Michael Van Tassell, Author at The Ring Finders

Diamond Ring Lost for 7 Months Near Cottonwood Heights, Utah- Found

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I received a call from Sara about her lost diamond wedding ring. Apparently her daughter was playing dress up in the front yard and asked to borrow it. Shortly after coming into the house she told Sara that she had lost it outside. For 6-7 months they search the yard for it and in desperation to find it, she called me. I went over to her house with my son and after getting the rough area to search, went to work. My first signal was a high tone from a brass sprinkler head. At the end of my first pass, I got a nice 8-11 on my detector that was pretty close to the surface. After pulling back the grass a little bit, I could make out the edge of something. Sure enough it was her ring that had been lost for nearly 7 months. The whole experience was under 5 minutes and she was sure excited to see her ring again! Check out the full experience on YouTube- https://youtu.be/Y8Ftz28yJAQ?si=ZC–7qoYyPmLOjT_

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Lost Diamond Wedding Ring Near Ogden, Utah- Found

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Received a call from a couple after searching for their beautiful diamond wedding ring while working in the yard. They were out planting flowers and getting the house ready to list. Losing the wedding ring couldn’t have come at a worst time and knowing how fast houses move on the market in Utah, I made it a priority to get there as soon as possible. I arrived the next evening with my daughter and went on looking for the ring. I covered the entire area they thought it would be but no luck. We opened up the trash cans and went through the trash just to make sure. I decided to try one more time and literally close to the last piece of lawn, I got a very iffy signal that was a lot lower then what I was expecting for a gold ring. Much to my surprise, it was the ring. My daughter quickly yelled out “The Ring” and ran over to give it to them. So happy I was able to recover this one and so happy I got to spend a little time with my daughter doing it! Check out the full experience on my youtube channel here- https://youtu.be/lmj4gX1N2oU?si=AMezhkPW3-DVmC6_

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Lost Crypto Wallet Found in the Snow Near Bear Lake, Utah

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One of my first calls of 2025 was from a friend (Jimmy) who had a man from his coaching group lose his phone while out sledding in a remote part of Utah. Phones can be replaced but what made this one so important was that it contained a photo of his crypto keys to access his crypto wallet. The man had a good portion of his net worth in that crypto wallet so getting the phone back was  a must. What made this recovery challenging is that it was in an area with extreme temperatures know as the sinks. When I arrived the next morning to start searching, it was -10 degrees Fahrenheit. I was concerned my detector would freeze up but Minelab makes a good detector. The search area was roughly a half mile and the slope of the hill made it very difficult. After several hours of searching, no phone 🙁

I returned two more times over the winter to try to recover the phone. The last known ping from the phone was near the highway but given the area has no service, it was unclear if it was accurate. Finally over Memorial day weekend, I took my daughter and a trash bag to clean up trash on the sledding hill. Since there was no snow, I didn’t feel the detector would be needed and boy was I right. After about an hour and about 600+ feet from where the last known ping from the phone, there it was!!! It was found 4 months to the day it was lost!!! I took it home, put it in some silica gel beads as I have done with other electronics in the past and delivered it to my friend Jimmy to send out to the man in Oregon. I am confident they will get it to work again so he can get access to his crypto wallet in the near future! What an Adventure!!! Check out the full experience on my YouTube Channel- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1-DE5XRgM&t=402s

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Lost Gold Wedding Band Found- Ogden Utah

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It was late in the evening and Lee was working to get some vegetation planted on his slope behind his house to prevent erosion. He only had an hour of sun left so he was hurrying as fast as he could. After finishing, he went to wash his hands and notice his gold wedding ring that he had been wearing for the last 37.5 years was missing. He reached out me for help but I was traveling for work at the time. His neighbor offered to come search the area with his metal detector but was unsuccessful. We made plans for me to come search when I was back in town and upon arriving at his house, he showed me the area to search. I dare say it took all of about 4 minutes to get a signal that turned out to be his ring! As you can see by the picture, Lee & his dog were happy to see the ring again! Check out the full recovery on Youtube!

 

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Lost Titanium Wedding Ring Found- Salem, Utah

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I received a call from a man who was working construction near Salem, Utah. They were putting in a large underground pipe system and his hands got dirty so he went to wash them off. While he was doing that, he put his beautiful titanium ring with turquois inlay in his vest pocket. After returning to work, he realized he never put his ring back on and upon checking his pocket, it was gone. They searched the area with a metal detector and for a last resort he reached out to me for help. They were about to fill in that section of the pipe system so I knew I had very little time.

When I arrived, the recent warm weather turned the area into a very muddy construction site. I searched all over the area he thought it could be and then I went down into the area that they dug out. I cleared some trash from the area to ensure I could get all the signals. Fortunately, right next to the valve where he was working, I found his beautiful ring. His wife had joined him that day and they had just barely returned from getting food when I was able to surprise both of them with the ring. Check out their reactions on my YouTube Channel!

