ring

Halo on Your Finger

October 2, 2014 by Charlie London

by Richard Angelico

I got up this morning thinking, “I need to work in the yard and cut the grass.” But thank goodness, the phone rang and rescued me from that insanity!

A very pleasant sounding young lady named Ana was on the line asking for my help. Her Mom had lost her ring while working in the garden yesterday ( confirming my belief that nothing good ever comes of lawn work! ) and look though they may the ring had been sucked into a sponge of well tended landscape. “Can you find it”, she asked? “If it’s there, I’m pretty sure I can but there are no guarantees”, I replied.

So, I headed over to Gentilly and met with Ana and her Mom. The poor lady was distraught and began explaining the rings’ sentimental value to me and how she had prayed someone could help her find it. I quizzed her about where she had worked in the yard, where she did the most strenuous work and when did she realized the ring was missing. I put all that information into my “ring computer” , selected an area, took one step, swung my detector and Eureka!! The detector rang out like an alarm clock. I had hit it on the first swing!

Now that has never, ever happened before, so Mom’s prayers must have been guiding that coil. I couldn’t see the ring at first and thought it might be trash. But there it was, tucked down in the thatch a nice circle of gold in a nest of green St. Augustine. I walked over to Ana’s Mom and asked if this was what she was looking for? Her eyes lit up and the sadness evaporated. It was her precious ring.

Now, I had a decision to make. Should I go home and work in the yard? I glanced at the wedding ring on my finger and thought, why risk it?

Neighbor Finds Treasure

May 16, 2014 by Charlie London

by Richard Angelico

A lady called today very upset, asking for help.

She had lost a family treasure, her Grandmother’s gold and diamond ring while walking the big jogging path at City Park. She asked if I could find it with a metal detector? Sure, I said, if it’s still there and someone hasn’t found it already and sold it for scrap.

So at 5:30 p.m. I met her at the Museum of Art. She told me she was wearing the ring on a gold chain around her neck and at some point the chain must have broke and the ring tumbled away.

I told her, ” Before I get my detector out, let’s walk the route you took first. I want you to tell me everything you did and when and where you first noticed it was gone?” She said OK and away we went. As she talked and we walked along I kept looking at the ground and the grass along the side of the path. She asked, ” What are you looking for, we searched all of this all day long yesterday?” I said I was looking for anomalies, things out of the ordinary, different shapes that jump out at you as not belonging there and pointed out a few scraps of tin foil in the grass she didn’t notice.

Then, about 20 minutes into our walk , the biggest anomaly of all popped out, it was right there in a patch of mulch and clover about a foot off the concrete path: A nice gold circle studded with diamonds!! I bent down and picked up her Grandmother’s ring and handed it to her. The poor lady almost passed out!! She could not believe I had found her ring without getting my detector out and I got a great big hug. In fact, two hugs!

The best part is, she was certain she had lost it in the grass near the entrance to the park some distance away. That’s when she first noticed it was gone. But, as simple as it sounds, that’s why things are lost because really, we have no idea where they are.

I was glad she called and very glad I could help but drat!! I didn’t even get to use the new gold program on my detector 🙂

A Very Happy Mardi Gras

February 11, 2013 by Charlie London

photos and story by Richard Angelico

I had the occasion to make two young visitors to our city, Mattie Smith and her fiancee Robert very happy today.

Last night they were sitting on a porch uptown and Mattie’s intended dropped her ring on the porch and it bounced into a small but very dense garden loaded with pipes, a fountain, electrical wires and Mardi Gras lights.

They found me on the internet and gave me a call asking for help. So, I brought two detectors and small coils but they were impossible to use in that environment. So, I got my trusty Garrett Pro Pointer out and used that instead. It was tedious searching but that probe is amazing! After an hour, I had found every nail, small metal scrap or foil in the garden but no ring.

I was convinced it had bounced off one of the cast iron plants and was either among the thick stalks or roots or had been deflected towards the fountain. Pulling back the plants further I saw a small rodent hole at the base of the fountain. I stuck the pro pointer in and got a healthy buzz. When I stuck my finger in, I felt the ring and slipped it right out.

Mattie didn’t see me so I asked if she would hold the small “test ring” I had brought along because it was interfering with my detector. When her ring hit her hand I thought she would faint!! She started crying, kept hugging me and bombarding me with, “thank you, thank you, thank you”. Robert was quite relieved as well and I certainly could understand that when I saw the beautiful 3.5 carat emerald cut diamond!! From start to finish it took 1 hour and 23 minutes. Made my Mardi Gras weekend!