Peyton’s 925 Sterling Silver Wedding Band with Colorful Stones
James Breathes a Sigh of Relief Holding Peyton’s Wedding Ring…Found!
Peyton’s Lost Sterling Silver Wedding Band Found by The Ring Finders Brian Rudolph
I was vacationing in Ocean City, Maryland when I received an email from a young man named James who was desperate to find his wife’s missing wedding ring. He found my metal detecting service on the THE RING FINDERS website. James and his wife Peyton were hanging out by the community pool located near their apartment complex. Peyton thought to do the right thing and hand her wedding band to James to bring it back to the apartment so that there would not be a chance that it would go missing at the pool. Little did she know that the ring would disappear between the time that she gave it to her husband and the time that he got back to the apartment.
James was completely undone by the loss of his wife’s ring. Not just because she entrusted him with it, but because he had lost his own wedding band two months after they got married in December of 2018. He explained to me that before he lost his wife’s wedding band, it was the only remaining ring that was exchanged at their ceremony when they got married since he still could not find his own ring that went missing earlier in the year. He was hopeful that his ring would one day turn up because he thought it may still be somewhere in the apartment. However, it had been nearly eight months since they got married and he did not have the matching wedding band anymore and his wife’s ring was all that was left to remind them of the covenant that was made with rings last year.
The lovely keepsake that went missing was made of sterling silver along with three colorful stones set within the band. They chose the red, blue and green colors because they are both into video gaming and the stones represent the crystals that they hunted for in a particular game. It’s so wonderful to hear stories of how people pick out their rings or even how they design them out of a common interest between the two of them prior to getting married. This was a great example of that kind of commonality with this couple.
After I heard that James had lost his own wedding band and now he lost his wife’s wedding ring after giving it to him to keep it safe from being lost at the pool, I felt like I needed to stand in the gap, and like a faithful soldier, help out my fellow man who needed another warrior in the trenches to help rescue him out of his dire situation.
Since I was so far away from the couple’s Columbia, Maryland residence at the time that I was vacationing at the beach, I called another Ring Finder member in our directory in Baltimore, Maryland, but he was unable to help for a couple of days. So James desperately requested my help to see if I could search and recover the sterling silver wedding band of Peyton’s before someone else might stumble upon seeing it and “pocket it”. I agreed to help them and arranged to meet up with James and Peyton early the next morning.
I quietly left the hotel room sometime around 5:30 in the morning to start driving through the night to Columbia, Maryland over to where James and Peyton lived. It was a beautiful morning and it was so quiet with nobody on the road in that first hour behind the wheel. I don’t have a problem driving long distances because I just love God’s surroundings and there’s always something to think about or listen to on my phone or on the radio while I’m driving to my next search site. Besides, I was on a mission to rescue James from a really tough situation and to return something so precious to his wife who was really upset about not having her ring back.
I believe I arrived at their apartment community sometime around 8:30 a.m.. I met James and Peyton outside in the parking lot and after a few minutes of having a brief “meet-and-greet”, the three of us took a walk from the parking lot area over to where the pool was located. I wanted to start at the beginning where Peyton handed off the ring to James just prior to its disappearance.
Once we covered the pool area, we walked from the pool entrance, down a walkway to a longer sidewalk, which took us in the direction of where their apartment building was located. While we strolled along, James and his wife shared how he was holding not only the ring but some other things, as well, including a popsicle stick and wrapper. He believed that it was possible that he got distracted with holding the wrapper and the other items and the ring fell out of his hand while walking back to their place. I was concerned that perhaps if he disposed of the wrapper, the ring may have ended up in a trash receptacle, but I learned that he held onto the wrapper as he walked back to the apartment. This told me that the ring most likely was lost on the sidewalk or in the grass.
When we got back to the parking lot where I had first greeted the two of them, Peyton gave a hug goodbye to her husband and wished me the best in my search. At this point, I had a pretty good idea of the whole story and now it was time to start the metal detecting process. James had taken me over to where one enters his apartment building on the ground floor. He was concerned that perhaps the ring may have fallen out of his hands and landed somewhere to the left or to the right of the concrete slab just in front of his apartment complex. I metal detected around that area and there was no ring to be found over in that section. We then went over to a small grassy knoll that was very close to where I parked my vehicle. Upon asking him some additional questions regarding the most probable places where he may have lost the ring, I started metal detecting in those areas near and around the grassy knoll decline. The first spot was a patch of grass around a tree. I could not find anything there but some soda can pull tabs and a couple of coins. I knew exactly the target signal that I was looking for on my detector because James was very clear that what we were looking for was a sterling silver ring. We moved a little higher up onto the grassy knoll area and it took no more than a minute or so before the first signal hit my detector and it was exactly in the range of a sterling silver ring. I thought to myself, “It can’t be this easy”. I began to pinpoint below the grass line and as I looked carefully in between the hairs of grass, there it was, Peyton’s beloved sterling silver wedding band that had disappeared the day before! The whole search probably took less than 5 minutes from the time I turned my machine on until I discovered the missing ring! I was so thrilled for this couple in being able to recover the ring! I not only returned the wedding ring, but I also rescued James from the doghouse because he just could not end up losing both wedding bands in less than a year of their marriage! James was so excited and completely relieved that I was able to help return this ring into the hands that had once placed it on Peyton’s finger last December! He would now once again be able to place this ring on Payton’s hand with a huge smile and a very large sigh of relief! We high-fived, he gave me a big hug and we shared in our happiness together before he called his bride on the phone and told her the fantastic news! Peyton was beyond happy with the end result of my search efforts and the young lady expressed her sincere gratitude for what I was able to do to help find her precious wedding band!
This ring recovery truly wrapped itself up to my satisfaction, knowing that I had traveled three hours inland on my vacation to help a couple find something that meant so much to them and that I successfully discovered the missing ring and was able to return it to its happy owner! The whole experience brought me such a thrill in assisting the very sweet newlywed couple find Peyton’s wedding band and help to continue a story that started last December when the knot was tied between James and Peyton – man and wife – truly two game winners!
“Brian took time off of his vacation to help me find my wife’s wedding ring that I had dropped on the way back from the pool to make sure we didn’t lose it. He called me back within minutes of emailing him with my situation and said that he could come out the next morning and help me. He did exactly that and found my ring in under 10 minutes. We had 4 people looking for it in the same places but couldn’t find it without Brian’s metal detector and his expertise. It means so much to both of us that Brian was able to retrieve our original wedding ring. The experience was fun, easy, and efficient. Thank you, Brian! You’re the best! It’s hard to believe that there is such a nice, honest, kind and self-less person in the world that was able to help me with this problem”.
– James and Peyton
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Last week Merle realized that her wedding band was missing after she gave her dog a bath on her deck. She searched through the leaves but did not find the ring. That’s when she found me. After gathering some information from her daughter, Brooke, I started to search in the leaves and ivy near the deck. A few minutes later, the ring was recovered!
Ryan’s Platinum Wedding Band Recovered from Deep Creek River, Annapolis MD
Ryan and Son, Sebastian Finally Celebrate the Return of Dad’s Platinum Wedding Band
I received a phone call from a gentleman named Ryan who found out about my ring recovery service through THE RING FINDERS directory. He was playing in the water with his son and while they were wrestling and having a good time, Ryan’s platinum wedding band slipped off his finger and ended up at the bottom of the Deep Creek River located close to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Annapolis, Maryland. Ryan’s thirteen year-old boy named Sebastian felt really bad that the ring slipped off during their time of fun in the water between 25 to 35 feet from the shore. So, he helped his father look everywhere in the river, using their hands to reach down and search for the missing ring. Unfortunately time continued to tick and nobody could find Ryan’s wedding band. After a very long time hunting for the ring, the family gave up and decided to seek help from others. This particular swimming area is on a private beach where only members of the community can enjoy accessing this part of the river. Ryan and his wife found somebody who was local in the community who owned a metal detector and he was quite happy to volunteer to search for the missing ring. I got the impression that the gentleman searched quite a bit, but he could not find the ring in all of the time that he was detecting. I believe there was a second gentleman who saw the search taking place and he also attempted to find the ring with his metal detecting equipment. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find it either.
I was delighted to receive Ryan’s call for help because I love assisting with searches that have to do with lost items that are so important and meaningful to the owners who lose them. All I wanted to do was to bring Ryan’s ring back to him from the depths of the river and allow for that special item to continue its special story that started many years back when it was placed on Ryan’s finger on his wedding day.
Ryan shared with me all of the details about what had happened over the weekend when the ring slipped off his finger. Once I finished inquiring about the incident, I felt very good about how I was going to retrieve the ring for him. We set up a time when I would come out to the beach and begin my search for the missing ring.
