Diver Discovers Lost Items And Memories
Tuesday, August 04, 1998
By Kirsten Hartman Staff Writer
ELK TWP. The Metal-Detecting man has struck gold again.
This time, local scuba diver Jeff Barris has reunited a veteran with a long- lost medallion given to a young soldier by his mother just before his tour in Vietnam.
Barris, the self-proclaimed "Metal Detecting Man", is the vice president of the 230-member South Jersey Metal Detecting Club. His business, aside from being a PATCO trackman, is finding things by request, such as outboard motors lost by boaters and sometimes wedding rings lost by swimmers.
"People call me when they lose things," Barris said.
On other recovery jobs, Barris, 38, finds items lost by people who have no idea of their item's whereabouts.
He keeps everything that doesn't have any identification. Otherwise, he sets himself to the task of finding the owner, which is worth every minute of the search to Barris.
"I can't describe it, it's like finding a lost friend. Sometimes I think I'm more excited than the person who lost it," Barris said.
Often with only engraved initials as a clue, Barris relies heavily on his skills as a former police officer to locate missing items.
His latest success springs from a October 1997 dive in Lake Kandle in Washington Township. As part of his business, Barris trolls private lakes to identify and remove potential hazards to swimmers.
In this instance, Barris made an agreement with the Kandles that he would thoroughly explore their lake, removing any dangerous materials such as nails or tin cans. In return, Barris could keep anything he found.
Barris uses a 3-foot-long, underwater metal detector with a light and earphones so he can hear each "hit" on the machine.
"When I first dove in I rubbed my eyes and said that looks like a whole lot of money. I was finding a multitude of stuff and got over $300 just in dimes, nickels and pennies," Barris said.
He also found a few rings, bracelets and necklaces. Among the treasures was a 30-inch, 14K gold chain with a St. Christopher medallion found 12 feet below the surface.
The medallion had "Michael Kent, 8-29-40" etched on the back.
For fun, Barris always shows Jay Kandle what he finds. Kandle remembered that a few years back, a police officer reported the necklace missing. Neither knew it was 24 years ago. Barris set to the task of finding the owner only knowing Kent's birthday and that he was once a police officer. Barris called some police organizations, with little luck.
Undaunted and equipped with police skills, Barris hit the directories and found a post office box listing for a William Kent in Frenchtown who matched the birth date on the pendant and mailed a letter to the address.
Just last week, Barris got the call he'd been waiting for, and the delighted owner shared the story of the medallion, which his mother gave him on his 25th birthday, the day he left for Vietnam.
"He couldn't believe I found it. He was completely excited, so was I," Barris said.
Kent, who now lives in Chesapeake, Va., with his wife, Doreen, believes he lost the necklace on a trip to Lake Kandle in 1974.
"When I got the letter, I said 'Doreen, you will not believe this," Kent said,"It's unbelievable."
Kent wore the medal through his 13 months service in the Marine Corps in Vietnam.
"When I called him and told him who I was, he was as excited as I was," Kent said.
Kent couldn't believe that a person would go to that much trouble to give him back his medallion. Meanwhile, Barris thinks it's simply the right thing to do.
"If it was something I lost, I would want someone to return it. That's the problem with people today, they don't want to give time to other people anymore," Barris said.
This was not the first time Barris reunited someone with a lost memento.
In September 1997, Barris returned a 1938 Pitman High School class ring to its surprised owner. The ring, found in Lake Oberst in Glassboro, hadn't been seen by its owner in 50 years.