59 Year Old Wedding Ring Lost In Yard
June 26th, 2010 by Brad Lovell
This is a story of 2 men, and a lost wedding ring. John Taylor is a Hawkesberry Barrister who spotted his friend Terry frantically searching the front yard. John stopped his car and asked Terry if he needed any help? Terry mentioned he had lost his wedding ring, a ring he had been wearing for 59 years. Terry had given up hope finding the ring, but John being the persistent and generous man he is decided to hire a metal detector from Kenards. They spent some time searching for the lost ring with the hire detector, but we’re overwhelmed with the constant signals the detector was picking up. John, still not giving up hope did some research on the Internet and found my website. After a quick phone call I told him I would be happy to help out. We organised a day and I drove out to Windor (about an hour plus drive north west of Sydney)… This is where I met Terry and Nancy, a lovely couple who had been married for almost 60 years. After meeting the couple in person, this made me want to find their lost wedding ring even more. Terry was not sure where the ring had dropped off his finger, as he had spent time in various places throughout his front and back yard. I asked Terry, if he had to guess a spot where he feels the ring might be, where would it be?? He mentioned a spot in the garden where he had been pulling out the roots of an old palm tree. I started detecting that particular area, and in about 1 minute I had pulled Terry’s wedding ring out of the dirt. Terry and his wife Nancy we’re rightfully happy to have the ring back in their possession. The local Windsor paper published an article on the story which John kindly mailed to me 
I love my job!
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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 
Last night I received a phone call from Alex. He had been playing volley ball the previous day at Manly Beach, and lost his wedding ring while diving for the ball. Knowing Manly beach is constantly hunted by other metal detector guys, I told Alex I would finish my dinner and head straight out there. Alex showed me the area he had been playing volley ball, and the direction he believed the ring to fall. We squared off a search area with a large safety buffer, and began the search. After an hour of slowly covering an extended area I was starting to worry. But there was one positive sign, I was getting lots of targets including coins…which is an indication that the area has not already been hunted out by another metal detector man (or lady). It was time to begin searching the other side of the volley ball area. Although Alex did not beleive the ring was dropped in this area, you just never know where rings can end up. After about 5 minutes of searching the new area, I got a nice strong signal which would normally indicate a 50 cent coin. This signal can also indicate a large gold ring. After locating the target with my pinpointer, I caught a glimpse of gold between the sand. This glimpse of gold was indeed a gold wedding ring. I handed the ring to Alex who right away said that was his wedding ring. After a quick text message to his wife, I took this photo of a relieved Alex and the ring with my iPhone.
Last Friday I was called out to St Ives (North of Sydney) to help Sue search for her lost wedding and engagement rings. Sue had felt the rings slip off her finger while she was throwing an exercise ball at a local park. Sue and her personal training group all tried searching for the rings, but the thick grass had made recovery impossible without the use of a metal detector. A few hours after Sue contacting me, we met up in the park to begin searching for the lost rings. It only took 2 or 3 swings of the metal detector before I received my first target. The detector gave off a reading similar to a piece of foil.. but as most experience detectorist’s will know, this is indeed the signature of the precious metal platinum. After parting the grass, I spotted Sue’s diamond engagement ring. I plucked the ring out of the grass and handed it over to a now very happy Sue, and continued the search for the wedding band. Surprisingly, both rings we’re not in the same spot.. with the wedding band being a couple of meters away. Both rings had now been returned to their rightful owner 
