Late Tuesday, May 26th, I received the following voicemail.
“Hi there, my name is Hillary S***. I found you from Facebook. I lost my diamond wedding ring. Uh this morning. And um, I’ve been searching for it and I’m having no luck. I live in Freeport, Maine and I’m wondering if you are around and could maybe help me find it. I’m hoping for a miracle. Um, I basically put it in my pocket. I was heading out the door and, um, put it in my pocket on my way to drop my kids off at school. So there’s a couple of locations here in FreeportME where I’ve already asked permission if I could bring somebody over to do a metal detector kind of thing. So one place would be just the Freeport Montessori School , which is right in front of the Town of Freeport Library here. Um, and also through the trees, which these 2 places are like within 30 seconds of my house and then my own driveway. So it’s about a 2 minute drive to each of these locations from each other. Um, and in fact, through the trees, they have a metal detector. So this like teenage boy has been over there. trying to help locate it, um, But so far no success. I’ve searched through my car, thinking it fell out of my pocket while I was driving. But anyways, if somebody could give me a call back, uh, my phone number is area code 607-***-***. That’s 607-***-*** and again, my name is Hillary. Um, and I’ll be around all week. So if somebody’s able to come, it would be great to talk about what you charge and how it works and figure it’s better than nothing. All right, thanks so much. Bye- bye.”
I called Hilary as soon as I saw the voicemail. Hilary was very upset and told me that she has been wearing this engagement for 16 years and wanted to do everything possible to locate it. Hilary is also 8 months pregnant and this morning her wedding and engagement rings were not going on her finger because they were so swollen. She had taken them off, the previous evening because the were so tight, on her finger. Hilary has two children that she needed to get them to school and was a little behind. Since she couldn’t get the rings on her finger, she put them in her pocket, intending to put them on in a few minutes, when she returned home or whenever the swelling went down. Hilary also told me that she had put her keys, in the same pocket as her rings, along with her phone. Hilary and the children went out the door and each child was dropped off at their different schools, respectively. The entire trip to both schools, with getting out of the vehicle was only 15 minutes or less. Once Hilary arrived home, she reached into her pocket to try putting her rings on again and only her wedding ring was there. The engagement ring was missing. Panic set in and Hilary immediately went out side and searched her vehicle and gravel driveway. The engagement rig wasn’t found. She then went to the Montessori School school in Freeport , Maine and to the Through the Trees school where one of her children attend. This is a non profit outdoor school starting for preschoolers. The engagemet ring was not found at either location. Hilary told me that the owner of the outdoor school has a metal detector and that both the owner and his 13 year old son had been searching for her ring but have not been able to find it. At both schools, she had gotten out of her vehicle and the area at both were very small, as to where the ring could be. Hilary’s husbund had also been searching their property and vehicle, along with the two schools. I could tell Hilary was just beside herself and wanted to find this so badly. This ring represented 16 years of her and her husband’s life together, with two children and a third on the way. I told Hilary that I was already booked early the next morning but it was for a water shutoff valve, that wasn’t going anywhere and I would search for her ring first, then the valve. We agreed to meet at her house at 7:00am, bright and early. I would also see if GH would be able to help, now that I had two jobs lined up and had no idea how long each would take.
Gary and I arrived propmtly at 7:00am and Hilary showed us the area of her gravel drivway that she had parked in. Even though Hilary and her husband had visually searched the driveway, rings have a way of hiding, in the loose gravel and possibly even hidden underneath the loose gravel. The area was very small and we didn’t find the ring but did come up with a dollar or so, in coins, just under the gravel, with no digging required. As Gary and I were driving up to Freeport, we both agreed that the ring most likely came out of her pocket, when taking her keys or phone out of her pocket. Unfortunately, it didn’t fall out, in her driveway. With the possibility of the ring coming out, of her pocket, in her vehicle, I brought my Borescope, so we could check every crevice around her seat. The small camera at the end of the Borescope can get into places that the human eyes can’t get to. After a search of the vehicle, still no ring. Off to the first school, Through the Trees. The school was literally just 2-3 minutes, from her house. She had dropped her first child off here and had backed into the gravel parking lot, got out, walked across the drivway and a grassy area, to a picnic table, where she left her child, with the other students. Hilary then returned to her car and drove to the Montosorri School, just another few minutes down the road. As the three of us stood in the driveway, Gary and I went over the search areas. The gravel parking lot and the path across the grass, to the picnic table. I didn’t have high hopes of finding the ring here as the owner and his son had already searched. I asked Gary which side he wanted to search and he took the grassy path and picnic tabe as he was closer to those locations. Ok, I will take the gravel parking lot. Within 90 seconds of searching I hear Gary say, “I got it”. Both Hilary and I swung around and looked at Gary and I said to Hilary, “He found your ring”.. Hilary looked shoked and said something along the line of, “Are you sure? I don’t want to look and be disappointed”. We walked over to Gary and he asked Hilary if that was her ring. Gary hadn’t touched the ring and it still was in the grass. Hilary couldn’t see it until gary told her that it was right in front of his detector. When the ring came into focus, beneath the grass, Hilary says “Oh my God, THATS CRAZY, OH MY GOD, THATS AWESOME.” She then is just beaming ear to ear and puts her hand to her face and says “Oh you guys are the best” and let out an relieved laugh. When I asked her how she felt, she said she didn’t know what to say. I did post a very short video of Hilary seeing her ring, after Gary found it. Please check it out. She was still amazed and in disbelief. Hilary then showed the owner of the school, that her ring had been found and another mother that had just showed up and everyone was very excited, laughing and smiling. As Gary and I drove off, we could see Hilary still beaming, showing her ring and admiring it, back on her finger. So how did Hilary’s engagement ring end up there? The most likely explanation is that after dropping her child off at the picnic table, Hilary walked back towards her vehicle and removed the keys out of her pocket, causing the ring to fall out.
Another ring back on the finger, another smiling client and I’ll say it again, “We have the best job in the world. I love my job. If it matters to you, it matters to us.”??❤️?
