Lost Platinum Wedding Band at Lake Ocoee...Found

I was contacted by Phillip on November 29 about his ring that he lost at a park on Lake Ocoee in Eastern Tennessee.  He had lost his platinum wedding band on the Saturday before while at a roadside park. He was brushing the leaves off a tablecloth when his ring came off. He felt it come off, but wasn’t sure which direction it went.  They had been married for only about two years, so they were both just a little upset.  He and his wife searched the area until well after dark to no avail. He had even gone to a local sporting goods store and bought a low cost metal detector, and went back on Sunday morning.  He quickly found out there were a lot of targets in the ground there and was quite overwhelming! After that they did a Google search and www.theringfinders.com popped up. He works for the local Volkswagen plant here and couldn’t get off until the coming weekend, so I met him there the next Saturday morning on December 4^th.  The leaves are all pretty much gone from the trees now and on the ground, so I knew the ring wouldn’t have been visible to someone walking by. The picnic table was at the bottom of a steep hill and the hill by the table was covered with leaves that were nearly a foot deep.  I searched that area first and found the usual pull tabs and foil that are common at parks. There is a paved walk right next to the table, so I searched the ground next to the walk, across from the table.  Just as I was about halfway past the table I got an interesting signal.  It was obviously trash, but mixed in there was a good strong signal.  I slowed down my sweep and used the short wiggle motion to help identify the target I was hearing.  It was the low tone that I was expecting for platinum, and I was getting a consistent 12:09 on my CTX.  I brushed away the layer of leaves with my foot and immediately saw it.  Phillip was a little distance away with his metal detector and didn’t notice that I had found it. So I started taking pictures of it right where it lay. I picked it up and pretended to continue my search for a little while.  After about another ten minutes I quit searching and walked over to where he was and started asking more questions. He assumed that I hadn’t found it yet, so he was quite surprised when I held up my hand and showed him the ring!  The ring was less than a foot from the walk directly adjacent the table.  The actual search time was about twenty minutes.