The Ring Finders Blog

Gold Ring Recovered from Geneva Lake in Fontana, WI

  • from Lake Geneva (Wisconsin, United States)
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June 9, 2026

Wedding Ring Recovered from Geneva Lake in Fontana, WI

Raul and his family were enjoying a day at the beach in Fontana, WI when his 14K gold wedding band was lost.  His family spent time in the grass, on the sand, and in the water.  Fontana beach is quite large, so narrowing down the search area was key.

On my way out I texted two fellow detectorists who may have been detecting this beach letting them know I was on a search and “Did they find any gold rings at Fontana’s beach in the last two days?”  “No,” was the reply.  When I arrived, another detectorist was in the water.  I waded out to Tony and asked the same question.  “No, only a quarter so far.”

       Raul patiently answered all of my questions as we worked to pinpoint the most likely spot he would have lost it.  I marked off the edges of my search area in the sand and waded into the shallow water to make my first pass.  Dragging my search coil slowly over the sand, overlapping, so as not to miss anything, I had a strong repeating signal around the third or fourth pass.  I knelt down in the water and waved away the topmost layer of sand in the spot where my detector indicated a target.  Half of the ring appeared like a golden smile.  I picked it up and held it up to Raul who was standing on the shoreline.  

It was the first and only target I dug that morning.  Raul carefully thought through all of my questions and that led to our success in finding the ring.

After a few photos, it was back on his hand and his smile said it all.

        Later, Raul made a kind post on the Lake Geneva Lake Life Facebook group.  He writes: “A huge thank you to Seth for helping recover something that means so much to me and my family.  We are incredibly grateful!”           

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Gold & Diamond ring recovered Lincoln Nebraska

  • from Lincoln (Nebraska, United States)
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Contact me for all your metal detecting and recovery needs. Rob 402-580-6933. Land, water, cracks in concrete, rings, keys, hearing aids, phones, buried cache, etc. Assisting law enforcement. Serving Lincoln and the greater Nebraska area. Why rent a metal detector when you can have the best. Now offering sonar for water search and recoveries.

Clinton was out taking care of his horses when they got a little out of hand. While trying to separate them his ring must have flown off because as he was leaving later he noticed it was missing. He gave me a call and the rest is history.  Always a privilege to put a smile back on a face.

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Wedding Ring Recovery from Snow in East Troy, WI

  • from Lake Geneva (Wisconsin, United States)
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December 1, 2025

Wedding Band in the Snow

Caleb called me around 8:00 pm.  Could I meet him in a salvage lot in East Troy, WI?  He had lost his wedding band in the snow.  

By December 1st, Wisconsin was covered in a thick blanket of snow.  The cars in the lot were white domes of snow caged in by a chain-link fence.  The ground, most likely crushed gravel was topped with hard-packed tire lines running throughout.  

         I thought about all the metal that would be competing with Caleb’s small gold ring, and I hoped I would be able to keep the search area relatively small.  It was late and cold, and the roads were not getting any better the longer the night went on.

I assessed the area at 9:12 pm.  I asked Caleb lots of questions in order to decide the best place to start searching.  Thankfully, about ten minutes later I was handing the ring back to Caleb, a grateful smile stretched across his face.    

Caleb’s final text read:

“Thank you so much, Seth!  You have no idea how much it means to me that you were able to find my ring!”

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Engagement Found in Lake Geneva Home: No Metal Detector Needed

  • from Lake Geneva (Wisconsin, United States)
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March 12, 2026

Lake Geneva, WI

Engagement Ring Found: No Metal Detector Needed 

Wednesday, 3:45 pm: Drew’s voicemail asks for help finding a lost engagement ring in his basement.  It’s been missing for a month.  Could I come and bring my equipment?

To my knowledge, there is no detector on the market that can only sense gold while avoiding all other metals, so metal detecting inside a house is almost a lost cause.  Copper wiring and pipes, nails galore, and household appliances have enough metal to immediately overload a metal detector.  I was planning on politely explaining this to Drew, and heading home after work.

Thursday, 4:00 pm: But when I called him and realized he was only eight minutes away, I thought, “Why not have a look?”  

Thursday, 4:10 pm: I arrived about 10 minutes later and started talking with him in the basement.  I began ask

ing him questions about why his wife took off her ring, where she put them, etc., I said, “I should really be asking her these questions.  Drew replied, “We can try to Facetime her?”  

Moments later, I was asking her any questions that would help me to see what she was doing in her basement a month ago when she lost her ring.

“Actually it was probably two months ago,” she added.  The more I heard, the less confident I felt about finding her ring.  Drew was attending to his 1 year old upstairs.

I continued to ask questions, and I was able to reconstruct what happened that night.

  1. She was doing schoolwork at a small round wooden table in the basement.
  2. She took off her rings (engagement and wedding band) as she was pregnant and they were getting tight.
  3. Both were set on the table.
  4. At the end of the work session, she could only find her wedding band… no engagement ring.
  5. She looked under the table, all around, nothing.

