Lost Wedding Rings Found! – Trempealeau County, WI

Veterinarian, Dr. Sarah Slaby, was assisting her husband, Noah with chores on their family’s Cozy Creek Farmstead near Arcadia, WI. All was routine until Sarah arrived back at house and realized to her horror that her wedding rings were missing! That was Saturday evening, November 14th.

She recalled having the rings on her finger as she removed nylon netting on a bale of hay out in a field. Some of the strings had become entangled on the ring’s diamond posts. It crossed her mind to remove the rings and put them in a pocket for safekeeping, a precaution she later regretted not heeding. Thus began a desperate search. But where does one begin to look for a ring on a farm and in a barn full of hay, cattle and manure? The proverbial needle-in-a-haystack metaphor seemed very real.

After fruitless hours searching on her hands and knees through feed troughs and around hay bales it was all Sarah could do to fight back the sickening feeling at the thought that her precious wedding rings might be lost forever. Had a cow ingested them? If so, they could be anywhere by now.

The next day I received a call from Sarah. She was thinking of renting a metal detector but while looking on line she stumbled across The Ring Finders website and its directory of metal-detecting specialists. Would I consider coming to Trempealeau County, a four-hour drive away? Dr. Slaby was able to provide a precise chronology of her activities, a factor that contributes greatly to successful recoveries. History, in fact, is key.

I arrived at the Slaby homestead the following morning around 9:00 a.m. The weather was threatening rain and so we began the search outside in a field where she had last observed the ring on her finger. The rain, however, forced our retreat to the barn and to an area where she had been stripping hay from a large round bale and feeding it to the Holstein herd. Almost immediately I picked up a distinctive signal from my XP Deus wireless metal detector, one I was hoping to hear. Unbelievably, beneath a three-inch layer of hay and straw lay Sarah’s wedding rings! The accompanying photo of the rings is complete with dust, just as they were found. It wasn’t quite like finding a needle in a haystack, but I think it came awfully close!

Thank you, Sarah, for allowing me the privilege of recovering your precious rings and for your generous reward. Our success was largely due to your precise chronology of events, without which, the recovery would have been nearly impossible. My four-hour journey home was a satisfying one knowing you and your family would be savoring your ring’s story and the video that you took of the occasion with little Zionah. We prayed for success. God, by His grace, was pleased to answer our prayers.