Nighttime Ring Recovery, Falmouth, Massachusetts
7 January 2026. To adapt a phrase from the USPS, ‘Neither rain nor snow nor dark of night shall stay this RingFinder from his mission’ (or something to that effect :-). I received a call from Sonja about 8PM, well after dark, asking if I could help find her ring on the street in the front of her house. Based on her answers to my questions it seemed likely that the ring was on the asphalt, in which case a metal detector would have no advantage over a good flashlight, as the ring would easily be seen visually before a detector swung over it. However, it was possible that the ring could have ended up in the snow or grass on the side of the street. Moreover, it was important to find the ring as soon as possible so that it would not be run over by traffic. I said that I’d be glad to come and do a search and headed out for Sonja’s house.
I arrived about 20 minutes later and had Sonja describe how she thought her ring had been lost. She noted that she had slimmed down recently and the three rings she wore on her ring finger were very loose. She had driven home after retrieving a pair of traffic cones from a friend’s house, stopped on the street short of a utility trailer at the edge of the street in front of her house, removed the traffic cones from her trunk, and placed them at the front and back of the trailer. As she placed one cone in front of the trailer she heard a single ping from the pavement and saw that two of her rings were gone from her finger. She was able to find one ring but not the other near that cone.
So, assuming that all 3 rings were on her finger when she opened her trunk, the missing ring could be in her trunk or on/beside the street somewhere from the position of her car trunk over to the vicinity of the trailer. We each had strong-beamed flashlights and we first searched around and under the front of the trailer where the first cone had been placed. We found nothing. I then began a search starting where the car’s trunk had been and working toward the trailer while Sonja searched farther down the street from the back of the trailer. Within a couple of minutes Sonja called out that she’d found the ring!
This was a fortunate start to the New Year and I’m hoping a good omen for successful searches in the months to come. And with some resizing, we can also hope that Sonja’s rings will remain safely on her finger where they belong!
Sonja’s rings back on her finger.
Sonja’s triplet of rings, starring a beautiful aquamarine at the center.
Yes unfortunately another lost ring? Thought she had lost it at her brother-in-laws house at a birthday party. After covering that location we then went to her home and recreated her morning that day. Worked a few areas around her house then she remembered she took a walk into the woods so off we went. Swinging the metal detector along a wooded trail to a beautiful location turned up nothing. Of course I kept swinging on the way back and actually spotted it on the ground a bit off the trail and made the find. It is interesting how a ring ends up where it is eventually found. Every time I make a find I learn something new about how and where to look. It is not as simple as it seems, and why we get calls from people who have spent days searching. So yes we can usually help and often its is not always with the metal detector or in the location believed to be.
Got a call for a lost ring in Ferndale Washington. He was doing yard work and throwing all his debris over a fence into a field spreading it out as he went along. So of course he thought it flew off his finger while flinging plant cuttings. Often a lost item isn’t where you think its is. Unfortunately the only way to rule out the idea is to search. It was a straight forward area of search that turned up nothing. I then will try to recreate the scene and take the client back in time to relive the moment before the obvious to after. Help them walk through it and usually some other locations or ideas will turn up. Unfortunately in this case that did not help either. I kept swinging back to my car and found it in the parking area. Another location where people often lose items.
Today in Bellingham Washington I found a ring for a client who was enjoying our warm weather in the lake. He actually lost two rings and saw them fly off his hand while throwing a football. For those who do not know, when you are in cold water your fingers shrink and it is very easy to lose rings. Especially when making harsh moves like throwing a football. If you have a ring or rings that are already loose, you should remove them before swimming in cold water. Always better safe then sorry! These were lost in about four feet of water. He was able to find one at the moment of loosing them but called me out to find the second. Without too much trouble the second ring was recovered.
