On Tuesday, January 27th, I received a message from Donna, a friend of my wife Cheryl and a follower of my Facebook Page. Donna asked if I would be able to find a cell phone, in a snowbank. She told me that a friend of hers, Bob, had lost his cell phone, while out plowing, a few days earlier, on Sunday. I replied that I could absolutely find cell phones but I had a few concerns,
1. How big was the snowbank? If the phone was in too deep, the detector wouldn’t be able to find it, unless we broke the snowbank down, by shoveling.
2. Has he any idea where and which snowbank, the phone would be in?
Donna then replied that she would have Bob call me directly and he could inform me, of what happened. The next day Bob called me and explained what had happened. He was plowing a very long driveway, in North Berwick (Maine) . On his first pass, of the driveway, he stopped after pushing the first plow full of snow, into a big snowbank, from the previous storms. He stopped as he was backing up, from the snowbank, maybe 20-25 feet from the snowbank, because his windshield was all icy and he couldn’t see properly. He exited the cab of the truck, cleared the windshield and returned to the cab of the truck. He backed up a little more and began plowing, up in the area of where he had gotten out of the truck. When that area was clear, he was backing up, further down the hill part of driveway, when his earpiece , for his phone, said that his phone had become disconnected and was out of range. Bob was surprised because he thought the phone was on top of the center console. He searched the cab of his truck, but his phone wasn’t there. Bob drove back to the end of the driveway, where he had pushed the first plow full of snow and his earpiece reconnected, with his phone. He looked around the driveway but couldn’t see the phone. That could mean only one thing, he had plowed his phone, into the large snowbank, at the end of the driveway. I agreed to meet Bob the next day, at 9:30am and Bob said he would be bringing someone with him, to help shovel, if needed. I told Bob I would also brig a shovel and a second metal detector, which someone would be able to use.
So, Thursday morning, January 29th, I met Bob and Jason at the property, where the phone was lost at. It was now 4 days after the phone was lost and Bob’s earpiece would no longer connect, with the phone. The freezing cold, over the 4 days had drained the battery. The snowbank was maybe 20-25 feet long and approximately 6 feet high. That is a lot of snow. Bob showed me where he had gotten out of the truck and where he had plowed, right after getting back into the truck. Bob was fairly confident the phone would be in the of the center of the snowbank. If we looked at the snowbank and divided it up into quarters, Bob thought it would be in one of the two middle quarters. We decided I would search the two middle quarters and if I didn’t find there phone, I would then search the two end quarters. After searching the entire front side of the snowbank, I didn’t receive any targets at all. Bob and Jason would start breaking down the front side of the snowbank, by shoveling and throwing the snow, into the driveway. I would go to the backside of the snowbank and search the backside. As I stepped off the top of the snowbank I literally went straight down into the very soft snow, up to my waist. Bob also, at the top of the snowbank had the same happen to him. We both had boots full of snow and had to remove the snow before starting back up. After searching the backside, still no targets at all. Bob and Jason had shoveled a few feet off the front side and they were exhausted. I started my other metal detector up and Bob started searching the front side. Over the next hour or so, Bob, Jason and myself took turns shoveling and metal detecting, with no luck at all. Bob started losing hope and said he would find it in the spring, when the snow melted. With the snowbank now approximately half the size it was when we started I asked Bob if he could take his plow and push the remaining snowbank back a little bit, to expose the deeper snow, towards the bottom of the snow bank. Maybe a foot or two at a time and I would then search the newly exposed snow. None of us wanted to keep shoveling as it would take an hour os so to finish, just the center area. Bob readily agreed to give it a try. Bob then pushed back a foot or so of the snowbank and I went in to search the area. No targets were found. Bob repeated the process and I once again went back and searched the area. As I searched towards the top of the newly plowed snow, I received a loud target and I knew deep down, it was the phone. We had literally not received any targets at all, in this snowbank and now, BOOM, a loud target. I started removing snow, with my hand as Jason looked on and Bob was still in the plow truck. As the snow was being removed, I saw the black top frame, of the phone. Jason and I turned to Bob and told him we had found it. Bob walked over and saw the phone sticking out of the snow bank and said “Wow, thats amazing”. Bob was very happy and was planning on taking it over to the Verizon store, in Sanford, Maine. They have something that they can do to dry the phone out in an hour and then download all the data, onto Bob’s new phone.
This certainly was one of the tougher recoveries I have done. Bob, Jason and myself were beat, after all that shoveling. But, It was all worth it, seeing how happy Bob was to have his phone back. As you know, phones are very expensive now and by recovering the phone, any insurance plans Bob has would cover any damage and the phone can now be used as a trade in. After an hour and a half or so, I was ready to go home, as were Bob and Jason. As I drove off, Bob had to finish cleaning up the driveway, because of all the snow, we had thrown onto it. You can bet he was using the plow and not the shovels. So, another phone, back in the pocket and another smile on their face. I truly have the best job in the world.
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