Vancouver ‘Ring Finder’ reunites actor Jon Cryer with lost wedding ring

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Actor Jon Cryer paced the Seawall, “despondent” and “drenched,” lighting up the path with his phone’s flashlight trying to find his wedding ring Friday night.

Saturday morning, after a false alarm caused by the glinting metal frames of a lost pair of glasses, Cryer “trudged” home and got online.

Enter Chris Turner, one of 700 people in a worldwide network of “Ring Finders.” They’re equipped with metal detectors, and ready to answer frantic calls from people in exactly Cryer’s predicament.

“I live for the phone calls,” Turner says.

“This is the best thing I’ve ever done, to see how happy you can make somebody. It’s fantastic.”

When Turner took Cryer’s call Saturday night, he didn’t know he was speaking to the actor widely known for his roles in Pretty in Pink and Two and a Half Men.

All he knew was that the chances of finding the ring were slim, given where it was lost and how much time had passed.

“The area where this ring was lost, it should have been right out where somebody could have picked it up and walked away with it,” Turner explains, adding Cooper’s Park is mostly concrete with only a small patch of grass.

In a series of Tweets, Cryer describes losing his ring, noting that while he’s filming Supergirl in Vancouver he and his wife can’t travel back and forth to visit each other due to COVID-19.

The “ping” Cryer described wasn’t a good sign, so Turner prepared him for the worst.

“A closure search is when I come out and search knowing there’s a high risk of it not being there. It was probably less than a five per cent chance of finding it.”

When Turner showed up with his metal detector to search for the ring Sunday morning, he recognized Cryer immediately.

“I said, ‘Hey, by the way, I really liked you on Two and a Half Men,'” Turner says.

“He was so humble and grateful.”

And that was before the ring was found, a moment Turner caught on camera.

Turner says the ring “somehow” rolled into the little bit of grass rather than landing on the concrete where it would have been easily visible, and vulnerable to being scooped up.

“It was his lucky day. We help find people’s lost smiles, today was fantastic. It was a great Thanksgiving for me to go and find his smile,” he says.

As the weather gets colder the Ring Finders get more calls for service, according to Turner.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people lose their rings in the winters. Your hands do tend to shrink a bit when they’re cold so it’s a common way to lose stuff,” he notes.

“That’s what happened with Jon. He was walking, he took his hands out of his pockets because they were wet and cold, and when he pulled his hand out his ring got pulled off.”

Turner has reunited hundreds of people with their rings, but he thinks that number could grow exponentially if more people knew about the Ring Finders.

“Every ring has a beautiful story attached to it,” he says. “I wonder over the years how many people have lost their story, the story that was attached to their ring, and just walked away with no second chance.”

Ring finders don’t charge a fee for their service. They only ask to be reimbursed for gas.

So the cost doesn’t change based on whether the search lasts for minutes, hours, or days.

“It’s not based on how long it takes, it’s based on whether we find what they’ve lost,” he says.

When a ring is found, they’ll accept a reward.

“We leave it to people to pay what they can afford.”

For Turner it’s about the search, and the possibility of a happy ending like the one Cryer had.

“If I can, I will definitely go and try,” he says. “I want to see like a million smiles before I die.”

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