Georgetown University class ring recovery.

March 28, 2004

Well here’s to another successful recovery. I got a call late Saturday night from a co-worker for another co-worker who knew someone that  knew I metal detected (follow that?). Seems while playing tennis, his Georgetown University class ring flew off his finger. He and several others looked for hours but were unable to find it. They even rented a metal detector. They found it completely useless in the areas around the tennis courts. After several hours they gave up. That’s when I got the phone call. I arrived at the country club around 9AM the next day. After getting the complete download of what happened and surveying the area, I went back to my car to retrieve my detector. The area was crisscrossed with underground wiring and sprinklers. The courts were lined with a drainage culvert and beyond that was a flowerbed and sidewalks. The ring was supposed too be to big to drop thru the grating in the culverts. But I pulled off all the covers and checked, nothing. Time to use my old Garrett GTA500 with a 4” sniper coil. I looked in the area everyone was sure it was. But of course you never find these things where they think they were lost. The area was already very disturbed by the previous days efforts. But the area was very contained. If it were still there, I would find it. After the 1st hour of searching the obvious areas and having nothing to show for it but foil and old wire, it was time to expand the search area. I kept getting redirected by other by-standers and there theories and could never really concentrate till they left . Well the owner had all but thrown in the towel. He was ready to give up. I told him, I had till 6PM to find it (low tide down at the beach). He then suggested lunch. I told him to go ahead, just clear it with the county club for me to remain, and I would keep searching. I finally moved to the adjacent courts flowerbeds. The flowerbeds were lined with concrete and rebar. He came over and said, “lets go to lunch and come back later”. Then I got a big hit. I peeled back the bush and there the ring was. Propped up against the base of one of the bushes. I held it up and said, “Ok we can go now”. He had a big smile and so did his wife. Lots of others came by to see the recovery. The grounds keepers were amazed I had found it after everyone else had tried. The trajectory of this ring was amazing. He had lost it during a back swing. After leaving his finger, it traveled back to the fence that lined the court. Now the fence had a windscreen (mesh) attached all around except for a 3-4” opening at the base. Now the ring exited the court thought this opening without even touching the fence. It then passed thru the 1st set of dense bushes unimpeded. Then is skimmed the ground, crossed a 4 foot sidewalk and into another flowerbed. There it came to rest under a bush. Very nice ring in 18K gold.  Here’s to another successful recovery !!!

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