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Lost Set of Keys Found After Heavy Snow- Midway, Utah

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After a very heavy snow storm at the start of 2024, I received a call regarding a pair of lost keys. He was at work and due to the storm was going to stay the night. While he was unloading his stuff from his car, he lost his only set of car keys walking from his car to his room. During the night, over 24 inches dropped and by morning, the crew was out shoveling the snow from the street where he parked his car. To get a locksmith to come and make a new key was going to cost a fortune so when his wife  reached out me, I dropped everything to go look for it. It was hard because keys can ring up like iron and with the snow crew moving snow around, there were huge piles of snow everywhere. After a solid 2.5 hours and just as I was about give up, I got a signal on the other side of a pile of snow. It turned out to be his keys. The snow was so deep, I was up to my waist trying to get to it. So happy I was able to get the lost keys back and he was able to get home to his family. Check out the full video on YouTube-

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Lost Wedding Ring Up Big Cottonwood Canyon- Found

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This was actually my last recovery of 2023. I received a call from a couple that was visiting from Florida. They were finalizing all their wedding plans and were preparing to fly back to Florida to get married on New Year’s Eve. They went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to take pictures when he realized his ring was missing. It was a beautiful silver ring with an opal stone.

We made plans to meet the following day to search the area where they had taken pictures. He provided me with some very good intel on possible areas to search. They were staying at a relative’s house about an hour away so I was able to get to the  location before they did and I quickly started to search. The snow was not deep and since silver is usually such a high tone, I quickly focused on signals in that range. In about 5 minutes, I had located the ring! They pulled up and I was able to surprise him with the ring! It’s always awesome to see the stress go away when presenting that lost item to someone. They sent me pictures of them getting married just a few days later! Congrats on a beautiful wedding! Check out the full adventure below!

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Lost Wedding Ring with Blue Sapphire Near Salt Lake City, Utah- Found

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I received a text message late at night. Steve was waving to his neighbors when his wedding ring came flying off due to the cold weather. The stone in the ring was a blue sapphire that he and his husband purchased when they adopted their son from Cambodia nearly 22 years ago. We made plans to meet the next day to search in the snow and withing 68 seconds, I was able to locate and return his precious ring. Could be one of the fastest recoveries I have ever had!!! Check out the Youtube video below to see the whole adventure!

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Lost Wedding Ring Found After 17 Months in the River near Richfield, Utah

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Back in the summer, I was tagged in a post of Facebook regarding a lost titanium wedding ring that was lost while tubing the river in July of 2022. As he was exiting the river, he reached out to grab the only rock that was above the water line at the time and his ring slid off his finger. His wife posted the story and location of where he lost it and over the several months, many local detectorists went looking for it. I started to do a lot of research on the river trying to compare the water levels to the day he lost it to when it would be a good time to go looking for it. The location was about a 2 hour drive from my house so I wanted to make sure the conditions would be best to locate it. I reached out to a local adventure guide service in the area and they gave me the data on the river and when historically it’s at its lowest point. His wife was hopeful that one day the ring would make it back to them and so I reached out to her letting her know I was going to go search for it and the research I had done.

The day I went to search for the ring, the river was lower and moving slower than the day he lost it so I was hopeful that it could be found. Last winter season produced the largest runoff Utah had ever seen on record so my theory was that the ring would be near the rock he reached out for unless the runoff took it down stream. The area was under a small bridge so I knew there would be a lot trash in the area. When I got to the river, I focused in and around two large rocks that I had determined would have been sticking out of the river when he was there. I removed several pieces of trash and then got a faint signal under a large rock just two feet from the rock in question. I couldn’t reach under it so I had to move the 2.5 foot rock out of the way. Sure enough it was a ring!!! The post said there was an engraving inside the ring that read “Julie’s Dave”. The ring was black from being in the river but it matched the description. Not knowing if it was the correct ring, I search for a little longer in the area but nothing else was found. When I got home, I cleaned the ring and to my astonishment, I saw the engraving and confirmed it was the lost ring that had been in the river for 17 months. I reached out to her and later that week met up and returned the ring! What an amazing experience! Check out the video below to see how it all came together!

 

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Lost 3 Karat Wedding Ring near Alpine, Utah- Found

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I received a call from a woman that had been looking for her lost wedding ring for over two months in her backyard. As the story goes, her niece likes to play with her ring when she comes over and so as she was walking to sit down in a chair in the backyard, she gave her niece the ring. As she got to the chair, the ring was already missing. Concerned that her niece might have ingested the ring, they took her to the hospital to do x-rays. The X-rays came back negative so they started the search in the backyard. The distance walked was only 20-30 feet and in just those few seconds, the ring was gone! They had everyone looking for it and at one point used a detector themselves to try to locate it. The ring had a 2 karat center stone diamond that they got while traveling through Israel. There was also a ring of diamonds around the center stone that looked like a sun with about 1 karat of diamonds.

When I got there, She showed me the area and I started to search. For some reason, my detector had not charged and the battery light was already blinking indicating I had probably less then 5-7 minutes. I quickly started to search for low tones ranging from 8-13 on the detector as that is usually where most thin gold rings will show up. On my 3rd signal, just barely a foot from where she said she started to walk, I found her beautiful ring that had been missing for over 2 months. Check out the video below to see her reaction when I surprised her with the ring!

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