial happy and fun afternoon suddenly turned so very sad and disappointing for the couple.
Friday arrived and I headed to the Monocacy River to meet Emily in the park where the rings went missing. Mark was not able to join us due to his work schedule. We met in the park parking lot and then Emily walked me to the spot where the group of friends were all hanging out the week earlier. It was a considerable journey through the woods alongside the riverbank before we got to the place where she lost the rings. When we got to the spot where everyone went swimming that day, we walked down onto the riverbank where there were lots of stones and pebbles – perfect for keeping my gear dry above the water.
Frederick Maryland’s Monocacy River
Emily then showed me where she played in the water and where she and Mark drifted downriver approximately 50 yards or so. She had an idea of where she thought she may have held onto some rocks as the water current was taking Mark and Emily downriver. She thought that maybe the rings slipped off when she was trying to brace herself at that time. Emily couldn’t be certain of her predictions because there were times when she was just floating in the water and the rings could have slipped off at any of those moments. In any case, I was given a very good picture of how things looked on the day that the rings disappeared and I then had all of the parameters to work with as to where the rings may have settled to the bottom of the river.
The water depth was probably around two and a half feet to three feet deep closer to the middle of the river and maybe higher in a few other spots. It was very shallow due to the fact that we had gotten so little rain in the weeks leading up to the search. Though most of my body was above the water, the current was quite swift so I did have some opposition from the speed by which the water was traveling. The terrain at the bottom of the river also made the search more complicated because of how difficult it was to move about without tripping over a rock or small boulder.
My search grid would involve a 50 yard area from left to right (down river) and 30 yards from one side of the river to the other side (though Emily and I agreed that I only needed to search 20 yards from our side of the Monocacy riverbed out towards the middle of the river because she didn’t float close to the opposite end of the riverbank). Once we finished going over all of the details, I headed back to the car to put on the rest of my wetsuit and gather all of my gear so I could soon begin the search for Emily’s missing rings!
Emily wasn’t sure if she would ever get her rings back, but I kept telling her that all things are possible if she would keep believing the positive and not doubt. I shared with her that in life, we must doubt our feelings of doubt and believe the impossible can happen. The Bible says, “Everything is possible for him who believes” (Mark 9:23). Yes, it was a large area to search. Yes, it is hard enough to metal detect that amount of space on land, let alone the degree of difficulty in searching a moving body of water like the Monocacy. Yet, I was determined to find Emily’s lost rings. And I didn’t just want to return to her the opal engagement ring, but also the other white gold band, as well! Before I headed out into the water, I prayed that the Lord would favor my search and to give Emily some hope inside to believe for the impossible! God loves the covenant of marriage, as He created it, and her engagement ring was a symbol of promise (betrothal) unto marriage! Therefore, I always know that I have favor from above when searching for lost engagement rings and wedding bands!
Emily’s Rings Lost Somewhere in the Historical Monocacy River
As Emily hung out on the shore, reading and doing some work on her tablet, I began my hunt for the missing rings. Because the items were very petite in size and made of 14 karat white gold, picking up the target signals on the detector would not be easy. Having a small, white gold object lost at the bottom of a body of water is not a good combination. The signals are light and very difficult to hit effectively, especially if you swing the metal detector coil too fast. Every step taken and every decision made out in the river had to be slow and very methodical in the way that I conducted this search.
My first grid was about 20 yards downstream, starting where Emily pointed out the first hotspot to investigate. There were rocks of various sizes covering the bottom of the river and there was nothing but stones in between the larger formations. Not only did I have to metal detect over and around and underneath all of those obstacles, but I would have to deal with many pieces of garbage that were discarded in the water over a long period of time. I found old beer can pop tops along with torn up cans, miscellaneous pieces of aluminum and much more throw-away items of trash. I would end up using two of my Equinox 800 machines with two different size coils. I used a 6 inch coil and an 11 inch coil as well. The smaller coil was helpful to get around some of the larger rocks and downed trees. The larger one was helpful to cover more territory in the river, as long as I wasn’t slowed down by metal trash that was settled close to other pieces of garbage at the bottom of the water.
I believe Emily hung out for a couple of hours before she needed to pack up her things and head on out. She kept a great attitude even though I had not yet found her rings. By the time she started walking back to the car. I told her from the water that I would be relentless in my search in finding what had been lost. Just before she took off, I asked Emily where Mark proposed to her with the rings.I wanted to get the whole story behind these precious pieces of jewelry that became extremely sentimental on the day of the proposal! Everything about the location of where Mark popped the question and how he proposed to Mark was absolutely beautiful and so fairytale like. This only propelled me even more to do whatever necessary to get these rings back on her finger! We said our goodbyes and I assured her that I would give Emily an update upon leaving the park.
