ON RETURNING RINGS

[tidewalker2]

I've had many experiences over the years with returning rings and other valuables that I've found on the beach; most of them good, some of them bad. Here's an example of each. Detecting around chair marks one evening early in the season, I found a class ring dated the next year and figured the kid must just have gotten it. The name of the school wasn't familiar to me so I called Diges and Clust, the ring's manufacturer, to see if they could help me. They took the school name and the student's name engraved in the ring and told me they'd get in touch with the school and see what they could do. I thanked them and gave them my number. WELLLL! The next day I got a call from a girl somewhere in NJ saying that the school called her and told her that someone found her class ring. She didn't even know that she had lost it. She gave me the address of the relative she had been visiting in Rockaway NY, about 2 blocks from me and asked me to return it to them. That evening I knocked on the door and the person who answered looked at the ring, grabbed it out of my hand saying "Oh you found it." and slammed the door in my face. GO FIGURE!
Not too long after that, I found a 1951 West Point ring at a beach right near Ft. Tilden. I did a few days of telephone gymnastics and finally found the owner, a newly retired Colonel who lost the ring just before he was sent to Korea as a green 2nd Lieutenant just out of the Academy. It was embarrassing to see a grown Colonel cry, gratifying to be able to return his ring and the reward, even though I didn't ask for one, was welcome.
So even though it can be frustrating at times to try to return stuff, most of the time its worth it in one way or another. If I find a piece that is engraved or looks like a custom design or has some kind of distinguishing feature, I always try to return it. If, however, it looks "off the rack" its mine. Only a small percentage of my attempts to return have been successful, but I tried. It gives the hobby a good name.
HH swingers,
ED

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Ed, thanx for the stories.

Most of my ring re-unite stories are fun, rewarding, etc.... But I can't pass on telling one bad one a friend of mine had:

In the early 1980s, he found a shallow (just barely under the grass blades) gold high school class ring, at a school yard right by his house. The ring was from the high school in town, and the year was the current year. It turns out his daughter goes to that high school, so they took out her year book, and traced the initials and the such to figure out that it could only have belonged to a single girl. As soon as my friend's daughter got the ID, she says "oh I know that girl, she lives just down the street from us!" Bingo, the proud finder figured he was about to the hero for the day So he looks up the ring owner's phone #, and proceeds to call them. But all he got was an answering machine. So he left a voicemail, something to the effect: "I found your ring, if you want to discuss getting it back to you, give me a call, blah blah". He didn't go into detail, or say anything about metal detecting, or where he'd found it, etc... He just figured he'd tell the owner when they called back.

That night, he and his family sat down to dinner. There was a knock at the door. Guess who it was? THE POLICE! Turns out the ring had been stolen in a home robbery earlier that week! My friend was now suspect, as the police thought he was about to try to extort money for the ring's return. He had to sing and dance and go through lengthy explanations of how he'd only found it with a metal detector, and no, he intended to return it, without asking for a reward, or whatever. My friend could tell the police were NOT buying his explanation, and didn't believe his story of metal detectors, etc.... They merely took the ring, and left, saying "we'll get back to you for further questioning, if need be".

So my friend and his family sat back down to an absolutely ruined dinner. For a few weeks, he wasn't sure if he was still suspect in the robbery, and maybe the police would bring him in for further scrutiny? And now did his neighbors suspect he was a crook? etc.... Calls to the neighbors house went un-returned, and no one ever came to say thankyou, kiss my *ss, or anything.

From then on, to this day, that friend of mine never returns rings again. He won't even look at initials or ID marks. He just puts them in with his other gold.

If you think of it, a lot of times when people loose a piece of jewelry, they may not know exactly where it slipped off. Sometimes, for example, they don't register it's missing till the end of the day. It's not unusual for a lady to think "oh no, did I leave it on the sink in the ladies room when I went to wash my hand?" Or "oh no, was I the victim of a pick-pocket?" etc.... And guess what they do: they report it to the police or their insurance as "stolen" perhaps, when in fact, it was probably a fumble-fingers loss. Heck, even if they are fully aware that it must've slipped off their neck or finger somewhere, in THEIR mind, the person who finds it and keeps it, is by definition a thief anyhow.

 

[jim tn]

A number of year's ago now, I recovered a men's wedding band just laying in the grass with the mans full name inscribed inside in a area near a spot where "lovers" park. The exact name was listed in the local phone book and I called the fellow that evening. In no uncertain terms, he stated that he had not lost his wedding ring and it was someone else's. I guess it could have been, but that exact first and last name was the only listing in the phone book. I have always had suspicions about that situation, but I liked the return on the gold, too. I do make an effort to return class rings when possible, but I also admit to being pretty mum about most gold recoveries. HH jim tn

 

[Socalal]

Found the same (or almost same) ring twice --- two years apart ---- metal detecting in a local park several years ago I found a diamond cluster ladies "cocktail" ring. It was in hard-packed soil about 8" down and had been there for quite a number of years.