I asked one more question.  “Did you have a laptop bag or anything that it could have fallen into?”

Her reply was what I might have expected.  She had checked the bag she had with her at the time, but she could look again.

Before I could think of another series of questions to ask, she interjected, “I found it!”

I must have heard her wrong.  “You found it?” I replied.

Drew heard my question from upstairs, and came pounding down the stairs, asking me the same question, “You found it?”

Not me!  I said, and handed him his phone with his wife’s smiling face, a diamond ring in the corner of the screen.

Thursday 4:20 pm: I glanced at my watch.  It was about 4:20 pm.  “That’s the fastest recovery I’ve ever made!” I said.

Sometimes the difference between a lost item and a found item hinges on the questions asked rather than the equipment.  I own thousands of dollars of metal detecting equipment, have hundreds of hours of experience on land, in water, and underwater, but the right question can often yield the greatest results.

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Wedding ring returned to owner. – Mount Airy, NC

  • from Winston-Salem (North Carolina, United States)
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On Wednesday, 06/10/2026, I was scrolling Facebook when I saw a post in a local group inviting anyone offering services or running a small business to share what they do. I had a few minutes, so I created a post that said I help lost jewelry find its owners and owners find their lost items and attached my business card .

Within an hour, I received a call from Jamie, who said he had just seen my post and had lost his wedding ring a few days earlier while cleaning a cooler after a weekend gathering. He explained that he lived in the Mount Airy area and asked if I could help. My reply was, “Absolutely.” As long as someone hadn’t picked it up, I was confident I could locate it.

I told Jamie that I was in Wilkes County (about 45 minutes away) and currently at a meeting, but I would head his way afterward and text him my ETA.

After the meeting, as I walked to my car, I noticed the sky was dark and angry to the northeast—toward Jamie’s location. I entered his address into my GPS, which showed an arrival time of around 6:00 p.m. I texted Jamie the details and got on the road.

During the drive, I entered a heavy downpour and thought to myself, “I may be detecting under an umbrella for the first time!” Fortunately, I was out of the rain after only about 10 minutes.

When I arrived, I met Jamie, who explained that he had washed the cooler and then flung his hands backward to dry them. You don’t have to guess what happened next. The ring flew off, and he heard it hit the ground somewhere in the distance. Although he searched extensively, he was unable to find it.

I carry rings with me so we can perform a test toss and estimate how far a ring might travel. The test toss indicated a distance of approximately 25 feet. I began my search beyond that distance and worked my way back toward the porch, but with no success.

Jamie then mentioned that the ring could have gone farther to his left than the test toss suggested. I started again, this time from the porch and worked my way out into the yard. As I did, I began feeling raindrops. Remembering the strong storm I had driven through earlier, I picked up the pace. About a minute later, I heard exactly what I was hoping for.

Under my coil was his ring.

I picked it up and quickly walked over to Jamie, asking, “Is this it?”

“Yes!” he replied. “Where did you find it?”

By this point, the rain was really coming down. I asked him for a quick photo, you can even see the raindrops on the business card.

Found in less than 30 minutes and barely missed the monsoon. 🙂  Thank you for trusting me and allowing me to assist you, Jamie!

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Tiffany bracelet recovered in Avon NJ

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  • Avon NJ. Got a call about a lost Tiffany bracelet lost on Avon beach. Nancy was enjoying the day at the beach when she took off her bracelet that her father gave her years ago and went to put it in her beach bag but didn’t know she missed the pocket and it fell into the sand. When she got home and saw it was gone she went back to the beach butcouldnt find it. 2 days went by till her friend told her of our service, thats when she called. I met her at the beach and detected the area where she thought she was sitting but didn’t find her bracelet. We figured it might of been found already and called off the search. I could see her tearing up thinking she lost it forever and felt really bad for her. I thought about it the next day at work and knew how much it ment to her and felt the need to go back after work and try again, this time expanding the area thinking she wasn’t sure where she was. Starting 20 out from where I ended the day before I started working toward where I ended the last search. 4 passes in I was looking down while detecting and happened to see part of the bracelet sticking out of the sand and couldnt believe I found it. I called her and gave her the good news and she was so grateful I didn’t give up and went back to look again. This one was really a happy ending for the both of us.
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Wedding Ring Recovered Day After Wedding, Fontana WI

  • from Lake Geneva (Wisconsin, United States)
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August 16, 2025

 

Wedding Crisis Averted

I was married 24 years ago and it rained on my wedding day… at an outdoor wedding… in a wide-open space… with only a canopy of trees to hide under.  Not a hard rain, but enough to get everyone wet.  Once the ceremony was over, my minutes-old bride and I ran across a grassy field hand-in-hand, smiling, and laughing at the timing of everything.  It was perhaps our first disappointment to overcome as a married couple, and I think that experience has given us a good perspective in life.

