We were out visiting my brother-in-law in Thousand Oaks last night, and were finishing up a dinner at a local restaurant when I received a call from Brain about 8:30 PM about the loss of his wife’s ring. It was lost in a park, and he wondered if I would be willing to come and find it for them. I told him I would, but explained that I was about 70 miles out from Long Beach, and it would take a while for me to get home, gather my equipment, and get to his location. I told him if he would be willing to meet me there, I would come. Fortunately they lived close to the park so he agreed to meet me when I arrived.
I finally arrived at the location at about 11:00 PM, and Brian was there to guide me in, and help me get parking, which was scarce. The park was small, so for them to narrow down the scope of the search was relatively simple. Brian showed me the area, and explained how his wife had thrown something for their dog to retrieve, when her ring flew off of her finger. The problem was that it was getting dark at that time, and the grass was browned, so with the lighting conditions, and the ring being a similar color as the grass made it almost impossible to see. I began my grid, and made two passes encountering a lot of trash metal and some coins, which I did not dig because I knew I was looking for a surface loss. When I made my turn for the third pass I heard a good sound that was showing shallow, so I got the pin pointer, and fine tuned my search. In the light of the pin pointer I saw the ring we were hoping to find. All this time Brian continued his relentless search for his wife’s ring. When I had the ring in my hand I looked up to see Brian bent over with his flashlight in one hand, searching through the grass with his other hand, and I asked him if we hadn’t been searching at least 15 minutes, to which he agreed. I then said that he might want to come over and see what I had found, to which an expression of disbelief came over his face, when I held out the ring.
Brian explained that his wife was given a ring by her late grandfather, which she used to make a replica (this lost ring) that would fit her finger so she could wear it in remembrance of him. So to lose this ring was to lose something very precious in memory. I am so glad to have been able to restore joy in this family, see Brian’s smile, and know his wife was smiling too.
Brian sent the following email to include here:
Steve,
You are the man! Thank you so much for coming over tonight. I know you were busy and enjoying your evening, yet you made time to make our night. You are a great man for doing this work. This was your 3rd ring in as many nights and you simply kick ass at making people happy. Thank you so very much and many blessings to you and your family!!!
Warmest Regards,
Brian & Sara Morrison
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.
I always love reading the story about the ring and what it meant to that person…I’m glad you helped continue that story for the young lady!