Greastart
Bronze Member
- Dec 29, 2014
- 1,352
- 1,547
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- AT Pro and a Garrett Carrot
Excalibur II
- Primary Interest:
- Other
Last weekend my wife asked me if the boyfriend of one of our co-workers could borrow my detector.
Of course I said no but also asked why.
She explained that the young lady had lost an ear ring that was a gift from said boyfriend. The young lady, we'll call her Jacq, was heart broken.
Jacq said they had scoured the house after finding the earring back inside. She also said she was fairly sure the earring came off in the back yard as she was playing with her dogs the previous day.
I offered to go to their home and see if I could locate it.
We were able to coordinate our schedules and I showed up at Jacq's home just before 7:00AM to give it my best effort.
Jacq showed me to her back yard and produced the matching earring so I could get an idea how it would show up on the AT. While she was there I also asked her to give me an idea where in the yard she had been playing and where she thought it may have come off. "Well"...she began, "we were playing in the whole yard, but mostly near the center".
It's not a huge yard, maybe 20X20; but it hadn't been mowed since she discovered she had lost the little earring....about a week.
Stepping into the yard, I began swinging and instantly got a scratchy mid tone close to how the test earring rang up. I thought to myself, "that was easy" as I bent down, parted the long grass and came up with an aged, well chewed, piece of foil. Jacq was standing nearby watching expectantly. I held up the foil and told her it was a false alarm. She laughed and said there were probably a lot more out here as one of her dogs is a counter surfing thief that LOVES to steal anything she can, especially foil from the BBQ/smoker. Yup...lots of false alarms! Her dog is quite a thief apparrently.
So an hour and a half later and many large and small, even tiny, chewed pieces of foil, I'm starting to think "man, I got to get to work."
As I was getting ready to schedule another search, I thought to myself, maybe I could send a picture of the matching earring and the yard to forum member teleprospector and ask for some help. Also, thought to myself maybe my wife can come over and search for an impression of where it might be. My wife sometimes "knows things." She is incredibly intuitive.
As I was thinking about asking teleprospector and my wife for help I began to feel that I needed to focus my last effort of the morning near a sprinkler head just where I had stepped into the yard. I almost shook it off but decided to listen to my hunch.
I began swinging very near the sprinkler head and got a clear loud tone that was much too strong for a small earring. Damn sprinkler
But the hunch was strong so I listened to my inner voice and tried what I had read right here on the forum about working near chain link fences. I snuck up on the sprinkler head and got a quiet foil signal just before it changed to that big, loud sprinkler noise. Tried it again and same thing. There was something small very close to the sprinkler!
Gave it a good wide berth and dug a shallow plug. Sure was happy I listened to my hunch because the missing earring was in the plug. It had been about an inch down and about two inches away from the sprinkler head. It had been ground down into the moist dirt because one's foot just naturally landed right on that spot forcing the earring down into the ground. The earring post had been bent but that was easily repaired because here she is with a smile on her face and a very special piece of jewelry right where it should be.
Of course I said no but also asked why.She explained that the young lady had lost an ear ring that was a gift from said boyfriend. The young lady, we'll call her Jacq, was heart broken.
Jacq said they had scoured the house after finding the earring back inside. She also said she was fairly sure the earring came off in the back yard as she was playing with her dogs the previous day.
I offered to go to their home and see if I could locate it.
We were able to coordinate our schedules and I showed up at Jacq's home just before 7:00AM to give it my best effort.
Jacq showed me to her back yard and produced the matching earring so I could get an idea how it would show up on the AT. While she was there I also asked her to give me an idea where in the yard she had been playing and where she thought it may have come off. "Well"...she began, "we were playing in the whole yard, but mostly near the center".
It's not a huge yard, maybe 20X20; but it hadn't been mowed since she discovered she had lost the little earring....about a week.
Stepping into the yard, I began swinging and instantly got a scratchy mid tone close to how the test earring rang up. I thought to myself, "that was easy" as I bent down, parted the long grass and came up with an aged, well chewed, piece of foil. Jacq was standing nearby watching expectantly. I held up the foil and told her it was a false alarm. She laughed and said there were probably a lot more out here as one of her dogs is a counter surfing thief that LOVES to steal anything she can, especially foil from the BBQ/smoker. Yup...lots of false alarms! Her dog is quite a thief apparrently.
So an hour and a half later and many large and small, even tiny, chewed pieces of foil, I'm starting to think "man, I got to get to work."
As I was getting ready to schedule another search, I thought to myself, maybe I could send a picture of the matching earring and the yard to forum member teleprospector and ask for some help. Also, thought to myself maybe my wife can come over and search for an impression of where it might be. My wife sometimes "knows things." She is incredibly intuitive.
As I was thinking about asking teleprospector and my wife for help I began to feel that I needed to focus my last effort of the morning near a sprinkler head just where I had stepped into the yard. I almost shook it off but decided to listen to my hunch.
I began swinging very near the sprinkler head and got a clear loud tone that was much too strong for a small earring. Damn sprinkler
But the hunch was strong so I listened to my inner voice and tried what I had read right here on the forum about working near chain link fences. I snuck up on the sprinkler head and got a quiet foil signal just before it changed to that big, loud sprinkler noise. Tried it again and same thing. There was something small very close to the sprinkler!
Gave it a good wide berth and dug a shallow plug. Sure was happy I listened to my hunch because the missing earring was in the plug. It had been about an inch down and about two inches away from the sprinkler head. It had been ground down into the moist dirt because one's foot just naturally landed right on that spot forcing the earring down into the ground. The earring post had been bent but that was easily repaired because here she is with a smile on her face and a very special piece of jewelry right where it should be.
