Lost pendant

I have another lost, very sentimental, jewelry item that I was able to find and return. I was contacted by a friend who told me that her daughter had lost a really special pendant! The awesome thing about this one was the mother that contacted me kept it a secret from her daughter that I found the pendant and told her that I couldn’t find it. She surprised her with it at Christmas!!

This one was a tough recovery. The item lost was a gold heart shaped pendant. I used one of my wife’s gold pendant that was similar in size to see what kind of tone and numbers it would ring up on my metal detectors. It rang up just like “can slaw”!! Which is little pieces of aluminum cans and from past experiences, I knew there would be a BUNCH of it at the play ground!! I had to dig every one of those signals if I wanted to find it!

Here is the story from the mother that contacted me!

My daughter, Maria lost a very sentimental and unreplaceable necklace pendant in February 2021. This necklace was designed and made for each granddaughter and great-granddaughter from the diamonds in her paternal grandmother’s wedding bands. Fast forward to December of 2021. Maria finally told me that she had lost the pendant. It appears she and some of her friends were playing late at night on the slides at the old Lawrence School in Washington County and after she had slid down the slide she pulled on the neck of her sweatshirt and inadvertently grabbed the chain to her necklace too and broke it. She said she shook out her sweatshirt, searched her jeans but could not find it. Then she and her friends went back in the daylight and looked around, plus she searched the vehicle, but she was unable to find it.

 

In August 2022, I stopped at the school on the way home from a gender reveal party and looked around but did not find it. As much as it upset her, it kept eating at me to try to locate it.

 

On December 14th, 2022, I contacted Steve Wagner to see if he would be interested in looking for it. I sent him a picture of the pendant that was missing. He sent me an aerial drawing of the area and I had Maria’s friend Katana circle the location of where they thought she lost It. Steve said he went out that evening and searched but it got too dark. On December 15th, Steve went out to the location and performed a circle search around the slide. He said 100 pieces of aluminum and foil and 3 hours of searching later he got another strong signal about 20 feet from the slide. He removed the grass from the area and saw something that could be it. He stepped back and took a picture. He then gently removed the dirt around the area and down embedded in the soil was the pendant that had been missing for 1 year and 10 months.

 

From February 2021 to December 2022 that area had been flooded several times, tons of rain and snow as well as other late-night adventures tracked around on the soil. According to Steve, this school playground had also been searched by other metal detecting individuals in the past as well. I cannot express our gratitude enough to Steve for finding this irreplaceable piece of jewelry and I am sure that Maria will cherish it and the memories tied to it forever.

 

Thank you so much Steve, there are no words that can show the appreciation we have for you and the craft you have mastered.