If one were to observe the amount of territory that I had to search in this historical river, it would only emit stress on that person and bring lots of second-guessing to the mind based on the difficulty of finding such petite pieces of white gold at the bottom of the water. There were so many places that the bands could have ended up. There weren’t any clues to go by as to whether the rings came off at the same time, or if one came off in one location and then the other slipped off sometime later. Honestly, I loved the challenge and I was just so happy to give it my all in attempting to return these sentimental pieces back to Emily.
The main strategy that I implemented was to continue searching all of the hotspot locations where Emily may have lost the rings and focus my efforts on gridding each pass, heading downriver and then back up the river, approximately a distance of 20 feet for each pass. The width of the grid parameter was probably around 20 yards left to right.
While I was out there in the middle of the river, I couldn’t help but be so grateful for the beautiful weather that I was experiencing. It was warm outside, with no chance of rain in the forecast. To be surrounded by such amazing creations of God, there was just nothing like it! Then, add to the experience the whole idea of searching for lost items that mean so very much to another human being, it makes life so fulfilling and fun!
I had given myself a good five or six hour window to search the river that day. Afterwards, I would need to head north to Pennsylvania, near historical Gettysburg for a wedding that I was attending. I had been invited by a grateful couple that I helped in recovering the bride-to-be’s engagement ring that was lost 40 yards out in the Atlantic Ocean just two weeks before the wedding! She lost the ring on her bachelorette party weekend! I was quite honored to be a part of the festivities! It was kind of special that at one point in the day I was searching for a bride-to-be’s engagement ring set, and then later that night I would be celebrating the wedding of a bride who would be wearing the ring that I was able to return to her from the depths of the ocean! I thought that it would make an even more enchanting story if I was able to recover Emily’s rings before having to continue north towards Pennsylvania that afternoon!
Four hours passed by and I continued my detecting efforts in the water for the missing rings. Each time I covered a section of the river, I was only encouraged that I had eliminated more possibilities as to where the jewelry could have ended up. I had not lost any of my drive and enthusiasm for finding Emily’s rings. I kept swinging my detector in straight lines going up and down the river and then side to side. I was continuing to cover a distance of about 20 yards wide and search in 20 yard sections of the entire 50 yards, up and down the river.
At some point, I was finishing one of my grid passes when I hit a signal that was in the range of Emily’s lost rings. This was not the first time that day that I had gotten other potential targets to check out. In fact, I had plenty of them. In those first many hours of searching, I consistently pulled pieces of trash out of the water, but no rings had been found. This current signal was yet another one that I needed to check out. I knew the exact range of VDI numbers (these are numbers that help to identify the type of metal the target could potentially be) to look for on my machine and this piece of metal was showing the kind of target that got me curious! The numbers on my Equinox 800 detector screen were dancing around a number: four, five, seven, nine, and I believe eleven, as well. I was looking for such low numbers on the scale of my detector and I knew that the signal that I wanted was not going to pound hard in the headphones. Rather, it was going to be light and questionable. These rings were very petite, and therefore there wasn’t a lot of white gold on them at all to be detected easily. Like I did with many other potential signals that day, I reached down into the water, right over the spot where my metal detector had picked up the signal, and I surveyed the metal object with my Garrett handheld detector called a “pinpointer” in order to isolate the location where the object was resting. Once I was confident of the exact area where I knew the object was hiding, I placed the handheld detector off to the side (which was attached to a cord and clipped to my harness belt), grabbed a cluster of stones and sediment in the vicinity of where the buried object was and brought it all up to the surface for review. I have to use this type of method in rivers because it is impossible to use a scoop in this type of environment due to the quantity of stones and rocks that are stuck to the bottom of the water. Therefore, I have to use my hands to bring up the objects that I am potentially looking for. Next, I grabbed my pinpointer again and scanned over the contents that were in my hand to see if I found the metal object that I had detected moments earlier. To my great surprise, my eyes first focused in on the loveliest opal stone, then some small diamonds surrounding it came into view, and finally I saw the white gold band! Indeed, I had found the engagement ring! It was a fantastic moment! In this vast area of water, I had recovered this small precious keepsake! Like a needle in a haystack!
