SAN TAN VALLEY, AZ — A discovery by young treasure hunters and their moms brought some much-needed peace of mind to a San Tan Valley family searching for a piece an “irreplaceable” piece of jewelry for months.
Later this month Brody will turn five years old and already the young treasure hunter has discovered thousands of valuables beneath the earth’s surface.
On the day we met with him, he, and his friend, 4-year-old Liberty were fully equipped with a metal detector, a pin pointer, a shovel, a bag for any treasures they find, and an attention span that could quickly be lost to a nearby playground.
With the help of their mothers, Kimmie Wolt and Sarita Compton, the four of them have made some big discoveries.
Just last week, Brody’s mom, Sarita, helped a groom-to-be in Gilbert find a lost engagement ring in a sand Volleyball court. After the owners searched with a rake for hours, Sarita was able to find it in minutes with a high-end metal detector.
“It took her four minutes to locate this ring,” said the relieved, groom-to-be.
The metal detecting moms with their sidekick children have helped find lost phones and picked up what could have been dangerous nails in playground mulch.
Their biggest discovery came in the first five minutes of searching at a San Tan park next to Ellsworth Elementary last week.
“Well, it wasn’t us, it was my son,” said Sarita.
(Those five minutes are the ‘sweet spot,’ right before Brody loses interest to the playground.)
Brody found a music note necklace underneath the dirt at the playground. On the bottom of it was a screw and an inscription of someone’s initials.
”We got to post this immediately and get this back to the family,” said Sarita.
That post caught the eye of Jackie Crane.
“That’s Savannah’s necklace, my daughter Savannah’s necklace, I responded. Now goosebumps,” said Jackie.
Jackie tells us her family comes to the park next to Ellsworth Elementary every winter to play basketball In honor of her 16-year-old son, Ethan.
He died in a car crash in February of 2019.
”He was just really musically inclined, this was the one his sister picked out,” said Jackie.
Inside that necklace are Ethan’s ashes.
For months the necklace was lost until Brody, the treasure hunter, came along.
Sarita said the day they planned to meet Jackie and her daughter, Savannah, Brody woke her up at 5 in the morning saying it was time to give the necklace back.
“It feels like I’m a real treasure hunter,” said Brody with his metal detector in his hands.
Brody may not be old enough to fully realize what he discovered for Jackie and her family, but once he is – just think about what other treasure he and his team may find.
“He found a piece of our hearts, no doubt, a piece of our hearts, that can never be replaced,” said Jackie.
Sarita and Kimmie have a Facebook group where they post their finds and never shy away from a new challenge to locate something lost, even if it’s underwater.