March 12, 2026

Lake Geneva, WI

Engagement Ring Found: No Metal Detector Needed 

Wednesday, 3:45 pm: Drew’s voicemail asks for help finding a lost engagement ring in his basement.  It’s been missing for a month.  Could I come and bring my equipment?

To my knowledge, there is no detector on the market that can only sense gold while avoiding all other metals, so metal detecting inside a house is almost a lost cause.  Copper wiring and pipes, nails galore, and household appliances have enough metal to immediately overload a metal detector.  I was planning on politely explaining this to Drew, and heading home after work.

Thursday, 4:00 pm: But when I called him and realized he was only eight minutes away, I thought, “Why not have a look?”  

Thursday, 4:10 pm: I arrived about 10 minutes later and started talking with him in the basement.  I began ask

ing him questions about why his wife took off her ring, where she put them, etc., I said, “I should really be asking her these questions.  Drew replied, “We can try to Facetime her?”  

Moments later, I was asking her any questions that would help me to see what she was doing in her basement a month ago when she lost her ring.

“Actually it was probably two months ago,” she added.  The more I heard, the less confident I felt about finding her ring.  Drew was attending to his 1 year old upstairs.

I continued to ask questions, and I was able to reconstruct what happened that night.

1. She was doing schoolwork at a small round wooden table in the basement.
2. She took off her rings (engagement and wedding band) as she was pregnant and they were getting tight.
3. Both were set on the table.
4. At the end of the work session, she could only find her wedding band… no engagement ring.
5. She looked under the table, all around, nothing.

I asked one more question.  “Did you have a laptop bag or anything that it could have fallen into?”

Her reply was what I might have expected.  She had checked the bag she had with her at the time, but she could look again.

Before I could think of another series of questions to ask, she interjected, “I found it!”

I must have heard her wrong.  “You found it?” I replied.

Drew heard my question from upstairs, and came pounding down the stairs, asking me the same question, “You found it?”

Not me!  I said, and handed him his phone with his wife’s smiling face, a diamond ring in the corner of the screen.

Thursday 4:20 pm: I glanced at my watch.  It was about 4:20 pm.  “That’s the fastest recovery I’ve ever made!” I said.

Sometimes the difference between a lost item and a found item hinges on the questions asked rather than the equipment.  I own thousands of dollars of metal detecting equipment, have hundreds of hours of experience on land, in water, and underwater, but the right question can often yield the greatest results.