I had only been home about an hour from conducting a successful ring search on the other side of our great state of Wisconsin when I received an email from Phil Johnson in Greenfield, WI. On November 14th he lost his wedding ring while cleaning out the rain gutters on his house. He had no idea where to begin searching. Carly, Phil’s wife joined him, scouring the immediate vicinity of the house but without success. The white gold inscribed ring had vanished.
Like an increasing number of people in his situation, Phil turned to the Internet for tips on searching for lost rings. That is where he discovered The Ring Finders website and my profile on its directory of Metal Detecting Specialists here in Wisconsin.
Phil had plenty of questions. What kind of success rates did I see? How long does a search take? Are there terrain limitations I needed to be made aware of? How quickly did a search need to be done? How could he go about scheduling a search? And when could I come? It was clear from Phil’s questions he was a detail man. I like that because recovering lost rings is all about details. Details can mean the difference between a successful recovery and a ring that eludes discovery despite even the best search efforts.
It was my plan to drive over to Phil’s house the next morning. However, work responsibilities and pouring rain combined to delay my search until late in the afternoon. By the time I arrived, the rain and the wind had increased significantly. The street in front of the Johnson’s home was like a torrent of water. I donned rubber boots and rain gear, calibrated my XP Deus wireless detector and made my way to the front of the house. In my mind I settled in for a long soggy evening searching the entire .3 acres.
As often is the case around houses, the ground was full of metallic debris. Further fine-tuning was needed to discriminate against ferrous metal and high mineralization in the ground. I also used a test ring of the size and gold quality that closely matched the one Phil described. Tuning complete, I made exactly four sweeps of the coil when suddenly I heard a perfectly matching signal to my test ring. Thinking I needed to make further adjustments to my detector, I bent over to look more closely in the gathering darkness. As I did so, rainwater poured off my parka. Parting the grass with my wet fingers, I saw to my utter surprise it was Phil’s wedding band!
Phil, you asked, “How long does a search take?” Well, congratulations for being my client with the fastest ring recovery to date! I conservatively estimate it took less than 4 minutes to fine tune my equipment and locate your ring. Your recovery was also my third one in just 7 days, a personal hat-trick record!
It was great meeting you both. May the story of your ring continue for many years! And thanks for your generous reward.
Nice Job Paul! Glad to hear Folks are being helped around the world by TheRingfinders:) 4 min recovery after 7 days lost?!! The XP Deus must be a good machine to those that have spent the time too learn it.
Calls seem to come in bunches at times. Why is that? I had 4 calls in Aug. and found 3. That was a fast recovery and from the sounds of the weather, it was a good thing! Nice work!