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House Key Lost in Sand .. Balboa, Calif. .. Recovered

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)
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Monday June 1, 2015

It was about 3pm when I got a call from a guy I call John Doe. I call him John Doe because I forgot to ask him his name. Then when I ask him to pose for a photo he declined. I just got through with a doctor visit. My detectors were in the car and I was a couple miles from where John lost his only house key in the sand at the Balboa Penensula, Newport Beach, CA.
When I arrived John met me at on the boardwalk. We walked out to the beach where he showed me where he had picked up his shirt forgetting that his single brass house key was wrapped in the shirt. When he picked up his shirt the key dropped into the sand. After a half hour searching by hand John gave up. He went to the Internet after his neighbor told him about TheRingFinders.
We walk out to the to the towel line where he pointed to the area where he had been. I left my Minelab CTX 3030 on discrimination setting not to be bothered by bottle caps, pull tabs or other trash. It was a small area, but I could not find the key. John had another brass key with a large metal ring (ferrous) . When he threw it in the sand my detector could not give me a signal. The ferrous ring was nulling out the smaller brass key. A lesson learned for me.
I put my detector into all metal mode and reworked the area I had gridded. No Key to be found. When I looked at John, he had that look of doubt on his face ready to give up the search. I asked him again if he was sure this was the location.. His face dropped saying positively, « it was right here » I moved 5 feet up from the where we were and got a good signal which turned out to be his key. John was glad to have his key because he would have had to replace 4 locks if we didn’t find it.. It was another special day on the beach at the Balboa Peninsula.

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Lost White Gold Wedding Band .. Huntington Beach .. Volleyball Court

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)
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Sunday .. May 31, 2015 .. 10:30pm

Karl called me from the airport where he was waiting for his fight back to his home in Phoenix, AZ. He told me he had lost his wedding band while watching his daughter participate in a volleyball tournament. He texted me the location. It was one of 28 volleyball courts. I drove 5 miles, found his ring and was able to text him a photo of his ring just as he was shutting down his smart phone for the departure of his flight. The next morning I returned the ring to his wife, Kristen who will be returning to Phoenix later. Below is Karl’s side of the story.

Stan,
Thanks again for finding my ring. I was attending my daughter’s beach volleyball tournament at Huntington Beach. During the game, an errant volleyball headed into the crowd towards me. I instinctively shot my left hand up into the air in an attempt to deflect the ball, and as I did, I felt my wedding ring fly off my finger. My wife and I looked around for it frantically, knowing that with each person walking by and kicking up sand, our chances of finding it were dwindling. After searching for about a half an hour, and seeing person after person kicking up sand and surely burying my ring, we resigned ourselves to having lost it for good.

Later that day, upon returning to our hotel and preparing to leave Los Angeles, I got on the internet and conducted a Google search for folks with metal detectors in the Huntington Beach area. I found Stan Ross on www.TheRingFinders.com and I called him from the airport as I was awaiting my flight. Stan was on the case in no time, and he kept me apprised of his status as he scanned the beach and I got ready to get on my flight. Then, just before departing, Stan texted me with a triumphant pic of my ring. He had found it! My wife and I were ecstatic! Luckily, my wife and kids had already planned to stay an extra day at the beach, so they were able to meet Stan and get my ring back. We’re very grateful for Stan’s services, and we give him our absolute highest recommendations. Thanks again Stan.
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Lost White Gold Wedding Band.. Corona Del Mar, CA. .. Found

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)
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Monday .. 5/25/15 .. 6:15pm

Kristin called me after somebody at Corona Del Mar Beach told her about TheRingFinders website. It was the end of Memorial Day, she and her husband were going to enjoy the evening with a fire at the beach. When they arrived Kristin cleaned a little of the trash out of the fire pit, taking the trash to a garbage can 15 ft away. After throwing the trash in the can she walked back to the fire pit. She took a second to shake the sand off here hands. That’s where she thought her ring flew off her finger. Her and her husband thought it could be anywhere within a 20 foot radius of the fire pit.
As usual they had a lot of help from other people on the beach. This could be disastrous for a small ring like Kristin described.
I was able to get to her location within 20 minutes. After asking a few questions I started to worry that the ring could be hiding in the fire pit or the trash can. My experience has been that shaking her hands might be where it was lost. I started there first and I got a great gold signal from the thin white gold ring surrounded with small diamonds.
Smiles and hugs with all the other beach goers congratulating Kristin. It was definitely a community affair. I stayed around for a few minutes telling everybody about www.TheRingFinders.com and passing out cards. Summer is here, I hope we can help more people find their lost valuables.
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Gold Engagement Ring Found … Newport Beach, CA.

