On Friday afternoon, August 15th, I received a call from Scott. He had lost his Platinum Wedding Ring, the previous Saturday, in his backyard, in Auburn, Maine. His six year old son wanted to go camping, so Scott set up a tent, in the backyard. The next morning Scott noticed he no longer had his Wedding Ring on, it was gone. Scott and his wife checked out some photos, taken the previous evening. Sure enough, there is a photo of Scott, his six year old son and his 3 year old daughter, showing he was still had his Wedding Ring on, at 8:00pm. The backyard was throughly searched by Scott and his wife, but to no avail. Scott and his young son also had walked up the street, just a little bit and also about 50 feet, into the woods behind his house. These areas were also checked, over and over again, for the past 6 days. No ring found. Scott asked if I could help search for the ring, with my metal detector. As this was Friday afternoon, I told Scott that I was already booked this afternoon, in Moody Beach and that I was going to Boston, tomorrow morning. Where the ring was lost on his property, there was no worries about someone finding it, in his backyard. Scott and I agreed to meeting, on Sunday morning, to search for his wedding ring.
I arrived promptly at Scott’s house, at 8:00am and Scott came right out, to meet me. Scott walked me around the property, showing me everywhere he had been, after 8:00pm, when the photo was taken, showing he still had his ring on. I then started searching the backyard, where they had been camping. The entire backyard should only take me an hour to an hour and a half. If I didn’t find the ring in the backyard, I would then search the small area of the woods they had been in. If not in the woods, then along the street, up to the next house. As I was searching the backyard, I was getting lots of targets but they were showing to be 4-8 inches, in the ground and they definitely weren’t in the low conductor platinum range that I was looking for. Anything even close, I would check the target with my pinpointer and all the targets were indeed, in the ground, except a penny and a quarter, which I found, up along the rock wall and they were, on top of the ground. After an hour and a half, I completed the entire backyard area and no wedding ring. I then went into the woods and found the usual trash targets and a nickel, but no ring. I then went to the front of the house and searched along the street, up to the next driveway and again, no wedding ring. where could the ring be. There is a photo showing him with it on at 8:00pm and the next day, it’s not on his finger. I met up with Scott and told him that the ring is definitely not in the areas searched. I asked him if he had checked the tent, sleeping bags, clothing, etc.. Scott said he and his wife had searched those items multiple times. Scott said he was sure I would find it, in the backyard and said “I’m at a loss” and that they would recheck everything again. I then told Scott that I have had clients contact me days, weeks and in one instance, years after losing a ring, telling me they have found the ring, in a totally different place, than where they thought it would be. I mentioned a client had once found his wife’s missing Engagement Ring after 3 months, in the wiper cowel, of her vehicle. Crazy but true. As I was talking to Scott, I had him go over the events of 8 days ago, one more time. He gave the same story of the next morning, the ring was missing. I then asked him if he noticed the ring missing, as soon as he got up. He said no, that he noticed it missing when he was swatting hornets away, after the attacked him, between the pool and the house. WAIT, WHAT? HORNETS AGAIN? I then told Scott that approximately 3 weeks earlier, a client in Windham, Maine was attacked by hornets and his wedding ring flew off, into the woods. I ended up finding the wedding ring, in the thick overgrown brush, in the woods. Scott then says, “My hands were wet when they attacked”. I asked Scott to show me where this had happened. He took me inside the fenced in pool and to the area against the house, where the hornets attacked him. I turned my metal detector on and checked the plant that was being watered and pruned, when the hornets attacked. The wedding ring wasn’t in the plant. I then searched the rock landscape, along the house and plant. No ring, in the rocks, along the walkway and plant. I then walked behind the plant, searching the rocks, between the plant and house. All of a sudden, I received a very loud low tone, looked down, into the rock landscape and what did I see? It was a Platinum Wedding Ring, belonging to Scott. I looked over at Scott and said, “Scott, I found your ring.” Scott yelled out in delight and ran right over. He told me he couldn’t believe it. He was literally just there pruning the plant again and didn’t see it. Scott’s wife was also over joyed and everyone was smiling and just so surprised the ring had just been sitting there for the last eight days. As I told them, the wedding ring was “Hiding in plain sight”. As I tell my clients, Gary Hill and I ask lots of questions, for reasons like this. The questions may sound repetitive but the questions may just jog your memory and result in a ring being found.
As I left, Scott and his wife were still beaming with smiles, ear to ear and thanked me again. I could see the anguish in Scott’s face the entire morning and now the entire morning has turned bright and sunny. I am so happy he has his ring back and I’m sure he will be sleeping well tonight and with a smile 😃 ❤️🙏
