Lost gold ring in Lake Dora, Mt. Dora, Florida….Found!
As Nick stood at the end of the dock looking out over the water, he realized he was getting rather warm. So he decided to take off his sweatshirt and as he pulled it over his head he felt his gold ring slip off of his finger and watched as it dropped into the water. This was a very special ring, given to him by his grandfather and he immediately felt his heart sink! What was he to do? How could he retrieve his special ring?
A couple of months passed as Nick tried to think of different ways to get his lost ring back. He finally came across theringfinders.com web site and saw that someone could help him and that I was located close by. After calling me and explaining what happened we met at the dock and Nick showed me exactly where the ring fell into the water. It was over 10 feet deep so I suited up and dove in. Right at 10 feet the bottom of the lake had a soft, silky, muddy like texture. As I reached my arm down into the soft silt and mud, my hand was not able to touch the actual bottom of the lake. I used my Garrett pro pointer to find a few targets in the mud but only came up with a handful of nails, screws and a few pieces of aluminum foil. So I figured there had to be another way to retrieve Nick’s lost ring. Two weeks later I tried out a new method for finding rings in the water. I had made up a basket and covered it with half inch hardware cloth and then fixed it to a 16 foot metal pole. My first attempt at dragging the sifter thru the mud and silt lasted 5 hours and still no ring. On Dec. 31st I searched again for only an hour and was asked to leave the dock so the city could set up for fireworks. The next day, Jan. 1st, I went back and after one and a half hours….I could hardly believe my eyes! There in the sifter was Nick’s lost gold ring! I sent Nick a photo and asked him if that was his ring? And as he showed the photo to his family, they all joyously celebrated together! It took 8 hours of hard work to find Nick’s ring and it was so very rewarding and satisfying to finally hand it over to him. Thank you Nick for calling me and for giving me the opportunity to help you recover your lost ring!
Mike McInroe—-Proud member of theringfinders.com
Danielle called me on a cold, wet Saturday morning in November, desperate for help. Apparently her sister’s fiance, Levi, had bought a beautiful engagement ring and wanted to do a practice run on the « Big Proposal » and somehow lost the ring. She explained that Levi had decided to go to Lake Eustis, with his older brother, and find the perfect spot to practice his proposal. Levi was standing along side of the rail and as he opened the ring box, to his horror, the ring popped out of the box, hit the concrete and dropped into the water below! He was stunned! His precious gift, the white gold ring with the .8 carat diamond was gone! He could not believe what just happened. He called his dear future sister in law, Danielle, and explained his dilemma. She immediately looked on line for someone to help and typed in « Lake Salvage » and nothing came up. Next she thought of « Ring Finder » and bingo, up came one of the ring finders stories. 
Christopher called and asked if I could help him find a very special ring that was lost at his high school football field. He explained in detail that a friend had asked him to hold this ring (a wide black tungsten carbide ring with the « Lord’s Prayer » written in very small print, around the outside of the ring) and not to loose it as it was a gift given as a promise ring from the friend’s parents. While Christopher was holding the ring, another friend asked to look at the ring and check it out. At first Christopher hesitated but finally gave in and let the boy look at the ring. Later Christopher asked for the ring back and it was thrown to him from a distance, instead of simply having it handed to him. As he went to catch the ring it glanced off of his hand and went rolling across the track and into a grassy area under a chain link fence. Christopher desperately tried to find the ring but as the class ended he had to go. Later he came back and looked some more and that led him to the internet. He found my number on theringfinders.com website and told me what happened.
Allot of rings are lost playing volleyball and unfortunately many times the rings are never found by their rightful owners. Some owners try their hardest to sift thru the sand using their fingers and rakes in a desperate attempt to locate their precious rings. There are a few people who actually find their rings and are so relieved, vowing to never wear their ring and play volleyball at the same time-ever again! But most poor souls figure their rings are gone forever–never to be seen again.
Mr. Dave was born in 1928, grew up in Salem Oregon and graduated from High School in 1946. At 89 years of age, he has seen allot of life and he and his dear wife of 66 years are still very much alive and in love! Early in their marriage they felt God calling them to be missionaries and in 1957 they went to Papua New Guinea and served for 44 years. Now they are residents at our NTM Homes retirement center here in Sanford, Fl. and I and 40 other staff members have the honor and privilege to help care for them in their old age. Earlier this year their sons came down to help them move from a duplex apartment to one of our Adult Living Facility rooms. Going through closets and household stuff is not always easy and in the process Mr. Dave’s ring was no where to be seen.
Brandon had just recently bought himself a really nice, shiny cobalt ring and was still getting used to wearing it. He and his girl friend were out driving around and as his custom was, he would hang his hand out of the car window. Normally that is not much of a problem but on this night he was in the passengers seat and he was wearing his new ring on his right hand. As they were driving along he had his hand sticking out of the window and he sort of liked the feel of his new ring. It was so smooth and had that heavy feel of a quality ring and before he knew it the ring came off of his finger and dropped into the darkness. His girl friend had the presence of mind to immediately pull off the road. Even though it was dark Brandon could faintly see about where they were when the ring came off of his finger. So they decided to stop and try looking for his lost ring. The long grass and the darkness made their search seem futile, so they figured they would come back and try again in the morning.
