Found Jewelry Amongst Glendale Fire Ashes
Mike lost about 60-70% in a fire in Glendale, CA a couple months ago. He got ahold of me through the RingFinders website and chose me due to my fire recovery experience from many previous fires. I pulled up to a large two story house up in the mountains. Once he showed me where his mother’s closet was, where a lot of the jewelry had been stored, it seemed like the majority of the second story and the roof had collapsed onto the first story. So I made a grid of the area, set up sifting screens, and methodically started to shovel material into the screens from one corner of the house to the other. After a short amount of time I began to find glass crystals which were remnants from a large chandelier, and many other artifacts that the family had from previous generations. After a couple hours of digging, I recovered a small, melted box that held many pieces of jewelry including a beautiful large, white gold cross covered with stones. After a little more searching, I made the plan to come back another day during daylight. About three weeks later after the heavy rain had died down, I returned to the site. Hesitant to climb a ladder to the second story, with a rickety burnt out floor and no roof, I started the same process on the second floor for other lost jewelry from a bedroom bureau. Right away I began to find earrings, charms, medallions, and many charred coins. I couldn’t find everything they had lost in the fire, but recovered everything that I could, that I could safely get to. Mike was very happy to call his wife and mother to tell them about the recovered jewelry that they believed was lost forever. They are looking forward to rebuilding their lives in a newly modeled home.
Amy was visiting the grave site where her precious little one–Jean Francis Butterfly Butler– was laid to rest. It was a rather warm January day and the rings on Amy’s ring finger were feeling tight so she removed them and slid them into her pocket-along with the keys to her van. It was a quiet and peaceful time, sitting there by her little one’s grave site, as Amy reflected on the many things she had to be thankful for. Soon it was time to pick up her 7 year old daughter from school, so she folded up her lawn chair and headed to the van, pulling out the keys from her pocket as made her way across the short grassy area. As she slid into the drivers seat she remembered her rings and reached into her pocket and discovered–NO RINGS! Frantically she retraced her steps to where she was sitting and after a thorough search she was able to find her wedding band, but no diamond engagement ring. She walked back and for over the small area–but could not find her precious ring.
Bill was taking his little nephew for a ride on a small four wheeler and as he stood up to get off he noticed his heavy gold chain was unlatched and his special “Road Runner” pendant was gone. This pendant was given to him by his late father 30 some years ago as a very special gift. Bill immediately started looking for it and spent hours searching thru the long grass and sandy areas where they had unloaded and ridden the four wheeler. A few days later they used a metal detector and tried and still were not able to find Bill’s lost pendant.