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)
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Wednesday April 29, 2015 .. 6:30pm
Destiny and Carlos came to Newport Beach today to enjoy a day at the beach. Sometime after they set up their beach blanket Destiny stood up for a second brushing off sand off her hands. As she shook her hand her gold/diamond engagement ring went flying into the sand. She and Carlos spent more than two hours sifting sand through their fingers with no luck finding her ring.
Destiny took out her smart phone and googled « how to find a ring in the sand ». That was how she found TheRingFinders.com and our directory. When she called me I told her I was only 3 miles from her location, but it may take about 20 to 30 minutes because traffic is crazy with road construction on Pacific Coast Hwy. I asked them not to leave the location. It is sometimes hard to find the exact location once you leave.
When I arrived the sun was setting with a cool breeze. They were the only people on the beach. They looked worn out and were anxious to go home. I could see the doubt in there eyes, they were not quite sure if a metal detector could find the small gold ring.
I backed off from where she thought it was to get a few practice swings and set up the sensitivity on my detector. First target was a pull tab which sounds similar to a gold ring. Then a second sound that turned out to be Destiny’s ring. She said,  » I love that machine ».. It turned out to be a good day at the beach except for two hours of frustration running their fingers through the sand. It was a pleasure to be able to help this young couple.

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Engagement Ring Found .. San Clemente State Beach, CA. .. In Sand

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)
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Cori and Drew’s Story … 4/18/15 … Califia St., San Clemente State Beach

So, Drew and I decided we would take a night to go watch the sunset at Calafia state beach in San Clemente (about 5 min drive from our house ) as a way to celebrate our engagement and get some time for just the two of us -kid-free woo hoo! Like always though, we are scrambling to gather a few items to bring (champagne, blanket, etc.) and rushing out the door to make it before the sun goes down while trying to say bye to the kids etc. We make it out the door and I even remembered my camera! When we get there I decided to put the self-timer on my camera, lay out the blanket and snap a few pics of us. I notice their is a lot of seaweed obnoxiously photo bombing us and to avoid having to Photoshop it later, I quickly start to brush it away with my hands far from our blanket where we are sitting. I continuously run to and from the camera to try to get a good shot with the self-timer.

As we are taking pictures, I suddenly notice the engagement ring is no longer on my finger!! Drew and I both panicked, retracing our steps frantically everywhere . Here we are, 15 minutes before the sun goes down , crowds of people on the beach, and we are searching for my ring. I start thinking hard , “Did I have it on before we left the house? Did it fall off in the sand? Did it fall off when I took off my sandals in the sand? “ etc. I start hearing my mother-in-laws nagging voice in my head “you should have worn it on your middle finger until you got it re-sized!” The ring was loose and too big and we hadn’t had a chance to get it resized yet.
Anyways, we searched the car, the camera bag , go back to the house , retraced all steps in the sand- NOTHING.
At this point its pitch black outside and we are freezing our butts off losing all hope that we will find it , the tide is starting to roll in and any sign of society has vanished, ha. Drew and I are both wearing helmets with lights on our heads , we rush to Big 5 to purchase a $140 metal detector , go back and pace back n forth with this little machine we have no idea how to use. Still- NOTHING
OKAY- Well, the look on Drews face- I mean seriously -I lost the ring – I also knew this was practically the same chances of finding a needle in a haystack. It is starting to set in and we are sitting in an empty beach parking lot losing hope, thinking we are just going to have to accept this as a loss .
I start to Google on my phone and discover that their are literally professional ring finders, I mean what? TheRingfinders.com , yes! I start to think “What are the chances they will even find it though? And how much are they going to charge, practically the price of the ring I bet . . “ It’s worth a shot though , I think to myself. I give a call to the one we found in our area, this sweet man is willing to drive 1.5 hours to us from his ‘Riverside Metal Detecting Contest.’ Ha. Yes, apparently there is such thing.
He arrives, this sweet man, with his $3,000 metal detecting equipment. Drew is looking at me like “ c’mon really? You think this guy is going to find it? “ All odds are against us at this point because its past beach curfew, hitting 11pm, the tide is rolling in strong and we are pooped. An officer comes and tells us we will need to leave shortly but that he can give us a little bit of time to look , he chuckles “Good luck!” while walking away.
Moments later, I hear his detector, my heart sinks, “Oh just tinfoil” he says . Still no luck. Suddenly, out of nowhere- he starts skimming an area and HE FINDS MY RING!!!! I swear- I never in a million years -thought it was possible AND if we had waited till morning to go back again and look- it would have washed away with the tide !
I am so beyond grateful! I jumped up and hugged him with tears down my face asking him over and over “HOW DID YOU FIND IT?!! I CANT BELIEVE YOU FOUND IT! OH. MY .GOSH!”
So I say to him , “OK- we now owe you big time! What do you charge for something like this?“ (Yes, you would think we would have asked him before but I guess it didn’t cross our minds because 1. We were frantic and desperate for any help 2. We couldn’t put a price on something this sentimental to us -not just materialistic)
He replies, “Well, I work on a reward system. You pay me what you can afford to give and what its worth to you for me to find it. And I give 15% of the proceeds to the children’s hospital”.
I mean seriously? Is this real? Drew and I look at each other – wow this is definitely a pay-it-forward experience.
And yes, we compensated him well for his incredible gift and generosity We are FOREVER grateful . 😉

