Returning Lost Rings
So You Found A Lost Ring?
All too often, I hear of stories where people are out enjoying a day at the beach or park and inevitably, they lose a precious keepsake such as an engagement, wedding, or class ring. So when someone loses their ring, who should they turn too? Someone with a metal detector of course!
Whether you believe in doing the right thing, hope to score a few karma points, want to make an extra buck, or simply want to be a hero for a day, there are many reasons on why a metal detectorist would return a lost ring for someone in need. In this article, I’ll cover several reasons pertaining to how and why a detectorist would want to return a lost ring.
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The Art of the Return
When it comes to returning a lost ring, there is something to be said about setting up the return to help create a dramatic and memorable story, not only for you, but also for the owner.
Having them go through the full range of emotions from the point of despair when they first lose the ring, to feeling hopeful when they see you swinging your detector on the beach, and finally a sense of pure jubilation as you present the lost ring that they thought was lost forever in the depths of Davy Jones’s locker is truly a roller coaster ride of emotions for them.
This is all part of the “art of the return” and is what makes for a great story which will create a lasting memory not only for them, but for you as well, especially if you can complete the return and become their hero!
6 Keys to Creating the Perfect Return for a Lost Ring
Locate - Find someone in need who has lost their ring (they generally find you though).
Research - Get the details on where/when/how the ring was lost.
Doubt vs Hope - Let them know the odds are a “needle in a haystack” type of search, but you’ll give it everything you’ve got.
Suspense - Build suspense as you search for the lost ring by continuing to talk to them, adding small comments that fluctuate between doubting you’ll find it, to letting them know you’re getting closer.
Distract - Find a way to distract their attention away from you as you actually find the ring, which will allow you to create the perfect reveal.
Surprise - Complete the reveal with a surprise for their eyes.
She thought her ring was lost for good until her friend found me detecting in the water and asked if I could help them. The “art of the return” made for a memorable story for both them and myself.
Ways to Advertise Your Lost Ring Return Services
As a metal detectorist, you have a powerful tool and have made an investment that is built for the very purpose of helping locate lost rings. You may love finding old coins, relics, or civil war items and perhaps that is why you started out in the hobby of metal detecting in the first place.
But, since rings fall within the “metal” spectrum (generally unless it’s made of something like wood), you’re likely to come across them from time to time and people seeing you with a metal detector, like the ones in my recommended gear, will naturally assume you are looking for or have found rings before! If you are hoping to assist people in helping return their lost ring, how do you spread the word about your mission?
Community Flyers
Flyers like this one can be posted around town on local community boards or given to the Parks Department office if you’re open to being contacted to try and help someone locate their lost ring.
An easy way to let people know that you are willing to help them with this service is placing a basic flyer at a community location such as a park, library, grocery store, or anywhere there may be a community communication board.
This flyer can simply have your contact information along with a graphic of a metal detector or better yet, a picture of you along with a happy “customer” that you already helped locate and return their lost ring. This will help build a sense of trust for anyone looking to contact you or ask you for help in finding their lost ring.
Online Posts
Online postings like this one can be easily made to local forums or websites to let people know about your metal detecting service.
A quick way to help canvas the local community about your ability to help people locate lost rings would be to make a post on sites such as Craigslist, Facebook, or Reddit. Many of these websites have local groups or cater to a specific area/demographic that allow you to connect with someone who may need your assistance in locating a lost ring.
Look specifically for sections on these sites that include “lost & found” or “community services” where you can either find posts or even make a post that describes how you can help and what your intentions are for doing so.
Word of Mouth
During a work trip to Mexico, I spent my free time metal detecting for fun but heard about a couple on the beach where the husband lost his ring while playing volleyball in the water. Needless to say, I made a nice save for them and they treated me to lunch and a few margaritas!
Even in the day and age of all of the technology we have, word of mouth is still the most effective way to get your message across. Talking with friends, family, neighbors, and local community members when you are out and about (even when metal detecting the park) gives you the perfect opportunity to mention that you are looking to help anyone who may have lost a ring over the years and you’d be willing to come search for it.
