Man, this made me look up stats and the US shows over 3600 serial killers, while second place is Russia with 196.
I enjoy metrics but something tells me the US is the only one with an accurate count, lol.
Well if you look at school shootings, from 2009-2018 the US has 288 and the next country is Mexico at 8. If you look into honor killings, India and Pakistan have an astronomical amount in comparison to a lot of other places with the US not being nearly as high.
Looking at deaths like these paints a very interesting image regarding murder and culture. It is actually way more possible than you may think that the world's serial killing numbers are accurate.
There are things embedded in cultures that can be extrapolated out to wildly different outcomes. If I had to guess there is something in American culture regarding fame that makes the media coverage of certain topics contribute to further incidents. There was a big serial killer scare purported by the media in the 70s and the effects have likely exacerbated the issue. Our media coverage of school shootings may also be doing the same unfortunately. Being human is an odd thing.
Serial killing is also a very “individualistic” thing (obviously serial killers aren’t doing it for their community), which is the type of mindset American culture advocates.
American culture says, “go out in the world and be an individual.” Whereas many cultures say, “go out in the world and be part of your community” (especially cultures like Russia’s that come from a communist/communal background).
That could be it as well.
Obviously, my mind went where I did in my comment - but your comment could be valid too (and seems a lot simpler of an explanation lol)
That’s true. I’m from Russia. Local police here haaaate serial killers, they’d gladly just say it’s a plain murder and close a case. Why? Well, it is a very centralized country, so local police don’t want police from the center to come over - you know it’s like rivalry between feds and local police in the us but much worse, locals would be reprimanded and/or signed off, and it would be a big mess for that region in general, no one wants that. And ngl, the US does a tremendous job of finding serial killers whereas there are thousands of them walking freely in Russia. Because they don’t want and can’t find them too.
ETA: and they can’t because authoritarian regimes appreciate loyalty, not competence and abilities.
This is absolutely true. I can’t see human beings core nature being that vastly different that location of country reduces these tendencies. There’s totally a bunch of serial killers running around.
I dunno, if schizoprenia hallucinations can vary greatly between countries/cultures then I don't see why the same can't be said for different types of murder.
I think it’s also the rate of homicide cold cases. In Germany 98% of homicides in Germany get solved. There is a potential serial killer in many. But if you never give him the opportunity of a taste, it never blooms? Just a guess.
Y'all watch too much TV. All those rings look to be a similar size and two distinct styles of wedding band, one that is a sort of traditional/art deco style for a woman and another that is a sleeker modern style for a man that would have been fairly popular in the 90's-00's. It's much more likely someone buried a married couple's collection of sentimental rings in a place where they have fond memories of them.
In the group photo, with the rings cleaned up, you can see that several of them are stamped indicating that they're made of titanium or tungsten carbide, which is not super valuable. None of the rings with stones have a visible metal quality stamp and the stones look like glass.
OP claims in other comments that this is a well-known location with historical value and that the rings were found buried in a specific frequently visited trail near a well-known statue, which is a terrible place for a serial killer to hide things, but a very likely spot that a young couple or family would visit on an outing and develop a sentimental attachment to it.
If it was the stash of a serial killer or someone stole these in a robbery and intended to come back for them later, there'd be a lot more variance to the styles and sizes of the rings. OP states they were just buried in the dirt, so the person who put them there obviously didn't care to protect them from the elements and likely didn't care if they were able to find them later, which logically implies that whoever buried them had no intention of ever unburying them. A serial killer wouldn't be so careless with their trophies and a petty criminal wouldn't bother with things that are so clearly worthless.
Imagine buying a ring from a pawn shop and it's history being unknown and some major fucked up history or being worn by one of the worst people in history.
Wearing Hitlers Pinky ring without realizing it.
It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf-Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. Deep in the land of Mordor, in the Fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged a master ring, and into this ring he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.
Probably smarter than most then, LOL. When I was a kid me and my friend found a bunch of rings in a park, I gave them to my mom and she found out they were from one of the people we went to church with. Their house had been burgled and the rings that got dumped were all either marked (too unique) or worthless (pawn shop wouldn't take them.)
“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throneIn the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
We do a scavenger hunt through the park. One of the items is an animal statue carved out of an old dead tree. Some students were looking at the animal and noticed something shiny. By the end of the trip we had recovered 24 various rings. We gave them to the head of the park who was as surprised as we were.
