Lost Family Heirloom Earring…Found 3 Days Later in Arnold, Maryland Parking Lot

BRIAN RUDOLPH, LOST ITEM RECOVERY SPECIALIST (LAND, WATER, SAND, HOUSES & VEHICLES) WILL FIND YOUR LOST KEEPSAKE! CALL ASAP (301) 466-8644!

I received an email from a young lady named Katheryne who was deeply upset about a lost earring that was extremely sentimental to her, as well as for her mother. She found my information online just by complete coincidence while she was looking to see if anyone had reported finding her lost piece of jewelry. Katheryne read my profile and numerous successful item recovery stories on the highly popular and elite metal detecting service directory’s website called THE RING FINDERS. Since nothing turned up, she thought to give me a shot at finding the earring. Katheryne figured, ‘What was there to lose by trying him out?’

The recent high school graduate shared with me on the phone the background story connected with the priceless possession that disappeared and the theory of how the earring apparently got lost. Over 20 years ago, Katheryne’s aunt who lived in the Phillipines, gave a pair of 14 karat yellow gold hoop earrings to her sister (Katheryne’s mother) just prior to immigrating to the United States when they were very young. Then, sometime recently, the earrings were gifted to Katheryne which simply meant the world to her.

The young lady let her good friend Kim borrow the set of earrings when they went out with their families to celebrate their high school graduation and allowed for their parents to take some memorable posed photos at a few sites. From Katheryne’s house (where they did their hair, makeup and jewelry), the two families boarded her parent’s minivan and headed to their first photo shoot location – a grassy hill with a beautiful golf course in the background.

Once they all arrived at the first site (which was behind an apartment complex), the families got out of the vehicle, walked from the parking lot onto the grass which led between a couple of the public housing buildings and proceeded to take their celebratory memories on camera. Almost immediately afterwards, everyone returned to the van and headed for the next photo location.

Later that evening, after taking the pictures and partying the day away, Kim proceeded to take the earrings off to return them to her friend when they arrived back at Katheryne’s place. That was the moment when she noticed that one of the earrings was missing off of her ear.

Katheryne was disappointed and upset knowing how much this piece of jewelry meant to her and to the family. The house was searched from top to bottom, and so was the minivan that they were all in when they went to the various sites. Subsequently, Katheryne and Kim returned to each place where they traveled earlier, searched the parking lots, the lawns and everywhere else they stopped to celebrate the two graduate’s accomplishments. Sadly, nothing turned up. They weren’t sure where the earring may have gone missing. The only conclusion that Katheryne was able to come to was that the earring was either picked up by someone at that point or it could have ended up at any of the places they were at during the course of their day’s festivities.

Obviously the young lady’s mom was sad that the family heirloom was seemingly gone forever. Nobody really thought that there was a chance of recovering the earring at that point after looking for so long. However, Katheryne was determined to do all that she could to try to recover this priceless keepsake!

At the time of our initial phone call, I was with a client in Annandale, Virginia. After I wrapped things up at that particular location, Katheryne and I covered every detail imaginable so that I could attempt to solve this mystery and help recover the earring for the young lady. I asked her every question in the book until I got a clear picture of what we were dealing with. One such question was: “Do you have access to all of the photos that were taken along the way (from start to finish) so that we could analyze Kim’s ear to see when she was wearing the earring and when it was no longer on her ear?”

Katheryne immediately sent me all of the photos that were taken of her friend and ones that were taken together at the various sites. Once I finished analyzing them, I was actually able to determine that Kim lost the earring sometime between the time she was at her friend’s house getting ready and the time that the families were just about to take photos at the first location! The reason that I was able to deduct this was because the first set of photos did not show Kim wearing both earrings at that moment! The photos clearly showed Kim wearing only one earring! Katheryne was so grateful for that bit of information because that greatly helped to isolate the possible locations as to where the earring fell from Kim’s face!

