My wife’s parents are visiting for the holidays. The other day they were out in the yard raking leaves and weeding. Yesterday, my wifes mother was in a panic saying that she’d lost her engagement ring and thinks she may have lost it while doing the yardwork.

Both she and my wife are upset as she’s had this ring for over 40 years. My wife has always loved the ring and was supposed to inherit it.

So of course, the first question is: where is the last place you saw it? Luckily, the day before the yard work was Thanksgiving and we had taken pictures. We pulled up the pictures on the computer and sure enough, her mom was wearing the ring Thursday night. Well at least that means that we know when she last had it and that it is likely that it could have been lost in the yard.

Next, we panic as I took several garbage bags from the yardwork to the curb just that morning and if the ring was in there, it is definitely gone. I go out in the back yard and happily notice that there are several bags of leaves in the side yard that I hadn’t seen that morning.

Now, we’ll need to go through all the leaves in the bags that are there. That will probably require some heavy sifting so as to avoid missing it. What if it’s not in the bags? I hit good old Amazon this morning and plugged “Metal Detector” into the search box. I thought it was a long shot and I’d probably end up with a few crap products from third party vendors. Suprisingly, there were several models and most were sold by amazon.

It’s around this time that I realize I’m going to look like one of the wacky guys on the beach hunting for lost quarters – LOL.

I briefly chug through the reviews and settle on a $100 model: the Bounty Hunter Tracker IV metal detector. It’s got good reviews and is a decent price. According to the reviews, I should be able to figure it out without too much trouble and several people said they did find lost rings in their yards. Now all I have to do is hope that the ring is actually in the yard and that I can find it. Hopefully she didn’t drop it in the car or something.

The detector should be here tomorrow (I got the overnight shipping for $4 with my amazon prime membership) and I will be starting the hunt. I’ll leave an update with my progress.

**Update: Unfortunately we were not able to find the ring, but I don’t think it’s related to the metal detector. The thing DID work. I found change and various other metal items in the yard. Now my mother-in-law thinks she may have lost it elsewhere. Either way, at least we now have the peace of mind that it isn’t in the yard and I don’t have to worry every time I mow the lawn that I’m stomping it into the grass.