Metal-detecting enthusiasts often cut solitary figures as they mine beaches, vacant lots and playgrounds for hours only to turn up a few rusted coins and bottle caps.
This is an incomplete portrait.
The treasure hunters sometimes morph into amateur sleuths as they help detectives comb crime scenes for evidence.
They also launch their own investigations in an attempt to reconnect unearthed items, such as an expensive piece of jewelry, with their owners.
"Metal detecting takes on a bigger facet than people think," said Bob Crompton, 61, a title examiner in Calimesa, Calif., and president of the Riverside Treasure Hunters Club, which has 92 members, ranging in age from their teens to their 80s.
A few times a year, crime-scene investigators reach out to club members to help search for shell casings or discarded weapons.
Prisons have called on them to scour exercise yards for contraband.
Their enthusiasm, expertise and sheer numbers make them valuable, especially if a large area needs to be searched, said Riverside police Sgt. Mark Rossi.
According to Riverside police, a man went into a bank in December 2007 attempting to cash stolen checks. He became agitated and left.
Moments later, police got a call of a man with a gun outside the bank. The man exchanged gunfire with an officer. No one was injured.
A 19-year-old man was later arrested nearby.
Club members were called out to the scene and located four shell casings that were later linked to either the officer or the suspect, Rossi said.
Members of the group returned to the scene a few days later and found one additional casing that was linked to the suspect, Rossi said.
"Anytime we can find additional evidence, it's beneficial," Rossi said. "It's one more round of accountability."
Ann Klinkhart, 69, of Upland, Calif., a retired office manager, who has participated in a few crime-scene searches, said she enjoys helping authorities and gets a burst of adrenaline when her device beeps.
"It's kind of an exciting thing," said Klinkhart, whose son is a police officer.
Members of the club also helped investigators in a high-profile murder case near Idyllwild, Calif., in 1994.
A German tourist was shot and killed and her husband was critically injured during a robbery.
Riverside County sheriff's investigators learned from an informant that the handgun used in the slaying was cut up into pieces and dumped in fields throughout Banning.
Authorities enlisted club members to find the pieces.
"In some cases you were looking for pieces no bigger than a silver dollar," recalled Lt. Jeff Mullins, one of the case investigators. "We were literally looking for a needle in the haystack."
Club members helped find parts of the gun's barrel, handle and slide mechanism, which were later shown at trial.
Forensic experts used that evidence to link the gun to the killing, Mullins said.
Three young men were convicted of murder.
Capt. Jacob Bowser, then commander of the sheriff's station in Hemet, Calif., wrote a letter thanking the club for being "directly responsible for locating evidence critical to the investigation."
Amid the fruitless searches, club members encounter occasional "Eureka!" moments.
Crompton found a 14-carat gold chain at the beach valued at about $3,000.
"Every time I go out, it's around my neck," he said.
Club member Rick Schramm, 73, a retired cost and schedule analyst in Canyon Lake, counts among his favorite finds an 1863 Civil War token, an assortment of Chinese coins and a 32-diamond tennis bracelet.
But "finders keepers" doesn't always apply. If there is a clue as to whom a piece of jewelry belongs, club members will try to find that person.
A few months ago, Pat Ashe, 66, of Riverside, who has been metal detecting for more than 40 years, searched a parking lot while her husband got a medical checkup.
She found a class ring with "Gahr" and a student's name engraved in it. She took the ring to a club meeting.
Schramm recognized it as coming from Gahr High School in Cerritos, Calif.
He called the school and provided the name of the student.
The school contacted the student's mother, who, in turn, contacted her daughter, who lives in Texas.
It turns out the woman had lost the ring 20 years ago and was delighted to get it back, Ashe said. She thought her husband had lost it on the beach.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
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