A friend of his, Marie Lockwald, had mentioned in a conversation that a 14K gold Medic Alert medallion had been lost in the yard of one of the homes owned by the Lockwalds. Apparently, it occurred while her husband, Dennis, was mowing the grass a few months earlier. After we discussed it further, I told Neil to have Marie call me the next day, to get the details of the lost item.

When she called, she mentioned that Dennis had mowed the lawn around a mobile home they were trying to sell, and then mowed the lawn around their current residence. She asked if I could search around the mobile home soon because of the possibility of selling the property. The other lawn in question could be postponed until spring if necessary. I asked for details and was given the information about the location of the house, the size and description of the medal, and when it was lost. With the weather forecast for temperatures in the mid to upper 40s, I agreed to start detecting the following Friday.

Mobile home lots are relatively small, and since this one was approximately 30' wide and 80' long, I expected to be done searching soon. However, I took my time, trying to cover every square inch of ground, and dug all targets registering as low "foil" to the signals indicating coins on the LCD readout of my White's XLT. In fact, I spent four hours detecting in the small yard. Clad coins, pulltabs, gumwrappers, and pieces of discarded foil were abundant, and digging them all was quite a chore. Still, I kept telling myself that to find the small piece of gold, I would have to slow down, be patient and persistent.

I covered the lawn thoroughly and did not have any luck finding the medallion. Feeling confident that it was not lost there, I called Marie to inform her of the results. I had found 65 coins, a silverplated spoon, and a bunch of trash. I explained that to find the gold, I had to dig the trash, because gold will mimic the responses of the foil in the ground. I also described the technique that I had used -- searching in a grid pattern, overlapping each swing of the coil, running the coil under the deck and stairs leading into the home, around the trash receptacle, shed and trees -- told her I felt that the item was not lost on that lawn.

Marie then gave me the information concerning the second yard to be searched, in a neighboring town 20 miles or so from my home. Dennis had mowed this yard the same day, and it was possible that the medal was lost at that location, as he had only noticed it was missing when he was done with the yard work for the day. Marie also told me of a ring that her daughter, Danielle Wick, had lost at this home in September 1998, and of a Black Hills gold ring that Dennis had lost four or five years ago!

This yard was getting more and more interesting with each conversation I had with Marie. Now I was searching not only for the medal, but also for two rings that could be returned to their rightful owners. This couldn't wait until spring anymore. I wanted to give this yard a good going over, and soon.

The first hunt was on the following Monday, and the temperatures were still holding in the 40s. I started in front of the old house and was slightly discouraged to see a small yard, when all weekend long I had been visualizing a spacious lawn with all kinds of silver and gold just waiting to be found. Again I dug all the "foil" and "iffy" responses, and searched for an hour, covering only a small portion of the yard. Each time I reached the edge of the driveway, I would pick up the signal of the reinforcement rods in the concrete, but I discovered that by moving the searchcoil in very slowly, I could get a signal from some of the coins located near the concrete.

Using this method, I received a signal just slightly lower than a "penny" reading. I dug a small, shallow plug and, after turning it over, saw a small golden circle. I assumed that it was the ring Danielle had lost, and put it in my pouch. About 2' farther in the pattern produced a heart-shaped pin, more clad coinage, and a couple of Wheat cents.

When Marie arrived, I showed her the small ring. She identified it as Danielle's ring from the description given to her, and assured me that with the return of that ring; I would be Danielle's "hero" for life. Marie continued to watch for a short while longer, asking the usual questions about the hobby, and then relayed some information from Dennis. He had lost the Black Hills gold ring in the garden area below the house, and Marie asked if we could continue to search in that area.

We took the short stroll down to the garden and began gridding the tilled portion of the ground, I had only about an hour left to continue the search, and had to restrain myself from getting into the "hurry up" mode of hunting. With each signal, Marie's hopes ran high, but Dennis's ring eluded us that day. When time ran out, half of the tilled section of the garden remained unsearched.

The next day I finished scanning the tilled section then moved some steel fence posts and wire from the side and detected there. Again, I found nothing but a nickel, a couple of clad pennies, and some candy bar wrappers. Next, I moved to the lawn area surrounding the garden, where an aluminum shed was located. Each time I would come near the aluminum siding, the detector would send a loud tone ringing through my headphones. Then I remembered the technique I'd used along the driveway. I moved the searchcoil slowly near the shed and found that I could get to within a few inches of it before the detector would react.

Near the entrance of the shed, I received a signal that indicated "screwcap". Pinpointing was difficult, since every time I tried to center the coil it would lock onto the aluminum shed, but somehow I managed to get a general location of the target. Probing the ground carefully, I touched something and gently pried my find to the surface. It was a man's Black Hills gold ring, and I knew it had to be the one that Dennis had lost.

The ring was slightly bent, but repairable. I didn't try to reshape it for fear of breaking the band, and decided to let the owner make the decision of how to straighten it out. Time was getting short, and I had to leave for the day, but felt great after finding another of the missing pieces of jewelry.

I called Marie, gave her the good news about Dennis's ring, and made arrangements for its return the following morning. Talking to her, I learned that although the ring was lost four or five years ago, the aluminum shed had been set onto its location within the last year. If the shed had been set down just an inch closer, the ring would have remained lost until some detectorist in the distant future stumbled upon its location. I guess it's safe to say that metal detecting is a hobby of inches.

As of this writing, I haven't had an opportunity to resume the search for the Medic Alert medal, and the ground is now getting hard with lower temperatures. So, it will be postponed until next spring.

It was a good ending to the year. In the last days of the detecting season I was able to return two rings to their owners. The offer of a reward was refused, of course, but with hopes of finding some older coins in the remaining unsearched areas of the lawn. The words of a young girl named Danielle made my search efforts worthwhile: "I can't believe it! You found my ring! That is so cool! Can I try it?" And the expressions of appreciation from Marie and Dennis Lockwald were enough to "make my millennium"!

I had driven over 140 miles, searched for about 12 hours, and recovered six Wheat cents (one was a 1919-S) -- and if you ask me, it was all worth it!