Nathan called this morning needing help with his wife’s lost engagement ring. She had been playing with her dog, and throwing the ball to be retrieved, when with one throw both her engagement ring and wedding band flew off of her hand. Nathan said he heard the ring hit their car which was parked nearby. They proceeded to look in the area, when they found her wedding band in a bush near where the car was parked in the neighbor’s yard. They continued the search in and around where the wedding band was found, but with no success. His wife rented a metal detector the next day and proceeded to search again, Nathan then took up the search with the metal detector when he got home. He told me he could not believe all the metal that was in the yard, which was making the search harder for him with the rented detector. He said he put at least 20 hours of searching for the ring himself not to mention the time his wife and neighbors put in helping. He told me the grass was very high in the neighbor’s yard, and he suspected it was lost in the thick grass somewhere. He also said that the gardeners were scheduled to come today and mow the yard, so I knew I should hurry in order to beat them to the high grass, and arranged to leave immediately. Nathan was at work, so he was unable to meet me there, but gave me directions and photos to show where things had taken place.
I had a few delays on the way with some traffic and an accident, but finally got there at what I thought was a decent time. When I pulled up though, the gardeners were already there, and had mowed the yard, could they have already found it? My heart sank. I called Nathan to let him know, and he told me that he would come over at his lunch hour. This was a good thing, as I would be able to ask exactly what had happened. I searched the areas that he had pointed out to me, and finally searched the whole yard. I should have heard the ring, but nothing but some foil and pull tabs. Nathan showed up at lunch, and we went over what had happened. There was a definite trajectory of her throw that he showed me, so I concentrated in those areas that would possibly be affected; nothing again. I got out another detector that has a faster recovery, figuring that the ring could be getting masked by some iron in the ground, and began my search again. Nathan was helping with more possibilities, but nothing. I decided to search the yard again, and Nathan had to go back to work. I searched the yard again with no ring. I then decided that I could not remain in the box, so I stood in the line of trajectory, and backed up. I kept backing up, onto the neighbor’s porch, surely it would have been seen there. As I was standing there I looked left, the porch dropped off to the ground and there was a 6 tp 7 inch gap between the porch and the house about a foot deep. I saw something silver and round, but thought I was looking at half a buried pull tab. Upon closer inspection, it was the ring. There it was another 50 feet from where the wedding band had been found. Nathan’s wife must have thrown that ball with a Kershaw type of pitch, because it was a total of about 70 feet from where she had been standing. I sent Nathan a picture of the ring, asking if this was what it looked like, when he immediately called, and said he would come back in about 45 minutes. I told him I would wait. Needless to say he was very happy. I know that he and his wife will sleep well tonight, that’s what it is all about.
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard, using the most up to date metal detectors, 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, Northridge, Pasadena, 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.
