Sewer glad we found it!

Jennifer, a social worker working downtown was returning from lunch about two weeks ago.  As she was reaching for the crosswalk button on the corner of Harvey and Ellis, her beautiful silver carved ring came off.  All she heard was "ping, ping" and then nothing.  Jennifer and her co-worker scoured the area looking for it, but came up empty handed.  When she returned to her office she posted a panicked Lost & Found ad on Castanet.net.  I saw the ad and I sent her an e-mail to contact me ASAP.  The reason for the haste was because she had a little too much information of exactly where and how she lost her ring.  An exact location leaves it open for any unscrupulous person to go and find the ring for themselves.  I know it sounds bad, but it does happen. 

Jennifer changed the ad to be more vague and I went to the location to take a look.  Now city sidewalk searches are difficult because of all the metal everywhere.  You have re-bar, debris, metal in buildings, and foil wrappers.  For this type of search I use an old BFO detector from the 60s because of the fact that it only goes down about 2" in depth and is not affected by most surrounding metal.  This shallow detector is perfect because this is a recent drop and I don't expect to find it under 6" of soil.  This first search turned up the usual debris I came to expect from the street corner, but no ring. 

My next step was a re-enactment of the scene.  I use a pex ring for the test drop/throws when trying to see where the ring might land.  My first test throw I got a "ping, ping" and nothing, except this time I saw where the nothing was.  On the left side of the traffic light and on the side of the sidewalk is a sewer storm drain and it is exactly where my test ring went.  This still poses as a major obstacle in retrieving a ring.  The drain is 3 feet deep with a foot of water and the space between the grates is only an inch and a quarter, and you have traffic coming by every few seconds.  I needed help for this one, so I contacted Mark Torgerson from Works & Utilities with the City of Kelowna for advice on the search.  After telling him Jennifer's story, Mark and his crew came down to the location, cordoned off the corner, removed the grate and pumped out most of the water for the search.  Now I can tell you from this experience that the muck at the bottom of a storm drain is not the sweet smelling nectar that one might expect, but a good test for your gag reflex!

Photo: Contributed

Twenty minutes into the search, Sam, one of Mark's crewmen says to me, "Is this the ring your looking for?"... Bingo! I had in my hand a very smelly and dirty silver carved wrap around ring.  Mark and his crew where quick and brilliant in helping us out with this search and it gives me a new appreciation for the work that these guys do for our city and its people.

Photo: Contributed

Every ring has a story and it doesn't have to be a ridiculously expensive one to be valuable to someone.  Jennifer used this ring as her wedding band. Her actual wedding ring was purchased when attending University as a student. It is cheap, and turns her finger green. Jennifer's husband's wedding ring is equally cheap and was bought off a street vendor, as every store was closed when they went looking for his ring the night before their wedding. (They had no idea the groom would need a ring too, until they had their practice wedding the night before.) Those rings are safe in a little box.  The ring that was lost had been in place of the original and over the years she had become very attached to it as the symbol of their commitment.  This ring meant a lot to her, so it meant a lot to us to find it, and we did, with a little help from the "City Yard" guys!

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.