February 6th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

A few months back I received a phone call from Sree, who may have lost his gold bracelet in the garden below his balcony. I went out to search for the bracelet without any success. Last week I received another call from Sree, this time his wife had lost a gold ring in the same garden. Being Hindu, Sree and his wife put their gold items in flowers, and after prayer they throw the flowers into the garden below their balcony. Sree explained this is a Hindu tradition. One would figure this would be an easy job for me, looking for gold in a small garden area. But as luck would have it, this garden is full of plants with long bladed leafs which makes metal detecting very difficult. On my second visit to search for the ring, I noticed the garden was still flattened from my last visit. I began detecting the area again, and got a strong signal about 5 minutes into the search. The signal turned out to be the gold ring. Since I had driven all the way to Homebush, (west of Sydney) I decided to keep searching for the gold bracelet I had no luck finding the previous time. About half an hour later, I received a very faint signal and was parting the blade leaves to one side. Just as I was about to pull out my pin pointer, Sree saw the bracelet hiding between the leaves and grabbed it. As you can imagine, Sree and his wife we’re very happy to have both their gold ring and bracelet back in possession

January 6th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

On Tuesday I drove out to Pennant Hills (near Castle Hill) to help Brett find his lost gold wedding ring. Brett was not exactly sure when or where the ring fell off, but there was a time frame in relation to when he noticed it on, and when it went missing. And he had not left the home in that time period. Brett had also been spreading wood chips in his garden on the day the ring went missing, so there was a good chance it may have slipped off into the garden. When I arrived, I began my search in the garden area without any luck. I decided to turn up the gain on the metal detector and search the garden one more time to be sure. Once again, no wedding ring to be found. There was another vegetable garden which Brett said he may have worked on that day, but was not sure. Before checking the vegetable garden, I decided to detect the thick grass that ran parallel to the garden. A few minutes of searching the grass and I received a nice loud signal, very similar to a $1 coin. There hiding in the grass was Brett’s chunky gold wedding ring. After a recent run of bad luck, I was just as releived as Brett and his wife to have found the ring. It was a pleasure meeting Brett and his wife, plus his two puppies (Dash & Dale) who kept me entertained while hunting Photo coming soon…

September 6th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Robin called me last week requesting my services. He had lost his gold signet ring while shaking water off his hands. Robin was standing on a balcony when the ring flew off in the direction of the garden below. Interesting enough, Robin did not hear the ring land which worried me. Anyway, I started searching the garden area where the ring most likely dropped. After covering the area 3 times, I was beginning to think that perhaps the ring had gone over the neighbours fence. Before knocking on the neighbour’s door, I decided to start metal detecting the trees in the garden. My good friend Tony from Jewellery Rescue had a situation where he found a ring in a tree (read story here) so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. After scanning most of the trees, I came to the last one. About half way up the trunk of the tree, I was receiving a strong signal. I thought that maybe there was a piece of wire in the tree. I began to investigate the area and spotted a glimpse of gold. Robin had flicked the ring off his finger so hard that it lodged inside the tree. Robin mentioned to me before I started the search to let him know exactly where I found the ring, as he had spent 2 hours searching for it. I called him out to see exactly where the ring had landed. We we’re both amazed yet happy the ring was no longer lost.

August 10th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

I always find it amazing how Rings can hide in even the most conspicuous of places. I drove out to Marrickville yesterday to help Andrew find his lost white gold wedding ring. Actually, to be precise, I was looking for half of Andrew’s wedding ring. It was a two piece ring which fell off Andrews finger when throwing a ball to his dog. Andrew found one half, but had no luck in locating the second half. When I arrived, I noticed the area where Andrew had lost the ring had good visibility. There was only small patches of grass where the ring could possibly hide. As I looked around the area, I was thinking surely the Ring could not be there…perhaps it launched over the fence and into the neighbour’s backyard. Anyway, I turned on the Metal Detector and began scanning the area where the other half of the ring was found. A few minutes later, I received a good signal in a grass patch, right next to a wooden garden perimeter. As I parted the grass to the side, I saw Andrew’s gold wedding ring sitting in a crack between the grass and the wood. I want to thank Andrew for a generous reward, even though it was a quick recovery.

June 18th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

I received a phone call from Rachel earlier on this week. Her husband Michael noticed his wedding ring was no longer on his finger. When tracing back the days events, there we’re two highly probable locations where the ring may have dropped. Michael had been on a chartered fishing boat in Botany Bay. On the boat Michael was gutting fish from an ice bucket and throwing them into the ocean. As you all know, fingers shrink in the cold…so there is good possibility Michael’s ring slipped off and is somewhere on the bottom of the ocean. The other possibility is the ring was lost while Michael was gardening earlier that day. Rachel asked me to come and check that the ring was not in the garden. I headed south so Sylvania in Sutherland Shire, and began to search the back garden area for Michael’s wedding ring. Unfortunately after checking the area several times, I was unable to locate the lost wedding ring. At least this gives Rachel and Michael piece of mind that the ring is not just hiding in the backyard.

