Irish Hobbyist Finds Medical Dicharge Badge

"A long lost First World War medal has been returned to its family home in Oving after being found on a remote beach in Ireland.

It was picked up by keen treasure hunter Stephen Hunter, 28, who trawled through stacks of historical documents to finally trace it back to Edward Lewis Brunswick from the Aylesbury area, who died in 1975.

He was then able to find Edward’s son Roy, who is the oldest living ancestor of the war hero and was delighted to have the medal returned."

Read more HERE.

WWII US Dog Tags Returned from France

I came across this great story of some hobbyists in France who came across and were able to return the dog tag of a US WWII veteran. And believe it or not, I have connection. The vet was part of the US Army 94th Infantry. That unit, after WWII was redesignated a few times and eventully became the 94th RRC, which I served under while part of the 439th QM CO (PS) out of New Haven, CT.

"American World War II artifacts continue popping up in European fields and villages, but connecting them to the U.S. soldier who lost or left them there rarely happens. Unless, of course, the veteran's old family address is embossed on the artifact.

That's the case for Herb Schueler, 88, of Columbia, Illinois. He is a retired home builder who served in the U.S. Army 94th Infantry Division during World War II. He can't remember losing one of his two dog tags in the fall of 1944. But he did, and two French treasure hunters turned it up with a metal detector in the small village of Heric in northwest France about 15 miles from the town of Nantes."

Read more HERE.

Rutgers Class Ring Found in a Lake

"With her trusty metal detector, Sue Beck has been digging up little Gloucester County treasures for a quarter century.

She's plucked her fair share of nails and soda can tabs out of the dirt around the Elk Township lake where she lives.

But among the bits of trash, she's found decades-old odds and ends that have some value, especially when it comes to the sentimental worth.

'I'm like the pied piper,' said Beck, a 34-year Elk resident. 'Kids and adults follow me around on the main beach. ... I've found so many old things.'

When she finds something good, the metal-detecting hobbyist always tries to return it to its owner even decades after it went missing on the beach or the bottom of Lake Gilman."

Read more HERE.
Original Story posted on Rutgers Media Relations site on May 9th, 2011.

Image Credits: Rutgers Media Relations

Religious Medieval Gold

"A medieval ring unearthed by a Pendle treasure-hunter in Kirkby Lonsdale has been described as the ‘find of a lifetime’.

Archaeology enthusiast Craig Scott was on a rare trip out with his metal detector when he found a silver 14th century ring in just six inches of soil in a field.

Engraved with the letters ‘IESUS’, two clasped hands and a five point star, experts say the ring is an extremely rare find."

Read more HERE.

NOTE: Image not of actual ring, but one of similar style and inscription.

MD Dune Buggy

I got this in my email today. It was an article about fun summer beach gadgets and whatnot. I saw the mention of the R/C Metal Detecting Dune Buggy and was pretty excited. However, apparently the thing was in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog two summers ago and is no longer available.

Kinda irked my email would send me this awesome link to something I can't buy anymore... because I assure you, I would have.

Catalog listing for the dune buggy HERE.

Ohio Class Ring Found

A nice article by Margaret Hartmann on Jezebel.com about a class ring returned by a fellow hobbyist.

"After three decades, most high school rings wind up ratting around the bottom of a jewelry drawer, but Karen Price Liebisch says she's excited that her class of 1975 ring has been returned 36 years after she lost it at Northwest High School in Ohio.

Liebisch recently received a letter school saying the ring she misplaced a few weeks before graduation had turned up. Earl Corson found it 20 years ago while using a metal director at Brookville Lake in Indiana, but only turned it in recently.

Liebisch said it only fits her pinkie now, but she plans to have it resized so she can wear it. 'It's nice to find a piece of your past like this,' she said. 'It had a lot of good memories attached to it and I am really happy to have it back.'"

NOTE: Image shown is not of actual ring found.
Image Credits: Gtranquillity / Shutterstock

MD + Smartphone = Minefinder

"While mine-clearing protocols have improved substantially since World War II, the technology used to locate buried landmines has changed little: De-miners use metal detectors to find and identify mines. On a battlefield strewn with metal debris, differentiating lethal mines from benign cans, wires, and casings is enormously time consuming.

Now, computer scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have designed an elegant system that ties in smartphones to assist humanitarian de-miners by augmenting the information supplied by their metal detectors. Their system, known as pattern enhancement tool for assisting land mine sensing (PETALS), and which will be presented at this week’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, takes de-mining advances in a new direction."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Justin Ide / Harvard Staff Photographer

Students Learn Evidence Recovery

"When the "call" came into the West Manheim Township Police Department early Thursday morning, students in the Police Mentoring Program were ready.

The high school students, who are part of the program coordinated by the West Manheim Township, Penn Township and Southwestern Regional police departments, formed three investigative "units" outside the West Manheim Township Municipal Building to get to work.

The lead came from a 911 caller who saw a white SUV parked near the crime scene and the driver..."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Shane Dunlap / Daily Record

Canadian Hobbyist and His Treasures

"Broken pottery.

That's the secret to hunting 150-year-old historic artifacts, according to Steve Miles, a retired plumbing teacher who has dug up a lot of London and area history over the past 15 years.

'When you're looking for history, you look for pottery shards,' Miles said. 'The more you see, the better your (spot) is. They last forever. They look just as good as they day they were broken or dropped. It's one of the only things they threw out and is still there.'"

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Chris Montanini / The Londoner

PA Police Search fo Evidence

Looks like a Tesoro to me :)

"Investigators from the Scranton Police Department - hoping to find new evidence - on Monday scoured the area off Saginaw Street where the body of a murdered drug dealer was found in December.

Police Chief Dan Duffy said Detectives Michael Schultz, James Pappas and Joseph Castellano, one of the department's crime scene investigators, sought to corroborate or disprove information gleaned from interviews conducted during the course of the homicide investigation."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Michael J. Mullen / The Scranton Time Journal