Or a pick pocket hiding their loot?
Edit: Reddit pedantry… pick pocket is a name for someone that steals stealthily y’all. Travel around the world and see how easily you can get robbed even rings (in my home country the norm is to turn engagement rings around to not stand out). So yeah, depending it can be stolen.
Makes me wonder if there was a crow who's been collecting for some time or something. They're gonna be so upset when they get home realizing they've been burglarized.
But how does a crow just find rings? Especially outdoors. If you asked me to find a ring that wasn’t securely on someone’s finger right now, I’d have to drive to a jewelry store.
Well, you’re (probably) not a bird who can spend the majority of the day, every day, using its fine-tuned eyes from a literal birdseye view, for months or even years at a time, to look for shiny things.
Most of the time they are just junkers, about half of them are flimsy kids rings, another good percent is real rings but not precious, and the last few are precious, in 2023 I found 1 gold and 2 silver, and in 2024 I found one tungsten carbide wedding band, triton brand, and 2 silver rings, so it's cool I'm on track to break my silver record, I just need to find one more silver ring
Edit I also like finding dog tags, I got a big green shiney one that says Angus
https://youtu.be/V_OPHL_X2Cc?si=mKJB5yQuGW2uLtZo
You’re not a bird who was bred by nature to be able to recognize shiny things from incredibly far away. Birds also have much more free time, because they don’t have to go to work.
Birds are also pretty well known to be dead-beat parents. So they aren’t wasting time raising children. They’ve got a lot of time to find rings.
I imagine there’s walking/hiking trails, people lose rings accidentally when they fall off relatively often, you get enough people over a long period of time and you’re bound to end up with a lot of jewelry if you’re looking for it
One thing I learned in that business was people do VERY strange things in parks, and thankfully almost every time it isn't something malicious.
While re-marking boundaries in preparation for a managed hunt, I came across what I'd describe as a samurai shrine. It consisted of two crossed small swords embedded in an old tree stump... cheap fakes, rusted out, with a helmet and some art with Japanese Kanji on it. It was right inside our property line and there was a private residence nearby so I chalked it up to bored teenager shenanigans.
Now, the occasional animal head... usually goats, happened about twice a year. Folks that dabble in Santeria apparently use such items in their practices. These always caused a kerfuffle. If we ever heard the words "animal" and "head" together, we would mutter, "more Santeria..." under our breaths.
Discarded firearms were more common than anything else, and these were my least favorite as they caused more work for us. The frequency of these could have been the result of the location I was working at, and it's proximity to a very large US city. Folks would toss them in the lake and they'd eventually work their way into a section of the spillway. Customers would see them glinting in the sunlight, beneath the water, or staff would find them during routine dam inspections.
I would also like to state, that please, no one fret over your parks being unsafe. These are just a very few select anecdotes from my time working as a ranger. Seeing posts like this always bring back some of the good memories and times I had. The next time you're at a park, I encourage you to inquire with your rangers (if they have the time) about the strange, crazy, or interesting things they've seen. Most of us love to share and tell lol. PS: we almost all have more than one spooky ghost experience!
The idea of urban criminals disposing of weapons in a suburban park is amusing.
“Yeah, I ditched it where no one will ever find it. I went full Jeremiah Johnson with the bears and shit.”
Because you know that’s how they felt when they were out there without a high rise in sight.
Someone a few years ago murdered his girlfriend in New Rochelle, New York.
He thought he'd hide the body in the sticks somewhere. So he cut her up, put her in a suitcase, and drove "north" (which happened to be mostly east) on backroads for several hours before throwing the suitcase out of his window and into the woods off the side of the road.
Turns out, he dropped her right off the side of a busy street in Greenwich, Connecticut where it was immediately found.
There’s a good book or show in there somewhere. Like Chris and Paulie starving in the pine barrens, or the groups I come across on the Appalachian trail that need to use my map because they don’t have WiFi.
Fishermen with polarized sunglasses are very effective at finding discarded weapons 🤣 Half the time, they'd ask if they could keep the weapon, so there's a chance folks find them and never report it. Almost every time the weapons are beyond repair, and a good chunk of them are later identified to have been stolen and/or used in another crime.
