Metal detecting specialist Ed Rogers recovered two missing Cartier gold rings from the Kansas backyard of Olympic long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall. Rogers received a call asking for help last month after two gold rings vanished from the couple's home, unaware that the caller was an Olympic champion.
Armed with his metal detector, Rogers searched the yard while the couple hosted a house party. Guests at the gathering formed what he described as a "cheering section." According to his RingFinders.com page, he located the first ring within five minutes before finding the second just 20 minutes later.
Davis-Woodhall told Rogers that three rings flew off her finger while she was tossing a grapefruit into the yard for a deer. The couple managed to recover one ring themselves, but two Cartier pieces, a chunky gold band and a diamond-encrusted gold band, remained missing.
The missing rings are from Cartier's iconic Love collection and are believed to be worth more than $10,000 combined. According to an interview with Vogue, Davis-Woodhall revealed she wears the rings, along with the rest of her gold jewelry, while competing.
Olympic Athletes and Recovered Jewelry
Rogers did not realize he had reunited Davis-Woodhall with her treasured jewelry until nearly two hours later, after returning home to Kansas City. "I had no idea that she was a gold medalist. I didn't have any idea that he was a gold medalist," Rogers told The Kansas City Star. "I didn't know any of that until after the fact... I had no idea they were married."
Davis-Woodhall won Olympic gold in the long jump at the 2024 Paris Games before being crowned women's long jump world champion at last year's World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. She also serves as a track and field assistant coach at Kansas State, where she works under director of track and field and cross country Travis Geopfert, who coached her to Olympic gold in Paris.
Her husband, Hunter Woodhall, claimed Paralympic gold in the men's 400m T62 at the 2024 Paris Games after winning bronze at Tokyo 2020. The decorated track stars married in 2022 and continue to train and compete side by side.
Metal Detector Specialist Operations
Rogers works as an independent recovery specialist through The Ring Finders, a directory dedicated to locating lost jewelry, phones and other valuables. He has been reuniting people with their treasured possessions ever since receiving a metal detector as a Christmas gift in 2019.
"I like the whole idea of finding things," he said. "And it is, really, for me, almost more about the finding than the find." He likened his passion for treasure hunting to a lifelong love of fishing that began in childhood.
"It's just so much fun to do.. as soon as I find something and clean it off.. then I want to go find the next thing," he said. "And it goes back to my childhood. I've been a fisherman all my life, so we call this dirt fishing."
Rogers charges a flat $100 fee to cover travel costs, with an additional reward-based payment if the missing item is successfully recovered, describing it as "What the lost item recovery is worth to you and what you can afford." Rogers said the Woodhalls rewarded him for finding the rings, but did not disclose how much they paid.
"My motivation to serve comes from that satisfying feeling of knowing valuable items are returned to their rightful owner," he added.
