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Kattie called me because she needed help finding her diamond engagement ring in her small apartment near Venice, CA. The last time she saw the ring it was on a napkin on the kitchen sink. An hour later, just before stepping in the shower Katie realized her ring was not on her finger. She wasn’t sure if she took it into another room or if her fiancé had thrown out the napkin into the trash. I talked with her for a half hour, giving her several ideas how to search her residence. One important thing was that she was sure the trash was checked.
I explained that my large detectors don’t work well in homes, but I have a few tools that help with inside searches. Then, I recommended that she try the search suggestions I gave her. If she didn’t find the ring I could come to help her. Two days later I met with her to see what type search conditions existed in the small apartment.
The first areas I searched were the kitchen drawers and all the floor areas the ring could have been kicked or rolled underneath, like the stove, refrigerator and washer. Sometimes rings get into a item on the floor, like shoes, clothing or rugs that have been moved to another location. I noticed a small opening underneath the toe space under the kitchen cabinets. The space under the cabinets was not accessible, so I tried using my inspection camera (endoscope). It was difficult to focus and I wasn’t sure that the camera was working properly.
Kattie’s sister showed up to help her search the bedroom while I checked the bathroom and front room. After running out of places to searched, I went back to the search the dead space under the kitchen cabinets. The camera is on a flexible shaft that takes some practice to learn how use it efficiently. The two sisters were busy searching the bedroom. I spent 15 plus minutes maneuvering the small flexible camera around the 30”x 36” space. Actually I was rehearsing what I was going to tell Kattie because I felt this was going to be a “No Find”.
Then, BOOM… I saw a ring on the inspection camera screen. Trying not to wiggle the camera, I called Kattie iand her sister into the kitchen where they were able to see her ring in the camera. Kattie fell to her knees on the floor and the both sisters screamed with joy.
The rest of the story involved getting the apartment management to arrange for the maintenance personnel to help retrieve the ring. After waiting too long for the maintenance person to come. Kattie and her fiancé decided not to wait. They asked if I could help and I was able to enlarge a hole where a drain pipe passed through. Then Kattie’s sister who had the smallest arms was able to use a fork to drag the ring close enough to grab.
It was a miracle find because she had no recollection of moving the ring from the sink. I only felt the ring could have bounced up more than 3” into the space under the cabinet because this was just like another search I had done. Also I had read about another similar ring find by one of our RingFinders members.
“I WILL TRY ANYWHERE “
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