Dan Henderson, Author at The Ring Finders

Lost ring in Fremont California

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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A couple of weeks ago Stephen contacted me about his wife’s lost ring.  He said that it was most likely in their back yard, with very specific spots where it could be.  However he mentioned that the only other place it could be was inside their house.  So we agreed that I would search the yard at least to hopefully find the lost ring, or at least eliminate the possibility if we were unsuccessful.

I arrived at Stephen’s house the next day and he outlined the most likely locations of where his wife’s ring was lost.  I got started and after spending about 30 minutes in those locations we decided to expand the search to some less likely spots where his wife remembered being the night she lost her ring.  But further expanding the search area proved fruitless as well.

After checking a couple of very unlikely but possible spots and also double checking the entire perimeter that I had searched, Stephen, his wife, and I discussed the situation again and decided to have them search the inside of their house again.  In talking about their prior search of the house his wife described a rattling sound in the couch when they were searching around in the cushions.  So I said, “You better search that couch again!”  I told them I would be glad to come back if they had any other ideas or wanted more help searching inside their house as well, but that I had a strong suspicion that the ring was in the couch.

Sure enough, 15 minutes later, Stephen texted me that they had found the ring in the couch!  I’m glad the process of elimination resulted in honing down their search area to the next most likely location which turned out to be the exact location that it was lost.

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Found 22k Yellow Sapphire Ring on Davenport Beach

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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A couple of evenings ago fellow ring finder and metal detector expert Tom Tanner contacted me asking if I could get to a lost ring on a beach in Davenport, California.  Davenport is about 25 minutes away from my house, and the gentleman who lost the ring was able to find Tom through the ring finders network for assistance.  Indu had lost his ring a week earlier and I knew there would be a strong chance that through several tide cycles the ring had moved, had possibly been driven deep into the sand, or had even been found already.

After several emails during a busy day at work I agreed to meet the unfortunate gentleman Indu.  We agreed to meet at the beach at 8:00 am this morning.  As soon as Indu arrived he saw where he was standing when he lost his ring and how much the landscape had changed since he lost it, but we resolved to maintain hope and start the search.

Given that he had almost an exact location of where he lost the ring I decided to take this as “ground zero” and start a spiral pattern around this point, with Indu suggesting possible motion of where the ring could have travelled given the wave action on the day that he was there.  After about an hour and extensively searching in the most likely area around the ring, I told Indu that I was not very hopeful that we could find his ring and that if he had any other suggestions I was up for trying them.  He suggested one or two other spots and then as I was informing him that I thought our chances were very slim I also added that I would search in the nooks of the rocks that were located laterally along the beach from where he lost his ring.  I got about 50′ away from ground zero and got a great signal which, after just simply moving a bit of sand off, turned out to be Indu’s ring… a beautiful 22k gold ring with yellow sapphire.

As I told Indu that I had some good news for him we were both stunned and thrilled that we were able to find it in a surprisingly distant location from where he lost it.  Mother nature has a way of rapidly moving things on the beach and this hunt was a great example.

 

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Recovered Gold Wedding Ring Lost During Landscaping

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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I received a call from Michael who shared the story of losing his custom wedding ring that he lost while landscaping his front yard.  He recollected the various tasks he had done that could have separated his ring from him, as well as some potential looseness of the ring as well.  And upon searching for how to find a lost gold ring he came upon Ring Finders and my contact information.  So we coordinated to meet at his house and conduct the search.

When I arrived Michael showed me in good detail all of the places he could have lost his ring.  He also gave me some prioritization of where to search given the activities he was doing in those areas which helped a lot.  Several of these places were quite concerning as they would require getting in to the shrubbery and around trees with a pinpointer since a full sized metal detector would not fit.

As I got started, I used a variety of techniques to get around the folliage and into the highest probability locations.  But after about 45 minutes in a rather confined total area I had not come up with anything.  So I asked Michael to describe everything again and walk me through the locations he worked.  We did find one area that I hadn’t covered yet, so I searched this spot as well, then started doing a more meticulous search with pinpointer alone.  Of course in doing this I resigned myself to finding all the stray nails and wire in the area as well, but given that Michael had very nicely manicured landscaping this was not too big of a problem.

After about another 45 minutes of this I returned to the highest probability location Michael had identified, and there right behind the first tree that Michael had identified, but in a location that I was unable to reach with my fully assembled metal detector, I found Michael’s ring with my pinpointer.

I related the good news to Michael and we were both ecstatic that I was able to recover it, and I was thrilled that I was able to work on such a detailed recovery that required some creativity to complete.

 

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Antique Earring Lost and Found on Santa Cruz Beach

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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Last week I searched but was unfortunately unable to help a couple find their lost engagement ring at Santa Cruz Main Beach, but the very next day a bystander who saw me looking for the ring and actually spoke with me during the search lost her beautiful antique silver earring on Cowell’s Beach.  The earring was part of a set including a necklace and had sentimental value as well.  We talked through the details and due to the tides and tourist traffic agreed to meet on a Friday at 6:00 am on the beach where she suspected her earring was lost.

