Kathleen reached out to me 3 weeks ago after finding me in the Ring Finders Directory. She lives in the Fairmont section of Philadelphia with her husband Eric. She was quite stressed and anxious as she conveyed to me that her beautiful custom-made white gold diamond engagement ring had gone missing. Over the phone she did a great job explaining the details surrounding the lost ring….she keeps both her rings(diamond & band) in a bowl on the kitchen counter…the bowl is shared also by her and Eric’s car keys. They were moving both their cars in and out of driveway and garage so they could start their day. Next thing she knows her band is in the bowl…but no diamond ring! She and Eric turn the inside and outside of the house upside down looking for the ring figuring when one of them grabbed their keys from the bowl they accidently grabbed the ring too…or possibly the ring was stuck on one of the keys. After hours searching the kitchen, cars, stairs, outside steps, driveway and garage…No luck. So she calls me….I’m happy to talk to her and give her advice but I’m really thinking my metal detector really won’t help much because if the ring fell….it would most likely be on the floor, driveway, stairs or someplace that she would see without the aid of a metal detector. I always like to manage expectations and I do not like to ask someone for a call-out fee when it’s unlikely I’m going to be successful. She does mention this narrow garden bed that runs downward along their front stairs to the driveway. She tells me its a very small area with not a lot of plants/shrubs. I recommended that she thoroughly search the entire area again…including that garden bed just with her eyes and maybe a flashlight. I told her if she still wants me to come out she can call me back. 3 weeks later!!!!!….she calls me and says she would like me to come and search with my metal detector. I admire her refusal to give up!!!!
I got there today and met both Kathleen and Eric. As I arrived and was walking up the steps I saw the little garden bed she was talking about…a small area jammed solid with low junipers. No way I’m able to sweep my detector in that bed….happy I brought my 6-inch coil! I met them in the kitchen and she went through again the details of how the ring came up missing. I’m still thinking based on everything she tells me it’s either in one of the cars or on the driveway or stairs. We go outside and I quickly scan the driveway and garage area…no luck. I then start working my metal detector down the stairs in and out of the garden bed with the juniper shrubs. I’m pushing junipers up while shoving my detector underneath and sweeping my detector the best I can in the tight space. I was getting some signals on and off again from a cable that was running through the bed….but no signals suggestive of a gold ring. Eric and Kathleen were looking down on me from the top of the stairs. I found out later Eric had just suggested to his wife that they may have to accept the fact the ring is gone forever when I got an amazing signal from my machine…I was under a juniper shrub 3/4 of the way down the steps. I pushed the shrub out of the way…and was crazy surprised to see this beautiful white gold diamond ring sitting there amongst the leaves and roots. I took a closer look to make sure what I was seeing….when I was sure it was, in fact, a diamond ring I looked upward to Kathleen and Eric with a big smile and nodded my head yes. I think they were stunned and confused….So I nodded my head again indicating yes…I think I heard « no way…you found it? ». I then reached under the shrub picked up the ring and handed it to Kathleen. She screamed and ran into the house with it to share the news! I found out soon after that the ring was custom made with diamonds that were from generations past and the sentimental value of the ring was close to priceless to them. As a Ring FInder sometimes you go on a job and you expect a good result and recovery…I had my doubts about this one. Have to give Kathleen credit for never giving up! I was very happy over being able to reunite this nice couple with their beautiful ring!!!