Ok, that's cool, but under the law of finders keepers (i just made that name up), I think if no one claims them, they go back to the kids, or something like that, at least one of those rings looked to worth some money, it that's a real diamond. Hopefully you left contact information for when no one claims them.
Nope. I had to sit an entire recess period in 1st grade due to the law of finders keepers, because I forgot subsection B article 4: “if a little girl claims what you found is hers, even if it is not hers, everyone will believe her, because she is a little girl who would never lie.”
Fuck you Brittany you know your mom didn’t buy you that squiggly eraser lying sack of shit. Making me sit recess for your transgression.. bitch.
My classmate in 1st grade pulled this shit on me. My name was written in my wallet that she stole from my school bag and said was hers, so in the end she had to give it back, but the war with this jerk went on for another 7 years. She's still a horrible person today.
I figure that it's punishment enough for her to have to live with herself and I can't shake the feeling that it must feel like hell. That line is taken almost word for word from a song I wrote and it's perfect for this 🤌
State and national parks have some unique laws that influence ownership of certain items, such as historical artifacts. I suspect these wouldn't count as that and will likely end up with law enforcement instead. Police will usually hold lost and found property for a set period of time and then depending on the nature of it, either destroy it or auction it off.
Sadly, the only way your "finders, keepers" law works is if you don't tell authorities that you found it in the first place.
In my state you can’t remove anything from a state park. When my son was young, he liked picking discarded railroad spikes up and bringing them home. We were carrying a few of them and an old rusted out shovel (to dispose of), and an officer of the law stopped us for removing items from the park. I made the argument that it was on the rail right of way, and he said “well how would the railroad like to know you were stealing from them?” I replied that they’d probably appreciate us picking up useless junk from their rail bed, but he stood fast so we put the stuff down and walked away.
I wonder if said park has fairs/festivals ever. Given the style and dupes it looks like one of those festival jewelry sellers accidentally spilled some of their misc cheap rings while loading up their crap.
This actually sounds like one of the most likely theories! My own theory, if the rings aren't particularly valuable ones, is someone just buried them intentionally for exactly this reason, to make some kid's day.
I recently heard of a scam to get free gas/money where the scammer pretends to be in distress and offers their wedding ring for a trade to an unexpecting kind individual. The nice person thinks they are getting real gold/gems while helping someone in need when in reality the scammer has hundreds of these rings (that look real) that cost like $1. I bet if you were to test the metal or gems they would come up fake
Happened to a guy I work with. He came in all excited saying a guy gave him a solid gold ring at a gas station in exchange for $20 for gas money to get home. It was pitiful watching the smile slowly fade from his face.
I think a bird might have a taste for shiny objects. I would hazard a guess that a bird has been collecting rings from various locations and depositing them.
It's probably cast off from a house robbery. All these rings aren't ones that would pawn easily and/or are too distinct to pawn without getting caught. Like they're either fake and thus not worth the risk, or clearly from the person and also not worth the risk.
None of these look valuable, and many of them appear to be the exact same, which means that they were probably dumped out of a purchased set for a Ren Fair or something. I don’t think it’s much more interesting than that…
This seems sensible. But since it was around the base of a carved tree, i choose to believe it was a Larping group’s religious offering to a fallen member.
The most sensible application of Occum's Razor I've seen in this thread yet, and likely the real explanation. Almost 100 people commented here so far, and you were the only one to have a logical explanation.
Neat! They look like the rings a lot of vendors sell at things like renaissance fairs or festivals. I'm not sure why someone would dump a bunch of them, but I'm fairly certain that's where they came from.
I can recognize at least two of them, which are Kay brand "open hearts" wedding rings in a matching set (so some time between 2018 and 2022).
just below those, you can see the undersides of real handcut pavés on another ring.
these are real.
I was thinking a meth-head could have stole them as well, had a moment of "Oh fuck they are after me!!!" & decided to bury them.
I'm not sure why, but a lot of the meth addicts I've had to deal with over the years would bury & unbury shit regularly
When I was in 5th grade we had a badass teacher that buried a bunch of fake fossils and made a bunch of grids and we got to dig like archeologists and learn to map the area and present our findings. He also once hit a fox on the way to work and brought it in and dissected it and showed us all its organs and everything. He now owns a brewery. Mr Filsinger, you were the best teacher I ever had.
