Wedding Ring Lost 103 Days and Found! - Milwaukee, WI

A hot July day found Milwaukee resident, John Marszalkowski, enjoying the shade of a canopy in his yard. But when a rainstorm came up, its accompanying winds threatened to damage the structure. John wrestled the thrashing canopy in the deluge to keep it from lifting skyward. In the process, he felt his tungsten wedding ring fly off his hand. He made a mental note where he was located in the yard, thinking He would look for it later when the present crisis abated. But when he returned, the ring was nowhere to be found. He and his wife searched on their hands and knees, systematically parting blades of grass, all to no avail.

As the days turned to weeks, John decided to cut his grass shorter in hopes it might reveal the ring’s hiding place. That too, proved futile. Bumping up his search efforts a notch higher, John procured an inexpensive metal detector, but it too was fruitless. Indeed, the detector’s audio response could only be described as a constant unintelligible din. It was as though the air itself was full of metal.

The months passed. John kept thinking of his ring, one of a matched pair he and his wife wore. While tungsten is generally believed to be one of the hardest metals known on our planet, the polished finish had somehow turned to a dull gray color. A jeweler suggested John’s skin might have a chemical incompatibility. Indeed, some cleaning solutions and chemicals have been known to degrade tungsten under certain conditions. Even though John’s ring didn’t look as attractive as it was when new, its sentimental value kept the memory of it very much alive in his mind. Then John’s wife discovered The Ring Finder’s directory of metal-detecting specialists. I received a text message and arranged to meet John the same afternoon.

In my forty-plus years detecting, the electromagnetic interference (EMI) at John’s house was some of the nastiest I’ve experienced. Thankfully, my XP Deus 2 equipment with its state-of-the-art programming and controls, allowed me to cut its sensitivity back and make the noise somewhat tolerable. In addition, the ground was full of roofing nails and metallic debris of every description, creating a metal-detectorist’s worst nightmare. Little wonder John’s efforts were thwarted.

Barely 10 minutes into the search and a few yards farther than where John believed the ring fell from his hand, a conductivity signal consistent with tungsten flashed momentarily on my controller’s screen. However, other signals and all the EMI threatened to overpower it. But a quick investigation with a pinpointing device, revealed the ring’s hiding place deep in the grass. I invited John to ‘discover’ his ring using the pin pointer. He knelt down beside me and quickly located and plucked the love token from the ground, thus ending 103 days of suspense. John’s emotional response and smile only reinforced the truth; what I say so often, “It is more than a ring!”

If you or a loved one has lost a ring, even months or years ago, chances are it can still be found. Don’t let its story end. Call me today!