July 14th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Tracey called me with the sad news that she lost 2 rings. One she managed to find in her handbag, but the other ring which had been handed down from her late grandmother was still missing. She had spent the day at Morrison Park soccer oval, and had been sitting in various spots. Tracey wasn’t 100% sure if this was indeed where she lost the ring, but wanted me to have a look anyway. Unfortunately afters spending over 3 hours searching the oval, I came up empty handed. Please, if anyone does happen to find a gold/diamond signet ring at Morrison Park at Putney, please contact me. Tracey is offering a reward for its return.

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

March 21st, 2010 by Brad Lovell

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 Sue, it was nice to meet yourself and little boy. Also thank you kindly for a reward, even though this turned out to be a quick job.

December 22nd, 2009 by Brad Lovell

On Sunday afternoon I received a call from Denise. Denise was having a bad day…not only did she manage to lose her wedding ring, but her engagement ring too! I felt really bad for Denise, and told her I would be on my way to the reserve the rings we’re lost after dinner. Denise’s husband Daniel was still at the park searching the area with a torch. When I called Daniel to see how he was going, I heard the beeping of a metal detector. Someone had kindly loaned Daniel a Metal Detector when they saw him searching frantically for the lost rings. I arrived at the park not long after, and Daniel showed me the area they had been sitting earlier that day. Denise had picked up her young kids, and taken them to the toilet block which was about a 50 plus meter walk from the picnic area they we’re located. It was a possibility the rings fell off while Denise was carrying the kids. I began my slow grid search from the toilet block back towards the area they had been sitting. Halfway through my search, Daniel returned the loan Metal Detector and the globe in his torch broke. Feeling worn out from many hours of searching, Daniel went home while I continued searching. After about 3 hours of slowly grid searching the area, I had finally made it back to the area Denise had been sitting that day. I must admit, I had given up hope by now. What grass was left in the area was not very thick, and the chances of someone eyeballing two gold rings on the ground was very probable. A reflection from my LED headlamp in the distance led me to a tree close by. The reflection turned out to be coming from what looked like a small diamond, but with no ring attached to it. I wondered in my mind if this was a part of Denise’s engagement ring? I decided to search the surrounding area… and to my surprise, after a nice solid signal I looked down with my light and there we’re two gold rings lying next to each other. I picked up the rings and noticed no Diamonds we’re missing from Denise’s engagement ring. It was just coincidence that I found the other diamond, which turned out to be a good thing as it led me to the area Denise’s rings we’re dropped. Although it was getting close to midnight, I decided to give Daniel a call. I am sure he and Denise would sleep better knowing I had found the rings. Denise and Daniel we’re incredibly happy to hear the great news, and I am meeting with Daniel tomorrow to return the rings

December 14th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

After a quick phone call from Melanie, I was on my way to Sydney Park at St Peters (Inner West of Sydney). Melanie had been playing around in the park and decided to put her wedding and engagement ring in her pocket for safe keeping. After she had finished her activities, she reached into her pockets only to find both rings we’re missing. I mentioned to Melanie I would hop in the car and meet her at the park ASAP. Two rings sitting in the grass of a busy park would get picked up in no time. About 30 minutes later I arrived at the park and met Melanie and her husband. Melanie mentioned to me she had both good and bad news. The good news being her husband found the rings in the grass with a flash light. And the bad news being I had driven out there for no reason hehe. Melanie and her husband obviously felt bad that I had driven out there on a Sunday night, and offered me more money than my regular call out fee. I could not accept the extra money as I was not the one who found the rings. My primary concern was that Melanie had her rings back on her finger. I told Melanie and her husband there is no reason to feel bad. This has happened many times before, and is just a part of the job I love

