Diamond Engagement Ring Lost In Altadena, CA…Found and Returned.
Nathan called this morning needing help with his wife’s lost engagement ring. She had been playing with her dog, and throwing the ball to be retrieved, when with one throw both her engagement ring and wedding band flew off of her hand. Nathan said he heard the ring hit their car which was parked nearby. They proceeded to look in the area, when they found her wedding band in a bush near where the car was parked in the neighbor’s yard. They continued the search in and around where the wedding band was found, but with no success. His wife rented a metal detector the next day and proceeded to search again, Nathan then took up the search with the metal detector when he got home. He told me he could not believe all the metal that was in the yard, which was making the search harder for him with the rented detector. He said he put at least 20 hours of searching for the ring himself not to mention the time his wife and neighbors put in helping. He told me the grass was very high in the neighbor’s yard, and he suspected it was lost in the thick grass somewhere. He also said that the gardeners were scheduled to come today and mow the yard, so I knew I should hurry in order to beat them to the high grass, and arranged to leave immediately. Nathan was at work, so he was unable to meet me there, but gave me directions and photos to show where things had taken place.
I had a few delays on the way with some traffic and an accident, but finally got there at what I thought was a decent time. When I pulled up though, the gardeners were already there, and had mowed the yard, could they have already found it? My heart sank. I called Nathan to let him know, and he told me that he would come over at his lunch hour. This was a good thing, as I would be able to ask exactly what had happened. I searched the areas that he had pointed out to me, and finally searched the whole yard. I should have heard the ring, but nothing but some foil and pull tabs. Nathan showed up at lunch, and we went over what had happened. There was a definite trajectory of her throw that he showed me, so I concentrated in those areas that would possibly be affected; nothing again. I got out another detector that has a faster recovery, figuring that the ring could be getting masked by some iron in the ground, and began my search again. Nathan was helping with more possibilities, but nothing. I decided to search the yard again, and Nathan had to go back to work. I searched the yard again with no ring. I then decided that I could not remain in the box, so I stood in the line of trajectory, and backed up. I kept backing up, onto the neighbor’s porch, surely it would have been seen there. As I was standing there I looked left, the porch dropped off to the ground and there was a 6 tp 7 inch gap between the porch and the house about a foot deep. I saw something silver and round, but thought I was looking at half a buried pull tab. Upon closer inspection, it was the ring. There it was another 50 feet from where the wedding band had been found. Nathan’s wife must have thrown that ball with a Kershaw type of pitch, because it was a total of about 70 feet from where she had been standing. I sent Nathan a picture of the ring, asking if this was what it looked like, when he immediately called, and said he would come back in about 45 minutes. I told him I would wait. Needless to say he was very happy. I know that he and his wife will sleep well tonight, that’s what it is all about.
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard, using the most up to date metal detectors, to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Northridge, Pasadena, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.
Joe had just gotten his son, Jack, a new I-phone and had it fit with the new water proof case and all was going good until Jack said that he lost his phone in the water at a near by park! Apparently some of Jack’s friends were jumping into the water from a tree and Jack was trying to take some photos with his phone from the same tree, when two boys decided to jump at the same time. The leaning palm tree sprang back and Jack lost his balance and in the process dropped his new phone into the murky water 10 feet below. Scrambling down the tree Jack frantically searched for his phone and convinced the other boys to help. His phone had somehow disappeared! Just below the tree the water was only about a foot deep but the bottom sloped away quickly and Jack feared his phone had fallen into the deeper water. Then a bigger fear settled over him….he had to tell his parents!! And thankfully his dad, Joe, had some ideas. He first tried wading into the water feeling with his feet for the phone, but could not locate the lost phone. It became apparent that he needed something like a metal detector to help locate the phone. After searching « Underwater metal detector » he discovered that there is a group of metal detector specialists that actually help people find lost items on land and in the water. He quickly gave ma a call and we made arrangements to meet and conduct a search. An hour and a half later I suited up with my wet suit and scuba boots and grabbed my trusty Tiger Shark (water proof) metal detector and off we went. The area was flooded so we sloshed along until we came to the leaning palm tree and Jack showed me exactly where he was standing and the small area where he said the phone hit the water. I figured the phone had to be close, so I wadded in and started swinging my metal detector. Back and forth across the 8 foot area and a few small signals sounded in my headphones but no loud beep like I was expecting. I went out up to my chin and still no phone. I was afraid it had been pushed into deeper water and after 15 minutes or so I said « It’s just not out here » and waded into where Joe was standing in ankle deep water watching my every move. Just to the side of the search area in shallow water was a medium size Cypress tree and it’s roots were sort of jutting out here and there. Earlier I had casually run my coil over the tops of the roots when I first started my search and as I came up out of the water Joe says to me « Did you check real good down in these roots? » So I grabbed my Garrett Pro Pointer AT and started poking it around into each dark crevice and low and behold it started beeping! There tucked under one of those roots in just a foot of water was Jack’s lost phone!
would help locate his lost ring but still no luck. He then went on line and typed in « How to find a ring in the grass » and up popped theringfinders.com and one of the search stories. So he gave me a call and we discussed his situation and I felt quite confident that I could help him find his lost ring. Later that evening I met Dave and he showed me the small grassy area where he dropped his class ring off of the roof. I set my metal detector to the coin and jewelry mode and right away there was obvious electrical interference that caused the detector to chatter constantly. By switching to the Prospecting Mode I was able to begin searching the most likely areas. And sure enough I soon got a nice solid, repeatable signal with low numbers and it pinpointed very shallow. Dave was so grateful to get his lost ring back and it was great to see the joy and relief as he firmly shook my hand. I thanked God for another successful search and as I said my goodbyes, I was happy to have helped another needy person. Lost something recently? Maybe I can help! Give me a call, text or e-mail and we can talk about your situation.
When I got back with my equipment she pointed out the spot she believed the ring had fallen. With one hand holding onto the rocks, I proceeded to scan the area with my 6 inch coil. It wasn’t long before I received a good signal. I pulled out my pin pointer to check, and when I moved some of the shrubs I saw the ring positioned precariously on the very edge of the ledge. I then gingerly reached down and plucked it from danger, and showed it to a very excited Cassandra. I believe her smile tells it all. What fun, what a great day!
