March 10th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

I am currently working on a job trying to find a large gold ring which was lost in about 2 meters of water at Balmoral Beach. The ring is incredibly sentimental to the owner. The area the ring was lost is in a spot where many people swim each morning. If by any chance a swimmer has picked up a LARGE gold ring, please get in contact with me ASAP. The owner is willing to pay a large reward for its return. In the search for the gold ring, I did manage to find a silver ring with a green rock. If you beleive you are the owner of this ring, please contact me.

March 3rd, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Yesterday I drove to Gordon, (about 30 minutes North of Sydney) to help Bruce locate his lost gold wedding ring. Bruce had been removing leaves from his pool filter, and throwing them into the bushes below. He felt the ring slip off, but could not find the ring amongst the leaf foliage. I arrived with my metal detector and started scanning the area. After a few false signals I had managed to recover Bruce’s lost gold wedding ring, which was hiding in a layer of dirt underneath the leaves. As you can see from the photo, this is quite a unique gold wedding ring.  It was nice meeting Bruce, and is always a pleasure to have the occasional fast and hassle free recovery Although as punishment for having a quick and easy job, I managed to get a leach attached to my leg. This was my first leach attack…and I stupidly just ripped it off (ouch!) Every job offers a new experience.

March 2nd, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Kristy had only been married for 10 weeks, and was given the task of minding her husband’s wedding ring while he went water skiing. Kristy put the ring on her thumb, and carried on with her day. When it was time to leave the small beach area they we’re located, Kristy realised her husband’s wedding ring was no longer on her thumb. As you can imagine, both Kristy and her husband we’re gutted. Without her husband’s knowledge, Kristy gave me a phone call and asked if I could head up to Woy Woy on the central coast to help her out. As always, I mentioned to Kristy I would love to help out…but from the information she had given me I think it will be very difficult to find. Kristy had no idea where the ring had dropped, but luckily she did not venture out more than knee to waist deep water. After an hour plus drive, and a 10 minute boat ride to the location, I began detecting the beach which was now under water due to a high tide. Unbelievably after 10 minutes, and digging up a few bottle caps, I looked in my scoop and spotted a  large gold wedding ring. Kristy was willing to take a risk,  and it had paid off. After returning the ring to Kristy, she was misty eyed and gave me a big hug. She could not wait to get home and surprise her husband who had no idea Kristy had organised a search for his lost wedding ring. Kristy, it was a pleasure to meeting you, Krystal and Dean.

February 23rd, 2010 by Brad Lovell

I am currently searching for a White Gold Wedding ring at Clovelly Beach. The ring was lost Monday Feb 22nd, while Dave was swimming from the steps. (not the beach) The ring has an engraving of a small tear drop on the inside. The inside is polished, while the outside has a dusty look. The ring is quite large, and could have been spotted by scuba divers or snorkelers. If anyone has managed to pick up a ring matching this description, please please contact me ASAP! The return of this ring is incredibly important to Dave as his wife recently passed away. I will continue the search for this ring until it is found.

While searching for Dave’s wedding ring, I managed to find 3 other rings in the process. 2 of them are gold wedding bands, and the other silver. If anyone has lost a ring at Clovelly Beach which looks like the rings in the photos, please contact me so I can organise their return.

February 10th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Narrabeen Lagoon

I always enjoy a challenge when it comes to metal detecting. Some jobs are simple, and it literally takes me minutes to recover the lost item. But this has been a tough summer for the “Metal Detector Man”! Under water jobs are always difficult for too many reasons and variables to list. Which means my recovery rate for such jobs it low. I always mention this to my customers before starting a new job. I am not trying to talk myself out of business, but I like to be realistic. Here are some jobs below which had disappointing endings..

• Sam was attending a wedding that myself and Layne Beachley had to sneak around to get to a harbour side beach her ring was lost. The word soon spread via the wedding guests that Layne Beachley had lost her engagement ring, and she had hired the metal detector man to try and find it. The following weekend, Sam was at his friends holiday home throwing a ball in waist deep water. After diving for the ball, Sam believes this could have been the point when the ring fell off. I drove up to the central coast (Bonnels Bay) to search for Sam’s lost wedding ring. After a good 3 hour search covering the area with both my metal detectors, we decided to call it quits.
• Jan had this misfortune of losing the keel off her boat in the dirty Parramatta River. Jan knew of the area where she believed the keel to have dropped. Because it was a metal keel, I decided I could try searching for it with my under water metal detector. It wasn’t until I arrived to the spot I realised how bad the conditions we’re. The water was literally brown…with zero visibility. In fact I could not even see my air gauge pushed up against my mask. Anyway, I wasn’t going to let this stop me…I did my usual 360 degree rope search covering a 20 meter diameter. A few big signals but none of them the keel. After a couple of hours searching in darkness I ran out of air. If anyone has an idea or a service which could help Jan recover her 250 kilo keel, please contact me!
• Paula lost her diamond engagement ring at Narrabeen Lagoon. I actually had 2 attempts at this job, but could not perform the search with any sort of efficiency while my underwater detector was in for repairs. My 3rd attempt was a couple of weeks later, armed with my repaired detector. After completing both a north-west, and east west grid search of the area following my ropes, I was not able to find Paula’s engagement ring. If any metal detector guys to manage to find a diamond wedding ring at Narrabeen Lagoon, please contact me. Paula is more than happy to offer a generous reward.