Though I had nobody around to share the excitement with, I expressed all of my joy and happiness into my GoPro video camera that I had been using to document the entire search up to that point! I gave thanks to the Lord for giving me the ability to find the ring and bring it up from the river where it had been resting at the bottom for over a week! I was thrilled at finding the band! Between the two rings, this one was the most important one to Emily because it was her engagement ring. Yet, I was not going to stop at that point. I would continue searching for the nesting band once I secured the recently found item in my zipped up case attached to my metal detector harness. I made sure that Emily’s opal ring was not going to be lost again in that river!
Discovering one of the sought-after pieces that went missing was such a boost of encouragement to me! My search methods that day were working effectively! So far, I had not believed that I had overlooked either target that I was after! Could I have missed the other ring due to it consisting of a thin band of white gold? It was possible. But, I kept my mindset on believing that I was thorough and accurate in my grid moves. When one is detecting in water, there are no cones or tape to keep you walking in a straight line! You have to be extremely careful not to move too far to the right or to the left, or sweep too short on either side of your body as you move forward with the detector.
Once I found the first of the two lovely rings, I was back at it again, searching for the second one, which was even thinner than the engagement ring. I had barely gotten a decent signal off of the last ring and so I was confident that this one would be even harder to recover. I believe I had another 30 minutes or so for me to try to strike gold, but at the conclusion of that search day I was unable to walk out of the river with both rings. I had no time left and it was imperative that I got on the road and start heading towards Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for the wedding that would take place later that evening.
Before I made my way out of the river, I took note of where I had found the first ring and I would resume my search the following day. How could I have not been pleased with the results so far? I was able to recover half of what I was sent out to help with and there was still more work to be done! I walked out of the water and gathered up my gear and returned back to the parking lot, packed my things in the car, changed out of my wetsuit and then headed north.
During the whole drive to the hotel, I couldn’t stop thinking about how blessed I was to recover the engagement ring! I couldn’t wait to get back in the water and search for the nesting band! In keeping my word to Emily, I called her but I had to leave a voicemail message. I was vague about my search, hoping I could surprise her the next day with the news that I had found both rings, and not just the opal engagement ring. That was my hope!
The next morning, I left the hotel and drove south to Washington D.C.. I had received an urgent call from a desperate husband who shared that the day before his wife had lost her wedding band at the National Zoo. I immediately headed to the Nation’s Capital to help the couple out. Once I completed the search in D.C., I drove back north again, which was 45 minutes in the direction towards the Monocacy River.
Upon arrival, I once again setup all of my gear along the river bank and quickly made my way over to where I had found the engagement ring the day before. I knew the location because there was a particular formation of rocks along the side of the river, and I had lined up that formation with the place that I had found the first ring in the middle of the river. I knew that if I started walking from those rocks straight out into the middle of the river, I would end up at the location where I found the first ring. Secondly, I could feel a certain rock with my dive boots that was below the surface of the water and it was near that rock that I had found the engagement ring very close to that particular formation. From that point, I counted approximately 30 feet down the river and that was where I had finished my search the day before. I was now ready to begin the second chapter of my recovery efforts
For me, I love the thrill of the challenge to find what is not easily obtainable, especially out in the middle of a river. The current was much faster than the day before, so I needed to work smart and place my feet in certain positions where I would not lose my balance from the swift movement of the water. It was another lovely day outside and once again I could not ask for better weather conditions.
My strategy of the day was to not change anything with the way I searched the day before. I kept doing my grid lines with the same method that I had implemented on Friday and I worked my way farther down the river and then back up again, pushing my way against the stubborn water flow. Then, I would move back down the river and continued to do this in straight lines. Not knowing when the two rings came off of Emily’s finger, it led me to tighten up my mental focus. I had to tell myself that finding the other ring was obtainable just as I found the first one, even though it was a lot more petite and the gold was even thinner than the band of the first ring. I had no idea what the distance was between the first ring falling off and when the second one hit the bottom of the river. However, I wasn’t going to be intimidated by how much more territory needed to be detected!
