Paihia Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost Ring Found in Plantings – Russell, Bay of Islands.

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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I have a couple of people for whom I have found lost rings, not once but twice…
Paul is one of them.

I got a call from him saying he’d done it again!

I had previously found his ring almost exactly two years ago on the Russell beach, this time he’d lost it while working on planting some shrubs and it could have been in one of two locations.

The first was where he’d been trimming and clearing a well established patch of succulents – lots of potential nooks and crannies for a ring to drop down into, or hang up. I gave it a quick search without getting ‘down and dirty’ with the pinpointer before checking out what the second location looked like.

This alternative spot was a much larger area, but relatively open and I could close this off quickly with a very high probability of detection. If it wasn’t here I could then return to the original and devote the rest of the time going through it inch by inch.

This garden bed was raised up about 5′ from the road, and Paul had been planting, weeding, spreading bark and throwing garden waste across and down onto the truck deck, there was a possibility the ring may have come off and traveled across the road, in the direction of a steep bank.
I’d worry about that option later!

Starting at one end, I systematically made my way along the plantings until, under a small tussock, I saw the edge of a partially buried ring as the coil passed over it and triggered.

A quick TXT to Paul to let him know his lost ring was safe, again – and some relief on my part that I didn’t have to spend a fair few hours grubbing around up to my armpits in succulents at the first location.

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Valuable Heirloom Gold Ring Lost for 6 Weeks, Found in Compost Pile

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Maureen habitually took off her heirloom ring in the kitchen, a beautiful gold, diamond and emerald ring handed down from her Grandmother.
One day, she caught up the ring as she swept the peelings off the benchtop into the bin.

She didn’t realise until later when she went to collect the ring and noticed it was no longer in its place.

A frantic search yielded no sign of it, and with subsequent searches over the next few weeks she narrowed it down to either having been thrown out with the rubbish, or buried in the compost.

She gave me a call, obviously there was nothing I could do in the worst case scenario of it going out in the rubbish collection, however I could search the compost (I’ve searched through far worse than domestic compost in the past!).

A quick scan with the high powered machine gave a target deep in the bin, could be a ring, or could be foil.
Only one way to find out, roll up the sleeves and on with the nitrile gloves.

I had a rough idea of where it sat inside the compost and it was well down after six weeks of additional food scraps and lawn clippings.
A dense cloud of fruit flies instantly erupted out of the compost as I scooped most of the recent material away and investigated deeper with the handheld probe.

Wasn’t long before I had pinpointed the location and I dug further into the slimy mass, checking each handful until I caught a glimpse of gold in the ooze.

I lifted it out and showed a tearful Maureen.
A quick rinse under the garden tap and it shone brightly once again, no worse off for it’s little adventure and another story added to its hundred-plus history.

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Engagement and Wedding Ring lost in Sea at Russell, NZ – Ring Finder Saves the Day

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Jan phoned me last night, quite distressed.
She had just been swimming off the beach at Russell when her wedding ring slipped off her finger.
She momentarily glimpsed it on the gravelly seabed and did a ‘duck-dive’ to grab it.  Her gold and diamond engagement also slipped off – Disaster!

Repeated attempts to grab either ring were fruitless and she came ashore, leaving her treasured and sentimental rings out in the Bay.

Dejected, she made her way to Butterfish Restaurant for a drink to calm down, when one of the bar staff mentioned my service.  She called and asked, « Could I help? »

Of course.

Now, Russell beach is a very steep and mobile beach. The bulk of it is made up of pea-sized gravels which move with each wave.  This highly mobile, almost fluid gravel beach ‘Eats’ rings!

I arranged to meet Jan first thing the following morning to catch the next tide.

Early start next morning and I arrived to see Jan ready to meet me.
I had calculated the tidal heights and knew that I would be getting wet, but I cleared the exposed beach first – Assume Nothing, Believe No-one, Check Everything.

As expected, no rings were found and I moved out into the water, my feet sinking over the ankles in the soft gravels – I’ve been here before… It’s never an easy recovery.

I did about three or four passes along the beach, getting deeper and deeper.

A whisper in the headphones caught my attention. This wasn’t another fleck of copper, or one of the many thousands of can pull tabs or bottle caps that infest this beach. The whisper said, « dig me… »

The hole refilled as soon as the scoop came out, missed it! Next time I sent the scoop deep, easily 40cm down and cut it back under the target. Heaving several kilos of gravel out ensured I had it.

After much sifting, a gold ring slowly emerged out of the gravel! I held it up to Jan, her face lit up and she started walking down the beach.

Now for number two.
I knew it was nearby, and how deep in the gravel it would be. In a few seconds I had located and captured it.

Both rings accounted for, I waded ashore.
Job done.

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Ring Lost at Long Beach, Russell, Found by Metal Detectorist

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Dave posted on the local Russell Facebook group that he had lost his gold wedding ring in the sea at Long Beach in Russell while on holiday.

Several people recommended me to him, and he made contact.

