June 27th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

This would have to have been the most freakish job I have had to date. Peter lost his new wedding ring in shallow water at a harbour side beach in Clontarf. I am fairly familiar with the beach at Clontarf, and thankfully it is not a surf beach. But I explained to Peter that from my experience when a ring has been lost in the water, especially when you don’t know where  it fell off, it is always going to be difficult to recover. When I arrived at the beach, Peter had made some perimeter markings in the sand as a guide. I turned on my detector to begin what I figured would be a long slow grid search. First sweep of the detector and I receive a sweet loud signal. Plunge the scoop into the sand, and out pops Peters shining gold wedding ring! I think I was just as shocked as Peter! It is rare to pull a ring out of the shallows so quickly. Both Peter and myself couldn’t believe our luck! If only all my jobs we’re this successful!

June 27th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Adrian was fishing at Mosman Bay Wharf as he watched his wedding ring slip off his finger and into the harbour. Unfortunately at the time of Adrian’s phone call, I was moving house and had my scuba gear packed away in boxes. I mentioned to Adrian I would probably not be able to help until the following week, but I could tell by the desperation in Adrian’s voice he wanted someone in the water searching for the ring ASAP. After many phone calls to dive shops, Adrian called me back mentioning he was not able to find anyone willing to help him. Feeling sorry for Adrian, I put my move on hold and found the boxes my scuba gear we’re packed in. I met Adrian at Mosman Wharf the following afternoon. The unfortunate thing for me was the location the ring was lost, being right where the Sydney Ferry’s come in to pickup passengers. Not only is this dangerous, but I believe it is also illegal to dive in such a spot. But since the ring dropped so close to the wall, I decided to jump in anyway and give it my best. The water was a lot deeper than I expected, and as always in the harbour, visibility was no so good. The area where the ring had dropped had a very difficult ground surface. It was on a very steep angle, and consisted of jagged rock. It was almost impossible to detect the bottom of this location with any efficiency. Most of the time I was searching by sight, but unfortunately after an hour of searching, my air levels we’re low and it was time to come back up. Adrian was disappointed I did not recover his wedding ring, but at the same time realised it was a long shot.

June 25th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Jenny had this misfortune of losing her Omega Dive watch while swimming at Manly Beach. This was a situation where Jenny entered the water with her watch on, and left the water with it off. She was not sure exactly where the watch had fallen, but spent most of her time in the area plotted in the photo above. I spent over two hours scanning the area with my water detector, but I had no luck in locating Jenny’s watch. If anyone has happened to pickup an Omega watch similar to the on pictured, please contact me so I can put you in touch with Jenny. Jenny has offered a generous reward for its return.

May 27th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Kate had the misfortune of losing her Pandora Charms in the grass of her front yard. With a quick movement of her wrist, the safety latch on her Pandora Bracelet broke and the charms flew everywhere. Kate managed to find some of the pandora charms herself, some of them we’re found some distance away, but there we’re still 4 beads which remained elusive in the thick grass. Kate called me over to search for her lost pandora charms with my metal detector. This job was a little tricky as a couple of the charms contained very little gold content, which my metal detector does not like. About 40 minutes after beginning the search, all of Kates Pandora Charms we’re back in her possesion

May 10th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

One of the benefits of my job (besides the rewarding feeling  experienced when you reunite someone with their lost treasure) is meeting new people and discovering places you did not know existed. Last month I received a phone call from Adrian who lost his wedding ring in shallow water at Shoal Bay. Now Shoal Bay is a 3 hour drive north of Sydney, normally way out of my service area, but I am glad I accepted this job. Adrian had a local Metal Detector Man search for his lost wedding ring, but the gentleman had no luck in his search. After finding my number on the internet, Adrian decided to call me, and did a good job at convincing me to travel to Shoal Bay with him. On arrival at Shoal Bay, I remember thinking what a beautiful location it was. But I was there to find Adrian’s lost wedding ring… so I put on my wetsuit and began the hunt. Unfortunately for me, such a beautiful clean beach hid lots of scrap metal below. The metal detector was receiving signals on each swing, so I decided I would just dig the nice sounding signals to start with, or it could be a long day. This tactic paid off, after recovering Adrian’s wedding ring in knee deep water. The drive to Shoal Bay and back to Sydney took around 6 hours, but the hunt itself lasted 10 minutes. It was a pleasure to meet Adrian, and thank you kindly for a generous reward.

