PokerShark
Member
I was detecting in a park a few months back and a man with a couple dogs walked up and asked me about detecting. We stood there and talked so long that the dogs got impatient and he had to go put them in his Explorer and come back to finish out chat. That day I was using my Garrett GTI 2500 but was considering a Whites V3i. He asked me what my motivation was, how often I came out and so on. Later during the conversation I learned he was a reporter and had worked the O.J. case among other high profile cases here in Los Angeles.
Anyway we got on the subject of what we do with our finds and I told him most of us actually make an effort to return identifiable personal items and he was absolutely amazed and said so. He then told me about his love for his dogs and a piece of personal jewelry that was not worth much but was very valuable to him that he lost Dec 2010 in that same park. It was an engraved dog bone that was a gift commemorating the life his former pets. Being a dog lover as well I really felt for him and promised to do what I could to help locate this item.
I started hunting that section of the park (about a soccer field in size) with no real reference. He could only tell me it was an engraved dog bone, silver in color, about 1" X 1.5" and I went to work. I spent the next couple weeks (3 to 4 days a week) looking around in that area hoping to come up with that bone. I dug many different targets but did not find it and I soon ran out of any good targets. One thing I did notice was what appeared to be an abandoned sprinkler system covered with new top soil that would ring up as a quarter with the GTI about 4 to 6" down. I would dig the head up, get mad and move on. I got the V3i and hit the same patch. Same quarter signals for the sprinkler heads, but I did turn up a couple rings and a little more clad. I finally gave up on that area of the park and moved to a new area that I have been hitting for 6 to 8 weeks that continues to produce 60's to 80's coins, and a rare new (clean) coin. I am guessing there are folks hitting this park with lower budget hardware that are savaging the top level and I am digging the lower levels.
Anyway, I went out on Thursday 11th, to hit the producing section of this park and it was taken by some huge soccer practice so I thought, I might as well do a grid search of that area were the bone should be, dig EVERYTHING, and eliminate it once and for all. I started on it at 5:10PM and finished just after dark at 8:45 PM. I came away with $1.06 in clad, assorted pieces of junk metal and trash - and a little SILVER dog bone!!
The bone rang up on the V3i as a silver quarter about 3" down and sure enough it is not only silver in color but it appears to actually be silver. I am sure I hit that target multiple times with my detectors, but avoided it because I thought it was another sprinkler head. The interesting part is the object was in the ground on the knife edge and I have no idea how the detector could tell the size with that cross-section but it sure did.
I contacted the owner with the phone and email address he left me. I heard from him Saturday evening and he was beside himself with excitement and could not believe I was so persistent in looking for it. He thanked me, many, many times during our call and we will meet at the park on Wednesday and I will return the keepsake to its original owner.
This sure made me feel good and was worth so much more than the melt value of that item. I highly recommend trying to find owners when you can. I will post a Part II with pictures of the object and the return story on Wednesday evening.
The Shark
Anyway we got on the subject of what we do with our finds and I told him most of us actually make an effort to return identifiable personal items and he was absolutely amazed and said so. He then told me about his love for his dogs and a piece of personal jewelry that was not worth much but was very valuable to him that he lost Dec 2010 in that same park. It was an engraved dog bone that was a gift commemorating the life his former pets. Being a dog lover as well I really felt for him and promised to do what I could to help locate this item.
I started hunting that section of the park (about a soccer field in size) with no real reference. He could only tell me it was an engraved dog bone, silver in color, about 1" X 1.5" and I went to work. I spent the next couple weeks (3 to 4 days a week) looking around in that area hoping to come up with that bone. I dug many different targets but did not find it and I soon ran out of any good targets. One thing I did notice was what appeared to be an abandoned sprinkler system covered with new top soil that would ring up as a quarter with the GTI about 4 to 6" down. I would dig the head up, get mad and move on. I got the V3i and hit the same patch. Same quarter signals for the sprinkler heads, but I did turn up a couple rings and a little more clad. I finally gave up on that area of the park and moved to a new area that I have been hitting for 6 to 8 weeks that continues to produce 60's to 80's coins, and a rare new (clean) coin. I am guessing there are folks hitting this park with lower budget hardware that are savaging the top level and I am digging the lower levels.
Anyway, I went out on Thursday 11th, to hit the producing section of this park and it was taken by some huge soccer practice so I thought, I might as well do a grid search of that area were the bone should be, dig EVERYTHING, and eliminate it once and for all. I started on it at 5:10PM and finished just after dark at 8:45 PM. I came away with $1.06 in clad, assorted pieces of junk metal and trash - and a little SILVER dog bone!!
The bone rang up on the V3i as a silver quarter about 3" down and sure enough it is not only silver in color but it appears to actually be silver. I am sure I hit that target multiple times with my detectors, but avoided it because I thought it was another sprinkler head. The interesting part is the object was in the ground on the knife edge and I have no idea how the detector could tell the size with that cross-section but it sure did.
I contacted the owner with the phone and email address he left me. I heard from him Saturday evening and he was beside himself with excitement and could not believe I was so persistent in looking for it. He thanked me, many, many times during our call and we will meet at the park on Wednesday and I will return the keepsake to its original owner.
This sure made me feel good and was worth so much more than the melt value of that item. I highly recommend trying to find owners when you can. I will post a Part II with pictures of the object and the return story on Wednesday evening.
The Shark
