Cartier ring found in Lake in the Hills
I receive a text from Yulia inquiring about a possible ring search. Later in the day we spoke on the phone, she informed me that her husband had lost his wedding ring somewhere in the yard while doing some yard work. He had taken his ring off and put it in his pocket in fear of losing it while digging up some bushes. Within a half hour he noticed that his ring wasn’t in his pocket anymore. He was using a tool in the garden and was keeping it in the same pocket as his ring. At some point he pulled the tool out of his pocket and the ring fell out at the same time. He had only been in two places in the half hour since he put the ring in his pocket. The front flower bed, and a raised garden in the backyard. When I arrived I did a thorough search of the flowerbed in the front yard. Nothing. Yulia then showed me the area around the raised garden where her husband had been working. No luck there either. Yulia then said that she remembered him walking from the raised bed into the back door of the house and asked if I could search his path. I said, of course. A few steps towards the house and I got a solid 13 on my Equinox 800. I didn’t see it at first glance. So I used the pinpointer and buried deep in the thick, plush grass was her husband’s Cartier ring!!
Success!!
Another smile for the book!
Thursday morning early I received a call from Chris. He and the family were playing on Pensacola Beach late Wednesday afternoon when his wife, Katarina, noticed her engagement ring was missing. Chris asked if I could help, that he and the family were due to check out of the condo they were staying in a few hours and had to travel back to Austin that day. They had a photo of Katarina or the beach with the ring on her finger and she hadn’t gone in the water so the assumption was it was lost somewhere in the sand. I told him I would be glad to help and would come immediately. Fortunately my gear was already charged up and in my van. I quickly kissed my wife bye and headed for the beach. I arrived about two hours before condo check out time so I got with Chris and Katarina right away and got details about where they were on the beach and the activities they took part in. They pointed out approximately where they set their beach chairs, but there was significant surf the night before and the beach had significant erosion from the waves. Now beach erosion is very common here, sand is constantly, moving around, but their spot was able to set the longitude axis so we started there. Katarina said they played catch with a ball and she had jumped up several time with her arms raised with finger reaching out, which sounded like the place to start searching. All in all the area was pretty big, between one half and two thirds acre. Because the ring was lost in late afternoon and this was the next morning I assumed it was not deep in the sand, my first mistake. Because they were under time restraints I was working faster than normal, my second mistake. Two hours later we got together to reassess and I started again but this time I set the detector to search deeper and moved much slower. I started from the spot where the beach chairs were located and followed the anticipated route Katarina may have taken to where she played ball. About half way to that spot I got a fairly good signal but it was two to three times deeper that I expected. I set my recovery scoop as deep as I could so I could get under the target causing no scratches or damage to a ring, spread the sand on the surface and checked for a signal, got nothing. I quickly stuck my detector coil in the hole and received a much better signal, carefully digging a second scoop of sand and spreading it out I ran the detector over it and pinpointed the ring. Reached down and held it up for Katarina. She was overjoyed! Now there were probably thirty people on the beach many who had watched me hunting not really knowing why. When Katarina received her ring and held it up most of those thirty or so people understood and started clapping. Her two daughters were excited and when to get their Dad. I apologized to Chris for my two mistakes that delayed their trip home, but he didn’t care he was just glad they were returning home with the ring that had been on her finger for 15 years! I think both had half way come to accept the ring was lost forever. It was a happy ending all around. I do not know how the ring was able to get maybe 8 to 10 inches deep and was glad I found it after about three and a half hours but I would have kept going till it was recovered.