 

PS.. I had started my grid in the area they had set up their blanket. I made about 5 passes from the rocks to the water about 30ft. in each direction. Asking Cori questions when she remembered moving the dried seaweed away from the photo background. I changed my grid pattern and made one pass along the top of the waterline where the seaweed was and dug the ring with a piece of tin foil in the scoop.

 

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Wedding Ring Lost in Sand .. Belmont Shores, CA. .. Found

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)
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March 25, 2015

Eric called about 1pm asking to rent a metal detector. I explained to him about the cost of renting and how far away the nearest detector shop is located.
He told me that he was sure where the titanium ring was located. He was in Belmont Shores Penensula at the beach. After talking to him about how I could help him find his ring and show him how the metal detector works. I actually thought I would let him use my detector while I stood by. When I arrived he told me that he had been arguing with his wife of three months , Josselyn. In the heat of the moment he tossed his wedding band over the 4 ft. block wall into the sand on the other side. He said, as he was doing it he thought it would be easy to find. After three hours of searching the sand he went to his smart phone locating TheRingFinders.com .
When I got to the location he showed me an area of approximately 50×50 ft. where he thought it to be. Then he said they had to be somewhere by 3 pm. It was going to be a little more difficult than I expected. This was not a situation where we could do a detector demonstration. I decided not to waste time. So I set up close to the wall in the center, planning to do a spiral grid. I started swinging and within 3 ft. got a good signal 3 inches deep. I called Eric over to let him hear the signal before retrieving the metal under my search coil. When I dug into the sand with my scoop there was Eric’s ring.
Both Eric and Josselyn were elated and thankful. It was a pleasure to help them.

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Ring Found Camp Pendleton Delmar Beach

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)
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Friday  October 10, 2014

Sean called me early this morning telling me that he found my name in The RingFinders directory.  He had lost his white gold wedding band in the sand the night before. He had been working out with a squad of Marines  doing  some type of crawling exercise in the sand. Sean told me that he knew exactly when the ring slipped off his finger, but even that he knew the location it couldn’t be found. He said  about 40 guys searched the sand for about 15 minutes with no success .  I met Sean at 10 am and he walked me to the location  where it was lost.  Sean had placed a traffic cone in the general location and had ask the beach cleaning crew not to rake the area with the tractor rake.  ( last week I missed an easy search because the rake beat me to the location ). This  looked like an simple search, but I went south instead of north. After about 45 minutes I thought I’d cross grid and also check a little area north of the cone.  Ten or fifteen feet in the new direction my search coil was over the ring. After digging the ring in my sand scoop I called Sean over and we both were elated. Sean and myself were beginning to give up hope. I wasn’t ready to quit, but I was thinking of what words to say if I didn’t find it. After finding the ring Sean told me that he had just recently got married and he had not told his wife about the loss. At least he did save her a night of worrying about the loss.  I’m sure if Sean did not mark the spot and ask the beach crew to avoid raking that area we may have never found his ring..  I love  being able to help people, look at that smile.

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Lost Wedding ring in Rathdrum ID

  • from Spokane (Washington, United States)
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Six Feet of water and a Muddy hay stack

I’ve worked hard in my career, I have dug post holes in 100 degree heat, I’ve cleaned up the foulest smelling liquid a human can produce, I’ve worked with people who hated life and loved making your life miserable. But floating in six feet of green murky water swinging a detector by the arm cup and trying to use a scoop without seeing where it was scooping has been the hardest job yet that I completely loved and would do for free for the rest of my life. I am 5’9” the spot where the ring went into the water was about 6’6”. So with the Excalibur fully extended and me holding on to the arm cup of the detector I searched for 2 hrs. I found a piece of a fishing reel, a cap off of a light bulb I think, a stinkin’ Lincoln, and most importantly Sky’s palladium wedding ring. First go at finding the ring only left me shivering and empty handed. But after the shivers went away and I got back in the water the next signal was the ring. Only problem was that I didn’t know that and I had to get it in the scoop. I had a strategy, though, I was setting the scoop in front of the coil and then scooping towards where I was floating. The third scoop was the ring and as I brought the scoop into view I saw the ring it was sticking out of the mud. I didn’t know for sure and after frantically swimming to shallower water I saw the ring in the bottom of the scoop. I looked up saw Sky looking at me so I gave him a thumbs up. I don’t think I have celebrated so hard since my kids were born. It was a needle in a muddy hay stack but by the grace of God and perseverance, a man named Sky has a story about how he got his lost ring back. Thank you for calling me Sky and thank you Chris for the directory that allows us to help people. It truly is the best job in the world like you say .

