how to use a metal detector Tag | Page 2 of 5 | The Ring Finders

Brian Rudolph, Lost Item Recovery Specialist (Land, Water, Sand, Snow, Leaves, Cliffs, Houses & Vehicles) Will Find Your Lost Keepsake! Call ASAP (301) 466-8644!

Glenda and Rudy went to a party celebrating the 15th birthday of a young lady named Mari. It is customary in Guatemalan families to celebrate special moments in young children’s lives, including the time when a child reaches the age of sixteen or around such a time frame.

On a particular Saturday in the month of May, Glenda finished her makeup and then put on her very special set of 14 karat white gold 1.5 carat diamond earrings. She and her husband Rudy immediately left the house out the front door with her coat and scarf on and went directly into the couple’s SUV. They drove from Glen Burnie, Maryland to Parkton, Maryland (which is close to the Pennsylvania border).

When the couple arrived at their friend’s house who was throwing the party for her daughter, they got out of the SUV that was parked along the street, walked up the driveway to the front door and greeted Neela (their friend and owner of the house) along with Mari, the birthday girl.

Most of the party was celebrated under a large party tent located in the front yard of the property. Several hours into the celebration, Glenda went to the bathroom inside the house and she heard something hit the floor. It turned out to be the backing of one of the earrings that she had been wearing. The earring set was a very special Christmas gift that Glenda had received that previous holiday season and which she had waited to receive from her husband for over seventeen years.

Glenda immediately felt both ears to take inventory of the diamond studs just at the moment that the backing fell to the floor. That’s when she realized that one of her earrings was not on her ear any longer. She figured that it must have come off in the bathroom along with the stud, but unfortunately the only thing she could find was the white gold backing.

During the party, the distraught woman went looking for the large diamond stud throughout the house and outside around and within the party tent, as well. Others joined in the search including Glenda’s husband Rudy, but they couldn’t find the special keepsake anywhere. Sadly, it became a bit of a distraction at the event, but Glenda tried to keep the search as low-key as possible as to not affect the party that was still going on.

This was very upsetting to the couple. Rudy could not enjoy himself and Glenda was pretty much in the same condition. They looked all over the grass where the tent was set up and where people were sitting. In the end, nothing was found.

Even after a couple of hours of looking following the conclusion of the party, the couple had to finally go home empty handed. Glenda was determined to not give up so easily. She had to rethink what to do next and at some point the desperate woman looked online to see how she could find a stud earring in a house or on a lawn. That’s when Glenda stumbled across an article that I had written on THE RING FINDERS website about how I found a diamond stud earring and its backing out on a football field. THE RING FINDERS is an elite directory of metal detectorists around the world who find lost items for people just like Glenda.

Glenda called me three days after she could not figure out what to do about recovering the missing diamond earring. We talked for nearly an hour on the phone in order for me to acquire all of the details that I needed to understand what we were up against.

I asked her every question in the book. I was optimistic that there was a chance that I could help the poor lady She did not go to any public parking lot and get out of the car. Also, my client never opened the garbage can at any point and she didn’t think the stud would have fallen off of her ear while standing over the sink while getting ready for the party at home. Therefore, if the stud had enough gold on it to be detected with my equipment, I felt confident that we might be able to recover this jewel for my client.

Glenda said that she did not have any photos of her wearing the earrings at the party. I asked her to continue to check to see if anyone else had any pictures of her so that we could better piece together the time frame of events when the earring fell off. There was still no certainty that the earring was lost on Neela’s property at all. It could have come off of Glenda’s ear while walking to her vehicle at her house. Also, it could have come off in the SUV or while she was walking up to the property when they arrived at the party. Sometimes the backing of an earring can stay stuck to the back of the earlobe for hours following the time when the earring disengages from the ear.

The possible places where the earring could have ended up included: somewhere in Glenda’s house, her front yard, inside the SUV, on the street where Neela’s house was located, Neela’s driveway, front walkway, inside the house or out on the front lawn somewhere. There were a lot of possibilities but the bright side of the situation was that all of these places were non-public environments other than the street pavement.

After we had our long talk, the two of us agreed to meet the following day over at Neela’s house to see if I could solve the mystery of the disappearing earring. I couldn’t wait to get the search started. This would be a huge challenge for me as it is for most professional metal detectorists. Stud diamond earrings are by far the hardest pieces of jewelry to recover.