When I concluded my pre-investigative reporting, I felt comfortable that there was a chance (as slight as it might have been), that the earring could be recoverable. It dropped either at Katheryne’s house, on her front lawn, on her street pavement, in the minivan, in the parking lot at the apartment complex where they first stopped, or on the grassy area just prior to when the first set of pictures were taken.

Within a minute of us wrapping up our talk, I was in my car heading 55 miles from Annandale, Virginia all the way to Arnold, Maryland (near Annapolis) to help Katheryne with this very difficult search. Because my young client had just left town with her folks to go on their annual vacation, I did not have Katheryne around to orient me as to where the two families traveled and walked around. However, she did an extraordinary job of acquiring Google maps and diagrammed the exact place where her vehicle was parked at the first photo session site. In addition to that, she provided me with the address to her house where I could metal detect her lawn, as well as search the driveway and street. That wasn’t all! She also set up a conference call with her friend Kim, and we were all able to connect by phone so that we could go through all of the details together just to make sure that Katheryne wasn’t missing any other pertinent details that would help my search efforts.

After driving an hour and 15 minutes, I finally arrived at the first search site located at the apartment complex where the grassy hill overlooked the golf course in the back of the buildings. Before I took any of my gear out, I did a visual search around the parking lot area where the minivan had been parked several days earlier. I was able to identify the exact parking space based on the excellent intel that was provided to me by Katheryne. Unfortunately, I was unable to effectively inspect the targeted parking space and the adjacent ones to the left and right of it, because there were cars parked all along that section. However, from what I could see, there was no earring lying on the pavement. I did find a couple of coins and miscellaneous aluminum items but no jewelry was discovered.

Once the visual search was complete, I returned to the car and retrieved all of the necessary metal detecting equipment that I needed to conduct my search all around the grassy areas. I started my grid lines closest to the sidewalk which was parallel with the parking lot. I made sure that all of the real estate between the two apartment buildings was carefully searched and nothing of importance was discovered on the surface of the ground. I had tons of signals, but nothing significant enough to lead me to believe that I was hitting the lost hoop earring. Once I finished that center section that led to the backyard where the hill was located, I checked the map and photos that Katheryne sent me and I got a bearing on exactly where the families walked next. Everything matched up perfectly, which allowed me to accurately detect the ground where the young ladies walked and stood just prior to the first photo shoot.

Not only did I grid search that entire section where the families walked around and positioned themselves for the photos, but I covered the entire hill and down towards the bottom of the decline. Katheryne remembered that the two girls walked just a bit down the hill, but not far from where the photographs were taken. I wanted to make sure that there was no possibility that I missed even a foot of grassy area. By the time I completed that large area which leveled out at the bottom of the hill where the golf course fence could be seen, it was completely dark outside and I had expended three hours of search time at that point. I was 100% confident that the earring was not on the lawn anywhere between the two apartment buildings, as well as all of the ground area stretching to the back yard area that I had just finished searching. I resolved that my next step was to drive over to Katheryne’s house and metal detect her front lawn which Kim had walked across leading to the street where the minivan was parked.

During the entire grid search, I gave updates to Katheryne and occasionally I called her to ask a question or two just to make sure that I covered every square inch of that grassy area. Once I gave my client the discouraging news report (which was that I finished searching the apartment complex property lawn and came up empty handed), I headed for the parking lot to load my gear up and then drive to Katheryne’s place. Just as I got to the foot of the parking lot pavement, I purposely decided to walk between two cars that were situated exactly where the minivan had been parked several days prior. I figured that I would look down at the pavement with my high lumen headlamp as I walked to my car, keeping my eyes focused down below just in case I had missed spotting the earring earlier when other cars were parked in those same spaces. I didn’t think much about it other than processing a quick thought that anything was possible (from personal past experiences), and that just maybe…yes, just maybe a miracle might take place. Well, to my greatest amazement, as my eyes were focused down on the black top, I locked in on a small yellow, gold colored circular object that appeared to be a piece of jewelry lying underneath the vehicle that was parked in the same space where the minivan had been parked three days prior. It was maybe resting 6 inches inside of the parking space’s white line under the car. My initial thought was that this particular find had to be too good to be true! Yet, I remained hopeful as I knelt down on the blacktop to carefully inspect what I had detected with my eyes. As I picked up the object, immediately I noticed that the item was in fact a 14 karat yellow gold hoop earring with the clasp still open! Yes, believe or not, I had found the lost family heirloom earring that belonged to Katheryne! I could not believe it myself! I actually found the earring and it had been on the parking lot pavement all that time! Nobody had discovered it throughout these past few days! None of the residents that came out to their cars or those driving into the space or adjacent spaces identified the earring, as well! Nor did Katheryne and the two families spot the priceless piece of jewelry when they returned to photo shoot location #1 looking for the missing item! It is stories like this one that perfectly illustrates why it’s so important to call a professional item recovery specialist from THE RING FINDER’S directory! We are not “your father’s metal detectorist”! Not at all! We are much better than that! We look outside the box and obsess over searching every possible place where we might find that which has been lost by our clients!