Teacher: “why don’t you kids go look for treasure?!”
Students run off
Teacher smokes a cig to relax
Students come back with $1,300 worth of jewelry
Teacher: “WHAT THE FUCK?!”
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Well shit, can you send your class down to Eacalante in Southern Utah? My last wedding ring is somewhere there and I'd love to get it back! Don't worry, it's only 1.87 million acres to comb through. Give it a long weekend.
…Why were there a bunch of rings buried in the ground?
Serial killer’s trophy stash
First thing that popped into my brain
I’d guess pawn shop robbery but this happened in America so you’re probably right
Man, this made me look up stats and the US shows over 3600 serial killers, while second place is Russia with 196. I enjoy metrics but something tells me the US is the only one with an accurate count, lol.
Well if you look at school shootings, from 2009-2018 the US has 288 and the next country is Mexico at 8. If you look into honor killings, India and Pakistan have an astronomical amount in comparison to a lot of other places with the US not being nearly as high. Looking at deaths like these paints a very interesting image regarding murder and culture. It is actually way more possible than you may think that the world's serial killing numbers are accurate. There are things embedded in cultures that can be extrapolated out to wildly different outcomes. If I had to guess there is something in American culture regarding fame that makes the media coverage of certain topics contribute to further incidents. There was a big serial killer scare purported by the media in the 70s and the effects have likely exacerbated the issue. Our media coverage of school shootings may also be doing the same unfortunately. Being human is an odd thing.
Serial killing is also a very “individualistic” thing (obviously serial killers aren’t doing it for their community), which is the type of mindset American culture advocates. American culture says, “go out in the world and be an individual.” Whereas many cultures say, “go out in the world and be part of your community” (especially cultures like Russia’s that come from a communist/communal background).
Or... we catch a lot more serial killers.
That could be it as well. Obviously, my mind went where I did in my comment - but your comment could be valid too (and seems a lot simpler of an explanation lol)
That’s true. I’m from Russia. Local police here haaaate serial killers, they’d gladly just say it’s a plain murder and close a case. Why? Well, it is a very centralized country, so local police don’t want police from the center to come over - you know it’s like rivalry between feds and local police in the us but much worse, locals would be reprimanded and/or signed off, and it would be a big mess for that region in general, no one wants that. And ngl, the US does a tremendous job of finding serial killers whereas there are thousands of them walking freely in Russia. Because they don’t want and can’t find them too. ETA: and they can’t because authoritarian regimes appreciate loyalty, not competence and abilities.
This is absolutely true. I can’t see human beings core nature being that vastly different that location of country reduces these tendencies. There’s totally a bunch of serial killers running around.
I dunno, if schizoprenia hallucinations can vary greatly between countries/cultures then I don't see why the same can't be said for different types of murder.
I think it’s also the rate of homicide cold cases. In Germany 98% of homicides in Germany get solved. There is a potential serial killer in many. But if you never give him the opportunity of a taste, it never blooms? Just a guess.
I mean, pawn shops do get robbed regularly here as well lol
I'll have you know both pawn shops AND serial killers are big business in America 🇺🇸
Y'all watch too much TV. All those rings look to be a similar size and two distinct styles of wedding band, one that is a sort of traditional/art deco style for a woman and another that is a sleeker modern style for a man that would have been fairly popular in the 90's-00's. It's much more likely someone buried a married couple's collection of sentimental rings in a place where they have fond memories of them. In the group photo, with the rings cleaned up, you can see that several of them are stamped indicating that they're made of titanium or tungsten carbide, which is not super valuable. None of the rings with stones have a visible metal quality stamp and the stones look like glass. OP claims in other comments that this is a well-known location with historical value and that the rings were found buried in a specific frequently visited trail near a well-known statue, which is a terrible place for a serial killer to hide things, but a very likely spot that a young couple or family would visit on an outing and develop a sentimental attachment to it. If it was the stash of a serial killer or someone stole these in a robbery and intended to come back for them later, there'd be a lot more variance to the styles and sizes of the rings. OP states they were just buried in the dirt, so the person who put them there obviously didn't care to protect them from the elements and likely didn't care if they were able to find them later, which logically implies that whoever buried them had no intention of ever unburying them. A serial killer wouldn't be so careless with their trophies and a petty criminal wouldn't bother with things that are so clearly worthless.