I will never forget the moment that I entered the private beach area and observed how absolutely beautiful the surroundings were. The sun was rising early that morning and the water was so peaceful and most inviting. Just as I finished putting on my wetsuit, Ryan arrived and he took me over to the beach where he was playing in the water with his son Sebastian when the ring came off his finger. He provided for me the square footage that I needed to work with and he was pretty confident of the section where the ring came off. Ryan had told me that after the ring fell into the water, he immediately took notice of the debris of sticks that were in the vicinity of where the ring fell and where he was searching the majority of the time. That was very important in my own recovery attempt. I finished asking him questions and headed back to the car where I pulled out my detector, sand scoop and my other water gear. Then, I headed back to the sand where I tested out my equipment and moved into the warm summer water.
Immediately, I started to grid the area, one foot at a time. Going back and forth 30 feet and then 30 feet back the other way. I went slow and proceeded carefully, hoping I would not miss an inch of potential space where the ring may have rested. The depth of water that I was searching in was approximately three to four feet. It was quite shallow but the biggest challenge of the hunt was to make sure that the detector was discriminating out signals that were not associated with the platinum band. Also, because there was trash here and there in the water, I needed to be extremely careful not to overlook the possibility that certain metal signals could in fact be the ring.
Ryan was in the water with me and he was on standby to help me if I needed to get clarification regarding where he was with his son when the ring disappeared. I tried to stay in the proximity of where the sticks were because he clearly remembered leaning down and searching with his hands where those sticks were when the ring had slipped off just moments earlier. Each time I brought up the scoop to see what I discovered inside of it, there was a lot of silt and muddy content to contend with. It took a while to sift out all of the mud that was at the bottom of the water in order to just identify the target in the scoop. I hit a lot of targets and over and over again I was pulling out all kinds of coins and other types of metal debris but no ring would be discovered. I was so hoping that another detectorist did not walk off with the ring. These ideas start playing with your mind especially when the area has been searched prior to one’s arrival. You just don’t know who you are dealing with at times, and you hope that some other detectorist was honest and would have turned the item in to the owner if he had found it.
One hour turned into two hours of searching, and two hours of searching turned into three completed hours and I still did not find the missing wedding band. I believe it was sometime after the third hour that I needed to call it quits for the day. I apologized to Ryan that I had not found it quite yet, but I assured him that if it was still in the water, he would get that ring back and he would definitely get it back on my watch. He seemed pretty confident in my confidence, and so we left each other that late morning with the agreement that I would try to return in the next few days to a week to try again.
It’s very common for searches to go into many more hours before a detectorist discovers the missing object. In this particular case, I may have walked right over the ring and didn’t detect the object if it was masked by some other type of metal that prevented me from locating my target. It’s possible that when I did my grid search, I could have just missed the target by inches, even though I was going back and forth in a straight line. When you’re in the water, it’s a lot harder to keep exact lines because you don’t have the same kind of markers that you can set up when you are on land.
I gathered my gear up and got out of my wetsuit before heading to my next appointment for the day. I was not discouraged but I was disappointed that I couldn’t pull the ring from the water that morning. Like I said before, your mind starts playing tricks on you and you need to keep positive. One of my metal detectorist friends and highly successful California RING FINDER named Stan always reminds me, “Don’t think the negative thoughts. Stay positive and believe that you are not wasting your time. You must believe it’s still there, and that no one plucked it from the water”. I stayed positive until my return!
I kept in touch with Ryan throughout the next few days so that we could set up another scheduled search window of time to again attempt a recovery of his ring. At first it was not looking good for my schedule to be able to try again to pull the ring out of the water before I was to go on vacation for 10 days. But, I worked it out so that I would make it over to the private beach area on my way to the East Coast during my vacation. The first leg of my family’s vacation journey would be to stop over at the area where Ryan lost his ring and attempt to pull the ring out before continuing across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge over to the Eastern shore and then to Ocean City, Maryland. I was so hopeful that I could find the ring so that Ryan did not have to wait until I returned from my vacation. Also, it would make me feel so good to complete that mission before heading to the beach for my own personal downtime. Ryan was quite encouraged with what I was able to set up for him and we agreed to see each other at the end of the week.
Once I loaded up the car for vacation, me and my son Danny headed off to our first stop which was Ryan’s community beach area where he lost his ring. My wife Jennifer would not be on the trip so it was just me and our son. When we entered the parking lot to the private beach on Deep Creek River, I put on my dive suit while Danny took a walk in the neighborhood. I gathered all of my gear together and assembled it on the sand as I waited for Ryan to arrive. Once again, he thanked me for taking this segment of time to help find his ring before heading to the East Coast for my 10 day vacation. I told him it was my pleasure and that it had been bothering me since I was here the last time when I didn’t find it. I was really looking forward to getting in the water. I remember saying a prayer and asking for God’s help to recover his lost wedding band. I’m a firm believer in prayer.
Once I got the detector on and grabbed a hold of the scoop, I was walking into the water from the shoreline and went to the spot where Ryan and I agreed would be a probable area where the ring may have disappeared. I began to grid back-and-forth in the same way that I did my grid work the last time I came out. I did about a 40 foot by 40 foot area this time and centralized my detecting where a lot of the sticks were that Ryan had pointed out last week. At some point during my detecting, Ryan headed out to go pick up his son Sebastian and he would eventually return back to the beach. I said goodbye to him and he wished me much success.
Because of the other metal that was below the surface of the water, I had to be extremely careful not to go too fast over the areas that I was detecting so that I would not miss the target that I was looking for. My detector is very good at recovery speed (which is how fast the detector is picking up the signal with the speed that you are moving the coil back and forth over the potential targets). However, one must be extremely careful not to put the detector to the test to the point where human error might play a role in missing the item that you are searching for.
I may have searched for about an hour and I was getting concerned that I would end up with the same results that I accrued the previous week. However, I still had to keep telling myself that it must be here and that those other detectorists just missed it or that they did not take Ryan’s ring. I told myself that the others must have just missed the target because of other metal that was possibly masking it. Or perhaps they did not set their detectors deep enough or maybe their detectors could not go down far enough to detect the signal we were looking for. I kept searching back-and-forth going from where the pier was and then extended out a ways and then back towards the pier in parallel with the beach. I was still getting all kinds of positive signals, but none of them panned out.
At some point, after finishing another set of grid passes, I hit another signal that was in the range of Ryan’s platinum wedding band! On my machine it was registering the numbers: 14 and 15, which is in the ballpark of a nice man’s size platinum ring. However, the signal was very choppy and inconsistent. I could have walked right over it, thinking it was trash. Perhaps the other gentlemen did the same. It sounded either too deep or too trashy to scoop up. One could almost assume that the target was probably a rusty old bottle cap and not worth looking at. I went over the target from a couple of different angles just to make sure that this was something legitimate enough to scoop up. Even though it didn’t give off a signal that normally would have convinced me to take the time to pull it up, I decided to go for it anyways. I was at the point where beggars could not be choosers! In addition to the bad signal I was faced with, I was having problems scooping up my targets that day because of the conditions at the bottom of the water. I had to be wise on how I was spending my time and this was one target that I didn’t want to spend time on, but I did so regardless of the conditions.
Speaking of time, I realized that with every minute that passed, my vacation time was being used up and I knew that my son Danny was looking forward to getting to the beach as quickly as possible. However, he is such a patient and kind young man and he was quite supportive in wanting to see a happy ending to this story before going to the beach. So, I tested the signal out a few times and I was convinced that it was strong enough of a signal to scoop up but I had no confidence that this was Ryan’s platinum ring. Again, the signal was so choppy and disconnected. It wasn’t a strong bang of a signal. Yet, it’s so important in metal detecting to not count anything out and to really doubt your confidences. I scooped up the first bit of debris and when I checked with the detector to see if I had gotten the target inside the scoop, it was still in the water. I did this again and repeated the process a couple more times until finally the detector indicated that there was nothing at the bottom of the water where I was detecting. The object must have finally been caught in the scoop. I then sifted out everything inside of the scoop and to my huge surprise, there it was! I found it! I found Ryan’s missing platinum wedding band! I was almost in unbelief because the signal was so poor! I found it 6 inches below the sand and mud in probably about 3.5 to 4 feet of water at that point with the current tide. I was so jubilant at that moment! I couldn’t wait to share my happiness with Ryan! My son Danny had just come back from his long walk and I shared my excitement with him at finding the ring! He was thrilled! There were a few others around, including boat instructors for the young children who were there for summer camp who were learning how to sail. They looked over to see what all of the excitement was all about! People along the shore that were hanging out, fishing or just watching their dogs play in the water, came by and shared in my celebration with me finding Ryan’s lost ring!
