Anyssa texted me early in the moring, saying she had lost her diamond earring at a local park, and wondered if I could help. « I sure can » I replied and we arranged to meet about 10:00AM so she could show me the spot.
She had been wearing (2) 1/2ct diamond studs and (2) costume studs in each ear, but took them out, attached the backs and put them on their blanket. When they left, they forgot about them and when she got to the car, she remembered, but they were gone now. They searched in the grass and were able to find (1) diamond stud. That night, she came back with a friend and lights and tried to find the others but could not. She found me the next morning after googling lost jewelry.
Using my AT-Pro, I scanned the one she had thinking « Easy, just notch out everything else! », didn’t happen. The thing was so small and 14K gold, that it scanned erratic 21-65 and read 10+ inches deep when it was 1″ away from the coil. I tested it in the grass and it barely registered! The grass was just mowed, but still long and very wet mushy soil. Even my Carrot would not register against it on the most sensitive setting, it just barely reacted depending on position of it, even touching it! Ok, all metal mode it is.
I searched about a half our and then found both of the costume earrings, but not the diamond one, so I had hope. I focused on the area around where the other two were found, and got a lot of trash, aluminum signals, coin signals but deep. I went back to the car and got my digger, and knew the earring couldn’t be deep but since it scanned incorrectly due to minimal metal on it, I had to investigate every signal. After an hour, I was having thoughts of getting my Surf PI because I knew it would pick it up, but everything else also.
In the area near where the other two were found, I had some foil and bottle cap signals in my way, so I decided to dig them up and get them out of the way so I could concentrate on the smallest erratic signals and try those. After digging out a rusty bottle cap at about 5″ deep, I buried the hole and scanned it again to be sure it was empty and then just on the edge of the hole I got an erratic signal and used my pinpointer to dig around and lo and behold, BINGO! Removing the bottle cap allowed me to hear the earring, otherwise I would have missed it.
I went to her and said « I think I am done, I just cant seem to get a good signal » and then said to her small daughter, « But I did find something for you! and told her to hold out her hand and I put the earring in her little hand and her mom glanced down and jumped for joy! « You found it! ».
Very nice lady and her daughter, and so happy I was able to return all three of her lost earrings!
