Another Lake Lost Rings Search – Lost 25 Years Ago!
A few weeks ago I mentioned to one of my old mates Stewie, about my metal detecting hire services, and was telling him some stories about how I help people find their lost wedding rings, jewellery, money and all the other things that I find with my Minelab Metal Detectors and he his face lit up.
I asked him what was he smiling about, and he told me that around 25 years ago, he was water skiing close to the shores of Lake Dumbleyung on a hot summers day. Being a novice water skiier, he fell off after hitting some wave wash.
To cut a long story short, he told me he and his newly wed wife Tina, were out at the lake with friends, and she was wearing both her wedding ring and engagement ring, and she knew there could be a risk of losing them in the water.
So she took them off and gave them to Stewie for safe keeping, and Stewie stupidly put them in the pocket of his shorts, thinking that they would be safe.
Anyhow Stewie forgot all about the rings in his pocket, and probably had a few beers too many and decided it was time for a ski on the water.
Yep, you guessed it, Stewie jumps in the water, puts some skiis on, falls off straight away, has another go, then gets back into the boat. On return to the ski club, Tina asks for her wedding and engagement rings, and Stewie pats his pockets telling her the rings are safe and sound, and then he feels nothing in his pockets.
It hit Stewie that he has obviously lost the rings in the Lake where he fell off, Tina is absolutely furious and now 25 years later, Tina is still furious with Stewie and I have eased the tension by telling them both that maybe I can find them with my metal detectors.
This search will be a hard search, Lake Dumbleyung is huge, but Stewie has a good idea still to this day where he believes the rings fell out of his pocket.
So soon when the weather cools off a bit I will be heading out to the Lake to hopefull reunite Stewie and Tina with the lost rings.
Currently Lake Dumbleyung is bone dry, and it is Summer weather here in Western Australia, so I am waiting for a cool day, because when detecting on the Lake on a hot day, the white salt reflects all the heat onto my body, so it is like an oven and the flies are really bad.
This Wedsneday it is going to be 42 degrees celcius, way to hot to Metal Detect!
I’ll keep you updated, and if I find them, I will believe that miracles do happen!
I have previously found rings at Lake Dumbleyung, so you just never know.
Read more about my Lake Dumbleyung Metal Detecting Stories
Wedding and Engagement Rings Lost 80 Years Ago – Will I Find Them?
Unfortunately over the last few weeks, I have been unable to head out on any metal detecting jobs as I have just bought a new business, a Post Office / News Agency in the Great Southern town of Dumbleyung.
So I have been working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, trying to get into the routine of my new business venture with my girlfriend Natalie.
So now my metal detecting hours and jobs are very restricted, to the weekends only.
Anyhow having my new business has enabled me to find some interesting future metal detecting hunts.
Today I was talking to a lady who informed me that her Grand Mother, lost both her Engagement Ring and Wedding Ring on the same day at a local lake, not Lake Dumbleyung, but another Lake near the town.
Believe it or not, her Grand Mother lost her Wedding and Engagement Rings at the Lake around 80 years ago when she was in her early 20’s.
Apparently her Gandmother, lost these rings on the shore of the lake at a picnic gathering.
WOW! What a story that would make! Her Grandmother has since passed away, but it would be such a great story, to reunite her Grand Daughter with these lost rings.
This has given me a huge buzz of excitement, as I know for a fact that this Lake has never been metal detected, and there would be a great chance of finding other lost momentos, such as jewellery, coins and much more.
So this weekend, I am going to ride my Polaris 6 Wheeler out to this Lake, and do a thorough search of the Lake to see if I can find these rings which were lost in the 1920’s.
I am pretty excited about this metal detecting ring search.
Do you think I will find them? Stay Tuned!
$10,000 Buried Cache Found!
Billy (LostTreasure.com.au Author) Holding the Found Cache of Money
A few days ago I wrote how I had received an email from John, who told me that he buried money, and could not find it.
Well I arranged to meet John at his house to carry out a metal detecting search of his backyard to find the buried money. I asked John what caused him to bury the money and basically he said that he did not trust banks and burying it would be the safest way. Previously he had buried $20,000 in two jars which he managed to find no problems, but the missing $10,000 that he emailed me about was nowhere to be found.