A few days back I received a call from Anthony, who’s wife Myer had managed to lose her engagement ring somewhere at Balmoral Beach. Myer removed the ring to apply suncream, and at some point the ring has fallen in the sand. A passer by noticed the distressed couple searching for the ring and found my website on his iPhone. An hour later I was down at Balmoral Beach about to search for Myer’s lost diamond engagement ring. The couple had been sitting in 2 locations throughout the day, and remembered the path that they walked which was a good thing. We started the search in the position they had spent most of the time sitting, and both Myer and Anthony had a feeling it was in this area. After Anthony circled off a search area in the sand, I began detecting and digging any and every signal. After digging a few old bottle caps, and a 5 cent coin I received a very faint crackly signal. I have learned not to ignore these signals anymore as thin gold engagement rings can do this. When digging up diamond rings in dry sand, I do not use a scoop encase it knocks out the diamond. So I pushed my pinpointing device into the sand until I was right above the signal. After pushing some sand away I knew right away I had found Myer’s engagement ring. It doesn’t matter how many times I recover a lost ring, the feeling you get when you see a beautiful diamond ring sparkling in your hand is a great feeling. And it feels even better when you return the ring to the owner and see the smile on their face. Anthony and Myer, it was a pleasure meeting you guys 
Tuesday I was called out to Freshwater Beach to search for Dan’s lost gold ring. Dan had placed the ring on his t shirt, and when lifting his shirt the ring had fallen somewhere in the sand. Dan had an idea where the ring was, but frustratingly could not find it in the loose sand. About an hour after Dan’s phone call, I arrived at Freshwater Beach and found where Dan was sitting. He showed me the spot he believed the ring to be. After about 3 minutes of searching, I received a nice clear signal from my metal detector which was in the gold signature range. With the use of my pin pointing device, I was able to locate the signal which was indeed Dan’s lost gold ring. After some of the tricky and difficult jobs I have had lately, it was nice to have a quick efficient recovery 
Last week I was called out to Waroonga, a beautiful suburb about 50 minutes north of Sydney. Belinda had noticed both her wedding and engagement rings missing, and was told by her daughter that her one and a half year old toddler was last seen playing with the rings in the front yard. After an extensive search for the rings, Belinda decided it was time to call me in for the job. Belinda was in the process of having her yards excavated so I needed to find these rings before they we’re lost forever. Both Belinda and her daughter pointed me to the area that little Jack was last seen playing with the rings. After beginning my search in the obvious areas, I decided to grid search the entire front yard to no avail. This was confusing, how far could a 18 month year old boy throw two rings? I asked Belinda if I could check the backyard, which was half excavated. After about 10 minutes of searching the backyard, I 
recieved a signal with the metal detector within inches of where old grass had been dug out, and new soil laid. I couldn’t believe it, it was Belinda’s wedding ring. As I bent down to pick it out of the dirt, I eye balled the diamond engagement ring hiding not far beside it. Both the rings we’re sitting withing inches of where the bulldozer had stopped digging. This was definitely Belinder’s lucky day! As you can see by the smile in the photos, Belinda was incredibly happy and relieved to have her sentimental rings back on her finger. Belinda, thank you so much for your honesty and kind reward! It was also nice meeting yourself, kids and Fudge the Labrador 
Last night I received a call from Jason, who lost his wedding ring while swimming at Red Leaf Beach. Redleaf is a netted harbour beach at Double Bay in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Jason was not sure of the exact location the ring slipped off his finger, so we both knew this would be a very difficult recovery. I met Jason at Redleaf beach at 6:30 am this morning, and began the underwater search. When unsure of the location the ring slipped off, all I can really do is cover as much surface area as possible before my tank runs out of air, or I start getting too cold. So with my underwater metal detector and 10 meter long rope as a guide, I began a slow search back and forth for Jason’s lost wedding ring. After about 2 hours of searching, things we’re not looking promising. I had recovered the usual coins, bottle caps and a ladies ring…but not Jason’s wedding band. After another conversation with Jason, we decided to shift positions. I only had about another 30minutes left in me due to low air, and drop in body temperature. About another 20 minutes of searching in the new position and almost giving up hope, I fanned out a signal which turned out to be a white gold wedding band. I was praying that this was Jason’s wedding ring! I called him over to have a look, he looked at it for a second and then his face lit up. I had definitely found the right ring. We we’re both mentally prepared for the possibility of not recovering the ring, so as you can imagine we we’re feeling pretty damn good to have it back! Jason, it was a pleasure meeting you… and thank you kindly for a generous reward. This certainly was a lucky day.