I received a call on Wednesday May 6th, at 5:30pm, from Amy. Amy told me that two days earlier, on Monday she had lost her White Gold Wedding Ring, while at work. Amy is a teacher and the Assistant Director, at The Appletree School, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The Appletree school is a preschool for children ages 3-6 and is a unique preschool experience, embracing the outdoor classroom for the children. Being in a “nature-based atmosphere”, Amy is outdoors for most of her day. Amy had her Engagement and Wedding Rings in the pocket of her vest, so as not to damage them, while working with some tools. After finishing the project, involving tools, Amy attempted to put her Engagement and Diamond Wedding Rings on her finger. Unfortunately, Amy’s knuckles were swollen and she couldn’t get the rings on. Amy then put her rings back in her vest pocket and would put them on in a few hours, when the swelling on her finger subsided. Approximately 2-3 hours later, Amy went to put her rings on but only the Engagement Ring was in her vest pocket. The Wedding Ring had gone missing. For the 2-3 hour time frame that the rings had been in her vest pocket, Amy had literally traveled all over the schools property, even indoors. Amy had taken the children down a short nature trail, in the woods. She had also performed yoga, near a large tree, read to the children, near the nature trail, had a sing along time, around a gathering circle and other areas, all over. Amy had the children help her look for her wedding ring. Another teacher had a metal detector and they searched the area, with the metal detector. The ring was not found that first day and the next day, the search continued with the metal detector, children and staff members. Again, no ring was found. On Wednesday, someone told her that they were surprised that Amy hadn’t contacted The Ring Finders of Maine. Amy now had our contact information and she called me, once she got out of work.
We agreed that I would meet her first thing the next morning, at 7:30am. With the entire search covering somewhere between an acre and an acre and a half, I told Amy that I would be bringing Gary Hill with me. A search area that large, could take all day by myself. With Gary’s help , the search of the school’s property would go much faster. Because the search was so large, with lots of open field area, I decided to use my 15” coil and Gary opted for the 11” coil, on our Minelab Manticore metal detectors. These coils would cover the open areas, much quicker and efficiently. The drawback would be that these coils were not as good, when close to metal objects, in the area. The metal could actually mask the gold wedding ring and we wouldn’t be able to hear the ring. There were fences, sand boxes, flower boxes, metal boats, playground , metal toys, etc.. If the ring wasn’t found today with the larger coils, we could always come back the next day, with the much smaller coils and search those areas, much more throughly. The open field areas were probably 80-90% of our search area and the ring had a better chance of being there than in the 10-20% area of the metal objects.
So, Thursday morning, Gary and I were met by Amy and she took us out back where the children spend most of their day and where Amy “thinks” the ring would be. Our concern was that one of the children had already found the ring and put it somewhere, outside the areas, in their pocke, backpack, thrown it into the woods, etc.. This has happened to me twice, in the last three years, where a young child had ahold of a parents ring and placed it where the ring wouldn’t be found for up to a year, on one of the rings. The decision was made to break the search area up into 4 areas and each area would be grid searched , North to South. We would start in zone #1 and finish in zone #4. Gary and immediately knew zone one would be very tough. Very little open area and just loaded with above and below ground metal. Zone #1 turned up nothing but coins, which we didn’t dig and lots of foil, I suspect came from lunches and snacks. The larger metal objects were’t moved at this time. The has a metal row boat that we would only move, if the ring wasn’t found, in one of the other zones.
Zone #2 included much more open areas but still lots of metal, above and below ground. It also included a short hiking trail, for the children, that goes into the woods, for a short distance. There was also a very small brook running along the border, with zone #3. There was a bridge over the brook, along with wood pallets and planking. The brook itself, which I searched had a large piece of metal, that ran along the bottom, possibly a culvert pipe, not sure. I know I couldn’t get any reading in that area of the brook. Zone #2 also included the yoga area and the reading area. along with a fence that borders zone #1. There was also another metal row boat. The searching was much easier and open, than zone #1, but still had difficulty in some of those metal areas. Once Gary andI finished zone #2, we headed over to zone #3.