June 8th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Last week I was called out to West Pymble to search for a lost gold signet ring. Caroline (apologies if I have the name wrong,  having a mental blank) noticed the ring missing from her finger. The ring was actually passed down to Caroline by her father in law. Unfortunately, Caroline was not 100% sure when or where she lost the ring, but called me over to search her yard and garden anyway. The day she noticed the ring was missing, Caroline had also been in a friends car, and also to the gym. I gave the garden and yard a good 2 hour plus search, but unfortunately I was not able to find the lost signet ring. The one positive to come out of this story, Caroline was in the process of having the ring duplicated by a jeweller. So she took some nice photos of the ring before it was lost. I really hope some day I will receive a call from Caroline to say she has found the ring.

May 19th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Today I drove out to Kingsgrove, south west of  Sydney to search for a lost wedding ring. I received a call from Dawn who mentioned her husband noticed his wedding ring missing after a day of gardening. Dawn and her husband have been married for 38 years, so of course the ring holds a considerable amount of sentimental value. After meeting Dawn and her cute puppy Charlie, I began searching the garden. The garden was covered in fresh mulch, which seemed to be the obvious place to start my search. After about 5 minutes of scanning over the mulch, I received my first nice signal that could indicate gold. Finding the signal in the mulch turned out to be harder than expected, so it was time to bust out the new vibrating Pin Pointer. The Pin Pointer lived up to its name, and pointed me to the exact location of the signal. And there it was in my hand, a shiny gold wedding ring. Dawn was very happy to have the wedding ring back in her possession.

May 15th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

I had the pleasure of meeting Charlotte yesterday. Charlotte was on her balcony hanging clothes out to dry, when her gold ring slipped off her finger and into the garden below. The ring was given to Charlotte by her mother, so she was keen to find it. After a quick drive out to Macquarie Park, I met with Charlotte and she described what had happened. The garden was quite dense with plants and bushes, but Charlotte mentioned she would rip them all out if it meant recovering the ring. I started with a quick visual inspection, to see if I could see the ring on the surface. I then grabbed the metal detector and scanned an area in the garden which lined up with the balcony above. As luck would have it, the very first signal I received was Charlotte’s gold ring. After spending 6 hours and not finding anything on my last job, this was a welcome relief

May 3rd, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Althea had the misfortune of losing her late father’s wedding ring while playing basketball at a friends house. While playing with the basketball, Althea felt the ring slip from her finger…but did not hear or see the ring land. As always, I was happy to come out and help Althea look for the ring. After a short drive to Newtown in Sydney’s inner west, I met up with Althea and her partner, and we entered her friends back yard. Straight away I noticed most of the small yard was paved. There was really only a few places the ring could have been, either in one of two gardens…in a pot plant, or over the fence. I began my search by moving the pot plants, and basically looking under everything the ring could have possibly rolled under. I then began scanning the garden which was closest to where Althea was standing when the ring fell off. This garden was very thick with plants and shrubs, so swinging the detector in there was impossible without damaging plants. I kind of jabbed away with the detector covering the areas of the garden I could access. When I realised I was only really covering a small percentage of the garden with the detector, I decided to use my hand held pinpointer to get into the hard to reach areas of the garden. Unfortunately I was not having any luck. After about an hour of hunting, I was talking to Althea about the possibility of searching the neighbours back yard. Althea continued searching the thick garden while I ran the pinpointer over another garden. Not long after that, Althea yelled out found it! She had managed to find her late father’s wedding ring without the use of any equipment! The ring had fallen into the base of a plant in the dense garden. We we’re all incredibly happy that Althea had her ring back. I actually felt guilty accepting the call out fee from Althea, as she was the one who had found the ring.

Althea, it was really great meeting you and your friends yesterday. You are really nice people, and I enjoyed spending the afternoon with you guys. And if you ever want a job as a treasure hunter, let me know!

March 31st, 2009 by Brad Lovell

I received a phone call from Johny on the weekend asking me to come over to find his lost gold ring.  Johny’s partner Darren, was working in the garden while wearing the ring on his little finger.  Darren eventually noticed the ring had fallen off, but was not exactly sure where. He was very confident that the ring dropped off his finger during the time he was working in the garden. I let Johny know that I would be happy to do a search  on Monday morning. After about an hour and a half drive on Monday morning, I arrived at the house. I was greeted by Darren, who showed me where he believed he had lost Johny’s gold ring. The garden wrapped around one corner of the house. When I first started searching for the lost ring, I figured this should be an easy job. But the further I moved down the garden, the more dense it became. There we’re many spots in the garden where it was impossible for me to move the metal detector coil over the surface of the ground. In fact, there we’re many parts of the garden I could not even see the ground due to dense scrubs and plants. After a good 2.5 hour search, it was time for me to call it quits. I could see the disappointment in Darren’s face that I had not found the lost ring. I really hope that one day while working on the garden, either Johny or Darren will find it amongst the plants.