When we met she described the location that she sat in with her family and another location where she walked from, suspecting that the highest probability location was where she walked from and next where she sat on the beach next.  We went to the highest probability location and within about 10 minutes I had a lone signal in the range that I suspected.  I dug and sure enough found her earring only about 5 feet from where she suspected it was lost.

It’s great to have enough community recognition of the jewelry finding process that we can help people who are informed about how a search is done and what is needed to assist quickly and effectively.

 

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Lost Ring Found at Apartment Complex in San Jose

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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Santosh called me for help searching for his fiance’s lost engagement ring which fell off her hand from a third story apartment into what Santosh suspected was the bushes below.  The area to search was quite small and we set a date to give it a shot.

When I arrived Santosh and his fiance showed me the area which was quite confined but covered in brush and had a wall of bushy vines behind it hanging on a metal trellis.  They described hearing the ring bounce once off their downstairs neighbor’s balcony railing and not hearing it again.  I began searching the area and it quickly became clear that there was a lot of trash in the spot and it was going to be difficult to isolate any small ring-like signals.  I needed to slow way down and even run a discrimination pattern to try to cut out some of the trash signals.  I did isolate and dig a couple of targets but was not having any luck.  We tried several different methods both with metal detector and just a pinpointer, digging everything out of the area that we could find.  I also searched the bushes on the wall behind the area they suspected their ring was.

Finally after about an hour and a half of this I asked whether they had searched their neighbor’s patio.  It turns out they did in fact search that patio so I asked if it was possible that the ring could be in some other area than where we were searching, perhaps still somewhere on the other patio.  I explained that in this confined of a space and with this much time and effort it was really starting to feel like the ring was not in the area we were searching.

Eventually after trying a bit more we agreed that it would be wise for them to check other locations, especially their neighbor’s patio again, and that if the ring did not turn up that I would be glad to come back the following week and try again.

Several days later I received a text from Santosh who said that they did in fact check with their neighbor again and found it sitting right on the patio in an area that they did not previously look!  Sometimes thoroughly ruling out one area can be valuable enough information that it eventually leads to a find.

 

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Lost Ring Found at Owner’s Home

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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Two days ago I got a text from Nico requesting some help finding his ring that he lost a couple months ago in front of his house while playing basketball with his son.  I was a bit concerned about the amount of time that had elapsed, but agreed to meet him yesterday at his house to make an attempt.

When I met Nico I found out that he had already searched extensively for his lost ring, even purchasing a metal detector that he and his boy had been using to look for the ring.  The description he gave me of how he lost the ring was very clear: he had lost it while dribbling a basketball and somehow the ring went flying off his hand.  It was dark and he heard the ring bounce once on the cement driveway but then it was gone.  He also described a vehicle being parked partially in the driveway, which would limit the distance that the ring could have travelled in one direction (into the street).  Because he wore his ring on his left hand and he happened to be facing the street, I suspected that the ring might be in his neighbor’s yard that butted up against his driveway on one side.  So I made a plan to first search his neighbor’s yard close to his driveway, and then to search his yard close to his driveway if this didn’t work out.

After confirming we had permission to search his neighbor’s yard and gathering my equipment, I worked the edge of the yard very slowly and within about 2 minutes got a very strong surface signal in his neighbor’s wood chips.  As I bent down to examine it, I saw the glint of metal peeking through.  I reached down excitedly and extracted Nico’s ring from his neighbor’s yard.

Nico, his son, and I spent another 10 minutes helping him learn how to use the metal detector he purchased, and found out that it worked fine on the ring as well.  So he must not have been precisely on the spot that I had focused my search on.  I was happy to make another ring return to it’s owner.

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Lost Diamond Ring Found At Apartment Complex

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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Yesterday I received a referral from Jes Muse, Ringfinder in San Francisco for a lost ring in Sunnyvale.  Rohit, who had lost the ring the night before, contacted me shortly after looking for some support in finding his fiance’s lost ring at their apartment complex.  He described a small area of grass and landscaped shrubbery where the ring was likely located.

When I arrived today, Rohit explained that they had lost the ring while playing a game right outside their apartment.  He described a situation of the ring being accidentally thrown and then hearing it bounce off of a wall.  However he and his fiance had looked for the ring for hours prior to my arrival.  Given the beautifully manicured lawns and landscaping of the apartments, I knew the ring would be easy to find with a metal detector if it was there, and I started my search right where Rohit said he thought the ring would be.

Sure enough, within about 10 minutes of searching, I detected a surface target right in the perfect “ring” range, and when I bent down to inspect it I saw a hint of gold peeking out from the blades of grass.

Rohit and his fiance were very excited that I found the ring as she has a flight back to her work scheduled this evening.  I’m glad they had the good reasoning to call in a metal detector to assist.