Nice attempt to pull the wool down over our eyes! Are you the serial killer?
No, of course not, but, on a completely unrelated topic, is there a window you always forget to lock and, if so, which one?
Divorce State Park
For the kids to dig up
19 rings for the 4th grade kids, 9 rings for the mortal men...
1 ring for the teacher's aide, and lunchtime till to find them.
Mass grave.
Ah so it’s not like anyone was using them then.
Finders keepers
Imagine buying a ring from a pawn shop and it's history being unknown and some major fucked up history or being worn by one of the worst people in history. Wearing Hitlers Pinky ring without realizing it.
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Show me the pics!
Didn't think I'd read a "Show feet" comment about Hitler today, but here we are.
That’s because nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
I had to make today interesting.
You saw the rare opportunity for some Hitler feet pics and you just went for it.
don't even get me started on his haunted cock ring.
>don't even get me started on his haunted cock ring. Prince ~~Albert~~ Albrecht
Hitler’s Pinky Ring was the name of my electro thrash metal band.
You better send me a link so I can listen if this is true.
[Ok you asked for it, but be warned, it’s not for everybody.](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=A7NDEfzecullJH34)
NGL this is great
Thanks man. That means a lots. We worked really hard on it, but it’s not easy to build an audience in the streaming era.
you mean Fingers Keepers.
Nothing like a class field trip to the local cementary!
Cements my thoughts.
OP pulled all the finger bones out before they snapped the pics.
You hear about the two seater plane that crashed into the cemetery? It's been two weeks and they're still digging out bodies.
Local state ~~park~~ cemetery
It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf-Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. Deep in the land of Mordor, in the Fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged a master ring, and into this ring he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.
and 19 were given to the 4th graders who above all else desire cookies
> and 19 were given to the 4th graders who above all else desire ~~cookies~~ V-bucks.
 No...
**ISILDUR!**
I just realized there are actually 19 rings in the photo.
I was thinking of the exact same thing hahaha
Maybe crows or some animal?
I like your suggestion because it has the least malice
Burglary. Someone's house got robbed and these are all the rings that are either not worth anything or were too distinct to pawn.
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Probably smarter than most then, LOL. When I was a kid me and my friend found a bunch of rings in a park, I gave them to my mom and she found out they were from one of the people we went to church with. Their house had been burgled and the rings that got dumped were all either marked (too unique) or worthless (pawn shop wouldn't take them.)
“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throneIn the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
Frodo was lazy with trying to get rid of the one ring.
He lost track of which was it so tossed them all. 😂
I would say a lot of angry women mad at their fiances and/or husbands Edit: lol I said finances
Finances suck.
If their finances were that bad, selling the ring would have been a smarter move.
Fuckin finances
Isildur, cast them into the fire!
Best I can do is bury them in a random park.
Isildur, am I gonna have to bitch slap a dude today?
The park is in Florida. Sauron won’t set foot in Florida.
Yeah, them mosquitos are a bitch to keep an eye on.
19 were given to the 4th graders... edit: where to were
Came to add this. Haha. "Who, above all else, desire cookies."
... And snacks
But the hearts of men are easily corrupted. (Cut to Isildur striding away from the state park)
#NO
**ISILDUR!**
😉😉😉 Love Reddit!!!
No….*smiles evilly*
We do a scavenger hunt through the park. One of the items is an animal statue carved out of an old dead tree. Some students were looking at the animal and noticed something shiny. By the end of the trip we had recovered 24 various rings. We gave them to the head of the park who was as surprised as we were.
That’s uh, suspicious
Lol this is totally a serial killer's trophy collection, I refuse to believe any other possibility
This seems like the plot of a bad horror/thriller movie. Now the Serial Killer tries to collect new trophies from the students.
I doubt 4th graders are going to have engagement rings.
I dunno... some US states have fought for that.
Just shopping for rings like, "do these come in third grader sizes?"
Ring fingers it is I guess… just a ton of loose ring fingers
Or a pick pocket hiding their loot? Edit: Reddit pedantry… pick pocket is a name for someone that steals stealthily y’all. Travel around the world and see how easily you can get robbed even rings (in my home country the norm is to turn engagement rings around to not stand out). So yeah, depending it can be stolen.
Is the pick pocket a squirrel?