The moment that I discovered Katheryne’s lost earring, I made a call to her girlfriend Kim and let her know the amazing news! She was beyond excited at what I recovered out there in the parking lot! I told her that I wanted to surprise Katheryne with my discovery and yet I knew that we could not wait for her to return from her two week vacation. Therefore, we decided that I would drive over to Kim’s place and she would call Katheryne on her phone so we could get a video chat going. That’s when I would break the news of this marvelous recovery with Katheryne! I don’t recall if we were able to make the video conference call work successfully or not, but we definitely connected with her audibly. Katheryne could not believe what she heard when I surprised her with the good news! She was totally taken back when she learned that I had successfully recovered the 14 karat gold earring which had meant so much to her and her family! Kim also felt a huge sigh of relief because she felt so bad that the earring fell out of her ear during their time of celebration. It meant so much to me to hear both of them express their extreme gratitude regarding what I was able to accomplish for them!

I left Kim’s driveway with such a wonderful feeling inside, knowing that I immediately responded to Katheryne’s request for help and that I successfully deducted the sequence of events as to where I should begin the search. As a result, I found what Katheryne and Kim were so desperately looking for! I love what I do and I really enjoy the people that I do these searches for! Moments like these truly never get old! During the entire 60 mile drive home, I wore the happiest smile upon my face! And truly…and that countenance has not diminished a bit in the least each and every time I recall this most fantastic story!

 

Katheryne’s Testimonial:

 

“Brian, thank you so much for all of your help! My mother was extremely happy when I told her this morning that you found the earring, and I am so relieved that it is safe! Thank you so much, I truly appreciate your service! Thank you so much for the safe return of a family heirloom! When it was discovered that I had lost my mother’s gold hoop earring during graduation pictures, I was, needless to say, quite panicked. I knew that searching all of the grassy sites would be pointless, and was beginning to lose hope. I felt extraordinarily guilty when she told me that it was a precious gift from her sister in her youth. Sentimentally, those earrings were priceless to her. I knew I had to get it back, but didn’t know how. I mulled over my options, but none seemed plausible. Searching on foot proved fruitless. But then I found you – “The Ring Returner” after reading about you on the THE RING FINDER’S website! You were very proactive and had excellent timing. You went to the search for the earring the day I called you! You were meticulous and detailed in your search, as well as being extremely thorough and communicative and eventually…you found it! My mother was extremely joyful at its return, and now all is well…thanks to you! I am extremely grateful for someone who does an act so kind for complete strangers, and one can be sure to trust Brian for the safe return of their valuables. Thank you Brian so much!”

 

Katheryne

Arnold, Maryland

 

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If you would like to watch the SEARCH VIDEO and the RING REVEAL pertaining to this story, the video will be uploaded soon. To receive a NOTIFICATION letting you know when the video is uploaded to YOUTUBE: go to YOUTUBE by CLICKING THE LINK BELOW or OPEN your YOUTUBE APP on your device. In the SEARCH BAR, type: THE RING RETURNER, click SUBSCRIBE and lastly, CLICK ON THE « BELL » to receive NOTIFICATIONS when this latest search video is available to view! 

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