The Ring Finders Blog

Wisconsin dairy farmer, Tim Wiedenfeld was clearing brush along a fence line close to his church when his loose-fitting yellow-gold wedding ring went missing. A branch caught the rim, flipping it up into the air. Then it disappeared amongst the leaves and vegetation. Despite Tim’s best search efforts and those of another metal detectorist, the ring could not be found. Tim wondered if a Bobcat they were using had pushed it down the hill into a large pile. It was a disheartening thought. Was it gone forever?

An acquaintance of Tim’s reached out to me a few weeks later and I arranged to meet him on location. Sometimes a fresh pair of forensic eyes can be helpful. I arrived a half-hour early and surveyed the area. Using photos taken earlier, I was able to match their locations and piece together the chronological events of the day. The remains of a heavy-gauged wire-mesh fence represented a metal-detectorist’s worse nightmare; they overwhelm detectors, masking the presence of nearby metallic objects like gold rings. Before taking out my metal-detecting equipment, I looked slowly and carefully underneath the wire fence, watching for unusual metallic glints. That’s when I spotted a tiny flash in the afternoon sun. Upon investigation, Tim’s wedding ring appeared in the mud where it had been pushed almost out of sight some four weeks before! I marked the spot by poking a stick into the ground and then proceeded to clean up the ring before Tim arrived.

Tim’s truck appeared shortly. I let him tell me the story. He showed me where he was standing when the ring came off his hand. His account, the circumstances and trajectory all aligned forensically with the ring’s hiding place. I leaned over and pointed to the spot under the fence where the ring had come to rest. Then I opened my hand to reveal Tim’s precious ring. Tim was both shocked and overjoyed!

Someone once called me the Sherlock Holmes of lost rings! I’ve been metal detecting and solving lost-ring cases since 1976. Technology, like modern state-of-the-art metal detectors, is amazing. But as incredible as this technology is, there is still room for old-fashioned forensics.

If you or someone you know has lost a ring, don’t let its story end. Call me. Who knows, we just might be able to add yet another smile to my growing list of over 150 happy clients!