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Lost Ring Found at Seacliff State Beach

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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Today I got a text from Bo who asked for assistance finding a lost ring.  I called him and learned that his brother Alex had lost his wedding ring while throwing a frisbee at the beach.  He said his brother literally felt it slip off his finger.  They were right at the water line when this happened so I was a bit concerned that the ocean could have carried it further out than where it first landed.  I checked the tides and advised that I would be there in a couple hours during the upcoming slight low.  I’m glad they called as soon as they lost it since it was likely that it could have gotten carried out to sea with another tide cycle.

I met Bo and Alex along with their family at water’s edge and they explained exactly where he threw the frisbee from and the direction that he threw it when his ring slipped off his finger.  I started pursuing a tight overlapping grid in the precise location.  The site was unusually clean for our local beaches.  Within about 10 minutes and on my 4th or 5th pass I found the one and only target of the day – Alex’s ring!

It was great to help this appreciative family out.

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Lost Phone Recovery in Santa Cruz

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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A couple days ago Allison contacted me asking for assistance finding her daughter Marcy’s phone that Marcy had lost several days earlier in Pogonip park in Santa Cruz.  They were able to track the phone as it was still sending a GPS signal and I have done a lot of metal detecting in this park due to it’s important place in Santa Cruz history.  Marcy had been back to the site twice already looking for her phone thinking that it would be easy to find given the location it was transmitting, but was getting to the point of hopelessness as she felt it had gotten completely obfuscated by the tall dry grass.

I was reasonably confident in my ability to find the lost phone as the GPS signal narrowed it down to an area of about 100′ radius and I was very familiar with the park.  Typically I prefer the person who lost the item to be with me for the search so that she can advise on specific details on where it was lost, but in this case with the GPS signal still transmitting I was happy to make an attempt on my own.  I let them know that I would get started the following day late in the afternoon and that I would stay in touch to communicate details.

Yesterday I hiked into the site and spent some time reorienting myself based on Marcy’s map she sent and my live Google maps with a pin dropped of where the phone’s location was reporting from.  The night before I had made this map in preparation, since I have experienced situations metal detecting where a map or satellite view of an area looks totally different from how the site looks on the ground.  Curiously I had immediately started finding various items by eye right on the surface… a pair of beat up sunglasses, beer cans, bottles.  So it appeared that a lot of human activity had transpired here.  As I started searching with my metal detector I started finding more items, mostly by eye.  I had even found a junk ring and a small silver earring, at which point I stopped and reached out to Marcy’s father (who was still in communication with Marcy by email) to find out if Marcy had also happened to lose a pair of sunglasses and silver earring.  I wanted to find out if I was close to the location of where the phone had been lost, because the search was taking longer than I anticipated and it was definitely not spot on the coordinates that the phone was reporting.

When Marcy’s father responded that she had not lost these items I realized it was time to start expanding the search to the outer limits of the 100′ radius of the phone’s GPS accuracy.  I told Marcy’s father that I would continue until dark.  It seemed I had been finding everything but Marcy’s phone which was being quite elusive.  But I was confident that it was still there.  Sure enough, not long after this and as I was tracing the absolute edge of the GPS estimate, I finally spotted Marcy’s phone peeking through the tall grass!  It had been just sitting there for several days, totally untouched but till transmitting it’s signal.

In this case a slow and meticulous search was as valuable as a metal detector.  The phone was quite visible, but to find it required a lot of patience and estimation of where it could be based on good information.  I contacted the family and shortly after met up with Marcy’s father to return the phone to her.  We were all very happy to have her phone returned back to her and I was glad that I could be of assistance in their search.

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Wedding Ring Recovery in a Palo Alto Park

  • from Santa Cruz (California, United States)
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Chris contacted me looking to get the ball rolling with Ring Finders because he had lost his wedding band in a park.  The situation he described is all too common: he had taken his ring off and put it on a carabiner for safe keeping before playing sports.  He remembered putting it on the carabiner along with a water bottle and he remembered having this assembly in tact when he left the field, but when he was back in the car and getting ready to leave he realized his ring was missing.  So Chris reasoned that it was either in the car or on the field, and he decided to make one more search of his car before bringing me in for some assistance after his search proved unsuccessful.  I was pretty confident we would find his ring based on Chris’ prior search and the clarity with which he described what happened.

He and his wife met me at the park this morning and reiterated what he did and the path he took to and from the car.  He also revealed to me that he and some friends had previously searched the area both by eye and with a metal detector.  We agreed to thoroughly search the beginning and end points of his path and to search the path he took if we didn’t find anything at the endpoints.  Our search was starting to get a little longer than expected, to the point where I felt it was a good idea to change to a smaller coil with better target separation and also use slightly different settings on my metal detector that audibly accentuated surface targets.  I was pulling up a fair amount of trash, and at one point even a junk stainless ring!

During my slow grid back to the start point, on the path that Chris took, I hit a very solid signal that was clearly right on the surface.  And sure enough it was sitting right at the base of the grass, just hidden in the green and gold background.  Chris and his wife were in disbelief when I exclaimed, “I got it dude!”, as it seemed their hope was waning due to the prolonged search they had been through.  We were all thrilled that our thorough search proved fruitful in the end.

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