Video
MOSSEL BAY NEWS AND VIDEO - Want to make people happy? Get a metal detector!
Napoleon Jordaan of Mossel Bay has made dozens of people overjoyed by finding their lost items.
His greatest satisfaction has been in retrieving wedding rings. He has found 40 to 50 of these. "Women dance, sing, scream and cry when their wedding rings are found. It is the most incredible thing," Napoleon says.
His metal detecting has spanned 40 years and he is on his fifth detector now. "Sometimes you bang it against a rock and it gets damaged," he explains.
A woman was getting married at Great Brak beach. The pageboy dropped the ring in the sand before he could give it to the groom and it could not be found, so the bride got married without a ring.
Napoleon joked gently
"That's not a good way to start your marriage," Napoleon joked gently when the woman told him. He went to the spot and promptly found the ring.
Once Napoleon was at Hartenbos Beach. A woman had looked all day for her missing wedding ring. "She was walking from the waves when she lost it," Napoleon says. "I know the sea and I knew that with the wave action, the ring would have moved and I found it four steps back from the spot she lost it.
"She had told me she would give me R10 000 if I found the ring, but I didn't really take heed of that. Then she handed over R3 000 and she gave me R1 000 every month until she had given me R11 000."
Napoleon says: "She said she felt as if a family member had died when she lost her ring and that she could not go home without it."
Once, when he was at Santos Beach, he saw a girl crying. She said she had lost two rings - family heirlooms - she had inherited from her great grandmother. Napoleon found them. "She wanted to give me money, but I refused to take it, but she insisted and gave me R7."
Watch a video below:
Glentana
Once a friend of Napoleon was at Glentana and overheard a man from Parys in the Free State saying a ring had been lost. The friend gave Napoleon's number to the man. Napoleon arrived with his metal detector and found the white gold diamond ring.
He has found many old coins and antique knives on the beach, as well as wallets aplenty, which he has returned to their owners. "They all have bank cards in them, so people can be traced," he explains.
"When I pick up bunches of keys I usually hand them in at the restaurant at the beach. People look for them there.
"Finding wedding rings brings the greatest joy," Napoleon says. "It makes my day."
He says people can call him (084 697 8501) if they need something found.
The types of items Napoleon usually finds.
'We bring you the latest Mossel Bay, Garden Route news'
