Kind Of One Of Those Best Day Evers

[Skate]

I kind of hesitate to bring some of my ring finds for customers because I know some folks think that it's not hard to find a ring when someone tells you where they lost it and ringfinders like me are glorified hustlers. I wanted to share this one because it was truly a quest and the ending was worth every step and every swing of the detector in the 95 degree heat and dust. I got a call from Michael last night saying he had been helping coach his young daughters cross country team at Rancho Santa Susana park in Simi Valley. He went home without his platinum wedding ring. As fate would have it they had run all over the park (It's huge!) and even up on the hills across the street. He thought he could have lost it in the bark area, a couple grass areas, along a 2 mile path and finally the hills across the street. We started with the bark area which was about 300 yards long by 25 yards or so at it's widest. He said he had sprinted in this area with the kids and the ring may have flown off there. Unfortunately for me it didn't as I canvassed the whole area in about an hour and a half just swinging my nox while kids played soccer next to me. I was looking for that 12-13 double beep as it was going to be on the surface. I turned my sensitivity all the way down so I would only get surface signals which helped speed things up. I was also the idiot who forgot to bring water so I was starting to sweat through my clothes hoping I could hijack and unsuspecting soccer players water while they weren't looking.

We finished the bark area and detected a path on the way to the grassy area #1. I gridded it, found 2 nickels that had promise given the signal I was hunting for was 12-13 nickel as that's where all my men's platinum rings have come in at. We declared grassy area #1 done and went to grassy area #2. About a half hour in I began to sense he was giving up and truthfully I was beginning to think this wasn't going to end well. I was starting to to tell him the other things he could do to find his ring(police, craigslist, pawn shop) and I had literally covered all but a 10x10 area of the grass and something told me to search it even though it really wasn't an area he thought he'd lost it at. Again I want to emphasize I felt like I was being led/pushed to go search it. I got over to it, started gridding and I got a nice double beep with a 12-13 VDI. I had my shades on so I couldn't really see the grass and I was just pulling out my Deus propointer to verify the signal when Michael reached down and started screaming "you found my ring, you found my ring!" Before I could even speak he put me into bear hug and he started shaking and crying with joy that he had his ring back. He had a hold of me for at least a minute and then we prayed, gave God thanks for the recovery and he got it back together and called his wife.

If you've never found something another person has lost you're really missing out on one of the greatest experiences of your life. To me metal detecting isn't my hobby, it's my ministry. Most of my customers are women and they have a tendency to be very emotional so you can imagine I was taken aback by how important this ring was to him as he said over and over that it represented his love for his wife. Finding this ring today was a needle in the haystack recovery that God led me to. I'm not trying to get all spiritual but it's just who I am and how I roll. I hope all of you have at least half as good a weekend as I am.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

You are a good man Skate, thanks for posting your story! 

[MrDingo21]

Indeed a very good ending to this story. By the end of September I will start having weekends off finally. Now its time to finally learn how to swing my detector. Thank you for sharing your story, may one day I have a wonderful story like that to share as well.

[GB_Amateur]

15 hours ago, Skate said:

I kind of hesitate to bring some of my ring finds for customers because I know some folks think that it's not hard to find a ring when someone tells you where they lost it and ringfinders like me are glorified hustlers.

Those folks aren't here.  Brings to life the "needle in a haystack" analogy.  Well done.

 

[fredmason]

You did the right thing for the right reasons...who cares what the doubters say!

good on you...as the Aussies say

fred

[Skate]

Thanks for the kind words but I really don't want them to be about me but rather what an awesome hobby we have in detecting. I can think of no other hobby where you can find money, history, jewelry, gold AND make others happy in the process. GB is right in that the folks here are the best and thanks to Steve and his ability to shut some things down it has and continues to be the best place to share and talk detecting. To be alive is to be making a difference and man I felt alive yesterday!

[Gerry in Idaho]

Skate,  I know you feeling when you return something and get rewarded with kind words, praise and Karma.  Very nice story and photos.  Hats off to you for doing our wonderful hobby such a great service.

[strick]

The fact that you were able to find it in such a big area to search is amazing... and shows your skill level as how you approached this hunt...for instance  only searching for specific numbers....ignoring deep targets etc...Nice work Skate

strick

[Noah (FL)]

Great write up of a great recovery!!

God is good!!!

[Mike Hillis]

Thanks for sharing. 

HH
Mike