Ventura & Santa Barbara County · 7 days a week
Lost a ring? Let's go get it back.
I'm Dave. I recover lost rings and jewelry with a professional metal detector — from the sand at East Beach to a backyard lawn in Ojai. If you lost it, there's a very good chance I can find it.
Time matters more than anything else. The tide comes in, sand shifts, and lawns get mowed — the sooner you call, the better the odds.
Call nowWhy call a professional
A rented detector and a good afternoon usually isn't enough.
I understand the instinct — a metal detector rental is cheap, and it feels like the sensible first move. But a beginner machine on wet salt sand is a wall of false signals, and without a long-handled sand scoop you can't actually retrieve a target once you've found it.
What actually finds rings is a machine that can discriminate gold from bottle caps, a scoop that reaches, a methodical grid instead of a wander, and knowing how the tide is going to behave. I've been doing this for years across these two counties, and I know these beaches.
Thinking about renting instead? I've written up an honest comparison →
How it works
Four steps, and the first one is just a phone call.
You call or text
Tell me what you lost, when you lost it, and as precisely as you can where you think it happened. Photos of the spot help enormously. Most of the real work in this job happens on this phone call — good information beats a big search grid every time.
I come to you
I cover Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, seven days a week, and I will tell you honestly on the phone whether a search is realistic before either of us commits. There's a $75 call-out fee that covers my travel and fuel.
I search properly
Professional detector, a proper sand scoop and a methodical grid — not a wander with a beginner machine. On the beach I work the tide. On grass I cut small plugs that go back so cleanly you'd never know I was there.
You set the reward
If I find it, you decide what the recovery was worth to you and what you can afford. That's the reward basis every Ring Finders member works on. No fixed fee, no percentage, no pressure.
Recent recoveries
Real searches, real beaches, real endings.
A 40-year wedding ring, six feet deep at Mondo's Beach
Denise felt her ring slip off while swimming in about six feet of water. I searched at 3:30 in the morning at a minus tide, in the dark, with the beach buried in seaweed.
Read the recovery →
An engagement ring found by the Santa Barbara Pier — and mailed to Switzerland
Irina was on holiday from Switzerland and had already left Santa Barbara by the time I found her ring. I insured it and mailed it — she had it back two days later.
Read the recovery →
A wedding band at East Beach, after Mom forgot she was holding the rings
Ashley handed her rings to her mother before swimming. Her mother forgot she was holding them and stood up. The engagement ring turned up before I arrived — the wedding band did not.
Read the recovery →
In their words
Irina lost her engagement ring in Santa Barbara — and was back in Switzerland before it came home.
She called late on a Saturday night from a Swiss phone number. I found the ring on the Sunday afternoon, gridding parallel to the Santa Barbara Pier. By then she had already travelled on, so my wife and I insured it and put it in the mail.
Read the full story★★★★★
"I called Dave, and he came to the rescue! He was incredibly kind, professional, and determined to help me find it, and he actually DID! What made the whole experience even more amazing was that his wife and him went the extra mile and shipped the ring back to me."
Reunions
The part of the job that never gets old.
Also known as The Metal Detective
I wrote a book about looking for things that matter.
In the detecting world I'm known as The Metal Detective. FOUND is thirty devotionals drawn from a life spent looking for lost things — a ring in the ocean, a baptismal cross recovered after ten days in the surf. A second book about the craft itself is in revision. If you're here because you lost a ring, skip the reading and call me — it's there if you want it afterwards.
Where I search
All of Ventura County and Santa Barbara County.
Beaches, yards, parks, lakes, ballfields, golf courses and shallow water. I'm based in Fillmore, which puts me within a short drive of most of the coastline in both counties. I also work the Malibu coast and the Santa Clarita Valley.
Common questions
Before you call.
How much does it cost?
There is a $75 call-out fee that covers my travel and fuel, and it applies whether or not the item is found. Beyond that I work on a reward basis: if I find your ring, you decide what the recovery is worth to you and what you can afford. There is no fixed price and no percentage of the ring's value. Full pricing details here.
How quickly should I call?
Immediately, even if you can't meet me until later. Sand shifts, tides come in, parks get raked and mowed, and lawns get watered. A ring that's an inch down today can be considerably deeper next week. Calling early costs you nothing and improves the odds a lot.
What if I've already left town?
That's fine and it happens often. I've found a ring at West Beach for a visitor who had already travelled on to Newport Beach, photographed it for her, insured it and mailed it — she had it back two days later. That story is here.
What can you actually find?
Wedding rings, engagement rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, watches, keys and phones — plus the occasional oddity. If it's metal and it's lost in sand, grass, soil or shallow water, it's worth a phone call.
Do you search in water?
Yes — land and shallow water. Depth and timing depend entirely on the tide, which is why the time of day you lost it is one of the first things I'll ask. I recovered a ring at Mondo's Beach at 3:30 in the morning because that was when the minus tide let me reach the spot.
Every hour counts. Let's get started.
Call or text 805-290-5009 and tell me what happened. I'll tell you straight away whether I think I can find it.