The storm didn’t disappoint. It was Sunday, January 25, 2026 and as predicted the Philadelphia area was blanketed with 15 inches of snow…and for good measure the storm added 2 inches of frozen icy crust to the accumulation. I was in the process of digging my way out of my home in Downingtown, PA. That’s when the call came in…
The call was from Godesh (Desh). In my close to 10 years as a ring finder I don’t think I ever sensed such desperation (and have had several recoveries involving diamond engagement rings with upcoming wedding dates!).
Desh’s father was a notorious and powerful man during the 1970 and 80s back in Puerto Rico. His nickname in the area was “the Boss’ and he was a legend in his community for his entrepreneurial spirit and support of countless families. In the nineties he consolidated and sold everything he had of value to support his family’s move to Pennsylvania. The only thing of value he held onto was a large, beautiful, 24k gold ring with his initials…the gold used for the ring was sourced from the melting of family jewelry that was in his family for generations. Desh’s father died young, and Desh was raised by a single mother in Philadelphia. They struggled financially and had to sell anything of value to survive in Philadelphia. Through it all, Desh and his family held onto one thing, one thing that connected them to the past and reminded them of a great man…his ring!
On that Sunday night, as the snow was still falling Desh’s car got stuck in the snow at the corner of Battersby and Cottman…right in front of St Matthews Church. The streets had yet to be plowed. Desh got out of his car to try to clear the snow away from beneath the car. He didn’t have gloves and his hands began to freeze. He tried to rub them together…but his ring got in the way. He took the ring off…actually put it in his mouth before rubbing his hands some more. He then decided he needed to find a shovel so he can clear more snow from underneath the car. He took the ring out of his mouth and put it in his pants pocket and walked over to the church where he saw people shoveling snow. He asked to borrow a shovel and went back to his car to clear more snow. He spent another hour clearing snow and was finally able to free the car. He returned the shovel and drove 1 block down Battersby to his home. The next morning Desh woke up in a panic…his ring. Gone.
I met Desh at St Matthews Church on January 28th at 1:30 pm. Desh brought a friend along to help with the search. While waiting for him in the church parking lot a clergy man ask If I needed help with something…I told him the purpose of my presence. He wished us luck and gave us a blessing. While waiting I also had a chance to look at the area…snow everywhere…up to 3 feet in some areas. The street and sideways still covered. Bitter cold and windy. This was not going to be a fun search.
When Desh arrived we walked the area before I got my metal detector out of the car. The search area was about half a block when you consider where his car was stuck and where he walked to borrow and return the shovel. As I always do…I asked where he felt that the ring most likely fell out of his pocket. He felt confident it most likely fell out in the area of the street where the car was stuck. He said he was on his hand and knees digging in that area. We walked over there….it was dirty snow…2-3 feet deep in places where the plow came through. It was variable in depth because of cars driving through with big snow boulders here and there. I told Desh and his friend that I need to be able to sweep my metal detector so the area needed to be flattened out. The peaks and troughs are going to make it impossible for me to effectively scan the area. He and his friend began working with shovels to smooth it into a flat surface. The metal detector I was using would, at best, pick up a gold ring to a depth of 15 inches. It is a new and amazing machine featuring Bluetooth headphones to alert me to potential target signals. I was 10 minutes into scanning the area when I received a strong signal in my headphones. The signal identification number on the machine was suggestive of gold. Could it be? The signal came from a huge boulder of icy snow. Desh and his friend surrounded me in anticipation. I kicked the big ball and broke it in half. Now I was getting the signal from one half. I kicked that half and it broke into 2 pieces again. Again I was getting a signal from one piece. I kicked again and it broke into 3 apple sized snowballs. I scanned the 3 and was still getting a good signal from one of the snowballs. I picked it up and handed it to Desh. I told him something was in it. I was watching Desh intently as he gently broke the little snowball into smaller pieces. As I watched Desh choked and his eyes welled up with tears. He couldn’t speak for 30 seconds. Then he finally got the words out…you found it!!! Divine intervention? I’m not sure. I know this recovery will go down as one of the most meaningful for me for sure. Not just because it was so unlikely I was going to find it but because how much this ring meant to Desh. Over the next 10 minutes Desh welled up with tears 3 more times while sharing the history and significance of the cherished ring that I’m proud to say is back on his finger where it belongs.