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Lost Wedding Rings on Mother’s Day … Aliso Beach, Laguna, CA. … Found in the Sand

  • from Newport Beach (California, United States)
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Sunday … May 11, 2014

I’m starting to believe that  » THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES »

Last week I found a nice wedding band set while searching for another lost ring. I had a call from a lady who had lost a ring 5/5/14 at Aliso Beach, CA. It seems she was putting on sun screen and had taken off her ring forgetting to put it on after applying the lotion. Six days had passed with beach cleaning machines and other detectorists, but I wanted to give it a try. When I arrived at the beach there were still a lot of people on the beach. I started messing around back away from the search area to use up some time till I could start my grid search. I did a two hour two way grid search for the ring lost last week with no success.

While working my way up to the beach front a lifeguard came up to me telling me about another lady that had lost her ring. I walked about 50 yards. When I got close Landan and her mother-in-law, Julie came up to me with surprised looks on their faces. They were at their wits end and couldn’t believe that some guy with a metal detector had just showed up out of no ware.  They had gone home and tried to locate a someone that could help them find the lost ring with no luck. It was Sunday and they could not get anyone to answer their calls. They returned to the beach to resume running their fingers through the sand.  Ladan told me that she had been playing in the sand with her daughter about noon when she noticed she had lost her ring. I confidently told her it should be an easy search, but then she told me that she had made several trips to the water to fill a bucket with wet sand. That could be a major problem, but I tried to stay positive.  People were all over the area and they all seemed to know about Ladan’s dilemma. I was able to find the larger ring within a few minutes. Nobody noticed that I retrieved the big ring in my sand scoop, so I set my detector down, walked over and presented it to Ladan. The tears of joy flowed. It was a special moment for her and everyone around the area. Then she said you’ve found the big one. I realized that she had lost the wedding band also. In the excitement they forgot or I didn’t hear that there was two rings lost. It was a matter of a few more swings of my search coil and within 4 feet of the first ring. A very special Mother’s Day for Ladan to remember.  One of the ladies on the beach came over to me after things settled down saying that she had been praying for the last two hours that Ladan would find her rings.  I’m going to add a personal email that Julie ( relative of Ladan) sent me.

Email from Julie:    GRATEFUL 

May 11,2014

Dear Stan, you were our « Dragon Slayer » today. My daughter-in-law felt completely helpless until you appeared with your twinkling blue eyes and confident attitude! And then in a matter of minutes you found her rings and released her from her pain.  Now, her pain was not about losing valuable objects. It was about her husband and the love the rings represent, HIS LOVE FOR HER! She wanted to find them more for him than for herself. It was an amazing Mother’s Day gift for me to discover Ladan’s sense of determination and depth of character. I have a wonderful new story to tell about what really matters in life. A true Mother’s Day gift. Thank You! I’ll never forget you……Julie
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Lost item in Eastern Washington

  • from Spokane (Washington, United States)
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The trees have ears..?

The trees have eyes you might be saying, however deep in the mountains of northeast Washington  they had ears. What I mean is that, a gentleman named Skip had lost his hearing aid while out hunting. After looking in the dark for a few minutes and returning the next day to find that it had snowed, Skip decided to look for help. He called a local metal detecting shop and asked about renting a detector. The sales man knew he wouldn’t have any luck so he told him to look up the Ring Finders. So a few days ago I returned Skip’s call and set up a date to go looking. it was 19 degrees, the ground was frozen, but the sun was out. It took one and half ours to drive out to the location, 5 minutes to walk to the area, and 2 minutes for me to turn on my Whites DFX.  After Swinging it around and just barely hearing a change in the threshold while in pinpoint mode, Skip and I started looking on our hands and knees. Just moments into it Skip pulled out a piece of the aid from underneath a few twigs. So then we started moving around some branches and I spotted the other half that contained the inner workings for the aid. Happy, cold and elated to have helped this man, I thought I am so glad this was my first ring finders happy ending. Thank you for calling me Skip it means more than anything to have had the chance to help you.

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