Bay Area Ring Finders: Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP 925-580-2590
Going back several months, « The Pastor », had contacted me to inquire about my services with an unexpected request. As the story goes, there is a home that belonged to his wife’s brother, a reclusive geologist who had passed away. The home was in probate, but the family had cleaned out almost all of his belongings. Missing from the inventory of items was a fabled family heirloom, a long riffle thought to have been kept under a secret floorboard in a back bedroom. I know, this starts to read like an Indiana Jones reboot!
The only detailed account came from a singular friend who had stated that after a home invasion burglary while the gentleman was engaged in a geological outing, he had sought to secret his gun and ammo into a place that would ensure that it wouldn’t get stolen. On occasion, this friend goes on to explain that the Geologist would often disappear for several minutes to a back room and return with the weapon, or sometimes other items.
After several weeks of back and forth, and looking at schedules and timing, I finally met « The Pastor » at the home. We spent the first 20 minutes or so getting to know each other and going over the story once again. We concluded this briefing with a tour of the home, of which he and family members had already searched many times previously.
We sat back down prior to my search and I explained my theory ( I had ample time leading up to this to think of strategy, knowing that my metal detectors might be all but worthless on the interior of a home). I explained that in the event that there was a secret floorboard that we could not locate, there had to have been a soffit underneath the home for the gun to sit, otherwise the gun would likely lie on the earth below the home. I knew I needed a flashlight and I needed to crawl under the tight crawl space below the floor.
Only seconds after entering the access hole I noticed something, a black synthetic nylon material, unmistakable for a gun case. This material sat atop two metal shelving brackets screwed to the floor joist. I knew… I Made the Recovery!!!
It took only second to locate the item and in a moments time, with excitement and a smile on my face, I had the weapon out of the crawlspace and « The Pastor » and I were celebrating a very quick recovery.
We took the black bag to the kitchen and unzipped it to gaze upon the fabled missing long gun. It was an older weapon, but in really well maintained condition. We unzipped all the pockets to see what other interesting items we could find. It was at this time that I knew something was wrong. Anyone who owns a gun would recognize that one does not just own a gun. There are a myriad of shooting related items that gun owners keep, one of them is ammunition. We had found none…I needed to head back under the home.
On my second venture underneath the house , by happenstance I grabbed for a board to pull myself under the floor. Expectation told me the board should be solid and fixed to the structure, reality was that it was loose and slightly moved when I weighted it. I shined the flashlight at the board and noticed a gap and in that gap was stuff. My heart pounded as I shouted out to « The Pastor » that I found something although I had yet to figure out how to access it.
As I jiggled and wiggled the wood, I made another strange discovery, two rounded heads not unlike a screw or fastener, flush with the framing of the crawlspace, well they also moved. I used my fingernail to pry out the head and to my astonishment they were affixed to a long rod. The excitement increased as did my heart rate as I pulled the second rod toward myself…and bang! I was startled when a small trap door dropped revealing a menagerie of items within.
I immediately identified a holster with a hand gun, boxes of ammunition, and numerous pill bottles. It was incredible!!! I pulled my phone and documented everything I was seeing as well as the workings of the trap door. I kept telling « The Pastor » how exciting and crazy it was and he was excited too, which only made me more excited.
I started handing the copious amount of items topside as I curiously glanced at everything as it went up. Pill bottles full of silver coins, scrap gold, jewelry, multiple boxes of ammunition, hand guns, a canvas bags full of important documents. All these items had been secreted into the small compartment cleverly hidden between the floor joists.
When I returned to the surface the two of us investigated each and every item further. « The Pastor » was amazed and extremely happy with the haul of his now deceased brother-in-laws possessions that was once lost to the family. To say that this was exciting would be an understatement. Even at the time of writing this account, I can’t help but be pleased with the experience as a whole and a smile still creeps onto my face.
I do not know if I will ever experience a more incredible treasure hunt. I will continue to seek out opportunities like these to participate in. I will continue to seek knowledge and techniques to make me a better searcher. I will always strive to have the best tools available for my clients, and who knows…maybe just writing this account will inspire confidence in someone else to reach out with the next big project. The last thing I have to say about this particular adventure is…I made the Recovery!!!
Bay Area Ring Finders: Brendon Chapman… Metal Detecting Service/Call ASAP 925-580-2590
