True Detector

FULL METAL RACKET

Chris Turner searches high and low among the rubble for Vancouverites’ valuables.

Lord of the Rings

The Ring Finders CEO Chris Turner uses his metal detector to recover valuables around the Lower Mainland

by Nathan Caddell

“it’s pretty qUick,” says Chris Turner. “You get a call, pack your gear and go. You don’t have time to wait.”

Turner isn’t a cop or a paramedic or any type of first responder. Instead, his line of work starts with him throwing a metal detector into his car before heading out to various parks, golf courses, beaches and yards across the Lower Mainland.

There, he meets up with someone who is often in a full-on panic: they’ve lost a ring and they need help.

Turner has been helping people find their valuables for over 27 years, and has run the online directory The Ring Finders for the last 12. The group has representatives all over the world and has returned, collectively, around 8,500 items at a value of over $10 million.

Most of the members (including Turner himself) charge customers only on successful finds and ask for whatever they can afford to pay (plus a $25 gas fee depending on the drive). “Most of the time the stigma of a person with a metal detector is that they’re trying to find stuff for themselves,” says Turner, who looks a little like a bigger Robert Downey

Jr. with a ponytail (if RDJ didn’t dye his hair and beard to get rid of the grey). “We have found a way to use our metal detectors to help people.”

On this day, that call takes him to Stanley Park, where a woman lost her ring at a concert the night before. “She thinks she

might have been slipped something—didn’t drink much but can’t remember much of anything.”

It’s another in a long line of quests for Turner, who curates a well-worn highlight reel of finds that he’s proud of on his YouTube channel—many of which conclude in jubilant waterworks.

Those have included finding a gold medallion in a West Vancouver soccer field, reuniting a young man with his departed grandfather’s ring in a Surrey forest and

uncovering a wedding band lost in the water at a White Rock marina on the groom’s wedding day.

Such finds delighted owners and reunited them with prized possessions, but they didn’t afford Turner

I always say that people’s rings and jewellery have these beautiful and amazing stories attached to them. And those stories end when they’re lost.”

worldwide recognition. That happened last year when The Ring Finders got a call from actor Jon Cryer of Two and a Half Men fame. Cryer lost his wedding ring on a grassy median on the seawall. After a short search, Turner was able to come up with it.

“The gods were on his side for that one... it really was about a five percent chance we were going to find that ring, based on the location,” he says, noting that the event was covered on media platforms from CBC to People magazine. “It definitely afforded us some crazy exposure and attention.”

Unfortunately, there’s no ecstatic, teary, “voilà” moment today. Without a clear map of where his client was in the park, the search ends up futile.

“I come into every search with the thought of finding the ring, but I’m a realist too,” he says. “I always say that people’s rings and jewellery have these beautiful and amazing stories attached to them. And those stories end when they’re lost.”

SUGGESTION BOX

SARAH BLYTH Co-founder/executive director, Overdose Prevention Society

What’s one thing you’d change about Vancouver?

There are so many things that it’s hard to choose, but one that stands out to me is that Vancouver police officers should wear body cameras.

They have lives in their hands, and the public needs to know what happened. We already have cameras everywhere else. And the fact is, police officers should want them to justify what they do. They may take different steps knowing they’re accountable. And we need to know that they’re treating everyone—no matter their race or class—with the same respect.

There have been a number of incidents this year alone where people in crisis have been killed with little accountability. Asking vulnerable people to come forward puts them at risk of police retaliation.

The way in which we deal with these issues needs more accountability. We need to know that peoples’ human rights are being upheld.

Left: FIRST UNITED’s current building at the corner of Hastings and Gore. Above: FIRST UNITED community member Angelo and his dog, Kale.

MOVING FIRST FORWARD

FIRST UNITED’s $30 million site redevelopment campaign is your chance to help another person connect, heal and thrive

For over 135 years, FIRST UNITED has meaningfully engaged with its community and neighbours in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), in the face of extreme poverty, historical and personal trauma, mental illness and oppression. Today, FIRST UNITED envisions a neighbourhood where every person’s worth is celebrated, and all people thrive—and it needs your help.

FIRST UNITED launched a project in 2017 to redevelop its site at 320 East Hastings into a multi-storey, purpose-built space that will offer four floors of programs and services operated by FIRST, and over 100 units of below-market rental housing for Indigenous Peoples operated by Lu’ma Native Housing Society.

“The total cost of the project is $65 million,” says FIRST UNITED Executive Director, Carmen Lansdowne. “Our portion is $30 million, and we’ve already raised over 70 percent of that. With the launch of our First Forward campaign, we’re excited to invite more of the Greater Vancouver public to join us to move FIRST forward and help us do this incredible work.”

The new 40,000-squarefoot FIRST UNITED will include two drop-in spaces, a commercial kitchen and dining area, legal advocacy and tax program spaces, multipurpose spaces, public showers, a day sleeping room, an interfaith sacred space, outdoor decks, a computer lab and administrative offices. The project breaks ground in early 2022, with the new building expected to open in 2024. During construction, FIRST UNITED services will be relocated to nearby satellite locations.

FIRST’s responsive services support thousands of DTES residents each year. Its current facility, a church built in the 1960s, is known as “the church of the open door” for its inclusive, low-barrier approach.

Last winter, FIRST UNITED community members Angelo and Sandy, and their dog, Kale, were living in a tent in East Vancouver. They’d struggled with their previous landlord and a lack of housing options.

“We both had pneumonia,” Angelo says. “When it rained, we were damp all the time. And when night comes, it gets real cold. When we found FIRST UNITED, it was an absolute blessing. Without their help, I don’t know if we’d still be here.”

FIRST UNITED helped Angelo, Sandy and Kale to find shelter, and provided them with hot showers, fresh supplies, and three meals a day. FIRST also helped connect Angelo and Sandy to medical care and, six months later, housing.

“We have a roof over our heads and food in the fridge,” Angelo says. “We’re happy. If you can see it in your heart to give, you should know that your help could change somebody’s life. I know it changed mine.”

LEARN MORE

Firstunited.ca firstforward@firstunited.ca

CONNECT

Facebook: @FirstUnitedDTES Twitter: @FirstUnitedDTES