Within minutes of recovering the ring, Ryan’s SUV was coming into the parking lot and he had no idea what he was about ready to witness. He and his son Sebastian got out of the vehicle and walked towards the beach as I was coming out of the water and that’s when I got to present Ryan’s missing platinum wedding band to him! He was beyond thrilled! I think he may have been in disbelief because he had searched for so long and so had others (including my last attempt), but nothing turned up until this very moment! Ryan could not have been happier! We hugged and I got to meet Sebastian who also joined in the celebration! The ring that had been in the water for over a week could now return to the finger that it belonged to – on Ryan’s hand!
After taking pictures, talking with people that were hanging out along the shore who witnessed the return of the ring, and giving our last goodbyes to Ryan and Sebastian, I packed up the car and headed with my son to Ocean City, Maryland. As we drove away, I was thinking of how wonderful it was to drive towards the East Coast to enjoy our vacation, knowing that we took time out of our lives to help bring some happiness to someone else’s life. Now Ryan could celebrate the return of his beloved ring that had gone missing for some time. It was quite satisfying to me. More than anything, I was proud of my son. I looked over at him, shook his twenty-one year old hand and said, “Thank you Danny for thinking about someone else’s happiness. And because of that, I was able to help someone else get something back that was important to him. You were very kind to give up some of our time for someone else and I will never forget that”. Danny smiled with content as he adjusted his seat back to take a snooze. It was a good beginning to our fun vacation!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Liberty’s 14 Karat White Gold with Heart Shaped Diamond Solitaire Engagement Ring
I connected with a woman who was desperate to find her missing engagement ring while she was camping with her family near Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. She and her family had their camper at a particular campsite located near the ocean shore.
The day the family was supposed to leave to go back to their home in Pennsylvania, the young lady named Liberty realized that she was missing her engagement ring. She began to panic and started searching everywhere in the camper and around the premises. Then, when they couldn’t find her engagement ring at the campsite, she and her husband looked along the pathway to the bathroom and shower house, as well as looking in the dumpster just in case she may have dropped the ring in the trash and then deposited that bag in the large dumpster out by the front of the camping property.
I can’t tell you how stressed out Liberty was and how much it just broke me within to hear how upset she was in losing her beloved engagement ring which meant so much to her. I can’t imagine how awful it must have felt to not find the ring during all of their searching, and then had to leave the site to return home in another state. Not only did they have to leave the campsite, and had to wonder if they were leaving Liberty’s ring behind, but they also felt like they weren’t getting much help from the gentleman who was going to take their campsite after they pulled their camper away. Liberty and her husband mentioned to him what they had lost and how important it was to retrieve this beautiful keepsake of Liberty’s. She described the man as someone who was disinterested and one who was not concerned in the least with helping them recover her lost valuable. The family would have to travel several hours back to their home in Pennsylvania and possibly leave her sentimental possession behind forever.
When Liberty and I finally spoke on the phone regarding the disappearance of her ring (which had been loose on her finger for some time), she concluded that it must have fallen somewhere along a path that was in the woods where she walked the morning before. Or maybe it actually was deposited in the trash by accident and when they checked the dumpster for their bags, maybe they overlooked the ring. Liberty also thought that maybe she lost the ring at the bathroom site but they checked that area out and there was no sign of her engagement ring. She was hoping that I could help her with this problem. I was delighted to. I was in the Maryland area about three hours away from where she was camping, but I was willing to drive through the night and check out the campsite areas in the morning.
Liberty’s Beautiful Heart-Shaped Diamond Engagement Ring Found in the Camper
I got all of the facts that she had for me in order for me to begin putting the pieces together and hopefully locate the ring in the right spot where it was hiding. I also told her something very important for her to do. I shared with Liberty that it was quite possible that she did not leave the ring behind, back at the campsite near Beach, Delaware area, but that perhaps it was lost in the camper. She took a moment to process what I was saying and I could hear some silence on the other end of the phone because she just wasn’t on that page. When somebody goes through an experience like this, which really traumatizes the brain, one begins to narrow the focus on the possibility that the object is most likely in the areas where they think it was lost rather than looking outside the box. I was thinking that it may have still been in the camper. I have had many cases where the item was always there in the house, apartment, or hotel room when they thought something awful had happened outside of the premises.
I then shared with her that I would start traveling to the campsite in Delaware, but I requested that she go inside the camper and do another extensive search for the ring. I instructed her to turn all of the lights off and use a bright flashlight or headlamp while looking for the item. This would help to identify any objects that would reflect light off of the beam, including her missing ring. I gave her a list of places that I recommended her to check out. The places I suggested were spots that are common to where rings disappear, such as: in the corners of the rooms, inside shoes, under floor moldings, in spaces where the bed is up against the wall on the sides or at the head board, and check within the couches and stationary chairs that have cushions. If her kitchen in the camper had a garbage disposal I asked her to carefully check around the sink area and inside the garbage disposal canister. The most important place that I suggested for her to check was the master bedroom bed. I reminded her that it is also extremely possible that her ring had fallen off during the night before it disappeared and it could have ended up in the sheets, behind the bed or even under it. I think she told me that this scenario had never happened before in regards to the ring coming off while she was sleeping. But I told her that anything is possible for the first time! Especially for a camper, everything is so congested and little things like rings can be camouflaged by all of the property surrounding it close to the floor.
Liberty and Her Two Children Who Helped Mom in the Ring Search
I was so happy that she was as receptive as she expressed. Liberty was in full agreement to go out and check these areas that I had mentioned. So, once we got off the phone I paid the check of my Chinese meal and began to drive towards the beach. Before we had gotten off the phone I asked Liberty to call me immediately if she found the ring and she happily agreed to let me know the good news, even though she wasn’t too sure that the jewel would turn up.
So, I drove for just about an hour, crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland over to the Eastern shore when I received a call from Liberty. I wondered if this was positive news! She was so excited! I will never forget the sound in her voice when she shared with such joy that she found the ring behind the bed in the camper! She thanked me profusely over and over again for guiding her back to the camper to search more carefully in places that she would not have considered looking! Her words couldn’t have made me happier upon receiving her victory call! Liberty had gone into the camper with the lights out and went in with a couple of her children. They searched all around looking for that beloved missing ring that she was so stressed out about. She really didn’t believe that it was in the camper because of her previous searches, but she did it because she wanted to listen to my advice and give it every chance in the world that perhaps she had never parted with the heart-shaped diamond to begin with when she left the campsite. I was so thrilled for her! I was beyond excited to hear that she found the ring in the camper! She felt bad that I had traveled all that way, approximately halfway to the beach, yet I explained to her that the important thing was that she found the ring and that we could call off the search over at the campground. Apparently, the ring had slipped off her finger in the middle of the night on the last night of their camping trip at the Rehoboth Beach camping park and it fell deep behind her bed. Liberty felt such relief and her family rejoiced in finding the missing keepsake!
Pride and Joy to Have Her Engagement Ring Back on Her Hand
I arrived at the next exit and turned off and headed back towards home with a smile on my face because Liberty had found what she had been looking for! Sometimes, the very thing that we think went missing somewhere outside of our house or domain where we are staying, actually never left our property to begin with. Always remember this when you look for that missing object. Search carefully around your own property because it may be just feet from you and you didn’t realize it the whole time. Our minds go in all kinds of directions and you must take control of those fearful thoughts because it is very possible that the special item that you are looking for never left the door.
Months later, following the recovery of Liberty’s beautiful engagement ring, she reflected on the whole stressful situation and said, “I sometimes check to see that the diamond has not fallen out, so it was a shock to see the entire ring gone!” Now that Liberty has the ring back, she never has to worry about the latter ever again!
Upon my request, Liberty reenacted the search in the camper and provided a video for everyone to watch so that it would help many other people who go through the same situation. I can’t thank her enough for taking the time to shoot the video to encourage many others out there who also lose their beloved rings and other possessions that they love so much and so desperately want to get the items back!
If you would like to watch the reenactment of this ring find, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to Brian’s YouTube Channel by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
I connected with a guy named Felipe who lost his wedding ring on a Baltimore, Maryland sports field that is utilized as a kickball field and dog park.
He lost the keepsake while playing an adult game of kickball. He was on a league team that was playing against another league team. He believed that during the game the ring must have slipped off his finger because he had remembered seeing it on his finger prior to the game and even during the game at some point. The question for him was, « Where did it end up? »
When he realized that he had lost the ring, he gathered up his teammates and even acquired the help of the other team’s members to join in the search. There must have been 20 people or more searching for his missing gold wedding band! After everybody finished searching, there still was no recovery of the ring.
Brian Rudolph with The Ring Finder’s Discovers Felipe’s Lost Wedding Band on Sport’s Field in Baltimore, Maryland
The loss of the ring took place a week before I corresponded with Felipe who was desperate at that point to find the wedding band. He texted me and said, « I really appreciate your help. I cannot meet up with you on the field for the next few days, but I sent you a map of the general location of where the ring may have come off. I also tried with a metal detector with no luck. »
I assured him that if someone had not picked up the ring off of the sports field since the time of its disappearance, I would recover it for him with no questions asked. I was that confident. But come to find out, it would not be so easy to find the ring!
