Heirloom cocktail ring search and partial recovery

I was contacted by Mary concerning a ring lost three days prior. Mary’s great grandmother purchased this ring in 1967 for her daughter [Mary’s grandmother who had recently passed away]. Mary’s daughter is getting married the end of July and this ring was going to be her “something old” in the wedding. The ladies in preparing for the event were taking the ring to the jeweler for a cleaning.

In a rush to get out of the house, the ring in its original ring box, complete with original bill of sale and payment records, was placed on the hood of the car. The box was the color of the car and also exactly the color of road asphalt. They drove approximately five miles on one of the busiest roads in our area before realizing the ring was missing. Immediately turning around they searched the route.. finding nothing. They searched the road sides for probably a quarter mile to no avail.

Day three, I entered the picture. I questioned them endlessly about the event, specifically that they were sure the ring  was on the hood of that car. They had found another ring box and taken it for a ride, however, it was leather instead of felt and did not come off in the distance they drove. My wife volunteered a felt ring box

The next day,  I met up with Mary and her daughter [whose car they were driving the day the ring was lost] and we took it for a ride. As I mentioned before, this road is extremely busy. I told the daughter that we would drive until the box comes off and then stop immediately before it gets hammered. Well, it came off in a quarter mile and was run over in the blink of an eye. Still good information as to the way it rolled, how far it rolled and the fact it stayed in the middle of the road. The area where the box came off had already been covered by me. I had also previously metal detected the road Mary lives on as well as her ditch area and a short distance on the main road. I had visually searched over a mile on this main highway in both directions.

I made the decision to give up the search and recommended they put this out on face book and hope for the best.  I left them disappointed I’m sure and headed home with my wife’s flatten ring box beside me. Mary stated several times how her ring box was the same color as the asphalt  and about 1\4 mile beyond the area of my ring box demise I noticed a little flat trash in the middle of the road. It was the same color as the asphalt! I thought..no way… yet I pulled over and walked back. I almost didn’t venture out to get it because it looked rusted and flat but just to be sure I did. When I touched it I felt cloth. This had to be it. I rushed back to Mary’s and showed her. It’s the right color,  she said,  yet how could it get that rusty? We pried it open with a craftsman screw driver  and inside was the bill of sale with her grandmother’s name!

All that was missing was the ring!!

With this find, I said, we now have a definite starting point and your ring can’t be far.  Luckily, the area was in front of a small business with a fair sized mowed lawn.  After, two hours of detecting the road side and ditch I finally had a small success. I found the band part of the ring with clear markings on the inside indicating the jeweler.

 

Now all I need to find was the diamond cluster!!

For another two days, I detected both sides of the road and as far as I could figure the cluster had been  thrown onto the lawn…  No Luck… I called it. Not the end results I [or Mary] had hoped.  However,  Mary now had the information as to where the ring went and what happened to it. Perhaps the cluster got caught up in a truck tire tread, or perhaps thrown into the woods …who knows. Mary has filed this with the police and perhaps someone, someday, will find it.