FOUND May 2010 at Kangaroo Valley

If the previous job was easy, this next job was to test all my detecting skills to the max!

Stuart got married on a Saturday. On Sunday his ring finger had swelled up so he moved his brand new 18k white gold wedding band to his little pinky. On Monday whilst playing with the family dog on his parent's property at Kangaroo Valley he threw a bone into the bush for the pooch to chase. Unfortunately his wedding ring followed the bone into the undergrowth!

Next day I was on the road at 5.30am and heading for Kangaroo Valley. Arriving at 7am I was met by Stuart's delightful mother and instantly offered a cuppa! When she showed me the area in which the ring had been lost I was horrified! The ring had landed in thick bush strewn with thick leaf litter, fallen branches and a jumble of rocks. This was going to be a difficult job! Indeed the first hour was tough going as I scrambled thru' the undergrowth poking the detector's coil into every nook and cranny without result. With the vines catching my hair, low branches knocking the headphones off and thorns stabbing my hands, I was becoming despondent.
Taking a breather, I decided to re-work the perimeter with renewed focus. Shuffling the coil amongst some leaf litter I received a strong signal which could only be that of gold! Sure enough - and much to my relief - pulling back the twigs and leaves revealed the lovely site of gleaming white gold!!

Big smiles all around, I handed the ring back to Stuart's delighted mother. A job well done!

Many thanks to Heather and her husband for the encouragement, the help in clearing the undergrowth, the gloves and the cup of coffee afterwards! It is a delight to deal with such wonderful people.

FOUND! April 2010 at Jasper's Brush

Marcia rang me all the way from Jasper's Brush (near Nowra) hoping I could assist in finding a friend's gold signet ring on her front lawn. Whilst enjoying lunch on her mountain property, her friend had switched the ring from finger to finger and it somehow slipped off and fell into the grass below. Despite intense searching, including raking the grass, the ring had not been found.

A pleasant morning's drive down the coast soon found me at Marcia's gate, and following a brief introduction I soon got to work. Luckily the area in which the ring was lost was not large, and I expected this to a straightforward job, and so it proved to be! Less than 5 minutes in the detector sounded off and sure enough there was the glimmering gold signet ring amongst the grass!

Result? One delighted client. Pleasure to meet you Marcia and thankyou for the call.

FOUND! February 2010 at Austinmer Beach

S hannon, a lifeguard on one of Wollongong's northern beaches, had lost his silver cuff bracelet whilst on duty. The bracelet was a present from his girlfriend and with tomorrow being Valentine's Day, he was very keen to get it back!

This proved to be a very quick and easy job as Shannon had a good idea of where the bracelet had dropped off. I arrived at the beach early and headed straight towards the portable lifeguard station as indicated by Shannon. First signal revealed a pesky bottleup, however a few seconds later my detector sounded off strongly and I just knew it was something good! Sure enough there was the missing bracelet shining in the sand scoop!

Needless to say, Shannon was both relieved and grateful to have his item back!

Not all jobs are this easy, but if you have a good idea of where you lost your valuables - and you contact me promptly - chances of a successful recovery are high.

FOUND! December 2009 Wollongong Beach

I received a call from Margaret whose husband had lost his gold wedding band the night before whilst playing volleyball at North Wollongong beach. Searching the sand on their knees Margaret and her husband had failed to find it. I arrived at North Beach with my 5 year old boy in tow, complete with his own sand scoop! I met Margaret who again had been searching without any luck. As this beach is regularly detected by a few old timers, especially around the volleyball nets, there was the possibility that the ring was long gone but I was quietly confident of finding it. I began my grid search and within 10 minutes I heard a solid signal thru' the headphones. Scooping up the sand revealed Margaret's husbands glimmering gold ring! Needless to say Mararet was extremely happy!

Glad I could help Margaret and it was a pleasure to meet you. Many thanks for your generous gesture towards my 5 y.o. - you made his day!



LOST! November 2009

Whilst playing with his family and dogs at Wollongong harbour, Roderick lost his white gold wedding band in the sand at low tide. Unfortunately Roderick left it a day too late to call me, as this small beach is like a washing machine and items get dragged into deep water or buried very quickly. A reminder that if you lose something at the beach you need to call me ASAP! Not one to give up on a cause, I spent several days at this small beach up to my waist in water searching for this ring, to no avail. I even went back a week later to try my luck but regretfully there was no sign of a white gold wedding ring.

Item:                          White gold wedding band

Place:                         Figtree

Date:                          Good Friday 2009

Search time:             10 minutes

Status:                        FOUND!

Mission Name:          White lightening

I received a phone call from Cathryn, a Figtree woman whose husband lost his precious white gold wedding band in their back yard on Wednesday, 8 April 2009.

He had been standing on their back deck and shaking out some clothing when he felt his ring slip from his finger. He heard it bounce off the deck below and thought it had landed in the grass under the deck.

They had searched for it themselves on their hands and knees for two days without any luck.

We arranged that I'd come out to join the search on Easter Friday. On arrival, I didn't need to map out my usual perimeter, as the grass was newly mown and I simply used the mower lines to keep me on track. Their enormous yard was on a 45 degree slope which did add some difficulty to the search, as the ring could have bounced off the ground and landed anywhere.

I started from the area they'd indicated under the deck, methodically following the mower lines as I went. A mere 10 minutes later, BINGO! The ring was recovered in a patch of grass and reunited with Cathryn, who was overjoyed!

This is a great example of how it can make a big difference to a search just having the right equipment. The ring wasn't easily visible to the human eye as it was nestled in some grass, but it couldn't hide from the metal detector!

The couple were delighted to recover the lost wedding band, which had great sentimental value and was irreplaceable to them.

Another happy ending brought to you by The Metal Detector!

LOST

Item:                          Antique Pearl stud earring with gold post

Place:                         North Wollongong

Date:                          Monday, 5 April 2009

Search time:              Four hours

Status:                       Still AWOL

Mission name:           Needle in a haystack

I had a call from David, whose fiancee had lost an antique pearl stud earring after Skydiving the Beach at North Wollongong on Saturday, 4^th April 2009. The earring wasn't an expensive one, but had great sentimental value as a gift from her late grandmother.

David was very organised and emailed me maps of the two areas he thought the ring could be located. His fiancee had been photographed immediately after her skydive with the earring still in place. David thought the earring could either be in Thomas Dalton Park, North Wollongong where the Skydivers had landed, or Stuart Park where they'd spent some time afterwards.

I arranged to start my search the following day, but was not optimistic about finding the earring as there were quite a few factors against it:

.          Tiny item with only a minute amount of metal (the earring post)

.           Very large search areas

.          Public access areas which are very popular. This means that hundreds of people could have walked over the  earring in the 2 days following the loss. This means that someone may already have found it, or the constant traffic could have pushed the earring further into the ground

.         The client was not sure which location the earring had been lost and it was mainly guess-work

Upon arrival at Thomas Dalton Park, I mapped out my usual search perimeter and searched the entire area for around 90 minutes without any luck. I watched a group of skydivers land, unharness and travel by mini bus back to the Skydive the Beach headquarters. I suggested that David also contact SkyDive the Beach to ask if anyone had found the earring in the minibus.

Then it was up the road to Stuart Park, where I made my grid pattern and searched in the area David had highlighted without any success either.

After 2 hours, I reluctantly gave up the search for 'the earring in the haystack'. On Wednesday morning, I returned to the area and searched for another hour without any luck. I contacted some of my metal detector enthusiast colleagues to let them know about the possible earring location in the hope that the earring will eventually turn up.

Sorry David, but as they say: ' The difficult is done at once, the impossible takes a little longer'