June 20th to 24th found South Milwaukee residents, Tim and Ashley, camped out at the Ford Festival Park near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. They were taking in the Country USA Music Festival for 2017 attended by some 40,000 people. Unfortunately, rain had turned the campsites into a muddy mire. Then on Friday night the toss of a frisbee sent Ashley’s engagement ring flying off her finger into the drizzling darkness. The next morning the couple purchased a metal detector from the local WalMart but found nothing other than debris from countless campers over the years. The chances of extracting a petite gold ring from the tramped mud and accumulation of beer cans, pull tabs, foil wrappers and other metalic remains, bordered on impossible.
On Monday following I received an email from Ashley asking if I could help. Once on location I was the recipient of the kind cooperation and assistance of Ford Festival security employee, Robert, who secured permission to search and who provided a most helpful map of the individual campsites and Tim and Ashley’s site number 1724—ground zero. But after an ever widening three-hours of painstaking investigation through rubbish and mud, further hunting seemed futile. Even with a carefully calibrated state-of-the art XP Deus metal detector the little ring eluded my best efforts. Perhaps someone had already found it, I thought to myself.
I had mentally decided to call off the search and break the sad news to Tim and Ashley that I was not successful. But then on my way back to the car a signal in my headphones prompted further investigation. It came from the remains of a large mud puddle in the roadway. Countless vehicles had driven through it. After digging and removing several bits of aluminum foil, a golf-ball sized clump of mud emitted both a promising tone and the appropriate conductivity numbers for white gold. Probing further, a flash of metal caught my eye. There, squished into the clod was Ashley’s ring! Amazingly it was no worse for wear considering its abuse from the tires of so many vehicles.
Tim and Ashley, I’m so delighted for you both to have found your ring! And thank you for your generous reward.
If you or someone you know has lost a ring, contact me. I and my colleagues at The Ring Finders are happily available to assist.
TESTIMONIAL:
“We thought the ring was gone forever and that the website [theringfinders.com] was a scam, but Paul proved us wrong within a matter of hours. We will forever be grateful and keeping his number on file!”
Ashley
Those camping areas can prove really tough and thank God he put you over it on your way to the car!! And not a scratch on the ring either!