Sunday I get an email from Carrie asking for assistance in finding her rings. She thinks that they were lost in Westampton Burlington County during a softball tournament. She coaches a girls team and took her rings off and put them in her pocket that she also put her phone in. Well several innings later along with calls and texts she notices that her rings are missing.
They looked all over and couldn’t find them. They drove back in the dark to look again. She thought that they were gone forever. She explained that they drag the field after every game. I am thinking to myself that this will not have a good outcome. Someone found the rings at one of the games later that day and took them to a pawn shop. They had to be on the surface. Infields are hard surfaces.
I couldn’t head up on Sunday due to a half marathon I was running in and it was pouring in the afternoon. I said that I would search on Monday after work. Carrie would have to get permission for me to search the field. Permission was secured.
My wife & I drove to the fields on Monday. We came prepared with boots that we could get muddy, and it was a good thing we did. The field was muddy and had a lot of deep puddles.
Carrie had explained where she was during her time at the field. I decided to search the grassy area 1st as I thought that would be the spot that would provide cover for the rings. Nothing, very few signals at all. They do a good job of keeping this field clean.
Next, I went to the area between the dugout and home plate. After a few iron tones, I got a good tone, Boom! The engagement ring was in the mud about 1/2 an inch down. Wow, only 15 minutes into the search and I have 1 of 2 rings. The other one has to be close by, right?
Well, 20 minutes later I’m starting to think that the dragging machine moved it very far away. I sent a message to Carrie to call me. I wanted to know if there was any other place that she could have lost the 2nd ring. I continued to search.
Another 10 minutes into the search on the 3rd base side of the field, the 1st ring was on the 1st base side. I get a good tone. Boom!! I now have the 2nd ring. It was also about a half inch down. We did the best cleaning we could do in one of the many mud puddles. We took several pictures.
We left a message on the way home, asking for a return call, not letting on that I had found the rings, As I was unloading the truck Carrie called back, Edwina was there with me. I asked Carrie if there was any other location that she could think of that the rings could be. When she ran out of ideas I told her that I had found them. She started to cry, Edwina started to cry because Carrie was crying.
We met after dinner so Carrie could get her rings back. Carrie and her husband were very happy. Another happing ending!!!
If you lose something, call a professional. Don’t waste your time renting or buying a metal detector. It takes years to learn how to properly use one.