Approximately 45 minutes into my second search that day, I had searched approximately 20 square yards of river from where I found the engagement ring. Like before, I moved the metal detector slowly so that I would not miss any potential signals that I might swing across. So far, all of the targets that I pulled out of the water that afternoon were small pieces of aluminum – still no ring to be found. At some point, as I continued down the river, slightly detecting to the right side of the water, I hit a signal that was extremely light and almost unrecognizable on my detector. I moved the coil back and forth a little bit more and I was still picking up this particular target that matched white gold. From certain angles I was not getting any reading on my detector screen, so I had to move the detector coil at different positions just to see if I was getting a false reading or not. The signal still showed up and that’s when I started getting more curious. Most detectorists would have moved right across that target because it really didn’t appear to contain much of any metal to consider pulling it up. Someone else would have mistaken it as a small piece of aluminum foil. Because I knew better with white gold targets, I was not about to pass it up. I took my pinpointer and placed it down into the water right over the spot where my detector coil was resting. Then, I removed the coil from the area and immediately the pinpointer found the metal object. The target was obviously just inches from where my hand was positioned! Also, I could tell that it was a small target by the way the tip of the pinpointer was sounding off. Next, I removed the pinpointer out of the way and quickly grabbed a handful of sediment and rocks where the target was resting. Bringing my handful of stones and sand up to the surface, I immediately scanned the contents for the mysterious metal object. I believe that my first attempt came up with nothing and so I repeated the steps over again until I was certain that this time I hadn’t left the item at the bottom of the river.
I once again used my pinpointer to detect the clump of stones and sediment that was in my hand, and finally the piece of metal was detected by the pinpointer! Whatever it was, I now had it inside my grip! I knew the object was very small because it was surprisingly hidden in the midst of all of the river stones and sediment. I moved my finger through the items and it was then that I saw it! It wasn’t a scrap piece of aluminum from a drinking can, nor was it part of an old used ketchup packet or flimsy milk peel top! Not at all! It was a petite, white gold ring with a very thin band holding 3 small diamonds that were spread out along the top of the precious metal! I immediately knew that I had found the second missing ring because I recognized the details from a photo that Emily had previously provided for me! I did it! I found the nesting band that was part of the original engagement ring set! I could not have been more surprised by my findings based on how weak the target signal was! What an awesome moment!
Unless you are a ring finder like those found in The Ring Finders directory, it’s hard to describe the feeling inside when you discover the very object that you were on a mission to recover. When you find the sought-after keepsake that means so much to someone else, there’s almost a feeling of electricity that works through you! There’s such a rush within that excites all of one’s senses when the missing item is found and then returned to its owner! With search and recovery missions like this one, the degree of difficulty is so large that when one finds the lost property (like in the case of these two missing rings), there is just no greater feeling in the world! Taking on a challenge like this and being able to deliver to the distraught owner, not just one ring, but to find both rings in separate areas in the river, 20 yards apart, there are few words to accurately describe the entire experience!
Metal Detectorist, Brian Rudolph, Successfully Returned Both Rings to Emily and Mark! Call Brian Rudolph to Help You Find Your Lost Keepsakes at (301) 466-8644
I was so thrilled and overjoyed to find this second ring! I held up the nesting band and kissed it, yelling out loud, “Yes! I did it! I found it! Yes!” All kinds of words of excitement and relief flowed from within me, realizing at that moment that I was able to successfully fulfill this mission! I remember just standing there in the middle of the river, holding Emily’s ring in my hand, knowing at that point in time that there was nothing left to recover from the water! My search was over! It was extremely gratifying for me to leave the riverbank with my equipment in one hand and the recently discovered gold band that was zipped up in my harness case! I couldn’t wait to surprise Emily and her fiancé Mark with the good news! As I walked through the woods along the path leading back to the parking lot, I could see the river through the tree line, and I thought to myself, “I did it! I conquered the Monocacy!” At that moment I could only give thanks to the Lord for something as extraordinary as what had just taken place in the last 24 hours!
If you would like to see the video of me revealing the rings to Emily and Mark, please subscribe to the YouTube channel link provided below, and you will receive a notification when the video is uploaded in the next few months. It is worth waiting for! I promise!
Emily Couldn’t Have Been More Happy to Hold Her Missing Rings Once Again!
Emily and Mark were beyond excited to receive the missing rings back in their possession! My efforts to recover the special keepsakes in the Monocacy River were 100% successful and the couple was pleasantly shocked with surprise at the outcome! The look on their faces when I returned both rings will always be fixed in my mind! They were so happy and relieved at the sight of those beautiful bands that had disappeared below the water over a week earlier and located 45 minutes away from where Emily and Mark resided! Now, the engagement set was returned home for good! Emily’s finger was finally reunited with its newly found friends (the ring set), and together they now await the arrival of yet another ring this autumn…the wedding band!
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
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