Lost a ring in a lake in Austria?

Stay where you are. A ring that slips off in a lake sinks close to where it fell, and one lost on the lawn is in the grass around your spot. Right now you still know where that was.

These are the pages written for Austria. Pick the place you are at, because the depth, the lake bed and the rules are not the same at any two lakes.

You can post from home too. The place and the day are enough to start.

How Retrievly works

1. You post a request. What you lost, roughly where and when. You mark the spot on a map, and a photo helps.

2. Someone nearby offers to look. People who own a metal detector see a rough area, never your exact spot.

3. You choose who goes. Only the person you pick gets the exact spot. Meet in daylight, somewhere public: Retrievly vets nobody.

We are new in Austria, so there may be nobody signed up near your lake yet. Then we go looking: we ask in the local detecting groups and forums and send them your request.

No money goes through Retrievly. If you want to thank whoever goes out for you, that is between the two of you.

Places we already know

• Kärntner Seen · Österreich

  Ring in einem Kärntner See verloren

  Ring am Wörthersee, Millstätter See, Ossiacher See, Klopeiner See oder Weißensee verloren? Meist liegt er noch dort. Was jetzt hilft und wer sucht.

• Salzkammergut · Österreich

  Ring im Salzkammergut verloren

  Ring am Attersee, Mondsee oder Wolfgangsee verloren? Meistens liegt er noch genau dort. Was du jetzt tun kannst und wer mit der Sonde für dich sucht.

• Wien · Österreich

  Ring in Wien an der Donau verloren

  Ring im Gänsehäufel, an der Alten Donau oder auf der Donauinsel verloren? Er liegt fast immer noch dort. Was jetzt hilft und wer mit der Sonde sucht.

• Neusiedler See · Burgenland

  Ring am Neusiedler See verloren

  Ring am Neusiedler See verloren, in Neusiedl, Breitenbrunn, Rust oder Mörbisch? Wahrscheinlich liegt er noch dort. Was jetzt hilft und wer für dich sucht.

• Somewhere else in Austria?

  These are the only places we have written pages for so far. You can still post from anywhere else in Austria. If nobody near you has signed up yet, we go and ask the detecting groups and forums there for you.

  Post your lost item for free

The first ten minutes

1. Stop moving. Every step in the water stirs up the bottom, and every step on the lawn widens the ground somebody has to cover later.

2. Mark the spot. In the water, line yourself up with two fixed things on the shore, like a jetty post and a tree. On the lawn, just leave your towel where it is.

3. Don't feel around for it. Hands and feet push a ring into the mud, and the cloud they raise hides it.

4. Take a photo and drop a pin. Get something in the photo that won't move: a jetty, the bathing ladder, the kiosk.

Already on your way home?

Most people only notice in the car or while unpacking. You don't need to go back. The lake, the day and roughly where you went into the water are enough to start.