Ring found at Volleyball court

I received a call from a woman franstic about her lost ring.  She was playing volleyball and jumped to spike a ball, and when she hit it her ring flew off.  The game was stopped and numerous people looked for the ring, but it was not to be found.  Her husband decided to go to the local store and buy a (CHEAP!) metal detector to look for it.  First off, it was not high quality.  Secondly, they did not really know how to use it. S till, it beeped on a few things and they dug, but no ring.  Then, after 4 hours, they called me.

I arrived and set up my Equinoz 900.  I used a regular park setting, with no special settings required.  It shoudl have been an easy search, right?  I knew it was there, it was a clean area, and it could not be too deep yet.  So I started searching.

I searched back and forth, just not believing my lack of finding it, for almost an hour.  I had confirmed with her where she was standing, how she hit the ball and where it should have fallen.  Then, I decided to use logic that has served me well int he past.  « If it is not where you are searching, elimiate that area and search where it should not be.  Because it must be somewhere, and that is all that is left ».  I expended my serach.

It was a large volleyball court.  I searched the whole thing on the side she was facing.  Nothing.  then, I even decided to search the side she was on, behind where she hit it.  Of course, it could not be there, but it was not where it was supposed to be so I wasn’t going to stop with what I had done so far.  I searched.  Nope, it was not there either.  So I expended the search AGAIN.  if it is not where you searched, search somewhere else.  I went BEYOND the volleyball court, about 40 feet form where she spiked the ball at the net.  Lo and behold, just as we moved to that area, the ring was sitting right there.  Not under any sand, not hidden from view.  Just in a spot where it should not have been.  yet it was there, and it was found.

Although it sounds like captain obvious, I know searchers who search where something « has » to be and then when they don’t find it they eventually have to give up.  Because they know if can’t be anywhere else.  yet if it is not found, it MUST be « somewhere else ».  My expansion helped me find it, and the owner was very happy.  I have her picture, and she is showing off her rinf that was now back on her finger.  ALthough it was hard to locate, I had a fun search.