PEOPLE: KELSO HOBBYIST HAS A THING FOR FINDING RINGS, HOPES FOR BIG SCORE

Brian Hale of Sikeston, Mo., was swimming in Lake Whippoorwill nearly a decade ago when he lost his gold Advance High School class of 1991 ring. Hale had figured the ring gone forever until recently, when it was returned to him by a stocky, bespectacled metal detector hobbyist.

Last month, Paul Miederhoff was surveying the beach just under the waterline at the lake, outside Marble Hill, Mo. His metal detector emitted a familiar whine.

Finding rings lost beneath lake sand is not uncommon, said Miederhoff, 52, of Kelso, Mo. People lose their rings when the skin of their fingers contracts because of cool lake water.

"It gets slippery and it shrinks," Miederhoff said. "They won't know they lost it."

Biting a hose attached to an air compressor and using a diving weight belt, Miederhoff sometimes scans underwater using a water-resistant metal detector.

Miederhoff has two cloth-lined jewelers' cases filled with rings he has recovered with metal detectors in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The rings are class rings, Celtic rings, wedding rings, gold rings with turquoise and silver rings.

The combined value of the rings warrant that the cases be stored in a safe deposit box.

Miederhoff was scouring the beach with permission of the lake's owner when he found Hale's ring.

"We have him come out and clean the garbage out of the beach," said John Hedges Sr., who bought Whippoorwill Lake about 18 months ago. "Beer tabs, pull tabs -- he's found everything out there."

Miederhoff said he unearths an average of 100 pennies or pull tabs for every gold ring.

But it's the hunt he loves, he explained, and the promise of one day uncovering The Big Score.

"I know a guy, I worked with him in Texas," Miederhoff said. "His nephew found a Rolex watch worth $3,000."

Of course, most of what he finds is not marked and can't be returned to owners. Hale's ring was the exception.

A co-worker of Miederhoff's who was a graduate of Advance High School in Advance, Mo., thought he recognized the ring. The co-worker led Miederhoff to Hales' parents, who, in turn, led him to Brian.

"Brian was pretty surprised," said Hale's wife, Melissa. "He's been wanting it back, but he thought it was gone."

Miederhoff said he stumbled onto metal detection in the late 1980s on vacation in Arizona with his in-laws. The in-laws brought a metal detector with them for searches in the desert.

"It was a group effort," Miederhoff said. "You could say I got hooked on it then."

Miederhoff said he plans to aid Brian Hale and his brother, Craig, in their quest for Craig's class ring, which was lost by a girlfriend while driving west of Cape Girardeau years ago.

"I have some extra metal detectors, so they can help me look," he said.