Tom Townsend, Author at The Ring Finders

Dave and his family, from Iowa, were visiting Grand Haven State Park on Lake Michigan when he lost his platinum wedding band playing catch with his son.  Having already returned home, he texted me a Google maps image showing approximately where he was in the water.  I wasn’t able to get out to the lake right away so I referred him to Dave Boyer, a fellow Ring Finder for the Grand Rapids area.  Dave was already at G.H.S.P. when he got the call but was unable to locate it.  He and I returned the next day to try again but the waves were brutal and we gave up after an hour or so.  I was afraid the ring would be buried too deep to retrieve after 2 days of heavy waves pulling sand into the shallows where Dave said he lost the ring.  I tried one more time a couple days later, when things had calmed down, and had his ring in my scoop after digging down for a faint signal in knee deep water.

I received a text from Ashley who had lost her ring on the beach near the Little Point Sauble Lighthouse on Lake Michigan.  Ashley and her family had already returned home, some 3 hours away, so she sent me a picture of where they were on the beach in relation to the lighthouse.  That helped to narrow down the search area.  Within 20 minutes I had her ring in my scoop!  As Chris, the CEO of The Ring Finders, says, “Every ring has a story.”  I was honored to help Ashley’s beautiful Infinity Ring continue it’s story.

I received a text from Sam on a Monday afternoon because his girlfriend had lost a ring the Saturday before that he had given her 6 or 7 years before while they were in college.  The ring had been his grandmother’s and he was hoping I could help.  I was at work then and couldn’t help until the next day but, knowing the state parks groom the beaches every morning, I suggested he contact one of the other Ring Finders who could get there right away.  He had already waited a couple days before contacting me so he had pretty much resigned himself to the fact that it was probably lost forever.  With just a photo he had sent me to approximate where they were on the beach I tried the following Friday to search for the ring.  After about 20 minutes I was surprised to see a gold ring with a beautiful green peridot in my scoop.

I got text from Emily while the wife and I were visiting the kids and grandkids in Richland today; watching the 4th of July parade.  Emily, while visiting her parents on Lake Michigan, lost her engagement ring the night before watching South Haven’s fireworks display.  I’m an hour away from home and she’s an hour west of me but I just happened to have a brand new detector with me that I was hoping to try out this weekend.  Emily had not slept the night before and was physically ill she was so upset over losing her engagement ring.  She went as far as buying an inexpensive metal detector in an attempt to locate it with no luck.  When I arrived, she and her mother were still searching.  As Emily was filling out the paperwork and describing to me what it was I was searching for and the general area she thought had she lost it in; I turned on my new Garrett Vortex VX9, made one sweep and got a double beep, ringing up on the display at 55 and thought to myself, “Whoah, it can’t be that easy!!!!”  Sure enough, I put my pin-pointer in the sand and scooped up the ring in a handful of sand and presented Emily with her lost treasure.  She immediately started crying and waved her mother over to see.  That search, literally, took 10 seconds.  The wife and I sat with Emily and her parents on their back porch overlooking Lake Michigan for over an hour chatting and had a wonderful time.

I received a call from Ven, from TX, who was visiting MI with his family.  Apparently, his teenaged daughter had lost a gold ring on the volleyball court at Grand Haven State Park and they were frantically trying to find it.  When I got to the park, Ven’s daughter and a few others were screening sand with a small sifter but with no luck.  After about a 2 minute search with the Garrett AT Pro and a pinpointer the ring was back on her hand to much applause and tears.  Ven’s wife said the ring was given to her daughter by her grandmother who recently passed.  It was a very emotional moment for everyone :’)  I photographed the ring and Ven’s daughter with the ring back in her finger but, being a minor, Ven asked me not to post her picture.  Fair enough.  I was happy to retrieve such a precious heirloom.

Chase and his friend Kevin were a couple of my first Ring Finder customers back in 2015 when they both lost their wedding rings on the same day, in the same location!   Sunday morning, Chase texts me saying, “I did it again.”  This time on a private beach on Lake Michigan near South Haven.  Searching The Ring Finders site, he saw I was still listed.  Instead of contacting the Ring Finder for the South Haven area (sorry Dave 😊) Chase contacted me again.  He had put sunscreen on and stepped into the ice cold water to rinse off his hands and thought that was probably when he’d lost it but didn’t actually feel it come off so it could also be on the beach somewhere.  Hoping I didn’t have to step into the ice cold Lake MI water, I did a quick search on shore where he thought he and the family were the day before.  No such luck.  I scanned the shoreline 5’ or so into the water for about 5 minutes; that was about all I could handle, the water was PAINFULLY cold.  No ring.  I searched the beach some more while my feet thawed in the warm sand and tried again a few feet further out in the water.  Still no ring.  I was pretty sure at that point it wasn’t in the water so I searched at little further north of where I’d started, hoping I didn’t have to step back into the ice cold Lake MI water.  Bingo!  Another happy face for my Book of Smiles 😃

I got a call from Don the day after July 4th saying he’d lost his platinum wedding ring in the sand at Grand Haven State Park the day before.  Having only been married 5 weeks, his friend asked to see his ring.  In hindsight, tossing it to him probably wasn’t the best plan on the beach.  As soon as something hits beach sand it vanishes like socks in a dryer.  Don spent HOURS sifting a 6’x10’ section of the beach with a colander with no luck in locating the ring.   I love these types of searches vs water searches. Knowing where something is lost in the sand it can usually be located in an matter of minutes and this was no exception – Don had his ring back in less than 5 minutes 🙂

I got an email from Debbie letting me know that her husband lost his wedding ring the week before at PJ Hoffmaster State park.  After attempting to locate it with a friend and their metal detector with no success they contacted me through The Ring Finders website.  I met up with Debbie and her husband the next day and after a 30 or 40 minute search his ring was in my scoop.  😎

I received a text from Hailey who said her friend Gavin had lost his deceased father’s wedding ring at Grand Haven State Park.  After returning home to Muskegon, Gavin called me and stated he’d lost the ring IN the lake.  The detector I had with me wasn’t waterproof so i would have to run home to grab my Garrett AT Pro and meet up with him about 2 hours later.  When I arrived at the beach Gavin and his mother were there, as well as Greg, the Ring Finder from the Grand Rapids area, and 2 firefighters with metal detectors already searching.  After a brief 15 minute search I got a signal so loud that it startled me and I had his family heirloom in my scoop.  His mother was so overjoyed she started to cry.

I received a text from Rebekah Saturday evening after losing her engagement ring in waist deep water in Lake Michigan at Holland State Park.  She and Mike had only been engaged 3 weeks and was desperate for help to retrieve it.  I was able to meet them at the park the following day but when I got close to the park the traffic backup to get in was a half mile long.  Hoping I wouldn’t have to park outside the park and hike in with my detecting gear I was let into the park after about a 20 minute wait.  Rebekah had a pretty good idea where the ring had slipped off so I began a methodical search.  Normally, it would take 30-40 minutes to find a target given they knew approximately where they ring was lost.  This search, however, turned out to be the longest search I’ve ever done.  After 2 hours, Mike and Rebekah had to leave and I said I’d stay another hour, if I hadn’t found it by then I’d return the following weekend and try again.  An hour later, just as I was about to give up, I got a solid signal and saw her beautiful white gold and sapphire ring in my scoop.