Diamond Stud Earring With White Gold Post And Setting, Lost In Wells, Maine Grass,Found With A Metal Detector
I received the following message, from Jennifer, on Friday night, May 9th.
“Hi! I lost a diamond earring in my backyard. Do you think you can help me locate it? We live in the Moodysection of Wells, Maine”.
I replied
“Hi Jennifer, I am so sorry to hear this. Are you sure it was lost in the yard? Did you see or feel it coming off?
Also, do you still have the matching earring, so I may set my detector up with it? Gold stud earrings are the most difficult to locate because there is so little metal on them. With that said, I do have a program that does a great job, on stud earrings. I would just like to use the matching earring, for setup and testing. We can keep it in a zipped sandwich bag, so that doesn’t get lost”.
Jennifer’s reply
“Hi! Thank you for getting back to me so quickly!
Yes, I felt my fingers go to my ear and pull. Was being pulled by my dogs. I saw the earring “go flying.” I have a general idea where it could be. Just can’t see it.
I do have the matching earring”.
I then asked her a bunch more questions and she told me that the earring was just lost a hour earlier, at 7:00pm. She also told me that the lawn had been mowed, earlier in the day and the law had no stand water or muddy areas. This was all good to know and would help in the search. I then told Jennifer that I would come down tomorrow afternoon Wells, once the rain stopped, the next day. I would access the situation and see just what the lawn area looked like and just how wet and muddy it was or wasn’t. If I could search after the rain stopped, I would. If the area was bigger than I thought, I could come back in the next few days, with someone to help me. If the area was as small as I thought, I couldn’t have two of us in the same area, because our metal detectors would interfere with each other’s machine. Stud earrings are extremely difficult to find, due to the lack of metal on the post. Any interference would result in false signals and we may not find the earring.
After the heavy rain stopped, I drove down to the Moody section of Wells, Maine, and met Jennifer. She gave me the other earring and I made some adjustments to my Minelab Manticore and the earring was picked up with no problems. My pinpointer also was picking the earring up with no issues.
Jennifer then took me to the backyard and showed me the area she was in, when the dog pulled her forward, resulting in the earring flying off, into the grassy abyss. Jennifer and her family showed me where they visually searched the area, immediately after losing it. They even used flashlights, after dark. Unfortunately the grass was wet from all the rain we have been having and the water on the grass was glistening to much, to be useful. I looked at the area and decided I would grid search, from just behind a pit on the lawn, to the neighbors driveway. I would then take a half step over and head back towards the pit. I needed to make sure I was overlapping my previous grid line, so as to not miss anything. I also was swinging my metal detector extremely slowly, so the processor could pick up all the non ferrous low conductor targets. My first grid line was approximately 30 – 40’ and took me 15 minutes to grid search it. I was going very slowly and being deliberate, checking every target two and three times. I then started back towards the pit and I had a non ferrous low conductor target, ringing up on my VDI screen between 01 and 03. This was the same reading I was receiving , with Jennifer’s matching earring. Unfortunately I couldn’t see anything, in the grass. To be through, I removed my pinpointer and moved some grass, still couldn’t see anything. I then started moving the pinpointer through the grass and the pinpointer found the target. I pushed the grass aside and staring right back at me was a Diamond Stud Earring. I Stood up and saw Jennifer visually searching, while running her fingers through the grass and I said “Jennifer, I found your earring”. Jennifer was very surprised and came right over. I showed her exactly how I found the earring and then stood the grass back up, so the earring was no longer visible. She then told me “You’re my hero” and we then hugged. She was so happy to have her Diamond Earring back, especially since tomorrow is Mother’s Day. I just absolutely love being able to recover and return lost items It’s the best feeling in the world.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the mothers out there. I hope you have a FANTASTIC day🌹❤️🙏