December 10th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Early on in the week I was reading a post from my friend Billy in Western Australia. Billy offers a similar service to myself in the Perth/WA region (Lost Treasure). He mentioned that in his last 5 searches he has come up empty handed for his customers. I felt bad for him, knowing this frustration first hand. I myself had been having lots of luck recently, recovering clients rings underwater which I thought I would never find. But this week my luck has changed. My last 5 jobs have finished with my tail between my legs. Why am I mentioning failures for potential customers to see? Wouldn’t this be bad for business?? Perhaps…but I just want to make it clear that I am mortal. I cannot find every lost item. But I can assure you of this… every job is important to me. I am stubborn and take each and every search as a personal challenge. When I can’t find the lost item, I am just as disappointed as my customers.

This is the breakdown for the week…

Lost Ring In Water At Shark Bay: Jamie lost his grandfather’s wedding ring whilst swimming at Shark Bay at Vaucluse. After a 2 hour underwater search in the area Jamie beleived the ring to have dropped, I came out of the water empty handed. Jamie was visiting from the UK, and will be back home by now. But if anyone does happen to find an 18k Wedding Ring at Shark Bay Vaucluse, please contact me! Jamie is willing to pay a reward for its return.

Lost Engagement Ring Coogee Beach: Elizabeth lost her white gold diamond engagement ring while swimming in chest deep water at the north end of Coogee Beach. I spent the afternoon searching for it without any luck. Please, if any metal detector guys do manage to find an engagement ring that matches this description, please contact me so I can put you in contact with Elizabeth. She is happy to pay a generous reward for its return.

Lost Wedding Ring Shelly Beach: Simon lost his wedding ring while swimming on the rocks side of Shelly Beach. I made two attempts at searching for this ring but to no avail. This area is very common with snorklers and divers. If anyone has managed to pick up a wedding ring, that is half gold/half silver joining together in a wave pattern, please contact me. As always, a reward is offered for the return of this ring.

Lost Gold Bracelet HomeBush: Sree beleives he may have lost his gold bracelet while throwing flowers off his balcony into the garden below. I searched the garden area best I could for a couple of hours, and was unable to find the bracelet

Lost Diamond Stud Earring Concord: Natalie lost her Diamond Stud earring while hanging clothes on the line. She felt it fall off and searched the grass area with no luck. My Metal Detectors struggle picking up stud earrings, which means I spend the search on my hands and knees, combing the grass with my pinpointing device. Natalie’s husband came out and mentioned he had since mowed the lawn. Anyway after 2 hours plus searching, I had no luck finding the earring.

December 7th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

On the weekend I got a call from Pauline who had lost one of her diamond earrings. She was in the backyard playing with her dog when it began to lick her ear. Pauline realised the earring was no longer on her ear, and thought her puppy may have swallowed it. After a visit to the vet, and keeping an eye on her doggy droppings the earring was no where to be found. Gold stud earrings are normally difficult to find as there is not a lot of metal content in them. The metal detector has troubles detecting them. When I arrived at Pauline’s, I asked for the other earring so I could check if my detector would pick it up in Jewellery mode. Unfortunately there was no response from the detector. After a little tuning and changing the detector to gold prospecting mode I was able to get a signal from the remaining earring. I began hunting the area Pauline was when the earring came off. After 2 hours of searching and digging up scraps of metal, I was unable to locate the lost diamond earring. What went wrong with this recovery? We will never know for sure, but possible scenarios are puppy did indeed swallow the earring. Another thing that had me concerned was the lawn had been mowed after the earring was lost. Pauline, it was a pleasure meeting you and your puppies. I am very sorry I was unable to find your earring.

July 5th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Similar picture, iPhone photo did not turn out well

Last night I drove out to a sports oval at Maroubra to help Amanda find her lost Diamond Earrings. Before her soccer game began, Amanda removed her Diamond Earrings and asked her friend to take care of them. Her friend put them in her pocket for safe keeping while Amanda played soccer. Unfortunately after the game was over, the earrings were no longer in her friend’s pocket. They obviously fell out while she was watching the game from the side line. After 4 people searched over an hour for the lost earrings, Amanda decided it was time to call me. I could not make it out to the Oval until night, but that turned out to be a blessing. After about an hour of searching the side line, I spotted a reflection from the light of my head lamp. I figured it was just another alluminum pull tab, and scanned the metal detector over the area. Oddly enough, there was no signal. This made me curious, so I pulled out my pinpointer and scanned area again. Once again, no signal. I got down close to the area and started parting the grass to the side. And there they were! Two beautiful diamond earrings! As it turns out, there was not enough gold content in the earrings to set off the metal detector, or the pinpointer.  It was just lucky that I had been there at night with the LED head lamp. I doubt I would have had any chance of finding the earrings in day light. Amanda (and her friend) we’re very happy to have the earring’s back. And Amanda, thank you kindly for a generous reward.

March 29th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

This is a very interesting story. I received a phone call from Michelle on Friday night. Michelle had lost one of her beautiful white gold/diamond ear rings, which was a gift from her Fiancee. While Michelle had been talking on the phone, her big Labrador puppy was licking her ear, which caused the back of the ear ring to fall off. Michelle was unaware this had happened at the time…and went outside to do some gardening. Just as she lowered her head underneath the branch of a tree, she felt the earring drop from her ear. It then became clear to Michelle that her dog must have removed the backing, causing it to drop off. After inspecting some doggy poop, Michelle found the backing of the ear ring. So now all she needed to do was find the diamond side of the ear ring. After many unsuccessful attempts at finding the ear ring in the thick buffalo grass, Michelle decided to give me a call. I mentioned to Michelle that some times Metal Detectors are unable to detect small stud earrings. This has happened to me in the past. But because Michelle had her other ear ring, we could test it out. I brought both my metal detectors along just in case. As is turned out, the studs we’re too small for the metal detectors to recognise. Also, there we’re over hanging power lines where the earring had dropped which wasn’t helping the situation. I remembered a conversation I have had with my good friend Chris Turner from Vancouver. He mentioned a similar problem…his metal detectors we’re unable to pickup a signal on a small stud ear ring, so he ended up getting down on his hands and knees, and scraped the surface area with a screw driver. After scraping the area, he heard the ping of metal against metal…and that was how he found the ear ring. I decided to test this method…but unfortunately due to the thickness of the buffalo grass, this method did not seem to work. Since I had already driven out to Bexley (south of Sydney), I mentioned to Michelle I would search through the grass for a while just using my eyes and hands. About 10 minutes of searching the grass…I spotted the stud end of Michelle’s earring. I pulled it out from the grass roots, and there it was…that shining Diamond. I handed the diamond stud to Michelle, who was now a very VERY happy lady. After many hugs and kisses, Michelle handed me a generous reward. Lady luck was on my side for this job