I responded by saying, « I can get out there tonight. Let me know what time the park closes…”
Felipe responded, « Sounds great to me….really, I married my wife not a ring…so it’s just sentimental. If you find it.. it would be awesome! »
Felipe sent me a Google Earth photo of the field and he marked two most likely areas where he thought the ring might have fallen off.
He also texted me some additional clues: « I was behind first base receiving a foul ball….5 feet away from the trees. I also dove and threw someone out running home….leaping from pitcher’s mound to home plate direction ». This was some good information for me to process when I got out on the field later that night.
That evening, I drove to downtown Baltimore City to the specified park where the ring was lost. It was still daylight but the sun would be setting quite soon. Once I got to the correct field, I studied the map that he provided for me and I got my bearing straight as to where he might have been in the grass when he lost the ring. I searched everywhere. Along the tree line, within the tree section, all over the field where he was playing kickball, the sidelines, and even in the areas where he walked to go use the bathroom. I searched between trees and all kinds of brush. I thought it was a good sign when I found a handful of keys on an old key ring that must have been lost during a past game. However, there was no sign of the ring anywhere. Soon, I was wearing my headlamp and doing a second grid search after I had finished initially going north to south and east to west already. Still, there was absolutely nothing found. After 4 hours I finally had to call it quits for the night. And because the park was over an hour away from my local area in Maryland, I had resolved that I did all that I could and it would be too difficult for me to return to the search site again since I thought I did what I could in all that time.
If there was any time that I felt self-defeated it was after this search that I conducted. I had promised Felipe that I would find the ring if it was still out there and I just did not know if it was or not after I finished the search. But I gave it four hours and turned up nothing. I thought that maybe somebody may have seen it on the path that was adjacent to the play field and took off with it sometime following the game. But how could anyone know unless it was turned in?
I called Felipe and left a voicemail message requesting for him to call me. In addition to that, I texted him and said, « I am so sorry that I didn’t find your wedding ring. My search was extensive and careful. It’s possible that it might be in the tree line area even though I did check it. But I did not check all of the spots since I had so much of the field to grid, as well. »
Felipe responded, « Thank you so much Brian! We will definitely go back and look more in the area where the trees are. A million thanks man…..and I will absolutely let you know if we magically find it. I, and we appreciate it so much. Thank you ».
I thanked him, as well for giving me the opportunity to try to find the ring, and I just felt terrible that I could not pull the special keepsake from the field. However, something just did not set right with me when I had to call off any future searches because of the factors I mentioned above.
Felipe and Anne Express Their Happiness Upon the Return of Felipe’s Special Gold Wedding Band
Another week had passed since my initial search, and I just could not shake the thoughts about not finding the ring. I wondered if Felipe found it out in the field or if it might have been picked up by someone, or that it may have still been left out there untouched and unfound. I decided to text him and see what the status was regarding the ring.
I said, « Hey there. Just checking to see if you guys found the ring yet. I will be in North Baltimore this evening and if I find the missing ring for this other person, I could shoot out down to the park if you would like me to if you haven’t found it already. Let me know. I can check the woods a bit more thorough. »
He responded, « I still haven’t had any luck….and still working late hours. »
I said, « Would you like me to give it another shot? I can check those woods out much more carefully. »
He replied, « That would be amazing… »
I told him that I decided that I would return one more time to see if I could pull the ring from the field if it was still there. I explained to him that I just did not feel quite right about giving up even though I thought I gave it all I had. He really appreciated my willingness to return and he said that he could meet me out there with his wife to help in the search and perhaps guide me a bit more in terms of where the bases were and where he was in the outfield.
I said, « If you feel pretty sure that that ring is still out there, I will find it, »
We planned to meet that evening around 6:30pm out on the field in Baltimore. Felipe and Anne were already there on the field when I arrived. We greeted one another and then reviewed all of the possibilities once again as to where the ring could have ended up.
I told the two of them that I am a man of prayer and that God does do mysterious things for us when we least expect it. Even regarding things like rings being found when they’ve gone missing. Anne said that after I suggested that they join hands and pray as a couple over the situation with the missing ring, they in fact prayed for the first time together that the ring would be found. She said that that was very new for them to do. I smiled with excitement and encouraged them and then we started searching the field.
I did most of the searching around the wooded areas at first. They took to the kickball field parameters and eventually I ended up searching in places that covered the field where Felipe played. He showed me the approximate locations where the bases were set up. I metal detected a new grid all over the areas then I searched a week prior. But this time I went farther out into sections that extended outside the boundaries of where the game was played. I detected every type of metal in places leading to where Felipe had walked away from the field to use the bathroom and I went into the woods to retrace every step that he took on that day when he lost the ring.
It was inspiring to see husband and wife searching everywhere to claim back Felipe’s wedding band. I will never forget his words that he shared in front of his wife recounting what he said to her back at their house after the ring went missing and they couldn’t find it anywhere. He said something like, « If I can’t get the ring back, I still have the most important part of my life anyways ». That really touched me hearing him say that and his wife Anne gave a huge smile towards her husband and big love embrace!
We looked hard for a couple of hours before it was time for the couple to leave the park. They gave up for the time being because they had to attend to something else. They said their goodbyes to me and thanked me for trying again. I was highly optimistic and motivated to keep searching and expressed much hope to them that it could still be out in the field. I think I may have prayed with them that God would help me find the ring. I explained to them at some point that God loves the covenant of marriage. The wedding band and engagement ring are symbols of that covenant love and commitment. That’s why I ask for divine favor from above when I’m out there looking for rings. Unfortunately, sometimes, circumstances present themselves in such a way that there is no possible way for me to get the ring back, (for instance, if it was picked up and taking away by somebody already), and in the end, I know I did all that I could do.
Felipe and Anne took off and I continued my search. Evening fell to complete darkness outside. The happy yellow lights shining from the fireflies reminded me that I was not alone out on the green grass. Occasionally, someone walking their dog would come by and it was nice to know that there was still activity going on around me.
I pressed on for about another hour and a half and I gridded the entire kickball field once again and searched farther outside the imaginary base lines, hoping that something would turn up. There was nothing at home plate, and nothing around first and second base. My last area to grid out was approximately 10 yards outside of the third base area. Back and forth I went, yet nothing turned up. I was getting all kinds of signals and I was checking everything on the ground that appeared to be close to the surface, if not on top of the surface. But every time, it was a pull tab or a coin left behind by someone playing on the field. Then, I hit a signal that gave a nice loud sound in the detector and I looked at the screen and the target appeared to be on the surface. The numbers that appeared were right in the range of what a man’s gold wedding band would show up as! I started to kneel down with my handheld pinpointer to investigate the target, and there in between pieces of grass, I saw Felipe’s beloved wedding band! The yellow gold was calling out for me to pick him up and bring him home! I was so elated! I found the ring! Yes, I found the ring! I could not have been more happy at that moment! My decision to return back to Baltimore and drive all of that way and spend all those hours out on that field, even into the late hours of the night, completely reaped the results that I was looking for! I was feeling just like a little kid who had just found the buried treasure that was lost in the thicket of the grass and I just fell completely to the ground and rolled around in utter excitement! I couldn’t wait to share with the couple that our prayers were answered!
There were some people walking by who saw how thrilled I was at whatever it was that I found and so I got to share my discovery with them! They too were so happy for what Felipe and his wife and for the good news that they were about to hear and what they were about to receive back!
I packed up my gear after saying goodbye to that group of people and headed for the car. I was smiling from ear-to-ear all of the way back to my parking space about a quarter of a mile away! When you search for so long and nothing becomes of it, and then you determine that you’re going to return after time has passed and you start all over again, wondering if it will lead to anything positive, and then you « hit gold », there are no words to describe the awesome feeling!
I wanted to surprise Felipe with the news so I called him and left a voicemail message when he didn’t pick up. Then, I texted him and shared, « I left a Vmail. Left the field. Bugs eating me alive even with spray. Call to debrief. I did all I could do. »
When I said that I did all that I could, I was not dishonest in the least! I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to connect with them but I was certain that they would get back to me sometime in the next day. Well, I didn’t have to wait that long to break the news because just as I arrived at a Royal Farms convenience store up the street from the park to grab a drink and a snack for my hour and fifteen minute drive home, Felipe called me back!
These are the moments that I love the most when I get to reveal the wonderful news! Sharing that the priceless keepsake had been found and that it will once again be returned to the hand that once wore it, is the most exhilarating experience!
