May 27th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Well it is that time of the year again, when the weather gets cold and the soccer season starts. I received a call from Be who unfortunately lost her wedding ring at Blackman Soccer Oval at Lane Cove. Be was not aware of when or where she lost the ring, but could recall the area of the soccer oval she spent most of her time. I began grid searching the area Be had been sitting, and after about 15 minutes of searching I managed to find Be’s large gold wedding ring hiding under some blades of grass. This turned out to be an easy one, and Be was inncredibly happy to have her wedding ring back

April 29th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

The weather in Sydney is getting cooler, and soccer season has begun. I received a phone call from Felicity who lost both her Wedding and Engagement ring on a soccer field at Lane Cove. It is horrible enough losing one ring, but to lose both rings must have been a gut wrenching feeling for Felicity. I really felt for her as these two rings represented a very important part of her life. For safety reasons, all players are required to remove their rings before a soccer game. Felicity removed her rings and put them in her mobile phone pouch. After the game was finished, Felicity recalled using her mobile phone. It was possible the rings could have fallen whilst removing the phone from its pouch. After searching her bag house and car, Felicity decided to call me to search the area where the rings could have dropped from the pouch. I arrived to the job a little early, and noticed Felicity had put up signs around the park offering a reward for the return of her lost rings. I knew it would be a long shot finding Felicity’s rings, as it can be difficult finding a lost ring when you have an idea where it dropped. But I remained positive and began my search in the area Felicity believed the rings could have dropped. The area was very noisy, with lots of signals coming from bottle caps and other rubbish. Almost every swing I did gave off one or two signals which is very frustrating. But the rings could not be very deep yet, so it was just a matter of investigating the surface signals. Much to my surprise, after about 1.5 hours of searching, I found Felicity’s wedding ring hidden in the grass. This lifted my confidence, I was sure the engagement ring must have been close by. After about an other hour or so of searching, I was unable to find the engagement ring. I mentioned to Felicity I was sorry, but I will come back tomorrow and continue the search. Felicity was very grateful that I was able to find her wedding ring, and gave me a generous reward. I went back the following day and did another 3 hour search for the engagement ring, but once again no luck. I have a feeling two things may have happened… either someone has found the ring, or the lawn cutting machine has hit the ring and launched it somewhere else. If anyone happens to find a white gold engagement ring at Blackman Park Lane Cove, please contact me so I can organise its return to Felicity. Hopefully photos of the lost ring will be coming soon.

March 19th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

I received a phone call from Rick last week. Rick was doing some work on the back of his boat. As he was throwing rubbish from his boat to his dingy, Rick watched helplessly as his gold bracelet fell off his wrist and went flying through the air, and into the water. Unfortunately this bracelet was very special to Rick. It was a gift from his wife over 33 years ago. And Rick also mentioned to me that he had planned on passing the gold bracelet down to his grand son, who seemed to love playing with the bracelet. The bracelet was lost in about 2-3 meters of water, so unfortunately I was unable to help out. But, Rick had already organised a diver, Josh. Josh attempted searching for the lost bracelet without the help of a metal detector. The water where the gold bracelet fell, was very murky, with a mud bottom. Josh had no luck finding the bracelet, and mentioned to Rick that he really needs the help of a metal detector. After a quick search on google for an underwater metal detector, Rick found my website. I met Rick and Josh down at Woodford Bay with my equipment, a beautiful spot near Greenwich and Lane Cove on Sydney’s North Shore. Josh did not have experience with metal detecting, but he is an expert diver. After a quick metal detecting lesson, Josh was under water, searching for Rick’s lost bracelet. After a good 3 hour search, Josh came up empty handed. I still had one plan up my sleeve. My scuba diving friend Matt was available on the weekend, and willing to head down to Woodford bay in an attempt to find Rick’s gold bracelet. Matt is still learning the art of metal detecting, which is actually a lot more complex than one would think. Finding a signal is easy, but digging up what is causing that signal 3 meters under water, with zero visibility is not an easy feat. I was unable to meet Matt and Rick on the weekend, so Matt picked up my metal detecting gear and gave it his best. I am not sure how long the hunt lasted, but unfortunately Matt was unable to find Rick’s bracelet either. So after 3 attempts, the gold bracelet still sits at the bottom of Woodford Bay. I really feel for Rick, who desperately wanted his Bracelet back on his wrist. But I am sure Rick feels a sense of closure knowing he did everything physically possible to retrieve the lost bracelet. I have not given up on Ricks bracelet yet. When I am unable to find a customers lost item, I return in my spare time to continue the search. I am hoping to get back down to Woodford Bay some time in the future to continue searching for Rick’s Gold Bracelet.