February 20th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

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.

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

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…

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 28th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Today’s job is a sad story with a happy ending. I received a phone call from a gentleman by the name of Fergus who found me via this website.
He had just been married the day before he called me. While the wedding photographer was taking photos of his Bride Simone, her 2 hour old wedding ring slipped off her finger and into the harbour. I can not even begin to imagine how she felt.
I will be honest, I really don’t like diving in Sydney Harbour, the water is murky and there is LOTS of boat traffic (not to mention sharks). And I had troubles sleeping the night before feeling nervous about this job…But how could I say no to helping Simone and Fergus considering these circumstances? The plan was to conduct the search yesterday, but due to poor weather I had to cancel. Although today was overcast, the wind had dropped so Fergus and I met up at Pier 4, Walsh Bay Sydney. As I was gearing up, a guy walked past questioning what we we’re doing. When Fergus mentioned I was looking for a lost wedding ring the guy laughed and said you will never find it in there, it is over 60ft deep! This was not great for my confidence, I was already dreading going under…but as always I was determined to find the lost ring. Once in the water, I began releasing the air from my BCD, and slowly sunk to the bottom. It was an eary feeling, getting darker and darker with each meter I descended. I finally hit the bottom at around 12 meters deep (around 36 feet?). The moment I hit the bottom, silt stirred up and made the murky water worse. I took a few moment to compose myself, let the silt settle and began the hunt.
The ring had only been underwater for a few days, so it could not have sunk very deep into the silt bottom. So I ignored any signal that could not be detected by my pinpointing device, which has about a 3 inch detection range. First signal that was in pinpointing range was a shining 18 CT White Gold Ring. Wow, you have no idea how happy I was to have found the ring. Not only for the sake of reuniting the ring with Fergus and Simone, but because I really wanted to get out of the murky water and quick! When I finally surfaced with the Ring in my hand, Fergus could not believe it. I had only been underwater for about 10 minutes, so what looked like mission impossible turned out to be a speedy recovery. Fergus called his wife to tell her the great news, and she even had a quick chat to me. You can tell when people ‘REALLY’ appreciate what you have done for them, and Fergus and Simone we’re incredibly thankful for what I did. In fact Fergus was so grateful he gave me one of the biggest rewards to date..thank you so kindly!

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

July 17th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

After receiving a phone call from Tom on Monday morning, I found myself driving to Macquarie Park, a suburb close to Ryde in Sydney. My mission…. to recover Tom’s lost gold wedding Ring. He had lost it on the Saturday night while partying at a friends house. He was visiting from Cairns, and was obviously desperate to find it before going home to his wife. Tom had been in the bushes behind the house searching for fire wood. He recalls hanging off a tree branch, slipping and falling down into the bushes. When Tom arrived back to the house he realised the ring was missing. Because it was night, he did not bother searching for the ring until the following day. Unfortunately Tom and his friends had no luck in locating the ring. When I arrived, I noticed this was going to be a tough job. The area was on a very steep slope, and was covered in dense bush and trees….making it impossible to swing the metal detector coil. I spent a good 2 hours searching for the ring, but unfortunately I was unable to find it. I am really baffled as to where the ring is. As difficult as the terrain was, I feel I covered the area thoroughly. Tom, I am sorry I was not able to recover your wedding ring It was a pleasure meeting you and your friends. I really do hope the ring turns up some day soon!

July 11th, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Earlier on in the week I drove out to Freemans Reach (Near Windsor North West of Sydney) to help Daniel find his wedding ring. Daniel lives on quite a large property where he and his wife breed race horses. The day Daniel lost his wedding ring, he had been performing various activities on different parts of the property. He actually had his wedding ring in his top pocket for safe keeping, but later that night he realised the ring was no longer in his pocket. To make a long story short, Daniel and I retraced his steps for that day..and I scanned the areas where the ring could have dropped. After many hours of searching, I was unable to locate Daniel’s lost wedding ring with my metal detector. As with all my unsuccessful jobs, I am hoping one day to receive a phone call from Daniel to tell me he found the ring.

July 3rd, 2009 by Brad Lovell

Yesterday I was called out to help David find his lost Platinum Wedding Ring. David was exercising in an area of grass close to the Sydney CBD. He was not aware of the exact moment the wedding ring slipped off his finger, but figured it could have happened when he was removing boxing gloves. When something is lost in a public accessible area, the quicker I get there the higher probability I have of recovery. After a short drive across the Harbour Bridge, I picked up David in the City and he directed me to the area he was exercising. Just as I was beginning to grid search the area, David had already beat me to it. He found the ring hiding in grass not very far from the area I was about to search. As one could imagine, David was a happy man. It was a pleasure meeting you David, and thank you kindly for a generous reward even though I was not the one who found your wedding ring