I received a call from Noreen on June 24th regarding a diamond ring that her mother Edna had lost while out swimming in the lake the day before. After asking Noreen a few questions I agreed to drive out to the lake the next day.
June 25: I arrived at Ma Me O Beach and met Noreen and her mother Edna, at the cabin. Noreen showed me the area that they were in the lake swimming. The area was huge, approximately the size of a football field. I told Noreen that the search was going to be tough, almost like looking for a needle in a hay stack!
The search took me over four sand bars which were waist deep, and chest deep between each bar. It was good that Noreen had pictures of her mother on a float tube and this gave me a good reference point to start my search. I searched the area for about four hours and called it a day. I told Noreen I would be back the following day.
July 26: I decided to do an early morning search because the lake would be smooth like a sheet of glass which made it a pleasant time to search. The water was clear so I was able to see the sandy bottom. Noreen also wanted to assist in the search so I gave her my backup detector. We went over the search area that I did the previous day and had no luck. The weather forecast for the next few days was not good; the lake would be very rough and impossible to do a good search.
July 3: The Lake was calm and a nice day for a search. After studying the pictures and checking my GPS tracking I decided on an area but again had no luck. My equinox 800 developed problems so I changed to my 3030 and proceeded to search, again with no luck.
July 11: A very busy day at the lake with lots of people out. We covered a huge area with no luck.
July 16: I expanded my search area. I must say for a busy lake the bottom was very clean with hardly any junk in the lake. Again, another day with no luck.
July 21: I regrouped with Noreen and her brother Dan and asked again the same questions which I had asked before. I must have sounded like a broken record to them but it was very important to me. Again we did a thorough search of the area and again no luck. I could tell Noreen and Dan where starting to doubt if the ring was ever going to be found. I told them I would find that ring and that it just takes time. Edna said to me that the ring is gone and someone else was going to find it. I told her if someone was going to find it that would be me. That helped to reassure Edna. Edna had just celebrated her 93rd birthday on the day she lost her ring. The ring had been given to her by her father and had been on her finger for the past 60+ years.
July 26: I did a weather check and the lake was rough, but the day was expected to be a nice so I decided to head out again. When I arrived, the lake was rough so I waited it out and by noon the wind died down so we were able to search again. I told Noreen that I was going to find the ring today if I had to stay in the lake all day! Two hours into the search I received a loud tone followed by a sweet low tone. Music to my ears! I knew it could be the ring. I scooped it up and to my surprise there was the ring! I walked over to Noreen and asked her if this was “IT”. She could not believe that I had found her mother’s ring after so many hours in the lake searching. What a wonderful feeling that was for me to be able to see Edna put the ring back on her finger.
Thank you, Noreen for sticking with me and not giving up on me. Another happy client
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Norm, awesome job and good persistence!!! It sure paid off in the end! Always a great feeling!