He had unfortunately put a detailed location on Facebook, not a good idea these days as there are a lot of what I call « Ring Collectors » – less altruistic sorts who look for social media posts with the intention of an easy find for themselves.   Urgency was paramount, only the other day, I had a ring ‘sniped’ after a Facebook post gave away too much. Nothing is more heartbreaking than turning up for a recovery only to see a recent focused grid pattern in the immediate area – and no ring.

I had an ongoing scuba recovery in progress, however that ring was very secure where it was, I needed to find Dave’s ring before it was lost.  The timing of the tides meant I was able to make the first attempt immediately and I spent a few hours gridding the area Dave had indicated in his FB post.  When I came out of the water, the tide was high enough to prevent ‘magpies’ from searching, and I knew I would have to return the following day on the next tide.

Had some more dialog with Dave that night about the circumstances of loss, and gave him a much higher resolution aerial view for him to mark where he thought he lost it.

The new area marked by Dave was smack in the middle of my first grid, it was fairly unlikely I had missed it – and even more unlikely someone had randomly happened across it in the 24Hrs between loss and Dave’s post. There are several obvious large rocks on the seabed, which Dave could not recall seeing. That meant he was further over than he thought. I started planning a new search area off to the side.

Day 2: I again arrived well before low tide in order to secure ‘my patch’, there was another metal detectorist in the vicinity, although he did not have a submersible machine. Straight down the beach and into the surf…

Another hour and a pouch full of aluminium trash later, I got a hit under the coil – only to lose it again as a breaking wave knocked me off my feet. However it wasn’t long before I had it again, and on the second scoop the coil was silent.  I shook the sand out of the scoop and nestled in amongst the broken shell, was Dave’s ring.

Back to the car, and I sent him a picture to let him know it was now safe soon to be couriered to him.

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Kaikohe Wedding Ring Lost Over Edge. Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Yesterday, Moana was tidying up her vege planter and throwing the weeds over the edge of the bank in Kaikohe, when she heard and felt a clash of rings on her throwing hand.
Checking, she realised that she had just lost her mums precious gold wedding ring over the steep bank and into the Kikuyu.
Someone loaned her a cheap detector, however without decent equipment and experience in recoveries the odds were stacked against her.

She didn’t locate it.

I got a call last night asking if I was able to help, and this afternoon I was shown the scene, not the toughest job I’ve had, but would have been in the top 10 – I certainly had my work cut out on this one.
Looking for a tiny ring in knee-deep Kikuyu on a slope that ranged from steep, to having to hang onto handfuls of grass to stop sliding away had potential to be a long hard battle.
90 minutes later though, I was knocking on the door with the gold ring in my hand.
The reactions I get are always worth far more to me than gold.

If you’ve lost a ring in the garden or even a paddock, maybe you’ve hired a metal detector or a friend has had a go without luck and you’ve given it up as lost – give me a call !
I’ll do my best to put that ring back on your finger and a smile back on your face!

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Phone Lost in Russell, Found in Dense Scrub

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Jimmy contacted me as his houseguest had lost his phone in some scrub near Russell.

He had been helping him clear invasive trees from a steep and very overgrown hillside, with his phone ‘safe’ in a leg pocket, secured by a hefty press-stud.

At some stage in his wanderings and stumblings through the dense undergrowth, the press stud on the pocket had been caught and come undone – The phone likely found its way out shortly after. « Murphys Law » came into play with zero reception, so his attempts to ring or otherwise locate the phone were futile.

The going was very tough with a large coil, negotiating the many trees lying where they had fallen, in places the branches meant I couldn’t get closer than a metre or more to the ground surface so I focussed on clearing the more accessible areas with the big coil and the machine running in full sensitivity for the merest whisps of a signal. Constant impacts from branches and vegetation, coupled with the mineralisation of the ground made the machine extremely « chatty ».  It took all my focus to decipher the barrage of sounds, whilst trying to stay upright negotiating the steep slippery ground, fallen branches and trunks.

I was already planning on how I would go about searching the area with the small 6″ coil on a special wireless rig I custom made for such scenarios, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t looking forward to the many potential hours this recovery might take. However it was a tightly defined – albeit extremely difficult,and relatively large – area, so I knew it was just a matter of getting a coil close enough to pick up the missing phone.

I worked my way through the gorse and scrub, and in one area where several trees had been felled, I got a faint, but repetitive signal coming from under a trunk.

Placing the machine down, I slipped my arm in through the tangle of branches and stretched my fingers out under the fallen trunk.

It was with great satisfaction that I felt my hand close around a shape and glassy texture definitely not encountered in nature.  After facing a potentially very slow and intricate search across the hillside, I was possibly more relieved than the owner!

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Lost Kerikeri Ring Found in Car

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Karen contacted me this afternoon asking if I was able to find a very sentimental silver ring that had ‘Just disappeared’ inside her car.

She remembered taking her ring off in the car to place it in the centre console before going to work, but when she went to put it on at the end of the day, it had ‘disappeared’.

