I got a call today from a fellow ring finder who covers the area further south of me. He had prior commitments and couldn’t make it to do search right away, so he asked if I could take the call for him. I agreed and reached out to the person in need, Robert.
On the phone, Robert explained that he had been doing yard work, digging in three different garden beds, when he noticed a hole in his glove and realized his wedding ring was missing. I told him I could be there in about an hour, and he said that would be perfect.
When I arrived, Robert showed me the first location where he had been doing some digging around , which was the same spot where he first noticed the ring was gone. I explained that rings are not always in the spot where people first realize they’re missing, but this is a good spot to start, as it’s the most likely. . After quickly searching the area, including the hole where the bush had been planted, I didn’t find anything.
Next, we moved to another small garden bed on the other side of the house. This area had a lot of metal interference. There was a four-inch metal border around the bed and a nearby gas meter causing all kinds of signals. Still, after carefully checking, I was fairly certain the ring wasn’t there either. We quickly move on to the last garden area, and had the same results there.
I explained to Robert that since his glove had a hole, the ring could have slipped off anywhere throughout his day. He had assumed it would be in the area where he was digging, but I told him that’s not always the case, and we needed to consider all locations where he had been making pulling, pushing, or tugging motions.
When I mentioned searching the whole yard, he looked a little overwhelmed. But I reassured him that my 15-inch coil would help speed up the process. Then I asked him where else he had been that involved movement that could have dislodged the ring. He mentioned being near the bird feeder but was convinced it wouldn’t be out there.
We walked to the backyard, and he showed me exactly what he had been doing. He had dumped water from the bird feeder in a specific area. I started scanning around the platform where the feeder sat with no luck. I then moved slightly to the left, swung my detector once or twice, and there it was, his wedding ring, just to the left of the bird feeder!
I suspect that when he dumped the water, his ring slipped off and fell into the garden bed. This is a great example of why it’s so important to carefully retrace a persons steps and focus on motions that could have caused the ring to slip off. More often than not, lost rings aren’t where people expect them to be, they’re hiding somewhere unexpected and just need to be tracked down.
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