Minelab Excalibur II Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost Wedding Ring Reunited with Owner after Two Months – Brings Hope

It was a busy day for Big Island Metal Detecting!

Two desperate callers rang within 10 minutes of each other requesting searches for their lost jewelry.

What started out as two recoveries ended with the discovery of a third ring!

Since all searches are time-sensitive, Sylvie searched one beach looking for the lost wedding ring – while Brent searched another beach with his friend for a lost earing.

During his search, Brent found a very large ring under the water with the inscription “Dario Loves Fallon” written on the outside.

ring-1As the ring did not belong to either client, we went to work to track down the owner, a feat we thought would be nearly impossible, especially without a last name to search the World Wide Web!

A Google search turned up only one page that promised a little hope of identifying the owner. A Go Fund Me webpage had the matching names, “…Dario, Fallon’s husband..” The Go Fund Me page was set up to request contributions because Fallon had a life-threatening medical emergency and required immediate surgery. Following the page links and using the new details, it was then possible to then find their Facebook pages – which indeed had photos of them on the Big Island of Hawaii a month earlier!

We were excited and emotional at the prospect of having found the owner – and if this was indeed them, then we knew that such fantastic news would be welcome news due to their current, grave situation. Rings can be so incredibly sentimental and in our experience, it can make such a huge difference to have a ring returned that was thought to be gone forever. We sent a message to them on Facebook and excitedly checked the next morning for a response.dario-palavra

Dario Palavra replied, “I’m so shocked that you guys found my ring. We were just in Hawaii in August!.It is my wedding ring – my wife has a matching ring. I figured it was long gone. I thought I lost it in the deep water since I love to swim. I’m so happy that you guys found it – since we got back from Hawaii we been dealing with a lot of health problems with my wife – I almost lost her – she had less than 10% chance of living and now when you tell me you found our wedding ring, that is amazing. Once I get it back it is going to be glued to my finger!!!”

We express mailed the ring to Dario, and soon afterwards got a photo of him wearing the ring he thought he would never see again!

If you’re interested further in this story – or would like to read about Fallon’s Go-Fund-Me page, go to :

https://www.gofundme.com/GoTeamFallon

Big Island Metal Detecting  rings-palavra

 

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Newlyweds’ Lost Wedding Ring FOUND at the Hilton Hotel, Big Island, Hawaii

brent and van - ring finding

SEE THE FIND-Movie!!! Finding Vans Ring

Van and Ellie called us with bad news and good news.

The bad news was that Van had been swimming in the Hilton hotel’s lagoon in Waikoloa and lost his new wedding ring! He’d put sunscreen on and within minutes of getting in, felt it fly off as he moved his hand through the water. The good news was that since he had felt it slip off – he’d marked the precise location, time and depth before calling us.

There were no waves in the lagoon, the deepest part of the lagoon was shoulder depth and within a controlled space (as opposed to a public one – so someone who may have seen them searching couldn’t return and keep Van’s ring if found).

We met them at the entrance to the main lobby where the hotel had also arranged security to log us in and bring us to the lagoon. We were relieved for the buggy ride as the hotel grounds are huge and we’d brought two underwater detectors as well as light scuba gear in case…

Van climbed over the rocks and went into the water with me while Sylvie gave me (and Van’s wife Ellie) moral support from the nearby shore. Sylvie didn’t get in as I thought it would be a quick find – since everything was going in our favor – it was almost an « ideal » location.

One and a half hours later, I was starting to worry… We’d gone over-and-over the square he’d marked the moment his ring was lost. I continued to expand the search at every pass. Sylvie called over, « Should I gear up and bring in the Sea Hunter? » We use the pulse induction Garrett Sea Hunter MkII with a big coil in clean sandy-bottomed areas.

« I think so… » I replied not sure how I – or my Minelab Excalibur could have missed the ring. I was getting cold  and frustrated that something seemingly so right had gone so wrong.

Just as Sylvie started walking over to get the other detector I suddenly heard the loud clear tone that tungsten makes in my headphones. « Cancel that! » I yelled over to Sylvie. Van looked up. He was holding the Go Pro and started filming. I stuck my head in the water, scooped and looked into the basket. « Does it look something like this?! » I asked, picking the ring out of the mud and stones.

Van and Ellie were so relieved to have their precious ring found!

And so were we – Phew!

van ring closeup

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