I received a text from Leslie on Monday afternoon concerning a lost engagement ring. She had found me with an internet search. As it was late in the day I told her I could come the next day, becase it was about a two hour drive from where I’m located. I got to the site at around 11:00 AM Central Time. The couple had been pulling a boat and pulled off into the parking lot of an old convience store that had been converted into another use. As they got out to adjust the boat straps, (the ring had been placed in the shallow tray under the door handle), the ring somehow went flying. They looked on the pavement and didn’t see it, but there was a grass strip between the pavement and a shallow ditch, then more grass just beyond the ditch. I started my search in the grass strip, then the ditch, then just beyond the ditch. Being this had been a convience store at one time I expected a lot of metal trash in the ground, and I was right. She did have a metal detector that had been her grandfather’s, but was overwhelmed by the abundance of metal trash. I searched slowly and methodically while listening for the white gold tone and looking for the target ID I typically get for white gold rings. After searching the entire area, no ring. Of course I found several pieces of foil. I turned off my CTX detector, and was explaing the process, where I search the most likely area first, then expand the search area if the ring is not found, (a visual scan of the pavement was next). At that time someone from the building, I’ll call him “Tom”, came out and we explained what we were doing, and that a visual scan of the pavement was next. He struck out towards the highway, and in around ten seconds I heard him call out, “is this it?” He had found it around 10-12 feet from the edge of a busy highway! The ring was intact, but had some minor damage where it looked as though it had been run over and stuck in the tire treads before dropping off just before the highway. In a visual search, the more eyes the better. All in all, another successful search!