Felipe had read my text and was not thinking in the least that I had found the ring! But after I played with him for a moment or two, he got the best surprise of his life! In less than 30 minutes, Felipe and his wife were pulling into the convenience store parking lot with a bottle of champagne in hand to celebrate the precious moment when Felipe would be reunited with his very handsome wedding band that was presented to him by his wife Anne only a short time ago! I will never forget that evening when we all partied in the parking lot as we celebrated such a fantastic moment for Felipe! Anne shed such special tears of happiness as the reality of the situation sunk through her being! I was so honored to be called upon to help return what was once lost!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Natalie had just completed a fun day of Hot Tub boating on Seattle’s Lake Union. When she got back to the boat slip, got out of the hot tub boat her phone fell into the water below the dock. She did a Google search and fond me through my listing on TheRingFinders. I came out the next day and recovered her Google Pixel 3 phone just past 20′ of water. Unfortunately the phone was full of water but she was prepared for this outcome and wanted her phone back for the insurance claim. During the recovery dive an older iPhone with some old bank cards and an ID were found. I am in the process of getting that returned to its owner as well.
Check out the dive recovery here:
Special thanks to https://www.hottubboats.com for allowing the recovery effort. If you get a chance check them out and tell them the SeattleRingHunter sent you over.
Carla’s 925 Sterling Silver Wedding Band with Colorful Accent Stones
Searching for lost property can take you down all kinds of windy and unexpected roads. You will meet wonderful people and you may find yourself in certain situations that you would never have expected prior to when the initial adventure had begun. Here is what I mean:
I had taken my boat out onto Rehoboth Bay, located on the other side of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, just west inland of the Atlantic ocean. I was on a search for a lost ring that had fallen into the bay while a guy was pulling up his anchor shortly after his family went swimming in the water weeks earlier. They took their boat from New Jersey all the way down to Delaware to do some vacationing over a long extended weekend. I was hoping that I could retrieve the ring from the water, but unfortunately my boat ran into problems just prior to me anchoring at the exact GPS location where he lost the ring. My engine stalled and the current was too strong to paddle up the channel where I had traveled from. I probably cruised about a mile and a half down the canal area into the bay when my engine suddenly cut off. I was really close to my target, but it wouldn’t be my day to find the ring. Instead, I needed to find help!
Eventually, I drifted over to a shore area located on the opposite side of the bay, completely in the wrong direction from where I was trying to travel to. I was now a half of a mile south of where I was trying to anchor, and each time I tried to get further back into the center of the bay, I was pushed back towards the shoreline by the strong current and choppy water. I had a choice: either ground the boat on the private shoreline property and see if I could get an Uber or someone to drive me to my car and then retrieve the boat on the way back (which would have been very difficult because there were no launch sites anywhere nearby), hire a boat tow service (which would have been costly), or lastly, to try to flag someone down that was out boating who would be willing to tow me in.
Carla’s Wedding Band that had been at the Bottom of the Rehoboth Bay, Dewey Beach, Delaware for a Year!
I called the tow service and they gave me a quote. I thought maybe the boat would sink just hearing the number that they gave me to tow me
Claudia’s Sterling Silver that was Out of the Water and Carla’s Sterling Silver that had been in the Rehoboth Bay for a Year!
in! When I tried to see if there were any other boats that might be close enough to possibly stop to help assist my efforts to get up the channel, there was nothing to work with because I was pretty far from where people were cruising. I had very little choice but to call the tow service.
This is where the turn of events took place! I was just hanging out in the boat trying to make my final decision as to what to do, when all of a sudden I noticed a large pontoon boat coming my way! I remembered seeing that same boat earlier some distance away along the shoreline. Apparently they were crabbing and partying out on the deck. They got closer and closer until I heard one of the ladies on the boat call over to me, « Do you need any help?! » Their boat continued to draw nearer. They we’re coming to rescue me! This was awesome! I yelled back and explained that the motor stalled and that I had been fighting the current for quite a while. They weren’t surprised because they had noticed what was going on with me for some time and wondered if I was in trouble. Before long, Claudia, who was steering their boat, maneuvered the pontoon as close to me as possible, and then another lady onboard named Carla, threw me a tow line and I quickly tied it to the bow of my boat and in no time we were headed towards a launch site where I could get the boat out of the water! I could not be more grateful for these people’s assistance! Not only did they tow me in, but they went past their own slip and took me to a launch site that was out of their way just to make life easier for me by getting my boat up on shore so I could break my gear down. In addition to this amazing kindness, when we got to the site where they would release me from their line, they offered to pick me up in their minivan, haul my boat and all of my gear and take me back to my car which had to be a good 7 to 10 miles away. Then, they would have to drive themselves all of the way back home! Who were these amazing people?! I was beyond touched! I gratefully accepted their offer and prepared to break down my gear upon Claudia and Carla releasing the tow line when we got to the launch site.
Thirty minutes later, the ladies returned to me in their minivan, ready to further assist! The moment they got out of the vehicle, one of them walked over to me and handed me an ice cold bottle of beer to cool me off! I couldn’t get over the kindness! Wow! Was that sweet of them! And boy was that beer refreshing after all that I had been through!
I loaded everything up, which they both assisted in helping me with the gear and the boat (so very nice of them and they were extremely strong, too!) and in no time they were taking me back to my vehicle up river! I felt so much love and compassion coming from these two ladies!
As we drove, I offered to take care of their gas expense and I asked them if they had ever lost anything that perhaps I could help find with my metal detector as a way of showing my gratitude for all that they had done for me! I don’t remember if it was Claudia or Carla that had responded to my inquiry, but one of them said that there was actually something that was lost a year ago but that they had no confidence that it could ever be recovered. I asked what it was and the two of them shared that Carla’s custom made sterling silver wedding band from Hawaii was lost a year earlier in Rehoboth Bay while working in the water. Carla rents kayaks and paddle boards on the bay, and I believe she instructs, as well. While securing the kayaks and boards one day, her ring slipped off her finger and ended up at the bottom of the bay. Though she attempted to reach below the two and a half to three feet of water to retrieve the ring, it was impossible for her to find it in midst of the murky and muddy conditions. At some point she resolved that the ring was not obtainable to retrieve and that it was gone forever. That was a year ago.
Upon hearing the story, I assured Carla that as soon as I loaded up everything in my car, I would start heading over to Dewey Beach, Delaware on the bay side, about 20 minutes or so away, to start my search for the missing ring that had been underwater for over a year. They weren’t holding their breath that I would find the ring and I too wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull it from the bay. However, I was excited to take the challenge and see what we could find! Claudia and Carla continued to share with me that they were a married couple and that Claudia had the matching ring since they acquired the custom rings in Hawaii for their soon after wedding ceremony. I never ended up testing the other ring to use for my upcoming search.
Once we got everything out of the minivan and placed on the concrete next to my car and got the boat re-situated, we took a quick video and we said our goodbyes. I had many words of thanks to both of these ladies for the amazing rescue and all of the ways that they helped me after dropping me off with the boat at the launch site and taking me along with all of my things back to my car.
Because I had to abort my original mission out on the bay, I was now taken in another direction south of that location to search for another ring just off the shore of the same Rehoboth Bay.
Carla gave me the address where she worked and soon thereafter, I had reached the search location. Then, I unloaded all of my gear, walked out onto the bay shoreline where I took note of my surroundings and looked for all of the landmarks that Carla had told me about in order to put me in position to search for her lost ring.
Carla told me that the band slipped off about 10 feet from the pier, which was to the left of where the kayaks and paddleboards were locked up. She shared with me earlier that she lost the ring somewhere between one of the boards or kayaks while she was locking them up. Exactly where, of course would be the mystery to be solved.
Remember, this happened a year earlier. Tides had rolled in and out over and over again. Storms blew through the bay area over the course of the past 12 months. Ice and other severe conditions affected the bottom of the water over time.There were so many factors that could have affected the original location of the ring.
When I started metal detecting in the water, it was low tide and night was falling fast. Within a short while, I had my headlamp blazing bright, my scoop was in hand, and I was ready to attempt a recovery of Carla’s lost wedding band. As I walked in the water, the surface started with a pleasant sandy bay bottom floor. But, as I moved into the deeper areas I quickly found out why it was nearly impossible for Carla to retrieve her ring when she attempted to do so on the day of its disappearance. Everything turned to mud out by the kayaks and boards! It was awful! Every time I was bringing the scoop up with a potential target inside of it, I was faced with a massive clump of mud that smelled so viciously evil! It was horrible! I dread environments like this, as do most detectorists!
For those who are not metal detectorists who are reading this article, one of your biggest enemies being a metal detectorist is searching for a lost item in solid mud under the water! Your dive boots constantly get stuck in the mess and you barely can move without one of the boots slipping off your foot! You can’t use the existing water to help sift through the mud in the scoop because the mud is too thick and it doesn’t fall through the holes of the scoop. Every time you have a potential target to search for, you have to take the scoop with all of its mud over to the shallow area and dump it on the dry sand unless you have a floating sifter. Then, you have to metal detect the mud with your pinpointer to see what you brought up from the water. If you didn’t find what you were looking for, you have to repeat the same process over and over again!
