Lost cell phone in water, Orlando, Florida…..Found and Returned!
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!
Lost something recently? Call me ASAP! Let me help you find your lost item!
Mike McInroe—honored to be a member of theringfinders.com
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!
Marva was so excited to be helping on her very first turtle nest relocation as a volunteer. Apparently during the night a sea turtle had buried its eggs right in the beach traffic lane, so Marva and the other volunteers gathered the necessary tools to dig up the eggs and relocate them in a safer area closer to the dunes. All was going well until Marva realized that her i-phone had popped out of the clip on her waist, and was nowhere to be found. They knew the phone had not fallen into the hole where the eggs were placed and figured it must have fallen in the sand around the edge of the hole. So they dug all around the nest area, raking and running their hands through the sand and still no phone. They tried calling the phone but could not hear it ring. Marva’s husband was able to get a GPS location and it showed the phone was in the vicinity of the new nest!
Todd gave me a call with a very unusual request! He needed to find his mother’s pacemaker because their dog had apparently grabbed it off of the counter and had possibly buried it somewhere in the backyard! WOW!! You can imagine the questions that came to my mind but Todd was quick to explain « the rest of the story »! Unfortunately his mother had passed away and her pacemaker was removed for the purpose of making sure it had been functioning properly. I had never been asked to search for a pacemaker before and was not exactly sure just how one would ring up on my metal detector. This particular one was made of titanium and that usually rings up on the low end of the non ferrous readings.
Dawn and her son, Tristen, were swimming at their favorite spot on Lake Harris and enjoying the cool water and digging clams. They would feel in the sand with their toes and when they found a clam they would dig it up and put it in their bucket. Now and then they would find old bottles and an assortment of junk. Some of the items were down right dangerous to be stepping on, especially in the water, and this made Dawn and Tristen tread very lightly. One of the clams was buried rather deeply in the sand and as Dawn tried to dig it up she actually felt her ring slip off of her finger. She frantically dug down into the sand trying to feel for it and after numerous failed attempts she gave up. This special ring was her son’s birthstone ring and Dawn had been wearing it for at least 8 years and now it was gone. Dawn’s heart was broken and she felt she would never see her ring again and that thought led her to do an internet search on « How to find a lost ring in the water »!
Last Friday I received an e-mail from Iain asking if I could help him look for his lost ring. Apparently Iain was playing goalie for his young son who was kicking his soccer ball in an area with very soft sand that the Disney Caribbean Resort provides near all of their pool locations. Iain found himself diving to the left and to the right, blocking the ball with his hands. And having put on sun screen beforehand, added to the soft sand and sweat…well, that usually adds up to « Lost Ring! »
The other day my good friend Chris texted me about a lost ring in a small lake in the Heathrow area. In casual conversation a neighbor mentioned to Chris that she had lost her precious silver ring while feeding bread to the fish. It happened just after Christmas and Tina could not get her mind off of loosing the very ring her brother had given her just a few years ago. After hearing her story Chris told her « I know just the guy to help you get your ring back! » So the following day—Valentines Day–I made arrangements to meet Tina and have her show me where she lost her ring. The original information I received was that the ring was lost only a few days ago so when I arrived and got set up–I concentrated my search efforts in the water from the shore out to about three feet deep. After a thorough search in the water and coming up empty handed I called Tina to come out and explain to me again what all happened the day she lost her ring. Come to find out she actually lost it a few days after Christmas, so that turned out to be 6 weeks ago and we have had very little rain and the water level had dropped a good two feet or so since then. I realized just where she would have been standing and the drop zone area would be up the bank further. And sure enough after a few sweeps of my coil over the dry ground–there was Tina’s lost ring just under a thin layer of dirt and mud! Tina could not believe I had found her lost ring and was thrilled to get it back on her finger!
Amy was visiting the grave site where her precious little one–Jean Francis Butterfly Butler– was laid to rest. It was a rather warm January day and the rings on Amy’s ring finger were feeling tight so she removed them and slid them into her pocket-along with the keys to her van. It was a quiet and peaceful time, sitting there by her little one’s grave site, as Amy reflected on the many things she had to be thankful for. Soon it was time to pick up her 7 year old daughter from school, so she folded up her lawn chair and headed to the van, pulling out the keys from her pocket as made her way across the short grassy area. As she slid into the drivers seat she remembered her rings and reached into her pocket and discovered–NO RINGS! Frantically she retraced her steps to where she was sitting and after a thorough search she was able to find her wedding band, but no diamond engagement ring. She walked back and for over the small area–but could not find her precious ring.