Strawberry-Patch Ring – Fond du Lac, WI
With winter approaching, Matt was spreading a protective layer of straw over his strawberry patch near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. That’s when his 14k white gold wedding ring slipped off his hand in the cold. Despite renting a metal detector and searching through the straw, the ring could not be found. It was like the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Like many people in Matt’s situation, the rental of a metal detector can end up being a frustrating experience. The ground was full of metallic debris, leftovers from nearly a century of farming. Matt’s experience with the rented machine was similar to that of others. His ring remained in hiding and he wondered if he would ever see it again. That’s when Matt found me on The Ring Finder’s directory of metal-detecting specialists. 
I met up with Matt late in the afternoon, just before sunset. He led me to the wire-mesh and net enclosure where the plants were protected from deer and birds. Setting up my XP-Deus ll equipment, it wasn’t long before my earphones were telling me the story of long-discarded metal objects in the ground. Little wonder Matt’s rented machine proved futile. Newer, state-of-the-art technology, however, triumphed over the obstacles. It only took about 5 minutes before a conductivity signal in the range of mid-grade gold flashed on my controller. A pin-pointer quickly located the target beneath the thick layer of straw. I let Matt pull away the straw to reveal and retrieve his precious ring. The smile on Matt’s face tells the rest of the story and shows as I’ve said so many times, “It’s more than a ring!”