Every time I brought the mud up, the stench was almost unbearable! It was just disgusting! I kept searching and searching, and I pulled up all kinds of hardware of sunken boats, along with coins and miscellaneous pieces of trash that had signals in the sterling silver range. There was a lot of garbage scattered about and it did not make my job any easier.
Carla Happily Holding the Ring that She Lost in Rehoboth Bay a Year Earlier!
I metal detected for several hours but unfortunately I could not find Carla’s ring. All kinds of questions went through my mind. Could someone have dug it up the already? It was possible, but very unlikely because of the terrible conditions out there. Few metal detectorists would have had the patience to try to find anything in that horribly forsaken mud mess! Also, I found enough coins that had been down there for some time which made me believe that no one had disturbed the « scene of the crime » since last summer.
It was probably around 11 p.m. or so by the time I had to wrap things up for the night. I was disappointed that I didn’t have better results to share with Carla and Claudia upon getting back to my vehicle empty-handed. I needed to start heading back home which was three hours away. I would resolve to return next week to try again and see if I could pull the ring from out of the water.
I couldn’t wait to get back in the bay and try again to find the sterling silver band. The challenge of pulling up something that had gone missing for over a year was extremely exciting to me! I get huge adrenaline rushes for such hunts!
When I arrived back at the search site, the sky was mostly blue with some overcast skies heading my direction. A storm had emerged in the southwest area but it didn’t affect my efforts. Once I got all of my equipment back on the bay’s shore, I introduced myself to the employees who work for the same rental company as Carla. They were very nice people. One of them called up Carla to verify that I did in fact have permission to search for the missing ring.
Once I was cleared, I set up my gear and started my second search attempt. Detecting in daylight was definitely an advantage because I was able to see my surroundings a little bit easier, and the muddy conditions did not appear to be as eerie as in the dark. I detected every signal that was in the sterling silver range. I brought up all kinds of stuff and yet, there was no band to be discovered. I detected between the kayaks and paddle boards, carefully moving them to the side or placing one partially on top of the other. I moved farther away than the approximate 10 feet originally remembered. When I still couldn’t find it, I called up Carla to re-gauge my positioning and I continued on, detecting, scooping, emptying the scoop on shore, pinpointing the object, and then returning to the search site where I repeated the process again. Still, I came up with nothing.
Hours upon hours had passed by this point. I was getting extremely frustrated with the mud. I didn’t think that I could continue digging much longer because my attempts were failing over and over again. Each time that I found a potential target to pull up, it would take me sometimes up to10 minutes or more just to get the object in the scoop. Then, it would take more time to find out what it was that I pulled up because of how dense the mud was. Though the boots I wear are ankle high and can be zipped up, they were no match for the black glue-like substance that made up the bottom of the bay! And again, the smell was horrific! Just terrible! I had to hold my breath most of the time!
Finally, I got to the point where I decided it was time to wrap things up. I had tried so very hard to find this ring which I didn’t even know if it was still out there. I believed I searched every possible location. I even recreated the scene by going through the motions just as Carla would have done when she was tying up all of the rentals a year earlier. I knew that I was in the basic location because the rope that tethered all of the kayaks and paddleboards got tied to the same latch on the pier. It had never been repositioned. Therefore, the area that I was covering was definitely the right location. But the question was whether or not the ring may have moved because of the currents and or the tides. Or perhaps it got buried even farther down into that forsaken mud mixture where my detector might not have been able to pick up the signal. I didn’t know what the reason was that I couldn’t spot the ring, and that frustrated me greatly.
I decided to make my next signal to be my very last target to bring up. If you don’t believe this account, the search video will prove my testimony! I decided to aim my last attempt between two paddle boards that I had searched somewhere in that vicinity before. But, this time I would move one of the rentals over just slightly more to one side to give me a little bit more clearance to swing the detector at the bottom of the bay. Just moments after I started maneuvering the coil of the detector along the surface of the mud, about three feet below the surface, and about a foot deep in the mud, I heard a high tone signal that matched the zone I was looking for. Also, the numbers were coming up really well and within the range that I needed the signal to show forth. I did not want to get too excited but I thought, ‘this could really be it’. I kept scooping, repositioning the detector to get the signal again, scooped again, pinpointed the signal with the detector and then I tried to scoop up the target once more. Then, at some point there was no longer a signal coming from the hole that I was scooping in and I was positive the target was in my scoop. Like all of the other times, I walked the mud pile over to the shore and dumped the contents onto the sand for checking. I took my hand-held pinpointer and searched more carefully. Then, I knew that whatever this piece of metal was, it was finally between my fingers. I had to clean off much of the black mud that surrounded it, and then everything came into view. What I had in my hand was a black colored, circular piece of metal that resembled a ring. I took it up closer to me, and there I could faintly see through the outer layer of the black crust surrounding the object, a colorful stone inserted in the middle! I found it! I found Carla’s ring! I remembered seeing the stones in Claudia’s. I almost couldn’t believe it! I had looked for so many hours during my first hunt a week ago into the darkness of the night. Then, I returned again today to search many more hours all to find nothing but trash right up until the very last target that I would get a signal worth digging! And it was the very one that I was looking for! I was shouting the victory cry, yelling with fists towards the air and people that were on their balconies could not have been more excited for me and more importantly, for Carla! They had seen me out there for so long, and a couple of the condominium residents even remembered seeing me search a week earlier. It was just a marvelous moment in time for me! I could not wait for me to show my findings with Carla and Claudia!
For those who are not aware of what happens to sterling silver in water over time, the metal oxidizes and the surface of the silver darkens in color. One can easily remove the outer layer that forms on the metal and return it to its original appearance. I did not do any removing of that layer just in case I might accidentally leave a scratch on the ring. I would leave that up to Carla to take care of. When I saw the colored stone in the ring, I knew that the blackened condition of the ring most likely meant that it was silver in content. I was so happy to see this outer color change because it was the best clue to indicate that I had found what I had been searching for this whole time!
What a great feeling to pack up my gear and leave the search site with the keepsake that I had come to look for, pulling it from the bay where it had resided in a foot of mud, in the water below for over a year! Absolutely fantastic! My mission was completely successful!
Now it was time to bring the ring back to its owner. I wasn’t going to call Carla up and share the news on the phone. I definitely was going to do a fake-out! As I drove in the direction of their home, which was very close to where the two of them had rescued me out in the Rehoboth Bay a week earlier, I came up with my surprise strategy. Carla and Claudia got a fun reveal waiting for them!
Watch the upcoming video to see how I surprised the ladies! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel at: THE RING RETURNER and hit the notification bell to get a reminder when the video is finally uploaded.
It brought me so much happiness to return the ring to Carla! As a result, we all became friends. I also got to meet their lovely children back at their place. We celebrated with a couple of drinks and the next day we sat out on their deck and shared life together. Not only that, but they offered to take me back out to the initial search site to help me recover the ring for that other gentleman. Can you believe such selflessness and kindness?! Because my boat engine was not repaired yet, we would take the pontoon boat out the next day and I would check the search site out for the missing ring. Unfortunately the water was too deep even at low tide and I was not able to use my equipment. Also, I was not equipped with additional scuba gear in order to attempt a dive for the ring at that point. However, I got to jump in and cool off in the water and so did Claudia after I climbed out! It was quite refreshing! Then, we headed back towards their slip and hung out outside for a while as I shared earlier. It was a blast!
So, what started out as a time of adversity for me in trying to help somebody find their lost ring, it ended up with me being helped, which in turn allowed me to help them with finding their missing ring, and then also in turn, they ended up helping me once again with a final search attempt to help that other person who lost his ring overboard!
I look forward to stopping by and saying hello to my new friends the next time I’m out in that neck of the woods again!
We will always have fond memories of this story that the three of us shared together. A story that was quite special indeed!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Lisa’s 14 karat White Gold Diamond Covered Wedding Band
I love doing In-House searches because there is always a new challenge with solving the mystery at hand! No two searches are ever the same, especially when a ring disappears in a home!
I received a phone call from Lisa of Arlington Virginia, who shared how she was perplexed with not knowing what happened to her wedding band that had disappeared in her Arlington home a few days before. She remembered taking off her wedding band upstairs in the master bathroom. When she returned to the bathroom the next morning to place the band back on her finger, the ring had vanished. She and her husband looked everywhere. She took everything out of her vanity and searched diligently to find her beloved wedding band. She checked the floors and then began checking other places in the home. Nothing turned up. When she exhausted every possibility as to where the ring may have ended up, she found The Ring Finder’s site and contacted me immediately.
