Sunday morning, I received a call from Erin inquiring if I might be able to help find her earring that was lost in her yard. She explained that nine or ten days prior, she had been spreading fertilizer on the lawn. She drove below a low-hanging branch, and felt it catch on her ear. She quickly stopped, and found the back of the earring on her shirt, but the diamond stud was gone. She checked her clothing , the lawn tractor, and immediate area, but didn’t find it.
Erin then did what many others do, acquired a metal detector. She had the matching earring, but her detector couldn’t find the small amount of 14k gold in the mount. Then Google search, found me, and made the call.
It was great timing, and I was able to go over later in the day. I loaded two of my best suited detectors and headed out.
Arrived, met Erin, and went over the details. She had the other earring, so we placed it in a small ziplock. I dropped it on the lawn and ran the first detector over it. Nothing. Made several adjustments to settings, but still struggled to get a good response. Switched to the trusty Manticore with a 10” coil, and in gold field mode with some adjustments, I was able to get a faint but repeatable response. I held onto the other earring as a reference, and began searching. Shortly into the search I decided to switch to a smaller 8” coil. Recalibration on the detector, and started again. Shortly thereafter, I hit a perfect target, good tone and display. Looking down, I saw the missing item slightly buried in the ground.
Erin was close by, so I said “I got it” and she excitedly came over. When she got to me, I of course couldn’t find it visually, and it took a few moments to find it again with the Manticore.
It’s always so gratifying to hand over something to another person they thought was lost forever.
This was a challenging search, with a great outcome. It was also amazing to meet people who traveled the same path as me, and reconnect with shared memories.
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