Tuesday morning, April 15th, it was raining outside. I would be driving my 8 year old granddaughter to school and then continuing to Market Basket and Hannaford’s, in Biddeford, Maine with a honey do shopping list. As I arrived at the school, I noticed I had a voicemail, from 13 minutes earlier.
The voicemail was from someone named Tom. Tom explained, on the voicemail, that he is in the process of building a house and had lost his wedding ring, the previous day at the construction site. The crew needed to start in, on the leech bed and septic system but unfortunately there was too much wood, metal and other building materials, in the way. So Tom started picking up the construction materials and debris and throwing it into a trailer and also stacking some on a pile of wood. At the end of the day, as Tom was getting ready to strap down the trailer, he noticed his wedding ring was missing. He knows he had the ring on and at the construction site because he had just picked the wedding ring up, at the jewelers, at noontime, as Tom was having 3 loose diamonds checked and fixed. Tom started searching for the missing wedding ring, at the construction site, in all the area’s he had been. He visually searched with a flashlight, after the sun went down. He looked through the stacked piles of wood and couldn’t find his wedding ring.
This morning, Tom was back at the site, searching once again. Still nothing. The driveway is just nothing but mud, with some areas, very deep. Tom told me he thinks the ring imay be under the mud. Could I help him out and give him a call back?
I immediately called Tom back, as I sat in the school line. I told Tom I would be there, as soon as I dropped my granddaughter off, went home and loaded my equipment up. Now I just need to tell my wife Cheryl, the honey do list will need to wait 😉
AS soon as I finished talking with Tom, I called Gary Hill, to see if he would like to help me out. I did not know what the construction site looked like or how big the areas to be searched were. I just knew that I didn’t want the septic system and leech bed coming to a screeching halt, because I couldn’t find the ring fast enough. Gary would be a big help on this and thankfully he was available and I would pick him up, on my way to the Town of Gorham construction site.
Once Gary and I arrived, Tom promptly met us and explained everything once again. He pointed out the areas he was working in and it was going to be a challenge to find his ring, with all the mud and lots of metal and piles of wood everywhere.
I had Gary start grid searching the grassy area, where there was a pile of lumber and the large trailer. Hopefully the ring wasn’t in the trailer because it would need to be offloaded and physically searched with our Twin Optical Scanners 👀🙄
I decided to grid search the mud, from the pile of lumber, in the driveway, towards the road. If the ring was in this area, I didn’t want the trucks, trailers and lifts running over the ring, driving it down deeper and out of the reach of our metal detectors. As I was gridding the mud, I was slipping and sliding and my boots got stuck a few times, in the mud. Same with Gary, when he came over to the area.
After approximately 35-40 minutes, I had completed about 25 feet of the driveway and no signals even close to a gold ring. Gary was back over on the grass area and was attempting to get closer to the stack of lumber and construction materials. The metal was everywhere, including the ground and it was not easy, searching there. All of a sudden, I hear Gary yell over to me, “I found it”. Wait, What? Gary then says it is “right here, come and get some photos”. When I arrived, Gary pointed out the wedding ring, blending in with the grass. Gary told me he was trying to get as close to the pile of construction debris and material, when he heard a slight low tone. When he looked down, there was the ring.
Tom had left for a few minutes and when he returned, we asked him to show us once again what he had been doing around the pile. Gary asked him, were you over here? When Tom got over to Gary, Gary pointed to the ring, in the grass but Tom still couldn’t see it. Gary really had to point it out, because the ring was blending in very well, with the grass. Once Tom saw the ring, in the grass, a big smile swept across his face. Tom was really surprised he hadn’t seen it last night or this morning. Unfortunately, once a ring is the grass, they can be very difficult to see.
A very sentimental wedding ring is now back on Tom’s finger, where it belongs. There is no better feeling for Gary and I, than to reunite a lost item, with the rightful owner. Another smile for my “Book of Smiles” makes for a great day.
So Tom is happy that he has his wedding ring back and it will no longer impede the progress of the septic system and leech bed. Gary and I are happy for putting another smile on a client’s face. Now I need to go start the honey do list and that should put a smile on my wife’s face.