On the phone, I asked Lisa every question imaginable, such as: When do you remember taking off the ring? Do you remember removing anything from the bathroom that might have had the ring inside of it or with it? Did you hear anything bounce on the bathroom floor? Were there any other people in the house, like a house cleaner, who may have placed it somewhere or accidentally knocked it off the vanity?
Lisa answered all of my questions and when the Q and A time was finished, she and her husband scheduled me to come over later that evening.
That night, I arrived in Arlington Virginia and began the in-house search. I started in the master bathroom where Lisa had last seen her diamond encircled wedding band. She was fantastic about letting me go through all the drawers in her vanity area in the bathroom and take out all of the different compartments in order to investigate every crevice of every to see if I could find the ring. I was beyond meticulous about not missing anything, just in case the ring landed in one of her very organized makeup sectionals. We ruled out the possibility that the ring had fallen into the sink drain hole because the stopper in the sink did not allow for the wedding band to fall down into the drain.
I searched the garbage can, the tile floor, I looked in the towel closet and in a second closet that was adjacent to where all of the linens and accessories were kept. Still no wedding band found. I even looked in the shower stall just in case the ring had bounced onto the floor and then bounced again into the shower area.
Once I finished concluding that the ring was nowhere to be found in the master bathroom, I continued in other rooms of the house, convinced that the ring must have ended up somewhere else outside of the parameter of the bathroom. « Why » and « How » would be the questions that would need to be answered over the course of the evening. I looked everywhere. Still, no ring was discovered. I continued to the next floor below and repeated my steps in each room to assure myself, Lisa and her husband Dan that we could eliminate more areas to search that were on my checklist. I couldn’t believe that I still had not found the treasured jewel on the third and second levels that I thoroughly investigated. This took me down to the first floor where the living room and kitchen area was located. It was the last level to check because she had never gone to the basement with the wedding band that seemed to have evaporated into thin air. So, it was clear that I could rule out any search down there.
Throughout my journey to uncover the missing keepsake, I used my in-house search equipment, which included my handheld metal detector, along with a small sniper coil on my regular detector. A detectorist is very limited to what you can do with a detector because of the quantity of metal that is found in sofas, floors and walls. The most important tools to use happen to be the use of the mind and of the eyes. One must think clearly in regards to all of the possibilities of what could have happened to the piece of jewelry and to look very carefully as to where it may have hid itself.
Lisa’s White Gold Diamond Covered Wedding Band Sparkles Brilliantly
Once I finished searching the vestibule, half bathroom, the dining room, living room (all of the sofas, chairs, air vents and area rugs), the kitchen was the last room to search. I was pretty confident that I had not missed anything. If there were no other possibilities as to what happened to the disappearing ring, it would have been found long before I arrived at the scene! These In-House searches are usually not so simple to solve. They require much deduction, thinking outside of the box of reason and it takes patience and confidence to figure out what may have happened to the ring.
As Lisa’s husband Dan was preparing the evening supper, I requested permission to search the final room – the kitchen. If it was not in there, I would have no more places to check and I would have to call it quits for the night. I had already conducted a three and a half hour search at that point. Dan gave me the go-ahead to look under the stove, refrigerator and any other places that had cracks or gaps where the ring could have rolled or slid under. This also included the lovely kitchen island where Dan was preparing a delicious gourmet meal for two. Once I looked everywhere in the kitchen, every spot was clear of the potential of hiding that stubborn « ring of ice ».
At this point, there was only one place left that had gone unchecked, and that was the kitchen trash can. I knew that if it was not in there, I would have completely run out of options. I asked Lisa if I could look through the garbage, piece by piece, to see if the ring had ended up in there. She deferred to her husband who was just about to finish all the preparations for their dinner. Dan politely and respectfully declined giving me permission to allow me to conduct the search. This family was very private, and just like many Washingtonians (people who live in DC, and the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia) there are limitations to how much someone will permit you into their private world. It is completely understandable. Dan felt uncomfortable allowing me to look through their trash, and so I suggested that the two of them look through the bag upon finishing their evening meal. I completed my suggestion by asking them whether or not the trash had been taken out ever since Lisa had lost her ring. Their response was that it was not taken out to the garage and not given over to the garbage truck quite yet. But the truck would be coming in the morning and they planned to have the garbage bags taken away first thing in the morning. This included the kitchen bag of garbage.
I pleaded with both of them to make certain to go through the garbage because it was quite possible that the wedding band had been placed by accident in the garbage. It was my only explanation for the disappearance of the ring since I had not discovered it in any of the other rooms.
I may have said something that caused Lisa to talk things over with Dan because moments later, she asked if I would excuse myself from the kitchen so they could talk things over privately. I was happy to do so and after a short while I was called back over and Dan gave the go-ahead for me to go through the trash. I was happy for their decision because if they didn’t check the garbage before taking it out to the curb, their last attempt to find Lisa’s ring would have gone out the window and we would have never known if it could have possibly found its way in the bag.
Immediately I went to the car to grab my rubber gloves and started back to the kitchen where I took a hold of the white garbage bag and headed out to the rear patio.
I knelt down on the brick laid surface, in front of the bag, and piece by piece I removed the rubbish. Sometimes I get the question from people as to what I may be thinking when I’m almost done with all of my searching and it comes down to one last place to search. Many times I stay quite hopeful that a miracle will take place and that I will defeat the odds at the “11:59th position” on the clock. In all honesty, I am wishing for a fairy tale ending. What I was doing in the back of the house was my « Hail Mary » attempt. It was the last play of the game, so to speak.
Lisa Excitedly Shows Off Her Once-Gone-Missing Wedding Band!
I kept going through the trash, removing food scraps and random items that came from places throughout the house. I had a separate bag to discard the miscellaneous garbage, and soon I had just about filled the empty bag with everything that was in the trash bag that was under the kitchen sink. Then, just as there was almost nothing left to look through, I emptied a small plastic transparent bag that had miscellaneous throw-away items that were not food related. The contents fell to the bottom of the near empty bag and there before my eyes, with the search headlamp blazing towards the plastic, I thought I saw something sparkle brilliantly towards the very bottom. I reached farther in to grab it out and there it was! The missing ring! Lisa’s beautiful wedding band! Her diamond covered wedding band was in there all along and I found it! It turned out that I made the right call in asking the couple to allow me to check the garbage! Apparently, the wedding band had been accidentally discarded along with some other master bathroom throw-away items that were in the transparent baggy! The ring was probably in her hand and she didn’t realize that it got dropped in the same bag along with the other trash! And had I not pointed out the necessity of checking our last option to find the ring (which was the kitchen trash can), that wedding band, full of white gold and diamonds, would have been put out on the curb the following morning, and picked up by the garbage truck where it would be taxied to the central city dump! Incredible! I was elated! All of the feelings that I experienced at that moment, as I stared at the ring that I had been looking for over the course of many hours, gave me an amazing rush! I was even surprised that I had found it with that final option to search the can! It just blew me away! It brings so much gratification to my heart to be able to find something missing such as this! And to give a suggestion as to where it might have ended up and then it turns out to be correct, it’s such a great feeling!
I consolidated all of the trash into one bag and headed for the rear door of the house just feet from where I was searching. I knocked on the door and Lisa opened it up and she immediately asked if I had any luck finding her precious and priceless piece of jewelry. I couldn’t wait to tell her the news!
If you want to know what I said and what her reaction was, stay tuned for my upcoming video to share the awesome reveal! See my YouTube channel link below to subscribe and get the latest search videos including the one that you just read about! Make sure you elect to receive notifications of all new videos so you will know when this story is uploaded on the YouTube channel.
Because of the quantity of searches that have taken place this past summer, I am trying hard to catch up with all of my articles and videos. Please subscribe to my channel: THE RING RETURNER and I assure you that the video to this story will be up very soon. I will be catching up with all of my stories over the next month or two.
The article above is a perfect example of how we should never give up. It reminds us that there is always an explanation as to how the item disappeared, and that we must never disregard searching the most unlikely places. We should never doubt or pass up looking at the last and final location where the ring may have ended up, because it might very well be right there, just waiting for us to find it! Just waiting for it to be returned to its owner from an unlikely search spot like the kitchen garbage can!
If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the YOUTUBE link will be provided shortly. To receive the notification letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE, feel free to SUBSCRIBE to BRIAN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL by typing: THE RING RETURNER.
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEO YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS WHEN THIS LATEST SEARCH VIDEOIS UPLOADED! BRIAN’S SEARCH VIDEOS ARE FOUND ON HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL – THE RING RETURNER.
Sometimes, we conclude the very worst about a situation, when in reality, it may not be as bad as we thought things were after all! In this search account, you will see illustrated exactly what I am talking about!
I was in touch with a woman named Amie who had lost her engagement ring about a week prior to us talking on the phone. She did everything to try to retrieve her ring that had gone missing over the previous weekend. Amie and her husband took all of the right steps to attempt to find or get back her beloved keepsake.