A very good friend of mine has a son who was about to get married but didn't have enough money to buy a nice ring. I gave this cocktail ring to him, told him to take it to a jeweller and have the diamonds remounted into a new engagement / wedding ring setting. Which he did.

Two years later I received a call from his tearful young bride, "Oh Uncle Al" she says,"I lost my wedding ring!" "Where were you when you last remember seeing it?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure I was over at my mother's house, helping to clean up her rose garden." Well, this was on a weekday, and they live 87 miles away, so I told her to ask her Dad NOT TO CUT THE LAWN until after I have had a chance to get over there on Saturday --- which she did.

She met me in the driveway of her folk's home the next Saturday. "Oh yeah," she said,"We also sat over there in those rattan chairs and had some iced tea the other day when I lost my ring." "Ok, I'll start over there." I replied. BINGO, about 30 seconds after turning on my old Eagle II SL I had found the ring. It was a hot day when they were weeding the garden, so this young lady and her mother took a break and sat in the rattan chairs, under an umbrella in the front yard to cool off. Well, they did cool off --- so much so that her ring finger contracted enough for her ring to fall off (and get lodged under the clover patch directly under the chairs and table) without her noticing it.

Ok ---- so they are divorced now, and no one will ever be able to find it where she threw the darn thing ----- but it's a true story (all except this last part -- actually she took it to a Pawn Shop and sold it!) ----- Uncle Al

 

[GRAY GHOST]

hello, all. the two times i have recovered rings that i eventually found the owners to, i was treated rather rudely. the first time, i was hunting a buddy's yard and found a small silver 1974 class ring from the local high school. i saw the initials engraved in it and eventually found the owner through an old yearbook. it took a while to find her, and it took up a lot of my time. i called first and left a message. i soon got a call back, the woman sounding happy on the phone. we arranged to meet at her house, but i was coldly received, and didn't even get a "thankyou". strike one.
the second time i found a ring, it was in the front flower garden by the porch of an old log cabin. we had found a bunch of old relics and coins there, and was having a great time. the owner had come out several times with drinks for us and complimented on our finds. a nice mongrammed black onyx and silver ring came out, so i started to brush it off to make out the letters, when suddenly an older man whom i'd never seen before jerked it out of my hand and loudly proclaimed it as his and walked off. i looked at the owner in disbelief and anger, he just dropped his head, and said, "sorry fellas, that's just the way my partner is". mmmm.... ok. we went on to find more stuff there, but the stigma had taken hold. strike two.
a year later, i found a nice ladie's gold 1 carat diamond ring behind the local bowling alley - of all places - and made a beeline to the nearest pawnshop i could find and got 600 bucks for it. so, a couple of car payments, and a nice new white's machine later, i was sipping on a nice cold beer, reflecting on my luck, thinking to myself, "there will be no strike three. finders, keepers. besides, that's part of the reason i got into this."
and as luck would have it, i haven't found but one monogrammed ring since. thanks for reading, and hh!

 

[Cupajo]

As of this moment I have returned 30 gold rings to the rightful owners! One was my wifes second cousin's senior ring after 22 years!

Another was a ring I had been looking for that had been lost for over 40 years!

Some had been as a result of folks asking me to locate them and I happily searched for them and found them!

Some I had found and people asked me to see if I might have them in my stash. When I located one of those I returned them no questions asked.

I live in a beach area and have a reputation for returning rings to the rightful owners partly due to several articles printed in the Hartford Courant, the oldest continusly published newspaper in the country!

I have at present a man's wedding band that I found last year at the end of the beach season here and I have sent out feelers to locate the owner!

When and if this person materializes they will recieve the ring with my compliments!

I have a reputation to maintain you see!

After a year or so it goes into my soon to be liquidated stash!

There are many stories about my locating and returning these rings and some I have posted on the Finds Story Telling Forum!

Check them out and enjoy another side of metal detecting!

CJ

 

[Boris]

I too try to locate the owners of any identifiable rings that I find, I too live near a well used beach. I try to consider that the ring will mean more to the original owner than it will to me. I know that especially today that there are a lot of ungrateful people out there but that happens to be a fault of theirs not mine.

 

[Cupajo]

Hi Boris,

I'm with you Friend!

My most recent experience allowed me to locate two wedding bands for a 92 year old lady who had lost them in her yard.

I was never hugged more gratefully in my life!!

That hug paid me for my time and the 20 plus miles I had to drive to just get to her house!

I have an open invite to hunt the yard when I want and the place has been occupied for almost three hundred years!

One day--------------------!

CJ