Day 1
I arrived at Johns house and immediately started metal detecting in the area where he said that he believed he buried the cache of money about 12 months before hand. As per usual with backyard metal detecting searches, I knew I would start getting immediate signals from other pieces of metal, coins, bottle caps, rusty nails, aluminum foil and much more.
John told me that he buried the money in a glass jar, the money was wrapped in aluminum foil and plastic wrap, so I was looking for a good sound that would correspond to “aluminum foil”
John had previously digged in the area where he said that the money was buried, and I told him, that would likely make the hunt harder, because of all the misplaced top soil and so forth.
This search was prooving far more difficult that what I had expected, within a couple of hours we had dug away around a tonne of soil, this was because of all the trash metal in the ground. I asked John how deep did he remember burying the money and he said around 3 foot deep, so I was a bit wary that my detector would pick up a signal that deep. That is one of the reasons that I decided to remove a couple feet of the soil.
It was really hard work, hot and sweaty, I arrived at his place around 3pm and by 6pm I was still there, it was getting dark and both John and I were getting tired. I also started to doubt Johns story, thinking that maybe he did not bury it at all, or if he did, he had already dug the money up and forgot about it.
John also told me he marked the asbestos fence with a small X which would correspond to the place where he buried the money, I searched the fence for the X but could not find it.
I also question myself, maybe someone saw John burying the money, and stole it, or even maybe one of Johns close friends stole it.
I told John, that it was time to stop digging, and to re-evaluate the situation, I question him numerous times about the hidden stash of money, asking such things like “Are you sure this is the spot?”, ”Did you tell anyone?”, “Is there by chance you’ve already dug it up?” and many other questions.
All of which he was certain and answered the right questions.
Anyhow I decided to call it a day and to come back the next day to continue with the search.
I left John’s place, rather dissapointed not to have found his hidden cache of money.
Day 2
I arrived at Johns place uncertain, but still confident that I would find the money for John.
Like the day before, we dug and dug and dug! I metal detected the whole area over and over. I also made myself the day before a “Money Probe” A long thin piece of steel with a footrest to push 3 – 4 feet into the soil, hoping that the probe would hit the jar under the top soil.
Once again it was starting to get dark, and there was no hope of finding the money.
Then I asked John about when he marked the fence, and then I decided to go over to the asbestos fence again to have a closer look for the X he said he marked as the spot near where the money was supposed to have been buried.
And guess what, I found the X marked on the wall, and told him I found the X, we then went one of the spots where John said he had buried his last cache of money, and I decided to dig the shovel there.
$10,000 in Buried Money Retrieved!I dug about two foot of soil out, then waved my metal detector over the hole, I heard a very very faint signal. Then I grabbed the shovel off John, and dug out another two foot of soil. As I shoveled the soil, I noticed a plastic lid land in the mound of soil.
We both looked at the jar lid, and then I quickly hopped onto my knees with started digging with my hands.
I felt something plastic, the jar, (the jar he told me was glass) and inside the jar, I felt the aluminum foil and I yelled out “I GOT IT!” and then I pulled out the money like a little excited kid, show John and we literally ran around the yard in excitement!
John was screaming out, “WE GOT IT, WE GOT IT! YOUR A CHAMPION BILLY!” and he ran inside to tell his girlfriend, she was excited too.
Wow, I was really excited and so satisifed that I found the huge cache of hidden money.
We went inside John’s house, I had a glass of water, and John laid out all of the money on his dining table. And that’s when I took a photo of the cache.
I asked John if I could take a photo of him holding the money, but he declined, saying he did not want his face on the internet for fear of family and friends seeing his photo. So instead John took a photo of me holding his wad a cash … a cool $10,000 dollars.
John gave me a huge reward for finding his money, my best reward to date, so thanks heaps John!
John’s a really nice bloke, very genuine and trustworthy, I suppose you must be trustworthy when you ask a stranger to help find ten thousand dollars buried in your backyard!
Billy ... Happy after finding the Buried Money Cache
Patience pays off in Metal Detecting for Lost Ring
Bricky - Relieved to have his Lost Gold Wedding Ring back!
A few days ago I wrote how I received a phone call from Bricky to find his lost ring which he lost as he held his hand out of the passenger side window in his car as it was moving at 110km/h.
