San Diego Tag | The Ring Finders

Ring lost in the bushes found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Dayanne was walking her dog in her apartment complex, when a simple body turn to look behind her, made her gold ring fly off her finger and into some thick bushes that line the walkway (as you can see in the photo). She actually saw the spot where the ring went into the bushes, but, even after clipping away some of the leaves and branches to get access it still couldn’t be located. I initially started with a large coil to hopefully get the depth I needed to locate the ring deep inside, but, it became apparent immediately that another method was needed. I instead put on the 6″ coil and rechecked the area where I could get deeper down inside the bush. I got a nice 15 signal on my Equinox, smiled, and pulled out my pin pointer to poke down into the bowels of this sticker bush. Carefully reaching inside and locating the signal with the pin pointer, I zeroed in on the target. Even so, it was still invisible and took 3 tries to grab it in the dead leaves at the base of the bush. A happy Dayanne put the ring back on her finger. A pleasure to meet you, and thank you for the reward.

Heirloom ring lost at La Jolla Shores found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Alex lives by UCSD and had come the short distance down the hill to La Jolla Shores to spend a day at the beach. Just a simple act of running his hands through his hair  caused a ring he got from his grandfather to fly off his finger and disappear into the dry sand. He searched for hours, but, couldn’t find it. He went home discouraged, but, around 1am did an online search and found TheRingFinders.com and my contact info. For some reason, I didn’t hear the phone ring and didn’t notice it until about 2am. I texted him back and we made arrangements to meet at the location. At the site, Alex showed me the search area and what he was doing to make the ring come off. After 15 minutes and a few false alarms, I got the nice smooth 17 signal on my Equinox I was waiting for. A happy Alex can now go home to bed, as I welcomed the same. A pleasure to meet you Alex and thanks for the reward.

Handoff at Coronado, resulted in a fumbled lost ring being found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

No, it wasn’t football that prompted the ring search this time. Anders was at Coronado beach with his family, and in the process of handing his child over to his parents, his ring (which matches his wife’s) must have escaped his finger and fell into the fluffy white sand. He tried finding it, notified the Hotel Del Coronado and their staff, and also the lifeguard service, but, for some reason, they didn’t pass on my contact info even though I keep in touch with them. After heading home to LA and a few days had passed, he was able to find TheRingFinders.com and my phone number. After getting a good description of the area, I felt reasonably good that the ring could still be there, even though that beach gets searched daily by other detectorists.  I headed to the site that evening after dark so I could actually get parking and most of the people would be off the beach. After about an hour or so, I got a real sketchy signal for a gold ring, but, it was right next to a stack of aluminum chairs, so, they were interfering with the signal a bit. I went ahead and scooped it anyway and was happy to see Ander’s Tiffany ring in the bottom of the basket. Rather than taking a chance on it getting lost in shipping it, Anders came back down here to pick it up. A pleasure to meet you Anders and thank you for the reward.

Ring lost at Imperial Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

« Sam » and Gretchel were enjoying a day at Imperial Beach. Sam took his ring off and put it on their blanket. Later, Gretchel moved the blanket to a another location close by and the ring was swallowed up in the dry sand. Gretchel did an online search and found TheRingFinders.com website and my contact information. I gathered my gear and headed to meet them. I actually found a parking spot right across the street from where they were camped! A minor miracle in itself for a Sunday afternoon in the dead of summer. After finding out the story and ring description, I found the ring after only 3 short passes and maybe 2 minutes or so. Gretchel was relieved that Sam’s sentimental ring was found. A pleasure to meet you both and thank you for the reward.

Lost rings in Coronado found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Erika took her platinum wedding and engagement rings off and set them in her lap. Forgetting about the rings, she stood up. That’s all it takes for rings to hit the soft sand and disappear. After an online search, she found TheRingFinders.com and my contact info. Erika called me around noon time asking for help and I quickly rounded up my gear and headed over to Coronado. Early afternoon, summertime, warm sunny day in Coronado, yeah, parking was going to be scarce. Sure enough, the place was jammed with beach goers. I managed to luck into a spot next to the beach, but, a good half mile south from where I was to meet Erika. A nice hike later,  I met Erika and she explained what happened and showed me where she was sitting and then standing. 20 seconds later, both rings were recovered from right in front of her chair and a happy Erika was reunited with her rings. A pleasure to meet you and thank you for the reward.

Lost ring at Mission Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Nathan was body surfing at Mission beach when he realized that he was wearing his wedding ring, not something he normally does. In checking the ring to see how tight it was fitting, it came right off and dropped into waist deep surf. With our surf, it will disappear in a second, so, no way to spot it. A sad Nathan now had to go confess to the wife that his wedding band is gone.  His wife wasn’t satisfied with accepting that fate, so, she found TheRingFinders.com on a search and contacted me for help. The ring was lost at a +4 foot tide, so, a minus .7 tide at 5:14 am was just the ticket for this search. Nathan met me at 3:15 am and showed me the search area. He even came out in the surf and helped me keep on my grid pattern. This section of beach was real clean. An hour and half later, I had only found 3 non-ferrous targets, 2 pull tabs and a junk ring. At that point I had changed direction on my grid and now went north-south instead of my earlier east-west. Second pass doing this in ankle deep or less water, and another 16 pull tab reading on my Equinox. Only this time, it looked this was going to be Nathan’s ring. I called him over, and by the light of his flashlight, he saw it was indeed his ring. He now would have a much happier conversation with his wife when he got home. Next month is their 2nd wedding anniversary, so, this recovery will help the ring story continue into chapter 3. A pleasure to meet you Nathan, and thank you for the reward.

