Lost keys Found - Magnolia Grove, Mt. Airy Forest Arboretum, Cincinnati, OH

I received a call from a young woman on a beautiful spring Monday afternoon and she told me how she had been enjoying her visit to the Magnolia Grove, but had somehow lost her car keys. I happened to have my detector with me, and so we planned that I would meet her later that day, after work. Arriving, I tuned my detector, and she began walking me through the grove, as she had been doing earlier that day.

The young woman told me she felt the keys were lost in a specific area and I worked through it with her several times while she was there, expecting her keys to be lying atop the ground and easily located. Afterward, she returned home and I again searched that area several times and then extended my search grid to cover the entire grove. About two and one half hours later, I shared the sad news with her, that I had been unable to locate her keys for her.

Several days later, just by chance, I had a another key search schedule change and so I contacted this young lady to learn if she had located her keys yet and she said she had not. There had been several good rain showers this afternoon and so I felt my detecting might be enhanced. I changed my detector settings, retuned, and started again in the same area that she had originally indicated she felt her keys would be located.

Within less than thirty minutes, I heard a good strong signal but I did not see her keys. I stooped and checked with my pin-pointer and still, no keys. I rose to continue my search and checking that signal again, even though I still did not see the keys atop the ground, I saw that there was some grass and leaf cover in this area. Stooping to check again, I noticed a small depression which I had not seen before. There were leaves covering it and within it, and so I quickly swiped through it with my fingers and had started to rise again when I stopped. I had noted the depression was deeper than I had thought it was and also, I thought I might have felt something that could have been the tip of a key. Pressing deeper into the hole with my pin-pointer, this time I got a signal, and as I started clearing out more of the leaves and debris, there they were!

Though it had been a tough and disappointing, initial search, I did enjoy the beauty of the Arboretum and the fragrance of the Magnolias.

Today however, everything was even more satisfying, because I was able to locate this young lady’s keys, and I believe she too was pleased and surprised when I texted her a picture of them.