Yesterday I met Bricky in Williams – Western Australia and following him for about 70km’s to the spot where he said that he lost his wedding ring.
It was a miserable day yesterday, cold, windy and very rainy. The spot where he lost it was on the Boddington to Mandurah highway, and it just happened to be next to one of Boddington’s gold mines.
I donned my fluro yellow safety pants and my raincoat and the search was on.
It was quite frustrating due to the amount of rubbish that littered the area, aluminum cans mainly and with each beep of the E-Trac Metal Detector, I had to check what it was just in case it may have been Bricky’s lost ring, but it was always an aluminum or old steel beer can, which obviously vented my frustration as well as Brickys.
As I searched along the road, alot of Gold Mine vehicles past the area where I was searching, it was a bit embarrassing, because they must have thought I was looking for gold nuggets along the side of the road, as I dug little spots and emptied the leaf litter in my metal detecting sieve, but I just ignored them and concentrated on finding Brickys lost gold wedding ring.
It was pouring with rain on and off and within a couple of hours I was starting to lose hope of finding his ring, but I did not mention that to Bricky. He even said to me, I think it is time we give up, and I replied, “Never give in mate!” “It’s gotta be here somewhere!”
I searched an area of about 500 metres long on the winding road, starting off on the very edge of the bitumen to the leaf litter and puddles of the side of the road.
It was now about 2 and a half hours into the search, and Bricky was walking alongside me in his shorts and wet Ugg Boots ( I did tell him to get out of the rain and wait in the car to stay dry, but he persited in trying to find his ring) and as I swung the detector with my aching arm, I got a nice beep and saw his now found gold wedding ring in the centre of my metal detecting coil.
The Lost Gold Wedding Ring found in roadside leaf litter!
I said “Got it!” and Bricky stared at the ring in utter disbelief and then picked it up speechless!
I shook his hand, and he was very happy, saying to me that the ring will never leave his hand again! He rang up his wife straight away and he was just as happy! Having told him that seconds before she said a quick prayer to her deceased Mum for his ring to be found!
So I am glad Bricky now has his wedding ring back. Thanks Bricky for your generous reward mate! It was great to see you again and to have a chat to you!
Amanda’s Lost Rings Found!
Amanda's Lost Silver Black Opal Ring - Found at Hillarys Beach
Around two weeks ago I received a frantic phonecall from a girl by the name of Amanda who told me she lost two rings at Hillarys Beach just North of Perth. She asked me if there was any chance I could help her.
I said that by chance I was on my way up to Perth that day for a few days and I would be able to do a search for her.
I know Hillarys Beach pretty well as I had been there previously many times in search for another persons lost wedding ring, but the search for that ring has been fruitless … but I never give up and I always look for it when visiting Perth.
Amanda was pretty upset, because one of the rings was a gift to her Mother from her father, so it carried an enormous amount of sentimental value to her.
She described the place where she thought that she had lost it, and I knew roughly where to search.
around two days later I found the time to head down to Hillarys Beach, and within a few minutes I had found the first ring, a nice silver ring, with what looks to be a black opal or another precious stone inside it. So I was really happy to have found the first ring. And now the search was on for the next ring.
A few days before I went to Hillarys a big storm front came through and the water was washing directly over the spot where Amanda had lost her rings, so I was thinking maybe it had moved away from the spot, or another Metal Detectorist had found it.
She actually lost both her rings next to a wire fence, so I knew that the wire would be interferring with my metal detector, so I decided to get the shovel out and start digging all the top sand away from the fence, and then wave my detecting over the beach sand with I threw in an area behind me, and low and behold, that worked, I waved the detector over, got a nice 12.09 reading with my Minelab E-trac and found it! So I was really happy.
Amanda's Lost Gold and Diamond Ring - Found at Hillarys Beach
Amanda works away on the mines, she is a geologist, so a couple days later when I got back home, I decided to ring Amanda and tell her the good news.
She was estatic, screaming out with joy and relief! I felt great also, knowing that I am going to reunite Amanda with her lost rings. She has learnt a lesson, don’t wear your rings to the beach, and a few other things that I told her and she told me!
I am meeting up with Amanda this week, to reunite her with her rings, she told me the reward and that made my day, very generous, so thank you Amanda for calling me!
