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An area group wants to search for buried treasure in your yard.

The Old North State Detectorists want to volunteer their services to people who have lost things or homeowners with old homes.

“We’ll be glad to search it at no charge ,and whatever we find, we give to the homeowner,” club president William Purkey said.
“We just want to find it.”

The group is made up of 10 to 15 people from all walks of life.

“We’ve got a retired state trooper, a sheriff’s deputy, a county park ranger and several teachers,” Purkey said.

After placing an ad for folks interested in metal detection in the Triad, Purkey started getting phone calls from interested people.

“We called the first meeting about four months ago, and about 10 people showed up,” he said. The group has been meeting since then and has offered its services to local homeowners, the state department of Archives and History and local police agencies to help out on certain crime scenes.

“We’re glad to search it at no charge,” Purkey said.

Purkey, a retired teacher, became interested in detecting more than 30 years ago.

“One of my students brought (a metal detector) to class for show and tell,” he said. “I became interested, and I’ve been hooked every since.”

Since he started detecting, Purkey has found a number of rings, thousands of coins and even airplane parts.

Purkey’s goal, as is the goal of the group, is to return lost things to their rightful owners.

“I’ve returned five class rings so far,” he said.

Purkey has a class ring now, found in a Greensboro city park, with the name Matthew C. Baker engraved on it. The school is Senior Largo High School and the year on the ring is 1975.

“It’s a really nice ring,” Purkey said.

Soon the group will volunteer its services to look for artifacts at Alamance Battleground.

For information about the club or to have the detectorists hunt for your treasures, call Purkey at 855-7034 .

Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 373-7157 or tiffany.jones@news-record.com