The bonus in doing this is that you often are unlocking a new site to dig at (often private property as discussed in that blog post) because while you are searching for the ring at the location, you are digging various targets in hopes it is the lost ring/target you are actually looking to help return.
Even if you do not find the lost item on the first search, ask permission to come back as often as needed in hopes you will be able to find it for them. This will show the owner that you are not only dedicated to trying to help them get their lost ring back, but that you truly care and want to see them get their priceless keepsake back to them safely.
If you find the ring within the first few minutes, ask if you can stay and detect the rest of the property for old coins and relics and I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to let you dig away!
Returning Lost Ring Websites
There are several websites that help link people who lost their rings with people that are able to go out and help search for them because they have the necessary tools, such as a metal detector to quickly grid an area and hopefully scoop up that lost ring!
If you don’t want to take time to create flyers or make posts online about being able to locate lost rings, I’ve included several websites that have already taken care of most of the leg work for you.
The Ring Finders
The Ring Finders have been helping connect people who’ve lost rings their rings to those metal detectorists that are able and willing to help locate those precious keepsakes. Chris Turner, an experienced metal detectorist created The Ring Finders, a directory of independent metal detecting specialists, over 11 years ago. Combined, these members have returned thousands of rings back to their rightful owners over the years.
Map of available members from The Ring Finders willing to help search for lost items.
What does it take to become a Ring Finder? An annual membership fee of $65 is required in order to gain access and begin marketing your services through the website.
This annual fee also unlocks some other potentially valuable information for you personally as a metal detectorist such as; gaining access to private Google groups where members can communicate, grid searching manuals, how-to videos for searching, a ringfinders.com email address, and the ability to build a personal page on their site to help market your location and services which could include a fee or rate you want to set in order to be called out to look for an item if you so choose.
Some Ring Finders will stop at nothing to help locate a ring!
Being a member does provide another unique feature when it comes to providing your service because there are only a limited number of spots (3) that each city/region allows for a Ring Finder to be from, which can essentially create a perimeter lock in that area. To create a perimeter lock, a member can buy all 3 spots (if available) for the year.
Example of registered Ring Finders located in the state of Arizona.
Once you have paid for an annual membership and you’ve created your profile page, anyone looking for assistance in your region can look you up and contact you to come help search. Requiring people to pay a fee for your service is not mandatory, however many members do ask for a travel fee to help cover the cost of fuel if the search location is far from home.
I had to make several trips out to this location in order to find this ring and surprise the owner’s once I found it.
Many other members only take rewards as a form of payment and leave that amount to be determined by the ring’s owner on the basis of, “what was the ring/recovery worth to them?” I’ve personally heard of stories where the owner’s reward was far greater than what the Ring Finder member would have generally charged just to conduct the search.
Finally, some members charge nothing at all and won’t even take a reward if the lost ring is found. The beauty of using The Ring Finders and if you’d like to ask for payment is completely up to you. While I personally am not a member of The Ring Finders, I do have several metal detecting acquaintances that are and have had good success in helping return several rings from within the service, so I know it works.
In fact, I just saw them driving around town the other day because they have put vinyl stickers on their car, showcasing that they are a Ring Finder. This is just one more type of way to help advertise your lost ring metal detecting service.
Lost My Stuff
Lost My Stuff is a network of metal detectorists that has been active for over 9 years and has nearly 3,000 volunteer searchers in its database. These volunteers have agreed to help people find their lost rings, bracelets, watches, or anything else metal and they agree to volunteer and to search for the item for free. Why would anyone do this?
Map of volunteer searchers for Lost My Stuff. As you can see, there’s a lot of kind hearted metal detectorists out there!
Members of Lost My Stuff search for free because they are a group of like minded individuals who simply desire to help people in need because it is the right thing to do. These metal detectorists have volunteered to come search for free, without charge, and they do not expect any type of reward even if the lost ring or item is found.