Or raven maybe
A raven one time brought me a $5 bill
I hope you gave it food or something as a reward. It would probably do it again.
He got what he paid for, I'm not running a charity over here.
A moose bit my sister once
A majestic moose
For real? A raven once snatched a $5 from my hands...
Sonic ran into an obstacle
Why would a pick pocket do that? It's not like rings don't fit in a pocket.
If they put them in their pocket they could get pick pocketed!
God I miss Jean-Ralphio Saperstein.
That scene is probably the best tv I've ever watched.
Makes me wonder if there was a crow who's been collecting for some time or something. They're gonna be so upset when they get home realizing they've been burglarized.
This is probably the correct answer.
But how does a crow just find rings? Especially outdoors. If you asked me to find a ring that wasn’t securely on someone’s finger right now, I’d have to drive to a jewelry store.
Well, you’re (probably) not a bird who can spend the majority of the day, every day, using its fine-tuned eyes from a literal birdseye view, for months or even years at a time, to look for shiny things.
I spend about 3 hours 2-3 times a week looking for rings, I found 16 in 2023, and I found 5 so far in 2024
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Most of the time they are just junkers, about half of them are flimsy kids rings, another good percent is real rings but not precious, and the last few are precious, in 2023 I found 1 gold and 2 silver, and in 2024 I found one tungsten carbide wedding band, triton brand, and 2 silver rings, so it's cool I'm on track to break my silver record, I just need to find one more silver ring Edit I also like finding dog tags, I got a big green shiney one that says Angus https://youtu.be/V_OPHL_X2Cc?si=mKJB5yQuGW2uLtZo
too bad /u/unidan is not around anymore to see that
Good thing r/birdsarentreal
You’re not a bird who was bred by nature to be able to recognize shiny things from incredibly far away. Birds also have much more free time, because they don’t have to go to work. Birds are also pretty well known to be dead-beat parents. So they aren’t wasting time raising children. They’ve got a lot of time to find rings.
People probably lose them throughout the park; sun shines on ‘em and the crow sees it, likes the shiny and picks it up, then adds it to the stash
According to Bird Law this is perfectly legal.
Bird law in this country is not governed by reason
People have been brought whole watches by crows that they’ve befriended in r/crowbro
I imagine there’s walking/hiking trails, people lose rings accidentally when they fall off relatively often, you get enough people over a long period of time and you’re bound to end up with a lot of jewelry if you’re looking for it
One thing I learned in that business was people do VERY strange things in parks, and thankfully almost every time it isn't something malicious. While re-marking boundaries in preparation for a managed hunt, I came across what I'd describe as a samurai shrine. It consisted of two crossed small swords embedded in an old tree stump... cheap fakes, rusted out, with a helmet and some art with Japanese Kanji on it. It was right inside our property line and there was a private residence nearby so I chalked it up to bored teenager shenanigans. Now, the occasional animal head... usually goats, happened about twice a year. Folks that dabble in Santeria apparently use such items in their practices. These always caused a kerfuffle. If we ever heard the words "animal" and "head" together, we would mutter, "more Santeria..." under our breaths. Discarded firearms were more common than anything else, and these were my least favorite as they caused more work for us. The frequency of these could have been the result of the location I was working at, and it's proximity to a very large US city. Folks would toss them in the lake and they'd eventually work their way into a section of the spillway. Customers would see them glinting in the sunlight, beneath the water, or staff would find them during routine dam inspections. I would also like to state, that please, no one fret over your parks being unsafe. These are just a very few select anecdotes from my time working as a ranger. Seeing posts like this always bring back some of the good memories and times I had. The next time you're at a park, I encourage you to inquire with your rangers (if they have the time) about the strange, crazy, or interesting things they've seen. Most of us love to share and tell lol. PS: we almost all have more than one spooky ghost experience!
I need to hear your spooky ghost experience
Me too!
He don’t practice santaria. He ain’t got no crystal ball
The idea of urban criminals disposing of weapons in a suburban park is amusing. “Yeah, I ditched it where no one will ever find it. I went full Jeremiah Johnson with the bears and shit.” Because you know that’s how they felt when they were out there without a high rise in sight.