She had searched the whole car to no avail, and in desperation phoned me to see if I could help.

I offered some likely places to look, but she had already tried those.

A few hours later, I was firing up the Ferret remote camera to search those sneaky areas inside the car that humans are unable to reach…

Late into the evening, the ring was spotted – tangled in the carseat rails.

Unfortunately the ring had been crushed by the seat moving in the rails, but at least it is salvageable.

A bittersweet victory, she had her precious ring back and is going to make an appointment with a jeweller to restore it to its former glory.

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How to find a ring lost in a garden? Call the Kerikeri Ring Finder.

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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After reading of my recent recovery of a lost earring in a garden near Kerikeri, Lucy contacted me to see if I could help locate her aquamarine engagement ring, lost in a lawn four months ago.
She had her jewellery out while getting ready for a trip out, and when she came to put it on noticed it had been moved, and her precious ring was missing.
It didn’t take long to discover her three year old had been playing with it, and taken it outside.
On careful questioning, her daughter admitted she had lost it « in the grass ».
After the inevitable immediate search, Lucy gave up hope of ever seeing it again, and more so after the lawn was inevitably mown.
Until yesterday, when I turned up to see what I could do.
Being a farm environment, the going was very slow with the many targets you find in this sort of ground, each needing to be verified before moving on.
I cleared the likely play area, and moved down to the orchard – after all, what three year old can resist fresh plums!
It wasn’t long before I got a low tone in the headphones, in amongst the trees.
As I lifted a small plug of soil, the edge of a ring was visible – I teased it out from the grass roots and gave it a quick rinse in a nearby puddle while Lucys son went to find her.
Her tears flowed freely as I handed it back to her, and she explained to a confused three year old that these were « tears of happiness », and not like the « sad » tears when she realised it had been lost.
I waited a while for the teary red eyes to subside before the reunion photo 🙂
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Car Keys « Lost » on State Highway – Found

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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The sole purpose of a ringfinder, is to find the lost item, not to judge. Believe me, we’ve heard it all…

I’ll call him Bob.

Bob phoned me just on sunset, « I’ve lost my car keys on the side of the road… »

He was just down the road, so 15 minutes later I pulled up behind their car.

Bob came up to meet me while his partner sat in the car.

As he told me the first version of the story, the Search and Rescue training kicked in and I was assessing the scene and the behavioral profiling. My very first question was, « Were they thrown? » with a knowing grin.

He sheepishly admitted that maybe there was some velocity involved, during a ‘discussion’ with his partner.

Personally, I don’t care if it was thrown in anger, or even lost through some embarrassing and less than rational action, but please do be honest with the guy who turns up to look for it for you.

The side of the highway at the bottom of a hill was loaded with trash signals from litter which had washed down over the years, and it was really hard graft with signals coming from all over.

I jumped the nearby farm fence and cleared the extents that they might have gone into the neighboring paddock, nothing found so it was back into the trash…

Changing up the gear to cope with the many drink cans and bits of car etc, I started a more focussed search, and 15 minutes later just on dark I held up the keys.

I got a « No Way! » from his partner as she emerged from the car, and it was high fives all round.

I can only imagine the conversation as they drove away…

 

 

 

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Diamond Ring and Necklace Lost in Russell – Both Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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This one is a little different.

The story below was written by the owner of the found items and sent to me as I made my way home from the recovery – Really unexpected, and a very nice gesture on her part.

Sally writes:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nearly 17 years ago, on our 3rd date, my now husband bought me a diamond necklace. I have worn it almost every day since then … including our wedding 12 years ago.
A week before Christmas we came up to Russell for a holiday. On our first swim my husband remarked I had not removed it or a ring before coming down on the beach. He took them off for me and ran up to our bach with them and then we had our swim.
Afterwards we went to Kerikeri to visit friends for Christmas and came back to find the lawns had just been mowed by the local contractor.

The next day my husband remarked that I wasn’t wearing my necklace and I asked where he had put it? He thought about it and then made the dreadful realisation that he had put it on the car wheel while we were swimming.

Then we both realised that we had driven off and the mower had been and in all likelihood it was gone forever. He searched the lawn several times during the rest of our holiday. Nothing.
Feeling resigned to losing it we came home to the Waipa and thought it would be an insurance claim in the New Year.

Today I saw a post on The Russell Noticeboard about someone having lost earrings and I was interested to read comments. That is where I saw the reference to Northland Jewellery Recoveries. I thought it was worth a try and called Pete McGhee and what followed surpassed my hope or expectations.

He said there was good reason to be hopeful and he set off from an hour away, and within 30 minutes of arriving he texted me the photo of the two items he had found: the pendant and ring… right where we had searched thoroughly.

I can’t recommend him more highly. Thank you so much Pete.

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Unfortunately, the very fine gold rope chain was not located. It is likely the mower effectively ‘vaporised’ it. However, the thin chain being so fragile probably saved the key components enabling them to be recovered unscathed.

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