Charles (Upstate NY)
Full Member
I just turned the ring into to the local police department. When I found out what the ring was worth this morning my first thought was that I should try to find the owner. This is not a $50 gold ring or even a $200 gold ring, we are talking $4,000 to $5,000 and unless this coin/jewelry dealer is the only honest one I have ever met odds are it may be worth a good deal more than that.
Second this ring was obviously important in terms of sentimental value. A friend of mine commented that it appeared to be an older style ring. It could have belonged to my mother, what if it belonged to yours? Keeping it was out of the question as it didn't survive the mom test.
I tell you it caused quite a stir at the station and the two officers on duty were awestruck when I opened the case and that diamond spewed fire in all directions under the lights. I was busy documenting the find for them when the lieutenant came out and he and I had a very good discussion.
The lieutenant was genuinely amazed that I would turn in such a find. He said, "people are out there detecting all the time and nobody ever turns anything in and I know they are finding good stuff". I mentioned that a find like this is quite rare, once in a lifetime for most people. Most days I told him our finds are rather average, a few coins, lots of trash, and if we are lucky a piece of gold or silver that is often worth well under $100. I told him straight that I don't turn those in, they pay for gas, parking, and equipment.
But a find like this, this ring is in a different class and many in our hobby will do the right thing and turn in a find like this. I tell you I made HUGE points with the lieutenant. He of course got all excited about getting into metal detecting and gave me his card and email address. Several times he was adamant that if the owner was found he was going to tell them that they need to pay me a reasonably sized finders fee. When I tried to wave that off he almost told me to be quiet, saying look you have to pay all this money for the equipment then spend your time finding the ring, you deserve a finders fee dam it so be quite I'm going to make sure you get one. lol It was great.
In general the point that I made mostly by my actions was that people have some misconceptions about the metal detecting community. Our hobby has lots of great people who often step forward and do the right thing returning lost items of value to their owners. I mentioned our track record of returning class rings to their owners. I tell you he was impressed. If I accomplished nothing else tonight I won new respect for those in our hobby and a truck load of good will. And probably three new members, I know treasure feaver when I see it, the officers had it bad!
Now to the legal part. They hold the item for 30 days and try to find the owner. They have a log of lost items and the owner may have already reported the item lost who knows. They will do what they can to find the owner and that is my wish. If at the end of 30 days nobody claims the item then it will be returned to me. The lieutenant told me this directly and I believed him. He assigned the whole thing an incident number and I got the feeling they took it all very seriously. Of course when I told him the ring had been roughly assessed at a value of $4,000 to $5,000 that helped. Jaws were gaping. They asked me all kinds of questions about what to ask to ensure a person claiming the ring was the rightful owner. I provided some. I will follow up with an email detailing exactly where it was found and what the owner should be able to tell them about the location itself and identifying marks on the ring the owner should know.
So in 30 days if nobody claims the ring, I will be the new owner and I will be happy to own it under those terms. If I kept my mouth shut and just kept the ring I'd never feel quite right about it. That whole mom test thing would have worn on me.
By the way the lieutenant was anxious to get my contact information and line up people who would pay to hire me to help them find some rather expensive lost items. He mentioned a $10k ring someone lost recently. I smiled and told him I had a day job but that I'm willing to volunteer as time allows. I kept a very low key in terms of rewards, finders fees, or whatever. I left them with a we volunteer to help our neighbors impression.
So there you have it. I'm sure some of you may be thinking Charles what are you nuts? Hey you know what, I guarantee you I just banked a serious amount of karma, probably enough to find a chain cent or half disme or something.
Charles
Second this ring was obviously important in terms of sentimental value. A friend of mine commented that it appeared to be an older style ring. It could have belonged to my mother, what if it belonged to yours? Keeping it was out of the question as it didn't survive the mom test.
I tell you it caused quite a stir at the station and the two officers on duty were awestruck when I opened the case and that diamond spewed fire in all directions under the lights. I was busy documenting the find for them when the lieutenant came out and he and I had a very good discussion.
The lieutenant was genuinely amazed that I would turn in such a find. He said, "people are out there detecting all the time and nobody ever turns anything in and I know they are finding good stuff". I mentioned that a find like this is quite rare, once in a lifetime for most people. Most days I told him our finds are rather average, a few coins, lots of trash, and if we are lucky a piece of gold or silver that is often worth well under $100. I told him straight that I don't turn those in, they pay for gas, parking, and equipment.
But a find like this, this ring is in a different class and many in our hobby will do the right thing and turn in a find like this. I tell you I made HUGE points with the lieutenant. He of course got all excited about getting into metal detecting and gave me his card and email address. Several times he was adamant that if the owner was found he was going to tell them that they need to pay me a reasonably sized finders fee. When I tried to wave that off he almost told me to be quiet, saying look you have to pay all this money for the equipment then spend your time finding the ring, you deserve a finders fee dam it so be quite I'm going to make sure you get one. lol It was great.
In general the point that I made mostly by my actions was that people have some misconceptions about the metal detecting community. Our hobby has lots of great people who often step forward and do the right thing returning lost items of value to their owners. I mentioned our track record of returning class rings to their owners. I tell you he was impressed. If I accomplished nothing else tonight I won new respect for those in our hobby and a truck load of good will. And probably three new members, I know treasure feaver when I see it, the officers had it bad!
Now to the legal part. They hold the item for 30 days and try to find the owner. They have a log of lost items and the owner may have already reported the item lost who knows. They will do what they can to find the owner and that is my wish. If at the end of 30 days nobody claims the item then it will be returned to me. The lieutenant told me this directly and I believed him. He assigned the whole thing an incident number and I got the feeling they took it all very seriously. Of course when I told him the ring had been roughly assessed at a value of $4,000 to $5,000 that helped. Jaws were gaping. They asked me all kinds of questions about what to ask to ensure a person claiming the ring was the rightful owner. I provided some. I will follow up with an email detailing exactly where it was found and what the owner should be able to tell them about the location itself and identifying marks on the ring the owner should know.
So in 30 days if nobody claims the ring, I will be the new owner and I will be happy to own it under those terms. If I kept my mouth shut and just kept the ring I'd never feel quite right about it. That whole mom test thing would have worn on me.
By the way the lieutenant was anxious to get my contact information and line up people who would pay to hire me to help them find some rather expensive lost items. He mentioned a $10k ring someone lost recently. I smiled and told him I had a day job but that I'm willing to volunteer as time allows. I kept a very low key in terms of rewards, finders fees, or whatever. I left them with a we volunteer to help our neighbors impression.
So there you have it. I'm sure some of you may be thinking Charles what are you nuts? Hey you know what, I guarantee you I just banked a serious amount of karma, probably enough to find a chain cent or half disme or something.
Charles
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