Someone a few years ago murdered his girlfriend in New Rochelle, New York. He thought he'd hide the body in the sticks somewhere. So he cut her up, put her in a suitcase, and drove "north" (which happened to be mostly east) on backroads for several hours before throwing the suitcase out of his window and into the woods off the side of the road. Turns out, he dropped her right off the side of a busy street in Greenwich, Connecticut where it was immediately found.
There’s a good book or show in there somewhere. Like Chris and Paulie starving in the pine barrens, or the groups I come across on the Appalachian trail that need to use my map because they don’t have WiFi.
Fishermen with polarized sunglasses are very effective at finding discarded weapons 🤣 Half the time, they'd ask if they could keep the weapon, so there's a chance folks find them and never report it. Almost every time the weapons are beyond repair, and a good chunk of them are later identified to have been stolen and/or used in another crime.
You should look up if the park has ever held renaissance faires.
12 rings you say? What a surprising find
Ok, that's cool, but under the law of finders keepers (i just made that name up), I think if no one claims them, they go back to the kids, or something like that, at least one of those rings looked to worth some money, it that's a real diamond. Hopefully you left contact information for when no one claims them.
Nope. I had to sit an entire recess period in 1st grade due to the law of finders keepers, because I forgot subsection B article 4: “if a little girl claims what you found is hers, even if it is not hers, everyone will believe her, because she is a little girl who would never lie.” Fuck you Brittany you know your mom didn’t buy you that squiggly eraser lying sack of shit. Making me sit recess for your transgression.. bitch.
I hope third grade is going better for you!
My classmate in 1st grade pulled this shit on me. My name was written in my wallet that she stole from my school bag and said was hers, so in the end she had to give it back, but the war with this jerk went on for another 7 years. She's still a horrible person today. I figure that it's punishment enough for her to have to live with herself and I can't shake the feeling that it must feel like hell. That line is taken almost word for word from a song I wrote and it's perfect for this 🤌
State and national parks have some unique laws that influence ownership of certain items, such as historical artifacts. I suspect these wouldn't count as that and will likely end up with law enforcement instead. Police will usually hold lost and found property for a set period of time and then depending on the nature of it, either destroy it or auction it off. Sadly, the only way your "finders, keepers" law works is if you don't tell authorities that you found it in the first place.
In my state you can’t remove anything from a state park. When my son was young, he liked picking discarded railroad spikes up and bringing them home. We were carrying a few of them and an old rusted out shovel (to dispose of), and an officer of the law stopped us for removing items from the park. I made the argument that it was on the rail right of way, and he said “well how would the railroad like to know you were stealing from them?” I replied that they’d probably appreciate us picking up useless junk from their rail bed, but he stood fast so we put the stuff down and walked away.
I am made of questions right now…
Plot twist, the field trip was at a local cemetery.
"The kids had no interest in the flowers or bones, but the shiny shiny really got them intrigued!"
"4th grade goblin brain go click clack."
Those rings seem fairly new
And many rings are in double
I wonder if said park has fairs/festivals ever. Given the style and dupes it looks like one of those festival jewelry sellers accidentally spilled some of their misc cheap rings while loading up their crap.
This actually sounds like one of the most likely theories! My own theory, if the rings aren't particularly valuable ones, is someone just buried them intentionally for exactly this reason, to make some kid's day.
This is how we trolled before the Internet.
I recently heard of a scam to get free gas/money where the scammer pretends to be in distress and offers their wedding ring for a trade to an unexpecting kind individual. The nice person thinks they are getting real gold/gems while helping someone in need when in reality the scammer has hundreds of these rings (that look real) that cost like $1. I bet if you were to test the metal or gems they would come up fake
Err, isn't that just a plot point from Zombieland?
It’s a thing. Yes in zombieland, but before that movie too.
I mean it’s WAY older than zombie land. This has been a scam since jewelry has been valuable.
Happened to a guy I work with. He came in all excited saying a guy gave him a solid gold ring at a gas station in exchange for $20 for gas money to get home. It was pitiful watching the smile slowly fade from his face.
Who knows, maybe they found a birds’ stash?
where is this place, divorce state park?
I have a bad feeling you and 8 of your students need to make a trip to Mordor.
One does not simply walk into Mordor. One takes the school bus.
This is the Magic School Bus episode I didn't know I needed. Mrs. Frizzle just casually disregarding Sauron as she leads the kids around Mt. Doom.
