Multiple Pieces of Stolen Jewelry…Recovered!!!
The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP 925-580-2590
The story behind this recovery in some ways is very similar to that which I perform on a somewhat routine basis. However, In some ways this was much different and took much more patience and thought.
At a little past 11am on the 10th of May, I was out metal detecting with my soon to be 5 year old son. We had just pulled out our machines a Vanquish 540 (my sons) and my equinox to start a little park hunt. He had dug his first target, a rusty nail. I was just about to put my headphones on when I received a text message and then, a voice message. It was a call for help stating that the previous Saturday there had been a home invasion where the thief took jewelry and ran, dropping the jewelry as the alarm went off. They had recovered some of the jewelry from their yard but requested that I come help to locate any and all of the fallen jewelry I could. And with that, we packed up our gear and headed 30 minutes south to assist.
In was now midday and getting warm when we arrived at the residence, a large and beautiful home on a hillside. The owners met with us and thanked us for such a quick response. They showed us the rear full height window that had been smashed and where some of the stolen jewelry had been recovered leading to the fence in the back of the large backyard. The task was to search the opposing side of the fence which was a large parcel of open space on a hillside. I was not sure if it had been a blessing or a curse, but only a day or two prior the city had mowed a 50 foot swath of defensible space right up to the fence line. The search was now on!
It did not take long to get my first hit, a silver cuff-link, and my next, a gold cuff-link. And then, a very colorful sandal pendant with multiple gemstones. Most of the pieces were being recovered at the corner of the property line which was likely to be the location the thief jumped the fence. I called this my “anchor point”. 7 pieces of jewelry were recovered from this area. I searched the area until no other pieces or targets (there was a lot of trash there too) could be found. I then established a grid and worked outward from my anchor. Prior to the search the homeowner had mentioned a gold bangle bracelet encrusted with gemstones that had been visible prior to the weed abatement operation. As I spread out and expanded my grid, that was the next piece I recovered buried in the recently mowed weeds. It was slightly damaged and quite a bit away from the spot it had been previously seen. My guess was it had fallen prey to the mower, but I used a landscaping flag to mark the location it had been found and retrieved the beautiful piece.
All of this happened within the first 30 minutes of our busy search, and then… nothing!!! The next 30 minutes of grid search only revealed trash and not much of that either. And then, bang!!! A beautiful yellow gold and diamond encrusted earring. A sight for sore eyes and our first new lead in the direction that the thief may have went. Again, the piece was marked with a flag and recovered.
For the next hour, I worked the grid, expanded the grid, worked the grid, expanded the grid, but no new pieces could be located and the trail had gone cold. It was now two hours of searching in the fully exposed sun with no new direction and seemingly acres of open space covered in tall dry grass. The operation was shut down.
In all, we managed to recover and flag 9 pieces of jewelry, some of which were sure to be very valuable. The beautiful bangle bracelet turned out to be very sentimental, a wedding gift from the brides mother-in-law on her wedding day and was the highlight of our operation. Our client seemed to be very thankful for our efforts and we had indeed MADE THE RECOVERY!!!
8 of 9 Pieces recovered from the thief’s escape route.
The beautiful gold bangle bracelet with gemstones.
1 of 9 pieces recovered from the open space field.
The last and furthest piece located!
All smiles for a great recovery!
The Bay Area Ring Finders Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP 925-580-2590
Kerry called during the day and left a message wondering if I would be able to help find his lost wedding ring on the beach in Wildwood NJ. I called him right back to go over some of the details about how he lost his ring. Kerry explained he was on the beach with his family, playing with the dogs, and when he looked at his hand he noticed his wedding ring missing. He was very detail oriented, recalling every move leading up to the beach episode. After going over every detail of the day, he distinctly remembered having it on at dinner, and was almost positive it came off while playing with the dogs on the beach. Well, then he mentioned that he had searched the entire area with a metal detector and had no luck. They had also walked back and fourth the entire distance many times. If you know this beach it’s quite a vast area, kinda like walking to another zip code or two. I hope that brought things into perspective a bit. It was getting dark so they threw in the towel for the day, and returned the next morning with rakes to rake the entire area with hopes the ring would pop up. With no luck, it was time for them to pack up and head back home. I asked him to mark the exact location on his cell phone, with the GPS feature on Google Maps, and send it to me with a picture of his ring, and I would head right there after work. I parked right by the boardwalk, grabbed my gear and headed out to the beach. I opened the location he sent and somehow it was right where I was standing on the beach just beyond the boardwalk. I figured I would follow the dog tracks, but with the wind blowing about 30 knots they were getting covered by the drifting sand. Kerry had mentioned that he was straight out, and roughly 50′ from the high tide line, which was a good thing. Once I got close to the water I was able to see the area they had been raking earlier that morning, without that mark I highly doubt I would have been able to find the spot. Another huge thing in their favor was that the area was flat wet sand from from the prior high tide, and even though it had been raked quite a bit, didn’t blow flat, with the screaming south east wind. I turned on my machine, made one path around the perimeter, and on my return path Bingo!!! My machine gave off the sweet sound of success. A nice solid low tone, which I knew immediately was Kerry’s ring. Once back at my truck, I called his relatives phone hoping they were in town, but they were not. Then I called Kerry with the good news, and arranged to meet him at a later date to return his ring. another great recovery in the books.