Map of lost items from Lost My Stuff as of 3-8-2020.
Anyone can sign up to be a volunteer searcher, but you are asked to donate $5 for an annual membership which helps the site owner pay their hosting fee as well as sending out lost item notifications to members as they come in. This small donation is well worth it based on the number of smiles you could help create by reuniting a lost ring back with its rightful owner.
I got to be the hero by finding and return her daughter’s ring.
Along with those success stories, Lost My Stuff has created a cool tracking feature for its members called “LMS Heroes” which gives a badge to the member for each item they’ve successfully found and returned.
These badges basically create a leaderboard and a little inner LMS member competition that people can see their rankings just for fun and of course; bragging rights! I personally have been a member of this service and the notices and alerts that go to my email when someone within my search area has lost an item are very helpful and I do my best to assist when I can.
Rings With Unknown Owners
Rings only marked with a 14k stamp can be very difficult to identify an owner.
Undoubtedly, you will come across and dig rings on the beach, in parks, or at local school yards on any given day while you are out metal detecting. This means that you have no idea who the ring owner is, when they lost the ring, or how to find or contact the person that lost it. If you plan on trying to locate the owner, it will take a little legwork and research on your part as you do your due diligence.
Once you’ve located a ring in a public use place like the beach, a park, or school yard, you could try to contact the local governing authority of that space to see if they have a list of lost and found items so that you could possibly match it up with a given description if the person who lost it happened to have made a report.
If there are no reports or the description does not match the item you found, you could move to looking through lost and found ads on websites such as Craigslist, Lost My Stuff, or various local online newspaper sites. Often times Facebook may also have posts mentioning a lost item that you can look through and assist the owner as well.
Class rings or wedding rings with names, dates, or inscriptions on them can make returning lost rings easier to the rightful owner.
The more information a ring has such as an inscription, a name, a date, etc., the easier it may be to help locate an owner. Wedding rings with names and dates can allow you to look through public records or postings such as marriage announcements or a phone/address book. You could also search for a person’s name online and try to connect with them through social media.
Other rings such as class rings not only have the names or initials of the ring’s owner, but also the school name and graduation year. This allows you to search through old yearbooks which can be found in the school’s library or even the local library.
You could also call the school as they may be able to help reach out to the student or alumni that attended that school and help you reunite them with their lost ring. Sometimes finding the direct contact can be tricky, so you can try reaching out to the local news station to see if they can help, like I did in the video featured below.
Watch my class ring return featured on Fox 17 News. The local news station helped me set up the “art of the return” surprise for this lucky lady.
Unfortunately not all rings will be able to be reunited with their owners simple because there is a lack of information, too much time has passed, or there was never a report made of the ring going missing.
A ring that is found and the only inscription inside is “14k” makes it nearly impossible to find the true owner and I don’t recommend making a public post that says, “I found a gold ring at Riverside Park marked 14k. Please email me if it is yours to claim.”
The reason I don’t recommend this is because you will have everyone and their brother emailing you trying to capitalize on scoring a free 14k ring for themselves when odds are it is not even theirs, but they just hope to cash in on it.
Finding a ring like this means you can usually mark it up as good karma points for all of the rings you’ve already returned to hopeful people and this is just one way the metal detecting gods have decided to pay you back for those good deeds already performed.
Summary
Whether you decide to join an online group, create your own ads or services and post them, or you simply go out detecting and use word of mouth to attempt to return a ring as you find them from time to time, it is totally up to you on how and if you want to return an item.
No matter if you’re a pirate looking to score some karma points for a return or you are one who believes in finders keepers, metal detecting for lost rings can be a lot of fun and will deliver some amazing stories for you to tell for years to come! And that is why I always like to remind you to “Swing4TheRing.”
What exciting returns have you made while out metal detecting? Be sure to tell me about it by “leaving a beep” below and to be featured in an upcoming blog!
Treasure Box Subscriber Giveaway
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