Well, Chris sure found my ring!
Man with metal detector has an offer for Province readers
By Peter Clough, The Province
You don't need to know the details. Let's just say that one steamy evening 12 years ago, my wedding ring left my finger and landed in our back yard.
Surely it wouldn't be hard to find. I spend most of the next day on my hands and knees -- desperately sifting through dirt and turning over dead leaves. Over the years, I've come to accept that the ring was probably hauled away with a load of garden waste.
I haven't finished telling the story before Chris Turner is arranging to pick up his metal detector and come out to my place. Finding people's lost jewelry has been his passion since the age of 14.
Starting today, Chris is inviting Province readers to enlist his expertise in locating rings, bracelets and other lost treasures. We'll track his progress.
For 10 years, the former Vancouver Whitecaps goalie has been handing out flyers at Vancouver's beaches and advertising his operation, Finders, on his website.
He also takes a lot of calls from ski resorts and from people who've lost jewelry while walking the dog -- most often while throwing a ball.
He even takes calls from people who've actually thrown their jewelry away in some kind of dramatic gesture.
Then there was the Chilliwack couple who'd spent all day looking for a $7,000 17-diamond ring that had fallen from their car. "I went out there at 12 at night, listening to their story and started to search right where they'd parked," he says. "I managed to find the ring in three minutes."
On the newly landscaped slope of our backyard, Chris is picking up beeps like crazy -- nothing but pull-tabs, nails and worthless Mexican coins. It's getting dark and Chris has been searching for a good two hours. I tell him it's OK. It just confirms what I'd thought -- that my ring is probably buried beneath some parking lot in Coal Harbour.
The next morning, he's back. Within an hour, he's getting a strong, consistent signal from the roots of a flowering shrub. The object on his scanner's display panel shape looks promising. Or is it another pull-tab?
After a little digging, my wedding band is back in its rightful place.
"Oh, and here's 50p I found," says Chris.
You can register your lost jewelry at www.treasuretalk.com or call Chris Turner at 778-838-3463. He works strictly on a reward basis.