April 8th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Last week I received a phone call from a gentleman by the name of Tim. Tim had been standing in waist deep water at Balmoral Beach while holding his baby, when his heavy platinum wedding ring fell off his finger and into the water. That afternoon I met Tim at low tide and began searching the area for his wedding band. Frustratingly, the ring was lost in a very trashy area, which meant I was receiving a signal almost every swing of the metal detector. With the amount of area that required searching, it could take days to dig every target. With only a couple of hours of day light left,  I decided to only investigate the stronger signals. After about 90 minutes of digging, I finally recovered a large heavy platinum ring. When Tim returned to the beach, I showed him the ring, praying it was the right one. Tim smiled and slid it straight onto his finger and said ‘thats the one!’. Tim it was great meeting you and I appreciate your honesty in regards to the reward. You we’re true to your word which is very appreciated.

April 8th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Sadly on Australia day back in January, Liza lost her very large gold wedding ring after being dumped by a wave at the Copacabana Beach. Liza was visiting her son from South Africa at the time. Unfortunately when Liza’s son Bernard called me to search for the ring, my under water metal detector was in for repairs. Many months later, Liza contacted me via email to ask if I could search for the lost ring. Because so much time had passed by, and the ring was lost in the surf I mentioned to Liza there was very little chance of finding the ring. But as a way of getting closure, Liza asked me to search the area for the ring anyway. I drove up the central coast to the beautiful Copacabana Beach and met Liza’s son Bernard, who showed me the approximate area of where the ring was lost. Strangley enough, after 2 hours of searching the area at low tide, I did not receive one single target! This rarely ever happens…there is always at least a coin or bottle cap to dig up. If anyone has managed to find a “Large” gold ring at the Copacabana Beach, please contact me as this ring means a lot to Liza.

March 10th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Last week I got a call from Alex who lost his platinum wedding band in his backyard at Greenwich (a suburb close to St Leonards on Sydney’s lower North Shore). Alex was hanging a tarp on the clothes line when he felt the ring slip off his finger. After many hours of searching for the lost wedding ring, Alex decided to call for my services. I figured this should be a 5 minute job, but as it turns out I would be very wrong. The moment I turned on my metal detector, the thing went crazy. I couldn’t work out why? I was looking around for power lines, and figured their could be underground power cables. After tuning the detector so it was somewhat usable, I finally worked out why it was spluttering. Not far away was a 170 meter tall television transmission tower. This was playing havoc with my equipment. I searched the area for about 3 hours with no success. Greenwich is only a 5 minute drive from my house, so I mentioned to Alex I would come back the following day. Next day I arrived and began the search again. We figured the ring had fallen into the leaves of some small trees near Alex’s clothes line. I had spent the previous day shaking the trees, and trying to swipe the detector through the leaves for a signal. That night Alex also tried searching the trees with a torch, looking for any reflection from the platinum ring. By the time I reached the tree line, I received a signal on the ground. After investigating the signal, there is was. Alex’s elusive platinum wedding ring! It was definitely not in that spot the previous day… perhaps the ring dropped from the leaves after Alex’s search the previous night? Anyway, I called Alex with the good news, his lost platinum wedding ring was no longer lost

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.

February 10th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Yesterday I drove out to Castlecrag to meet Heidi. Heidi’s husband had lost his white gold wedding ring somewhere in the backyard. The area was covered with lots of trees grass and leaves, places where heavy gold sinks and dissapears. Heidi’s husband had an idea where the ring may have dropped, so I began searching the area. After a few false signals, I received a nice loud sound which is very similar to a $2 coin. After moving some leaves and grass away, there it was..a shining white gold wedding band. I want to thank Heidi for a kind reward even though it was only a 10 minute recovery. After some of the exhausting searches I have performed recently, it was pleasant to have a fast and hassle free job