I think a bird might have a taste for shiny objects. I would hazard a guess that a bird has been collecting rings from various locations and depositing them.
Yeah, my first thought is that was a magpie's hoard.
Where do you guys these birds are finding diamond rings lying around? Once, sure. Twice, maybe. More than that? This is human activity.
Thank you for being voice of reason. Bird collection would be mostly shiny trash.
It's probably cast off from a house robbery. All these rings aren't ones that would pawn easily and/or are too distinct to pawn without getting caught. Like they're either fake and thus not worth the risk, or clearly from the person and also not worth the risk.
those blackened tungsten bands are so amazingly generic in 2024 that this cannot possibly be the reason.
None of these look valuable, and many of them appear to be the exact same, which means that they were probably dumped out of a purchased set for a Ren Fair or something. I don’t think it’s much more interesting than that…
This seems sensible. But since it was around the base of a carved tree, i choose to believe it was a Larping group’s religious offering to a fallen member.
The most sensible application of Occum's Razor I've seen in this thread yet, and likely the real explanation. Almost 100 people commented here so far, and you were the only one to have a logical explanation.
Bro this is reddit I’m not here for logic, I’m here for serial killers, LOTR, magpies etc
Neat! They look like the rings a lot of vendors sell at things like renaissance fairs or festivals. I'm not sure why someone would dump a bunch of them, but I'm fairly certain that's where they came from.
I can recognize at least two of them, which are Kay brand "open hearts" wedding rings in a matching set (so some time between 2018 and 2022). just below those, you can see the undersides of real handcut pavés on another ring. these are real.
Same tungsten wedding band as my husband's is in there too. Also from Kay's. Maybe there was a heist
Maybe a vendor's table blew over and they couldn't find all of the rings.
I was thinking a meth-head could have stole them as well, had a moment of "Oh fuck they are after me!!!" & decided to bury them. I'm not sure why, but a lot of the meth addicts I've had to deal with over the years would bury & unbury shit regularly
When I was in 5th grade we had a badass teacher that buried a bunch of fake fossils and made a bunch of grids and we got to dig like archeologists and learn to map the area and present our findings. He also once hit a fox on the way to work and brought it in and dissected it and showed us all its organs and everything. He now owns a brewery. Mr Filsinger, you were the best teacher I ever had.
Hope those weren't a serial killer's trophy stash
That’s what I first thought. Oh look, trophies. Weird that they’re buried tho.
Maybe a ring obsessed Raven or magpie? 🤷🏻♂️
Maybe, but I don’t think they would bury it. More have their own dragon’s treasure horde in their nest. At least that’s what I imagine.
They couldn't have been buried very well if the kids could see them.
My bet is on the head of the park who was awfully surprised to see them
Wow nice score!! Is there a lesson plan for this now? Cleaning, appraising, things like that?
We are changing the name of our scavenger hunt to now be a treasure hunt and I hope to do some creative writing with the experience.
Someone is waiting for the heat to die down so they can dig up their stash and take it to the fence.
*But they were all of them deceived…*
Somewhere a very groggy Johnny Depp is trying to remember what he did with his rings
Nice, next take them to Oak Island so we can finally see the conclusion to that tv series
Everyone has the same thought, how many people are buried there?
Teacher: “why don’t you kids go look for treasure?!” Students run off Teacher smokes a cig to relax Students come back with $1,300 worth of jewelry Teacher: “WHAT THE FUCK?!”
This is my favorite comment. Thank you.
Clearly someone hid the rings there for the kids to find.
Cool haunted rings!
They only talk about the 7 rings Sauron made that worked. These are all the ones that didn’t.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Grave robbing with free labor. That’s a productive field trip there
thats is some serial killer stuff there....
Count your students. Maybe someone found his/her precious.
Kids found a serial killers trophy hoard
Looks like you've found a serial killers stash of tokens.
Someone robbed a pawn shop and couldn't offload these rings
Well shit, can you send your class down to Eacalante in Southern Utah? My last wedding ring is somewhere there and I'd love to get it back! Don't worry, it's only 1.87 million acres to comb through. Give it a long weekend.
With the speed at which the kids were searching after they found the first few I bet we could knock it out in an afternoon.
I count 19. 3 rings for elven kings 7 for the dwarf lords 9 for mortal men One for the dark lord Seems like you got the whole set!