Zone #3 had lots of challenges also, including multiple fences, including one fence that housed a garden and small building. The fence was also marked with each child’s name, where their backpacks, extra shoes, boots and other personal items were hung and laid on the ground. There was also a wood pile, a third metal row boat and the sing along gathering area, with lots of log stools. We did the search of the area the best were could but didn’t want to touch or move any of the students belongings, to search under them. This was also a very difficult area and still no ring.
Zone #4 was by far the easiest area to search. Although Amy had not gone into zone #4, we had to search it, just on the outside chance one of the children had picked the ring up and dropped in zone #4, while playing. Unfortunately we did not find the ring in zone #4 either. It was now going on 11:00am and Gary and I had been searching for 3+ hours. Where was the ring? We met with Amy and told her the ring was still missing but we would come back, in the morning. I wanted to search, the fence area, where the children’s belongings were, before they arrived for the day, I also wanted to move the boats, benches, picnic tables, toys and anything else that needed to be moved, while the children were not using them. I would also switch mu coil from the 15” to the 9”, in order to get closer to some of the large metal objects. Gary and I would also grid search the area, not North to South but East to West. This would give us a a true gid search.
This morning Gary and I arrived and got right to work. I searched the fence area that I wasn’t able to search yesterday because of the children’s backpacks, et.. The ring was not found in that area. Gary and I were now in zone #1 and we stated emptying the wheelbarrow to move it, emptied the toys, the metal cooking utensils from the toy box. We moved the picknick tables and the metal boat. All for naught as the ring still wasn’t found. Gary said he woulfd go search the wooden pallet sitting area, near the woods and trail, while I finished up zone #1, around the swings and then the flower box. Nothing found in the wood chips, around the playgroung. I searched inside the flower box and still no ring. Gary was finishing up near the reading area and he was also empty handed. I then started down the narrow path between the metal boat and the flower box when all of a sudden, I receiced a loud, repeating, low tone, registering 18-19 on the Target Identification Screen (TID). This was exactly the tone and TID i had been looking for. Definately in the gold range. I looked down but all I could see was pine needles and grass. I used the pinpointer to locate the tatget and as I removed the pine needles, I saw the outline of a ring. Amy’s wedding ring had been found. I motioned to Gary that I had found it and he came over to me. I told him I wanted to surprise Amy with it and to play along. Amy was just 15-20 feet away and I called her over. I told her Gary and I were done in zone #1 and I wanted to know if she had been near the metal boat and bridge in zone #2. on Monday. She said she had and she then turned her head, to look at that area. When she turned back towards me, I was holding the ring up and as Amy saw her wedding ring. I could see her eyes welling up and in a slightly cracking voice, “You found my ring. Where was it”, as I could now see a few happy tears , in her eyes. I showed her exactly where it had hidden, under the pine needles and grass. I also told Amy that “I told you yesterday, we don’t give up.” Amy was just estatic, saying “I need to tell my husband.”, all the while smiling ear to ear and telling all the parents and staff members, in the area that her weding ring had been found. Just a great moment to see.
So, the ring was very close to the flower bed that had metal through out and it and was very close to the metal row boat also. We had just moved the metal boat to check aound it and quite possibly we created enough space that today the ring wasn’t masked by all the metal. I am positive that the choice of using a much smaller coil, around all the metal also played a big role in finding it. Perhaps it was because we searched East to West and not North to South. We will never know for sure. Two days, Two Ring Finders and approximately 4.50 to 5.00 hours of searching had come to a successful ending. We don’t like to give up until we feel comfortable that we did everything, in our power, to find the missing item. Never give up and “If It Matters To You, It Matters To Us.”. Another smile on our clients face, another ring back on the finger and we have the best job, in the world. We love our job💍❤️🙏