Ring lost at Cardiff State Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

I was out detecting with a buddy, when a guy named Ian rides his bike up to me and asks if I could possibly search for his wife’s lost wedding band at Cardiff State Beach. I said I’d be happy to do it and that to let me know when we could meet there and conduct the search. He said it would take him a bit to bike there and would text me when he was available. I got the text, actually found a parking spot, and met him at the location out on a busy beach. Ian and his wife were here visiting from a sweltering Tucson, AZ and were enjoying the beach yesterday, when while applying skin lotion. the ring slipped off into the dry sand and vanished. They sifted with fingers for several hours, but, no luck. Looking for a small gold ring, the signal can be pretty low on the scale and weak as well. I figured I’d be digging foil for a while, but, actually didn’t get many signals and ended up expanding the search area a bit more than we thought we would have to. I finally got a weak, but, repeatable 7 on my Equinox and after a couple of scoops, had the ring in my hand. A happy Ian can now go back and surprise his wife of 15 years with her ring….oh, and it’s her birthday today! Happy Birthday and ring reunion! A pleasure to meet you Ian and thank you for the reward.

Ring Lost at Pacific Beach found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Jordan was visiting here from out of town and went to the beach with a friend. They were throwing the football around a bit when disaster struck. One of Jordan’s throws was more than just the football. His special ring went with the ball and ended up in waist deep water. Jordan had already left town and returned home when I got a call from his mother Silvia asking if I could help recover it. Surf losses are never a sure thing, but, this sounded fairly straight forward even though it had been a couple of days. At the time of the call, the tide was not in my favor, so, I decided to search a bit after midnight to take advantage of a nice low tide at 2:30 am. The water level at that point should be about 4 feet shallower that when it was lost, so, I was hoping for a wet sand hunt. In getting the details about the ring, I found it certainly was a special ring! It was purchased by Jordan’s grandmother as a wedding gift to Jordan’s father on his wedding day. Not an actual wedding ring, but, a wonderful gift none the less. It’s an 18K, custom, one-of-a-kind beauty that was made in Bolivia and eventually was passed down to Jordan who was devastated that it was lost. This just had to be found! With just a map with an X on it to go by, I started my grid at the south end of the search area. After about an hour and a half of mid-slope to knee deep surf I got my umpteenth pull tab signal (16 on the Equinox) in ankle deep water, but, was happy to see Jordan’s ring in the bottom instead. I texted Silvia that the lost had been found, and that I’d contact her later in the morning after I got some sleep. Jordan’s sister Nicolette lives close by and was able to come by yesterday, pick up the ring, and pose for the photo with Jordan’s football friend. I’m happy everything worked out well, and thank you for the reward.

Ring lost in Coronado found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Anna contacted me about 8:30am saying that her husband of 5 days lost his wedding ring when he shook water off his hand, and the ring went flying off. They’re honeymooning here from Boston and would be leaving the next day, so, they were hoping I could find his ring before they left. Being July 3rd, Coronado has a big parade starting at 10am and would be very crowded soon , so, I had to get on my horse and ride! The trip over wasn’t too bad until I got into town where the parade was to take place. I eventually got over to the beach about an hour later, and tried to find a parking spot. None to be had anywhere close, so, I ended up parking a bit over a mile away. I finally get to the meeting spot in the dry sand where the ring was lost and got the low down on how it was lost and about where it should be. Sure enough, after a couple of scrap aluminum targets in 2-3 minutes, I got a nice solid 11 on my Equinox and pulled the ring out of it’s sandy resting spot. Now the happy newlyweds can head out and continue their life together with the rings they came with. A pleasure to meet you both and thank you for the reward.

Ring lost in Clairmont back yard found

  • from La Jolla (California, United States)

Jay was working at cutting down a tree in his back yard. The tree in question is in the back corner of his yard, where he shares a fence with neighbors. In the process of chain sawing, trimming, and raking, wood chips, branches, and debris ended up on both sides of the fence. Jay gathered the debris in his neighbor’s yard and tossed everything back over a short chain link fence to his own yard for removal. Well, you guessed it, one of his tosses included his wedding band. After discovering his ring was missing, he searched both yards to no avail. Some of the debris was already loaded onto a truck, so, he (and I) hoped that it didn’t end up there. In searching his options, including renting a metal detector, Jay came across TheRingFinders. com website and my contact info. He called me yesterday evening and we arranged to meet at his house early this morning for the search. Jay showed me the search area and re-enacted his actions that most likely caused his ring to come off. With a good idea of location, I started my grid search. Quite a few targets to sift through, but I knew approximately what I should be hearing and seeing on my detector display. Found a sprinkler head blasting my ears and knew that wasn’t going to be it. The next good signal was a solid 18 on my Equinox….hmmm, a bit of a  high reading, but, still in the « possible » range. It read shallow, so, I just pushed some surface material to the side with my shoe. The signal moved, so, I moved the small pile just a little more and could see the outline of a ring. Sure enough, we had a match! As you can see in the photo, the ring color blends in perfectly with the ground cover, so, even sitting on top of the ground, it wasn’t easy to spot. A happy Jay went inside to give his wife the good news. A pleasure to meet you and thank you for the reward.