The story goes like this. One Saturday afternoon, Amie left her house in Ashburn, Virginia, to take her daughters out to the soccer game that they would be competing in. As the girls left the house, one of them asked mom about her beautiful diamond engagement ring that she was wearing. It sparkled brilliantly in the light and the daughter to notice of it. She asked, « Mom, why do you wear that ring? » Amie shared the significance of the ring and what it meant to her. I’m sure she even cherished it more as she reflected on the sentimentality of how she received it. They talked all the way to the car and then headed for the game. Ironically, without knowing it, the ring would be the subject of many more discussions in the next few hours and to into the next week
Like a good soccer mom, Amie hung out on the sidelines, cheering on her daughters’ team. Little did she know or imagine that there would come a real trial upon returning home from the match.
After the game, the daughters were driven home by their mother. It was not until Amie arrived back at the house that she realized that her engagement ring was missing! She looked everywhere for it. She knew that she took it with her to the game because Amie remembered talking about the ring as they headed for the car. But what happened to it? It had disappeared! She concluded that it must have fallen off sometime during the soccer game. She checked the car thoroughly but nothing showed up. That’s when the big search began. Amie drove back to the soccer field and checked all of the places where she walked and stood. Still nothing was found. She checked with the other coaches who were playing their teams on the field when she traveled back to the school where the games were played. No ring was turned in. You can only imagine how upset and frustrated she was for having no explanation as to how the ring fell off of her finger.
Amie and her husband Tim continued searching, including acquiring a metal detector to search the field more thoroughly. But still there were no happy findings. They exhausted all of their means for searching and so they let the soccer association and the school building know about the disappearance of the ring, just in case somebody turned it in. Amie also put an ad out in Craigslist, hoping somebody found the ring and would respond to the online appeal.
Amie’s Gorgeous Diamond Engagement Ring Found After A Week Gone Missing!
Well, almost a week would pass, and still the ring did not surface. Amie and Tim were perplexed and saddened, thinking that she may never see the ring again since days had already passed.
Finally, after reviewing my credentials online, Amie reached out to me for help. She shared everything that had happened and everything she did to get word out about the ring’s disappearance. After listening carefully to her story, I asked her a whole list of questions to make sure that I had all of the details down. I also wanted to make sure that she had exhausted all of the search possibilities, including looking in her house more carefully. She and Tim did a careful search and she concluded that there was no way the ring was in the house, especially because she left the house with the ring and when she returned shortly thereafter, she realized that the ring was not on her finger.
I agreed to drive to Ashburn, Virginia and to first search the soccer field and surrounding areas where Amie walked on the day that the engagement ring disappeared. Tim met me out there during the last hour of daylight and he guided me to the places that I needed to detect. It took 3 hours or so to finish my search on all of the grassy areas. Most of the detecting was done in the dark with my headlamp on high beam. The 14 karat gold ring was nowhere to be found. I then resolved to check Tim’s vehicle in the parking lot of the school that we were at, which was the SUV driven on the day that the ring was lost. We talked a little about golf as I thoroughly searched it from top to bottom (Tim is a professional golf instructor! He has met, worked with and / or instructed some notables such as President Obama, Tiger Woods and a young Naomi Watts and more!). I was hoping to have a fun discovery for Tim and Amie by the time I finished looking over the vehicle, but there were no encouraging reports to share.
There were only two more places for me to check after I finished with the field and with the SUV. First, was to search the grass areas along the walkway leading from their resident’s parking lot right up to the front door of their house. Secondly, the other location was to search the inside of the house. I started with the outside areas and worked my way to their front door. I wasn’t shaken or placed in a state of doubt regarding the continued search efforts. I knew that this beautiful piece of jewelry could have fallen off Amie’s finger as she walked back to the house following the soccer match, or that she lost it upon entering her home just prior to her realizing that it had gone missing. In fact, I was so confident that we still had a chance to find the ring and that it may not have disappeared on the field all along, that I specifically requested that Tim return inside the house and begin to search the first floor of the home. He was totally up for the challenge! I told him that in my experience, many times the missing ring ends up being discovered in the house and was never left on the ground outside somewhere. In many situations, it’s waiting for someone to find it inside the house! I also told him that I hoped that he would find the ring because “us husbands” need all of the points that we can earn and this would greatly score him some big numbers if he ended up finding the wedding band! Tim agreed wholeheartedly and he headed inside to conduct a more thorough search based on my encouragement and instructions as to where to carefully look.
Tim and Amie, Happily Ever After Now That Her Lost Ring Was Found!
As I was metal detecting the grass sections, slowly walking closer and closer down the walkway to the front entrance of Tim and Amie’s house, Amie approached me in tears because Tim had just shared that our search efforts at the school came up empty handed. Honestly, she had lost hope at this point. I talked to her and encouraged her by sharing that we still had plenty of areas to check: all of the footage remaining outside for me to detect, and all of the first floor of her home! I expressed my confidence by stating that I sent her husband inside to search and that he could find the ring somewhere in the house and I still had room to discover the ring in the grassy areas along the sides of the walkway. She appreciated my positive stance but she also reminded me that she couldn’t imagine the ring being inside because when she re-entered the house with the girls that afternoon, she wasn’t wearing her ring as she did when she left the house to go to the soccer field earlier in the day. I proposed the idea that perhaps the ring fell off her finger just soon after she arrived back home. It would be improbable but still possible in that small window of time to have lost it on the first floor!
Well, the improbable became possible! Moments after I attempted to infuse some fresh hope into Amie, Tim came strutting out of the house and down the walkway where we were conversing, and he had some terrific news! He got his wife’s attention to look and see what was in his hand! He found the ring! Yes! The diamonds were sparkling everywhere in his palm as I brought the headlamp light near to them! He listened to my instructions to search the floors more carefully and to not leave a spot unchecked! And boy did it pay off! Remember, the engagement ring had gone missing for nearly a week! Well, it was finally found and it was spotted by Tim under the computer table where all of the power cords and power strips were located! At first, I observed that Amie was in such disbelief that Tim had found the ring because she was acting kind of passive and not understanding to what Tim had discovered. I think she thought it was some other ring! So Tim made it a whole lot more clearly by showing her the gorgeous white gold band covered with diamonds on top as he opened his hand some more! Then, it was if the sun had come out in the middle of the night and her countenance started to greatly change! A huge smile overtook the previous dim look of sadness and reality began to set in! The ring was found! She was going to wear it again! It was back in her possession! Amie almost couldn’t believe it, although she began to slowly get convinced that she wasn’t living a dream! She cried many tears of joy and hugged her beloved husband over and over again! It was such an amazing sight to see! I couldn’t be happier for her! Then, I was able to properly gloat a little by reminding her that I did say that the ring could be just feet away from where I was searching, and Tim was the hero to set his eyes on the prize! I high-fived Tim and we all rejoiced with hugs at the discovery!
So, in conclusion, it turned out that the ring did return home from the soccer match. Here is the explanation as to what had happened: When Amie entered the house upon returning from the soccer game with the girls, she took both of their string backpacks and placed them on their designated hooks in the coat closet. Apparently, the ring must have been pulled off her finger by one of the strings of one of the backpacks, it slipped off her finger when she placed the backpacks on the hooks and it hit the hardwood floors and rolled under the computer table where it remained until Tim conducted a more aggressive search! I couldn’t have been happier for the couple! The search was over! The ring was back on Amie’s finger again, and she was one relieved young lady!
That night, the three of us celebrated for a while longer before I packed up my gear and headed back to my car to prepare for the journey home. It was a wonderful search and a very successful ending to my day! Tim and Amie were relieved and overjoyed! The mystery of the lost engagement ring was finally solved once and for all!
CHECK OUT THIS SEARCH VIDEO OF THE RECOVERY OF AMIE’S MISSING RING:
CALL BRIAN RUDOLPH WITH THE RING FINDERS AT (301) 466-8644 AND HE WILL RETURN TO YOU WHAT HAS BEEN LOST!
I received a call from Derek about losing his wedding band in waste deep water in Lake Michigan at Glen Haven, Michigan. Derek said « we have a problem. » Glen haven is in the lower peninsula and Derek and his wife Dorothy are in the upper peninsula headed toward Wisconsin. They are doing a circle trip around Lake Michigan. I told Derek we had no problem, we just needed to use the US Postal service to get this done. I got a good location from Derek. Straight out from the walkway and the water was waist deep. I drove the hour up to Glen Haven spent 6 minutes in the water and got the ring. I put the ring in the mail Monday morning sending the ring to Pennsylvania. Derek and Dorothy were very happy to get the ring back, its a family heirloom from Dorothy’s grandfather. A couple days later I got a nice hand written letter of thanks in the mail. I also appreciate the reward very much.
