Ring finders make people smile

As beachgoers relax on the shores or surf the waves of Oahu, Kaimuki resident Joe Au-Franz scours the sand and nearshore waters with a metal detector to help recover lost engagement or weddings rings for panicked residents and visitors.

For Au-Franz, a retired Navy lieutenant commander, it’s the pure elation and smiles from people when he finds their rings that propel him to search for lost items. “I’m kind of an emotional guy.”

To see the look on their faces and the tears and the hugs, “Hey, that makes it for me. That’s all I need,” Au-Franz said.

Since 2012, Au-Franz, 60, has recovered nearly 200 rings on the island for people who lost them in the sand. Sometimes they put their ring on their lap while applying sunscreen; sometimes they slipped off their finger while swimming in the ocean or playing on the sand.

Au-Franz is one of several members in Hawaii listed in an online directory called The Ring Finders who offer metal detecting services. Chris Turner of Vancouver, British Columbia, a self-­described veteran treasure hunter with nearly 50 years of metal detecting experience, created the directory.

It comprises nearly 500 members — independent contractors in 22 countries worldwide — who collectively have recovered approximately 7,200 rings since the inception of the directory.

Some ring finders request a minimum fee to cover expenses, and nearly all conduct searches on a reward basis if they find the lost item.

Banana bread, a gold necklace and $1,000 are among the rewards Au-Franz received from relieved clients after he recovered their rings, some that are irreplaceable, heirloom pieces that symbolize generations of fond memories and stories.

His most recent find came this fall when he found a man’s platinum wedding band at the beach fronting the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The man placed his ring on his lap to apply sunscreen and soon noticed his ring disappeared. “They started looking in the sand and couldn’t find it,” Au-Franz said.

The man’s wife turned to The Ring Finders website and contacted Au-Franz.

He searched the area where he dug up some coins and pull tabs from aluminum cans before he located the platinum ring.

In a way, Au-Franz said, the pandemic helped him recover the ring. In pre-COVID-19 days, a lot of beachcombers scoured the beaches in Waikiki. Nowadays there are not as many.

If there wasn’t a pandemic, “I would tell you forget it, somebody found it,” he said.

Au-Franz works full time as a mechanic and electrical branch head at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. You might have seen him this weekend scuba diving at the Ko Olina lagoons in search of lost rings for clients.

At times Hawaii’s ring finders encounter creatures during their water searches.

Brent Madison, 50, of Kona recalled heading to Honokohau Harbor to search for a man’s lost wedding band, but a 12-foot tiger shark was in the area where the ring fell.

A fisherman had contacted him after he lost his wedding band when it slipped off his finger and fell into the water while he was cleaning a 700-pound marlin at the pier.

As dusk was approaching, they came up with a plan to get the shark out of the area. Fishermen in a small boat tied the head of the marlin to a line and lured the shark away.

Once the shark followed the boat away from the site, Madison quickly scooped up the ring he spotted poking out of the sand and immediately got out of the water. “That was one of our most exciting finds,” he said.

Au-Franz and Madison estimate they have an 80% to 90% success rate of locating a ring if the person has a general idea of where it fell or slipped off.

“When we do find it, it’s always so exhilarating,” Madison said.

Madison, a real estate photographer, finds it therapeutic to walk along the beach or scuba-dive in the water to help people find their lost items of sentimental value.

So far, Madison and his wife, Sylvie, have recovered about 65 rings on Hawaii island over the past seven years.

He recommended people leave their rings at home or in a hotel safe if they plan to go swimming. When people enter cool waters, their fingers shrink, causing their rings to slip off.

Hawaii’s members of The Ring Finders directory have also recovered rings that have been missing for years. They have also found keys, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and other items.

Turner, the Vancouver resident who started The Ring Finders directory, made the news last month when he found actor Jon Cryer’s wedding band.

Cryer, best known for playing the character Alan Harper on the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men,” lost the ring Oct. 9 after it slipped off his hand when it got caught on his pants pocket.

Cryer said he was walking along a seawall in Vancouver to meet some cast-mates when he lost the ring.

“I pulled my hand out of my pocket and heard a ‘ping!’ to my left. I walked a couple more steps and realized my wedding ring was gone,” he wrote on Twitter.

Panicked, Cryer scoured the pavement in the rainy weather for his ring, to no avail. Married for 13 years, he tweeted how he can’t travel back and forth to see his wife while filming the “Supergirl” series in Vancouver because of the quarantine. “Losing my ring is making the pain more acute,” he added.

He left the area disheartened and returned the next morning where he searched again without success. He turned to the Craigslist’s lost-and-found section to post a photo of his ring when he came across The Ring Finders’ link.

Cryer connected with Turner, who told him it could be tough to find his ring because of the heavy foot traffic on the walkway and that it’s likely someone already found it.

With his metal detector, Turner scanned the pavement and then a strip of grass in the area. After three minutes he grabbed a clump of grass from the strip and revealed to Cryer his ring.

“It’s an honor to find it for him. It’s the best job in the world to help people and help continue their stories,” Turner said during a phone interview from Vancouver. “I get to make people smile.”

David Sheldon, 46, of Kihei shared the same sentiment as Turner. “That’s the whole reason why I do it,” he said. Sheldon has recovered hundreds of rings for more than 20 years.

A majority of his clients are newlyweds. The reaction of people when you return something they thought was gone forever is “beyond words,” he added.

If you need assistance locating a lost ring, Au-Franz, Madison, Sheldon and other ring finders in Hawaii can be reached at theringfinders.com/ directory/us/hi.