The next day, I got to the area early so I went to a restaurant nearby and I called my client and asked her additional questions. One such inquiry was whether or not Glenda had used her smartphone at some point which may have caused the earring to pop loose. She said that because the earring fell out of her left ear, she did not believe the phone would have caused the incident because she said that she holds her phone in her right hand only. This made me think that she probably put her finger through her hair and at some point she accidentally pulled on the earring which caused it to finally fall out. Because Glenda was not wearing a face mask the entire time at the event because she said everybody was vaccinated, it also ruled out the possibility that the mask strap could have knocked the jewel out of her ear.

I arrived at Neela’s house sometime around 2:45 p.m. and she showed me where Glenda had parked on the street. Then, we went along the path leading up to the front door of the house. Next, we went through the house to the bathroom where Glenda had found the backing to the earring. From there, the kind woman showed me the front lawn area where my client and her husband were primarily sitting in the tent during most of the party. Finally, I was guided over to the driveway where the food truck was parked and where Glenda and Rudy had ordered their food.

Once Glenda arrived, I did another review with her of all of the places that she walked and hung out and then I immediately started conducting the search in the bathroom area.

Earlier, I mentioned that I asked if there were any photos of Glenda wearing both earrings. She didn’t think there were any at first. However, after asking Neela inside the house, the owner of residence looked through photos that her son-in-law had taken and sure enough I noticed that there was a picture of Glenda with the earring barely seen in her left ear! This was fantastic intel! This meant that Glenda definitely came to the estate with both earrings!

I asked if the owner could call her son-in-law and ask him at what time the picture was taken. Unfortunately, the young man was on the road working and then he would be going to sleep, so we could not get that information as to what time it occurred.

In the bathroom, I used my endoscope to search every crack and corner to see if the earring slid under something or inside some unseen spot on the floor. When that checked out clean, I scanned the front walkway and the driveway, as well. Still, no earring was found.

Next, I metal detected from the end of the driveway all the way to where Glenda had parked her vehicle. There was absolutely no sign of the piece of jewelry anywhere on the asphalt.

I determined that I did not need to check the SUV because we saw in the photo that Glenda was wearing the earring at the party and she never went back into her vehicle to get anything. She did walk to the SUV to allow for someone to get something out of it but she never went inside. That’s why I checked the driveway and the area leading to her vehicle, as well.

Since there was no sign of the earring inside the house, along the walkway, driveway and the area leading to where Glenda had parked her SUV, I concluded that the most likely place where the earring had come off of her face was the front lawn. It had to be on the grass unless someone in the neighborhood found it on the pavement or a car tire tread picked it up and carried it down the street.

The last possible place for me to search was the grass. After showing Glenda, Neela and her daughters how I would conduct this part of the search, I immediately laid down my grid lanes, adjusted my metal detector to a specific setting that helps me find lost gold earrings and then began swinging my detector.

I am so excited to share that after approximately 15 minutes or so of carefully searching the front lawn, detecting two of the six grid lanes that I laid down and checking multiple target signals, I amazingly found the missing 14 karat white gold 1.5 carat diamond stud earring buried in the grass! I was beyond elated! I found it outside of the area where my client believed she would have been hanging around! I pride myself on searching « outside of the box », looking beyond the expected locations. The jewel was discovered as I was detecting on the second grid lane. I hit the perfect target signal and that’s where I ended up finding the gorgeous piece of ice! What a happy moment that was for me!

A few moments after I recovered the earring, I revealed the incredible news with Glenda, Neela and her children! None of them could believe it! Glenda went happily crazy, hugging and praising God! It was such a terrific moment for all of us! There is nothing like being able to bring such exciting news to people – sharing with them that what was thought to be lost forever was now found and safely returning to its rightful owner!

Glenda could not stop thanking me and in turn I thanked her for entrusting me with such a special search! We all gave thanks to God for answering our prayer that we started off with at the beginning of the search! Helping to solve such a mystery brought me such gratification and what a thrill it was indeed!

Glenda was extremely happy that she found me online, calling a competent detectorist listed on THE RING FINDERS directory!