Joe had just gotten his son, Jack, a new I-phone and had it fit with the new water proof case and all was going good until Jack said that he lost his phone in the water at a near by park! Apparently some of Jack’s friends were jumping into the water from a tree and Jack was trying to take some photos with his phone from the same tree, when two boys decided to jump at the same time. The leaning palm tree sprang back and Jack lost his balance and in the process dropped his new phone into the murky water 10 feet below. Scrambling down the tree Jack frantically searched for his phone and convinced the other boys to help. His phone had somehow disappeared! Just below the tree the water was only about a foot deep but the bottom sloped away quickly and Jack feared his phone had fallen into the deeper water. Then a bigger fear settled over him….he had to tell his parents!! And thankfully his dad, Joe, had some ideas. He first tried wading into the water feeling with his feet for the phone, but could not locate the lost phone. It became apparent that he needed something like a metal detector to help locate the phone. After searching « Underwater metal detector » he discovered that there is a group of metal detector specialists that actually help people find lost items on land and in the water. He quickly gave ma a call and we made arrangements to meet and conduct a search. An hour and a half later I suited up with my wet suit and scuba boots and grabbed my trusty Tiger Shark (water proof) metal detector and off we went. The area was flooded so we sloshed along until we came to the leaning palm tree and Jack showed me exactly where he was standing and the small area where he said the phone hit the water. I figured the phone had to be close, so I wadded in and started swinging my metal detector. Back and forth across the 8 foot area and a few small signals sounded in my headphones but no loud beep like I was expecting. I went out up to my chin and still no phone. I was afraid it had been pushed into deeper water and after 15 minutes or so I said « It’s just not out here » and waded into where Joe was standing in ankle deep water watching my every move. Just to the side of the search area in shallow water was a medium size Cypress tree and it’s roots were sort of jutting out here and there. Earlier I had casually run my coil over the tops of the roots when I first started my search and as I came up out of the water Joe says to me « Did you check real good down in these roots? » So I grabbed my Garrett Pro Pointer AT and started poking it around into each dark crevice and low and behold it started beeping! There tucked under one of those roots in just a foot of water was Jack’s lost phone!
would help locate his lost ring but still no luck. He then went on line and typed in « How to find a ring in the grass » and up popped theringfinders.com and one of the search stories. So he gave me a call and we discussed his situation and I felt quite confident that I could help him find his lost ring. Later that evening I met Dave and he showed me the small grassy area where he dropped his class ring off of the roof. I set my metal detector to the coin and jewelry mode and right away there was obvious electrical interference that caused the detector to chatter constantly. By switching to the Prospecting Mode I was able to begin searching the most likely areas. And sure enough I soon got a nice solid, repeatable signal with low numbers and it pinpointed very shallow. Dave was so grateful to get his lost ring back and it was great to see the joy and relief as he firmly shook my hand. I thanked God for another successful search and as I said my goodbyes, I was happy to have helped another needy person. Lost something recently? Maybe I can help! Give me a call, text or e-mail and we can talk about your situation.
Scott was playing with a football in the pool with his son and some friends and as they finished up he noticed his wedding ring, of 12 years, was not on his finger. So he immediately started searching in the pool thinking that was the most likely place where it probably slipped off while he was swimming. Scott is a certified diver and had no trouble checking all the corners and crevices where his ring could have been hiding–but he came up empty handed. That led him and his friends to search the deck area around the pool and along the fence surrounding the deck. And still no ring. Along the outside of the fence was a row of 5 foot hedge type bushes that gave the pool area some privacy and it was very likely that the lost ring could be hiding either in the bushes themselves or at the base of one of them. Scott and his friends spent a few more hours searching those areas and still could not seem to find his lost ring. The next day they packed up and headed home to the Tampa area and Scott was not happy to be leaving his wedding ring behind. He kept thinking that there had to be a way to find his ring, and that thought led him to search on Google « What do I do when I lose my ring? » and up came one of theringfinders.com stories. So Scott called me and explained what all happened and described the pool area quite well. I asked him to contact the Holiday Inn Express manager and ask for permission to conduct a thorough search of the pool area.
Jared wrote, « Hello! I wanted to reach out to let you guys know how grateful I am for Mike McInroe! What a blessing he is. Our lost ring story begins 33 years ago when my mother was pregnant with me. Due to the swelling she wasn’t able to wear her wedding ring anymore and being from the poor midwest, she felt awful not having her ring on and being pregnant. Despite their financial situation my father came home one day with a new, larger ring so she would have something to wear while she was pregnant. It wasn’t much but it meant the world to my mother! She decided while she was pregnant with me that one day she would give it to me or my spouse to wear when we were expecting our own. 33 years later, that day finally came. While she was visiting us for our baby shower in Orlando from the cold of Minnesota she brought the ring to give to my wife and to share that story with her. Heartbreakingly she never got the chance. The day she decided to give it to my wife we were all fishing off our dock in the canal. My mother was wearing the ring on her pinky finger and when she went to cast the rod–she dropped her precious ring of 33 years into the muddy water. Needless to say my mother was heartbroken– as was I for her! I searched in the water for an hour or two, to no avail, bringing up bucket after bucket of mud in a hopeless search. Meanwhile my wife was laughing at me–having no idea why in the world I would be in the water and having no idea about the ring or the family story. We did not find the ring and my mother flew home to Minnesota heart broken. (A few weeks later she bought and mailed us a ring that looked similar, feeling it was all she could do.) I was determined to find that ring! In my search to figure out how to build a pump and dredge system to dredge and sift the mud, I found theringfinders.com while searching for « How to find a ring underwater. » I emailed Mike on a Friday morning and by that evening we had a time set for the following day. The next morning I explained to Mike how the ring had been lost 4 weeks prior and showed him the dock and where we thought it might be. He said a little prayer as he climbed down the ladder into the canal and began his search. About 20 minutes later we heard the wonderful buzzing of his metal detector, picking up a strong signal. A couple of muddy scoops later and with a huge grin on his face, he pulled the ring out of his muddy sifter. Mike was an amazing spirit and a blessing to come and find our lost ring. We had our baby just a few short days after finding the ring and I can’t wait to surprise my mother when she comes down to meet the baby and to find out we found her ring–the ring she had been holding for 33 years!