Lost in Grass Tag | The Ring Finders

Lost Gold Earring in Northland Garden – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

At the start of the year, Renene was clearing undergrowth on their rural Northland property. Later on she realised that one of the many branches around the head had somehow spirited away her sentimental earring.
As so many people who lose rings or bracelets do, after a fruitless search for the lost earring they conceded defeat and accepted the loss… Until she started searching online for a metal detector to try and find her special missing gold.

We spent a few minutes on site going over her recollection of how she and her husband tried to find the lost earring, where they thought it would be, and the infamous spot ‘X’ was marked as a start point.

The vegetation was very tight, and a layer of past weedings and prunings covered most of any remaining exposed soil. I nearly took the headphones off to run on speaker the entanglements were so bad, however for such a small piece in a sea of background chatter I needed every subtle tone… I quickly cleared the ‘easy’ bits around the site, and headed out to change to a smaller coil to get in under all the shrubs when I got a new bit of intel – the path they usually took in and out.

Back onto the standard coil, and I started to grid the higher probability area of their entry/exit track.
To one side was a pile of branches which I worked hard up against, intending to leave it for a later, more detailed pass if it wasn’t found in the early searching. But since I was there, I’d clear them and close off this area now.
Heaved the pile up and swept the coil underneath, a faint whisper made my ears perk up. I put the detector down and shifted the pile.

A second pass and there was a distinct but subtle tone. Out with the pinpointer and just under the surface, on it’s edge, was the lost earring already making itself very comfortable for a long stay.

I made my way out and beckoned to Renene to come over to see her newly found earring lying where it had fallen some 10 months ago.

She was a bit pleased!

 

 

Tags:
Category:

Lost Keys Found In Paihia Orchard (with some metal detector help)

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Simon was collecting oranges in the orchard and didn’t realise until he got back to his car that his shorts had a car key-sized hole in the pocket.

A couple of days later he found me through TheRingFinders and I arranged to meet him onsite.

It was a huge area to scan, so I put my Search & Rescue tracking skills to work and retraced his meanderings in and around the trees – Made more interesting by the fact he’d been back the previous day for another look with a borrowed detector, which meant differentiating his original track from the fresher one. Good game!

I snaked my way through the trees following the two day old sign. Bruised leaves, broken stems or blades of grass under tension all reduced the search area to no more than a metre wide strip. These clues all led me to where he’d sought out the odd ripe fruit from random trees, retraced his steps, or just changed direction for no apparent reason, and right in the heart of the orchard where he’d finally filled the bag and turned to head back – were the keys, tucked under the grass.

It would have been a mammoth task to search the whole orchard without the advantage of being a tracker.

He was rapt, and more than a little impressed. Twenty minutes from getting out of the car, I was on my way home.

Sometimes, the eyes can be faster than the coil.

 

 

Tags:
Category:

Ring Lost in Whangarei, Eaten by Cow – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Over the years, I’ve had my share of looking for rings lost while gardening, throwing things for the dog, or just being lobbed randomly during arguments.  This was my first hunt for a ring that had been vacuumed off a finger by a calf!

Luke made contact after reading of my successful hunts, and for me the story was too intriguing!  He had been letting the calves suck his fingers in order to keep them tame, and the hand came back minus the ring…

On the day in question, he hadn’t banked on the powerful combination of bovine slobber and suction!  Catch was, had it been spat out on the ground nearby,  chewed, swallowed and passed through the digestive system to turn up elsewhere in the paddock…or was it still in there?

He was very pleased to see me, and we headed straight out so he could show me where it all happened, also pointing out the calves that I could end up scanning!  The ground had been dry, which was good as it meant it was unlikely to have been pressed deep into mud – however the Autumn-flush grass was mid-calf (That’s my calf, not the cow variety) which was going to make it very hard work.

I started at the « Point Last Seen » and nosed the coil in and around the grass in the immediate vicinity with no luck, so I resigned myself to gridding about an acre of very lush pasture.

With my back into the corner of the wire fences, I took the first swing, and was immediately disheartened by the erratic threshold sounds of electrical interference from a buried cable. Not overly bad fortunately.  Second swing…. third swing and a golden tone rang through the headphones! I parted the long grass, couldn’t see anything.  Out with the pinpointer, it chirped away…but I still couldn’t see anything.

A slight change of head angle and a flash of yellow lit up in among the dead stems. It was already making itself very comfortable in there, and I was glad I didn’t have to use the rubber gloves 🙂

Knocked on the door of the house again, and was met by a huge smile when I held the ring up – That’s when I found out, it’s their wedding anniversary in just a few days.

Tags:
Category:

Lost GoPro Camera @ Camp Yowochas Fallis, Alberta.

  • from Edmonton (Alberta, Canada)
Contact:

 

 

img_1357 img_1358img_1359

Received an email from Tyng on Saturday requiring my assistance to locate his Gopro camera while on a three day retreat at camp Yowochas with his grade six students he was supervising,

Tyng was available to go on Sunday I agreed to assist him, Tyng picked me up at 7am we headed out 50 miles west of Edmonton to the camp we arrived the weather was not at all in our favor Rain and Cold Brrrrrrr.

We had to walk about ½ mile through the bush into an open field Tyng showed me the area that they were playing hide and seek in tall grass I must say the area that he thought the camera was lost created a huge challenge to swing my detector.

After about two hours out in the tall grass I was convinced that the camera was not in that area, Tyng was 110% sure that was the area he lost the camera, I told him lets back track to the last known location which was at the other end of the field where the grass was shorter they all sat down in a circle and talked about their time at the camp then they left the field.  

Within 15 minutes I heard a loud scream Tyng found his go pro in the area I suggested he was ecstatic to have the camera back with all the pictures and videos he had taken while on the three day retreat with his students.

Another happy client thank you Tyng for entrusting me to find your GoPro also your generous reward.          

Tags:
Category: