Lost diamond engagement ring, Casselberry, Florida….found with a metal detector!
When Renee called me I could immediately tell by the tone and stress in her voice that she had lost something and needed help. I listened to her explain how she lost her heirloom engagement ring down by their dock and how she and her husband had looked and looked and in frustration finally decided to call someone for help. So after hearing her story I assured her that her ring was there and I would try my very best to find it for her.
I packed up my car with all the essentials…my ATMax metal detector, pro pointer, scoop, floating sifter, flags, extra batteries, etc and headed to Renee’s home. I am always very excited when an opportunity comes along to help someone and I try my hardest to think of anything and everything that I could possibly need to help me in searching and finding someone’s lost ring.
An hour later I pulled up to Renee’s beautiful home and was met by a lovely young lady with tear stained face who was none other than dear Renee. I followed her around to the back of her house and down to the dock area where I could see that a bunch of fresh dirt was pushed here and there and also a few of the boards from the boardwalk were taken up as well. Renee explained how she had pulled some weeds from the shallow water and thought maybe her engagement ring had come off in the water somehow. After pulling a few weeds she proceeded to move some boards from along side of the boardwalk area. One of the boards was covered in fire ants and as she picked up the board the ants began crawling all over her hands and her immediate reaction was to throw the board and shake her hands free of the ants before they could start biting her. And that flinging and shaking action made her rings go flying off of her finger. Thankfully her wedding ring landed on the boardwalk in front of her but her platinum, heirloom, engagement ring was nowhere to be found…it just disappeared! She let out a scream and frantically started to look through the grass and along side the boardwalk and in the fresh dirt. Her husband even bought a low end metal detector and searched the area but came up empty handed. In desperation Renee decided to go online and look for « Help me find my ring » and up came theringfinders.com and one of my stories. She was given hope as she read a few of the posts and thought maybe I could help find her lost ring.
So I began by scanning Renee’s platinum wedding ring with my Garrett ATMax metal detector to get an idea of the numbers and type of signal I needed to listen for. There were allot of junk targets here and there and most of the items registered too deep in the ground to be her ring. Recently lost rings will normally give a good, sharp, clean signal and will only be an inch or two deep in the grass at the most. Unless of course they get stepped on or are laying on edge somehow. I always check out any signal that registers even close to what I am looking for because many times pull tabs, nickels and pieces of aluminum can sound just like a ladies ring. 20 minutes later I got a really nice, shallow, repeatable signal in the thick grass at the edge of a large Bald Cypress tree and there was Renee’s lost engagement ring. I held it up and said, « Hey, hey, hey!! » and Renee could not get to me fast enough to claim her precious lost ring! What a relief and joy spread across Renee’s face!
It was an honor to help Renee and her husband and hopefully her ring will continue to last for many more years.
Lost a ring or something valuable? Or maybe you would like to know what is hidden in your yard or whatever happened to Grampa’s buried coins? Give me a call?
Mike McInroe…glad to be a part of theringfinders.com
Theresa and her husband had just finished up with a wonderful visit from their kids. It was dark outside as the kids and grandkids pulled away from the house and Theresa walked out the front door and down the side walk a few steps to wave goodbye. (Apparently Theresa has lost some weight in the last few months and her rings were just a bit loose on her finger.) And as she continued to wave goodbye, all of a sudden, she felt her diamond engagement ring come off of her finger. Stunned, she let out a cry and immediately began looking in the bushes and thru the mulch hoping to find it. Her kids stopped and returned to the house to help look and no matter how hard they tried…they just could not find her lost ring…even after two hours. They even used a small metal detector and it made lots of strange noises and led to more frustration rather than actually helping. And the later it got, the less hope they had of finding Theresa’s lost ring.
Two weeks ago my good friend Mr. Jack lost a pocket knife and single key while playing with our neighbors young dog. Mr. Jack and his dear wife are winter volunteers here at our retirement center and willingly work daily to help out on the grounds maintenance and cleaning. Mr. Jack has years of experience mowing lawns, trimming trees and taking care of plants in general. And he has a habit of always carrying two pocket knives in his pockets and his trailer key and when he lost those two items he was a bit concerned. 
Sunday afternoon David gave me a call and asked if I could possibly help him find a very special lost diamond stud earring! Two days earlier, David’s mother in law, Mrs Susan, was getting out of her car and a small low hanging tree branch got tangled in her hair and she felt a slight tug at her ear and in the next moment her earring was gone! They immediately searched the thick low ivy bushes, along the concrete and even in the car thinking maybe it could have fallen in there as well. After an hour of frantic searching they could not find the lost diamond stud earring and decided to try again later. 
Danielle was very determined to find her lost gold cross and had literally spent hours trying to find it. She tried raking the grass, using a strong flashlight, crawling on her hands and knees and even purchased a cheap metal detector and still her special heirloom gold cross remained elusive. She just knew it had to be in her front yard somewhere…but where?
Kelly called me and asked if I was available to help recover a lost wedding ring that had fallen off of a dock and into the water. Apparently while taking photos for some newly weds, Kelly had asked for the rings and the brides bouquet of flowers and had balanced the rings on the flowers in order to take a unique series of photos. And you can guessed what happened next! Somehow the brides wedding ring moved ever so slightly and slid off of the bouquet and dropped onto the wooden dock and fell directly thru a crack and into the water. It seems no one actually saw the ring hit the dock or fall through a crack but everyone spent the next 30 minutes looking for the ring and it became obvious that the ring had indeed fallen into the water below.
Heidi called me Saturday afternoon and asked if there was any chance I could help her find two very important rings in some thick grass. I assured her I would come right away and off I went. Here is the story in Heidi’s own words.
Greg called me about a ring that his girl friend had accidentally dropped in a lake and mentioned it was only in a few feet of water. I explained how I normally retrieve lost rings and he assured me he knew exactly where it fell off of the dock and into the water. He said his girl friend had used a mask and tried to locate the ring but was unsuccessful. It had been lost almost a month prior to our conversation and I assured Greg that the ring was most likely in the same spot where it originally fell. 
Chantal and her younger sister were enjoying a hot summer day by the cool dark waters of the Wekiva River. Wekiva Island is a unique place to swim and relax and spend time getting away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Earlier Chantal had laid out her towel at the waters edge and now as she was getting ready to gather up her belongings, she completely forgot that she had placed her Apple Watch on the edge of her towel and as she lifted her towel….the watch did a nose dive into the dark water and disappeared! Stunned she could not believe what had just happened! It was only 6 feet deep with a sort of sandy bottom mixed with leaves and other decaying debris, so how hard could it be to find it, right? For over an hour she dove and tried her very best to feel around with her feet, hoping to find her lost watch…but all to no avail!
Jennifer and her family were on vacation in St. Augustine Beach, Florida when the unthinkable happened! Read what Jennifer wrote: « Hi Mike. Again I cannot thank you enough for finding my hubby’s ring! We appreciate your quick response to what was a terrible way to start a vacation! I will admit that I was very skeptical when theringfinders.com web site was recommended to me but you accomplished what I thought would surely be an impossible task. I know that everyone values their wedding rings but his is extra special! Not only did we inherit our wedding ring set from my parents, it also survived my husband’s near fatal car accident 14 months ago. This was our first vacation and his first time back to the ocean since then. We appreciate your prayers for him! And I want you to know that after we met in person and talked, I knew that the Lord had sent the help I had asked for, He sent us you!!