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 31st, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Today I received a phone call from Naomi who managed to lose both her wedding ring and engagement ring on a harbour side beach called Red Leaf at Double Bay. Trying to do the right thing, Naomi put both her rings in the pocket of her skirt before going for a swim. When she was leaving for the day, Naomi picked up her towel and skirt and began walking home. After walking only 10-20 meters Naomi remembered the rings in her skirt pocket, and decided to put them back on her finger. After reaching into the pocket, there we’re no rings to be found. When I arrived, Naomi and her friend showed me the area they had been sitting, which was actually a baren looking grass area. If the rings we’re there, we would have been able to see them with our eyes. So I went down to the sandy area where Naomi first realised the rings we’re missing. After about a half hour search, I found Naomi’s engagement ring hiding in the sand. But after searching the rest of the area, I was not able to find the wedding ring. I did a search in the grass area she had been sitting, but no luck there either. I decided to do one last search of the sand area, digging all signals including crackling and null tones that normally mean rubbish. One of these crackling signals turned out to be Naomi’s wedding ring. In the hundreds of rings I have found over the past couple of years, this is the first time this has happened. This is a learning experience for me, and will be embedded in my mind next time I am searching for a thin gold ladies ring. Either way, it felt good to return both rings to their rightful owner…

January 23rd, 2010 by Brad Lovell

On Wednesday I received a phone call from Layne who managed to get my phone number from the Manly Police. Layne had noticed her engagement ring missing after playing and throwing a ball in waist deep water at Apple Bay (right near Taronga Zoo). I packed my gear and drove down to the spot Layne described over the phone. Unfortunately the tide was high, and my underwater metal detector was playing up. I searched the dry/wet sand with no luck. I mentioned to Layne I would go back and try again at low tide on Friday afternoon. Thankfully she met me there, as it turned out I was searching the wrong spot on my first attempt. When meeting up with Layne, my cousin Nick who was there to help with the search recognised right away that the lady we we’re about to help was in fact World Surfing Champion Layne Beachley. I felt a bit stupid not knowing about an Australian surfing legend, and felt even more stupid when people on the beach we’re asking for a photo with Layne. Any how, we had a job to do…while Nick and Layne we’re snorkling the shallow waters looking for a glint of gold, I was carefully detecting the sand and shallow water in a slow North-South pattern. Since Layne did not feel when or where the engagement ring fell off, I honestly thought there was little chance of recovery. But after an hour of searching and digging up some rusty coins, I managed to pull a solid ring out of the sand. At first I figured it was a wedding band, but after eyeballing a nice sparkling diamond I was hoping that this was the right ring. After showing Layne the ring and seeing the smile on her face, I knew I had the right one We had a bit of a crowd gathering (including a wedding party) who congratulated me on finding the engagement ring. After a series of unsuccessful recoveries, it finally felt good to reunite a sentimental ring with its rightful owner. I want to thank my cousin (little Nicky) for helping out. Also it was very cool meeting Layne who was incredibly grateful for the service we had provided. I only had my iPhone available to take a photo of Layne with her engagement ring (which doesn’t do it justice), hopefully she will send a better photo of the ring soon. *Update* here is the photo, thanks Layne!

January 7th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Tuesday was a busy day for me, with 6 missing rings needing to be reunited with their owners. First job for the day was Brett’s wedding ring (previous entry), which turned out successful. Not long after recovering Brett’s wedding ring I received a phone call from Adis. Adis lost his wedding ring at Whale Beach, about an hour north of Sydney. As I was driving to Whale Beach, I received another phone call from Jasmine. Jasmine had also lost her wedding ring, and she too was at Whale Beach. When I arrived at Whale Beach, I met up with Adis as he explained to me what happened to his wedding ring. Adis put the ring on his towel as he applied suncream. When his kids came out of the water, his wife lifted the towel not realising Adis had left the ring on it. I figured this would be an easy job, but after searching the area many times over with 2 different metal detectors I could not find the lost wedding ring. Even Adis used one of my metal detectors as I searched with the other. I said to Adis I needed to go and help Jasmine who was patiently waiting for me to search for her lost wedding ring. At this point I was approached by another lady who asked if I could help find her wedding ring too. 3 lost wedding rings at the same time, this was getting weird. Anyway, Jasmine had not moved from the area she had been sitting all day. Her wedding and engagement ring we’re in a zipped pocket in her bag, with keys and wallet. Jasmine reached into the bag to give her sister her wallet. It seems that the wallet must have folded and grabbed the two rings. Jasmine found the engagement ring in the sand next to her towel, but the wedding ring was no where to be seen. I searched the area Jasmine had been sitting. No wedding ring to be found. We worked out the path Jasmine’s sister had taken to the car. It was a long walk, and it would take me a few hours to grid the entire area. I mentioned to Jasmine I would search the area, and give her a call if I manage to find the ring. Jasmine was surprisingly calm, saying it is not the end of the world. Adis on the other hand was very desperate…so I went back to his area and continued expanding the search perimeter. In the mean time, the other lady who lost her ring mentioned she found hers, and not to worry about helping her now. I spent the rest of the afternoon searching for both Adis’s and Jasmine’s wedding rings without any success. The following night I went back with Tony from Jewellery Rescue, and we basically grid searched the entire half of the beach to no avail. If anyone does happen to pickup a wedding ring at Whale Beach, please contact me so I can put you in touch with Adis and Jasmine. Adis’s wedding ring is white gold, with G&G engraved inside, while Jasmine’s wedding ring has Jasmine and her husbands name engraved inside the ring. My day would not end yet…

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…