Questions
Everything people ask me
Cost, timing, equipment, lawns, water, what to do in the first ten minutes. If your question isn't here, just call and ask.
Before you call
What's the very first thing I should do?
Stop searching, and don't disturb the area. No raking the sand, no combing the grass with your fingers, no mowing or watering the lawn. Then call or text me. Searching badly is worse than not searching at all, because it relocates the ring and destroys the only reliable information we had.
How quickly should I call?
Immediately, even if you can't meet me for a day or two. On a beach the sand shifts and the tide buries things. On grass the lawn gets mowed, watered and walked on. A ring that's an inch down today can be considerably deeper next week.
What information will you ask for?
What you lost and what it's made of, the time of day it happened, exactly where you were with landmarks, what you were doing when it came off, and whether anything has changed since. A photo taken that day is enormously helpful, because the background tells me precisely where you were.
Do you charge for the phone call?
No, never. If a search isn't realistic I'll say so, and sometimes the answer is that you should check one specific place yourself before paying anyone.
Cost
How much does it cost?
A $75 call-out fee covers my travel and fuel and applies whether or not the item is found. If I find it, you set the reward — what the recovery is worth to you and what you can afford. No fixed price, no percentage of the ring's value. Full detail on the pricing page.
Do you offer 'no find, no fee'?
Not quite, and I'd rather be accurate than catchy. The $75 call-out fee covers the drive whether or not I succeed. Everything above that only applies if I find your item, and you decide the amount.
Is it cheaper to rent a metal detector?
Almost never, once you account for how it usually goes. A rental gets you an entry-level machine and no sand scoop, and on wet salt sand that means a wall of false signals and no way to retrieve a target you do find. People end up losing the day and burying the ring deeper. Here's the honest comparison.
The search itself
What do you actually use?
A Minelab Manticore metal detector, a long-handled CKG sand scoop, and a pinpointer. The detector matters, but the scoop is the piece people never think about — finding a target and retrieving it from collapsing wet sand are two different jobs.
Do you search in water?
Land and shallow water. How deep depends entirely on the tide, which is why the time of day you lost it is one of my first questions. 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.
Will you damage my lawn?
No. When I need to retrieve a target from turf I cut a small, neat plug and put it straight back. Done properly the grass knits back within days and you'd never know anyone had been there. Golf courses and manicured lawns are all fine.
Can you search a garden bed or mulch?
Yes, it's just slower. Garden beds tend to be full of irrigation staples, nails and old hardware, so there's more digging of trash before we get to the ring.
What if the area is huge and I'm not sure where I lost it?
Then we work it out together on the phone. Uncertainty isn't a dealbreaker — Denise couldn't be sure how far offshore she'd been at Mondo's and I still found her ring. But the tighter we can define the area, the better the odds, so it's worth thinking hard before I arrive.
How long does a search take?
Anything from thirty seconds to several hours. I once found a silver ring at Solimar Beach about thirty seconds into the search. Other searches take multiple passes and a second visit at a better tide.
What you can lose
What kinds of things do you find?
Wedding rings, engagement rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, watches, keys and phones — and occasionally something unusual. I recovered a set of hydraulic press dies from a hillside near a transmission tower above Fillmore. If it's metal and it's lost in sand, soil, grass or shallow water, it's worth a call.
Can you find a ring in a beach chair or a car?
Often, yes, and it's more common than you'd think. One of my Carpinteria recoveries was a ring that had been sitting in a beach chair cupholder and bounced out onto the sand when the chair was packed up. Always tell me about the walk to the car and the pack-up, not just where you were sitting.
What about platinum, silver or titanium?
All detectable, though they behave differently under the machine. Titanium and stainless can read oddly, and thin platinum bands are quiet. Tell me what the ring is made of on the phone and I'll set up accordingly.
Logistics
What areas do you cover?
All of Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, plus the Malibu coast and the Santa Clarita Valley. I'm based in Fillmore. See the full service area.
Are you available on weekends?
Seven days a week. On the coast I'd rather work the right tide than the convenient hour, so we may end up meeting very early or very late.
What if I've already left town?
Not a problem. I've found a ring at West Beach for a visitor who was already in Newport Beach, photographed it, insured it and mailed it — she had it back two days later. That story is here.
Are you a member of The Ring Finders?
Yes. My member profile is here. It's an international directory of independent metal detecting specialists who all work on the same reward basis.
What if you can't find it?
It happens. You'll owe the call-out fee for the travel and nothing more. If I think a second attempt at a different tide would genuinely improve the odds, I'll tell you and you can decide.
Still got a question?
Call or text 805-290-5009. Asking costs nothing and I don't charge for advice.