October 7th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

A couple of weeks back I received a call out to Centennial Park in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. A gentleman who’s name has now slipped my mind (apologies), lost his wedding ring while playing touch football. The unfortunate part of this job was the gentleman did not feel the ring slip off his finger. He realised the ring was missing after he finished up. I drove out to Centennial Park and we squared off the perimeter where the touch football game had been played. This was going to be a long job, as their was  copious amounts of surface area to cover. About an hour had passed as I continued my grid search when I noticed a man pushing a pram approach the gentleman who had lost the ring. In the pram was a little baby girl who had fallen over a stick. When her father bent down to pick her up he noticed the ring appear from under the stick. I was still a good 2 hours away from grid searching that part of the field, so this little baby not only out hunted me, but saved me a lot of time

June 18th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Some recoveries can be long and tedious. It is not unusual for me to spend up to 6 hours searching for some body’s lost precious item. And then there are jobs where recovery time can take minutes. And this story is of the later. I received a phone call from Owen who lost his beautiful Platinum wedding ring while playing soccer at a park in Sydney. Due to work commitments, Owen was unable to meet me at the location, but I had him send me a google map satellite image of where he had been playing soccer. He actually felt the ring fall off his finger, but finding it in the thick grass was impossible. So I printed out the treasure map, and made my way to the park. On arrival, the weather was not looking to good, so I was hoping this would be a quick one. I looked at the map, and found the area Owen had circled. Literally after a few seconds of searching i received a target which read zero inches under ground. I start parting the grass with my fingers, and there it was. Owen’s precious Platinum wedding band. Just as I got back to the car, the rain started pouring down. It was a close call! Owen was excited that I had recovered his lost wedding ring, and gave me a very generous reward. Thank you so much Owen, and it was a pleasure to meet you!

May 18th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

I spent Sunday afternoon searching for lost car keys at Rushcutters Bay Park. Ms Rowell had been walking her dogs through the park, and noticed her key was missing when she returned to her car. Unfortunately Ms Rowell did not have a spare key, and Volvo mentioned it would take at least 6 weeks to issue a new key from Sweden. We retraced the walk Ms Rowell and her dogs had taken the previous day, and I used the metal detector in area’s of grass which we’re thick enough to hide a large key. After a couple of hours searching, we gave up the hunt. It was more than possible someone had picked up the key. If anyone does happen to find a Volvo key at Rushcutters Bay Park, please contact me asap.

May 15th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Last week I received a phone call from Anna. Anna was doing boot camp with a group of people at St Le0nards Park, North Sydney. While running up and down a grass incline, Anna pulled at her shirt which caused her necklace to break. Her gold/diamond pendant dropped into the grass, never to be seen again. The boot camp group and trainer got down on their hands and knees and searched the area where the necklace had snapped. Unfortunately, even with all that man power…the pendant was not recovered. I met Anna at the park later that night, and began searching the area with my metal detector. After about a 4 hour grid search of the area, I was unable to find the Pendant I decided to have one last try the following morning, hoping the day light would help. I ran into Anna’s personal trainer, who put me in the exact area where the necklace had snapped. But once again, after another 2 hour search I was unsuccessful in locating Anna’s gold pendant. So what happened to Anna’s Pendant?? I really don’t know how this one got away. I am thinking either someone has picked it up, or there was not enough gold content in the pendant for my metal detector to find it. If anyone does happen to find a gold pendant with a diamond at St Leonards Park, North Sydney, please contact me so I can put you in touch with Anna.

May 11th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

I received a phone call from Ian last week. Ian is a lecturer at the University of New South Wales. He was planning on taking his class to visit some bore holes at Astrolabe Park near Kensington Sydney. It had been some time since the metalic covers on the bore holes had been opened…and grass had grown over them. This was an unusual job for me, as I am normally on the hunt for jewellery…but I told Ian I would be more than happy to help him out. I met Ian’s colleague Bryce the next morning at Astolabe Park. Bryce had maps of where the bore holes should be located, so this made things easier. The hunt for the first bore hole turned out to be a little more difficult than expected. But after about a 30 minute search I received a signal which caused an overload error on my detectors display. After parting some grass to the side, the first bore hole had been found. Now there we’re still about 4 or 5 holes to go. But as it would happen, the following holes we’re a lot easier to find with the map. So after about an hour, all the holes we’re found and my job was done