 

There are endless things that can go wrong at a wedding.  It could rain, the cake 

might be dry, a bridesmaid may trip and drop her bouquet, or an important someone might show up late.  Generally, these are overcome in the moment or simply fade from memory.  On the other hand, there are a handful of things that can taint the wedding day and leave a lasting bad memory, like losing the wedding ring.

On the morning of August 16th, I was metal detecting Fontana Beach on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin.  When I came out of the water and checked my phone, I had a text from a friend of a bride and groom that were married the day before.  “We lost a wedding ring in Fontana last night off the shore.  Is it possible to have someone come out and look today?”

The timing could not have been more perfect.  I was still in my wetsuit and only a five-minute drive to the Air bnb in Fontana where the bridal party was staying.

I arrived with hair still wet from my morning dive to a group of young people enjoying their morning coffees.  I was kindly offered a coffee myself.  

In short order the crisis was relayed.  The bride and groom, Olivia and Houston, were married yesterday and spontaneously decided to jump into the lake together.  An open pier a short walk down the shore path provided the opportunity.  Moments after the plunge, Houston realized his ring was gone.  Friends dived with basic goggles the next morning searching for the ring among the seaweed and rocks.  It’s certainly not impossible to find a lost ring with the eyes only, but highly unlikely give

n the depth and conditions underwater.

Two friends walked me to the pier, and within a few minutes of getting into the water, I had the ring.

The details provided by the happy couple’s friends made the search precise and short.  It was a joyous occasion returning the ring to the bridal party at the Air bnb.  I never met the couple myself, but was pleased to play a small part in making their wedding day story one with a unique twist and a happy ending.  

Congratulations, Olivia and Houston!  I hope you have many happy and healthy years together.  

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A botanist lost her keys at Tilden Park and we helped to recover them!

  • from Walnut Creek (California, United States)
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Bay Area Ring Finders: Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

I have fallen victim to misplacing my car keys just at my home, panic set’s in quickly once you realize…. I can’t imagine how hopeless it would feel to loose them out in nature while on a hike.

Meet Cody, a botanist who spends a lot of time working outdoors. Recently, while working at one of our local regional parks, she did just that.  Her vehicle parked merely feet away from her task, locked out from access and unable to move off of the trail.  Her work had her bushwhacking amongst the park flora investigating if rare species existed around a 100′ circumference of a work point.  Think tall grass, twisting berry vines and poison oak, thick brush and tree’s.  To make matters worse thick duff and leaves and remnants of old building materials litter the ground.  At some point her keys slipped from her possession lost to the wild.

Lucky for Cody, a spare set of keys could be driven from her home not to far from the site and she would not be forced to abandon her vehicle at the location.  She spent a healthy amount of time searching the area before deciding she might need additional help in order to recover the lost keys.

I was away on a camping trip with the local cub scout pack when I received her request for help, but she graciously waited a full week for our schedule to align.  We met early the following Saturday and headed out on the trail to the location.  I might have been a little overwhelmed when I saw the search zone, but we quickly got to work bushwhacking our way through the overgrowth.  We did find some oddities along the way and trash definitely made the metal detector chatty.  I found a neatly made bird nest nestled on the ground with four little eggs.  It was not the item we were looking for, but it was a treasure non-the-less.

We were under a grove of tree’s searching and as we moved off, there on the ground were the keys we were looking for…We made the recovery!

Cody and I celebrated that we had located them and that we would not be trudging along the overgrown hillside any longer.  All that remained were a few quick photos and a short walk back to the trailhead.

Thank you Cody for taking me on an early morning adventure in the hills.  I won’t soon forget our time on that search.

 

 

 

Bay Area Ring Finders: Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP     925-580-2590

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Hearing Aid Found!

  • from Saint Joseph (Missouri, United States)
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I got a text from Mark saying that his 90yo dad, Frank, had lost his hearing aid in his back yard while weed eating. He had searched for hours trying to find it on his own.
I knew that it would be pretty small and probably a little tough to find. He had 2 of them so I scanned the one he still had to get a reference signal. It didn’t take me very long to find it with my Minelab Manticore after that.
He was overjoyed that I was able to locate it, and I am always very happy when I have a successful outcome to my mission.

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Lost Lifetime Beach Badge, recovered by Edward Trapper, NJ Recoverd by NJ Ring Finder

  • from Lavallette (New Jersey, United States)
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Find lost ring Ortley Beach  I was on my way to doing a recovery when I received a phone call from Carly. She explained her father John had lost a very sentimental Beach Badge that belong to his mother over 40 years ago. She said he wore this Beach Badge every day for the last 40 years and somehow it came on clipped from his bathing suit. I told her I could head out there for the next low tide, but she wanted to confirm it wasn’t found yet. I said no worries., call me back and keep me posted. She called back quickly and I told her I’d be on the beach early the next morning and sure enough within moments. I had the Beach Badge back in the John’s hands where it could be enjoyed for another 40 years. Ring Finder LBI

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