Greg contacted me on the afternoon of November 10th after finding me on TheRingFinders website. He explained that his fiancé, Jenn, lost her platinum and diamond engagement ring in or near the parking lot of his condo in Nashville. I was several hours away, but told Greg I could be there at 10 PM that night, or the following afternoon. Greg asked that I conduct the search the following day when I was available. I met Greg at his complex at around noon and he showed me the areas where he and Jenn thought the ring might have come off her finger while she was making an exaggerated movement. It did not look promising since this search area was about 85% paved asphalt parking with sidewalks on three sides and narrow grassy areas making up the other 15%. My fear was that it was lost on the asphalt and found by another nearby resident.
I used my XP Deus 2 metal detector and began grid searches on the grassy areas on either side of the asphalt parking area, finding only junk metal and a few coins. I then began searching the narrow landscaping strip filled with thick ivy and shrubs that Jenn was facing when her ring flew off her finger. This landscape strip was NINETY feet away from where Jenn had been standing. There was also a tall chain link fence down the entire length of that strip with the other side being inaccessible to me. Although I thought it was very unlikely that Jenn’s ring ended up ninety feet away from her, I continued my grid search of this area. After checking no less than fifty signals which consisted mostly of pull tabs, pocket change and other miscellaneous junk metal, I got a strong signal that piqued my interest. Deep amongst the ivy leaves, entirely hidden from plain sight was Jenn’s stunning engagement ring.
I dusted the ring off before sharing the good news with Greg, who was looking through the ivy about fifty feet to my left. I showed Greg a handful of the pull tabs, coins and other metal stuff that I had removed from the ivy. Greg had a somber look on his face, believing that those were the only things I had found. I then pulled Jenn’s ring from my pocket and said, “and then I found this! Does this look like her ring.” The look on his face was priceless. This was an absolutely gorgeous ring and I was super excited to recover it for Greg and Jenn. I kinda enjoy being “that guy with a metal detector” when people tell stories about their lost treasures being found when they feared they were lost forever.
So before Greg initially contacted me, he thought about buying a metal detector to search for the ring himself. He then did more research online and read that learning how to use a metal detector properly can takes quite a long time, and time was not on his side. He made the right decision by contacting an experienced metal detectorist (me in this case). More often than not when people buy a metal detector to find their lost items, they only get frustrated with the machine because they don’t know how to use it. A high percentage of the jewelry recoveries that I have done were cases where the owner, their friend or family member of theirs used a metal detector to look for the item themselves, and admit to even swinging the coil over the exact location where I found the item with one of my detectors. When I offer to show my clients how to use the metal detector that they bought or borrowed, they always say thanks, but no thanks, and say they would rather just call me instead, and I’m good with that.
