Local hero Darren Wiles has now helped over five hundred people reunite with their lost possessions, completely free of charge.
What started as a pass time hobby slowly developed into a full-time public service for Darren Wiles, the community hero who recovers peoples lost belongings for free.
Darren began metal detecting in 2009 due to his interest in history. He would post his finds on social media accounts and years later became a man of the people after concerned local residents started asking him for help finding their lost items.
Darren refuses payment for his work, believing his service is only about helping the community, he said his motivation is: “being able to give that back and make people feel happy again.”
Just this week, Darren took only fifteen minutes to find a man’s car, after he had forgotten where he parked it. Like always he took no payment and only posted it to his social media.
Being paid isn’t in Darren’s interest, he said: “The goal of everything I do is trying to find the item for the people.”
His service often results in him searching through rivers, beaches, the ocean and almost the whole of Bournemouth town for a number of items ranging from rings to cars.
Darren refuses to stop until he finds what he’s looking for. “If I don’t find it the first time, I’ll keep trying until I do.”
Helping find these lost possessions can sometimes be dangerous for Darren who said: “My safety is always first, if there’s a risk to me, I won’t do it.” He has even once had his metal detector destroyed while searching in harsh waters.
Mr Wiles is happy with his incredible milestone of having helped over five hundred people, he says: “I’ve hit the five hundred so I’m happy with that”. Yet he remains fully focused on helping more people for years to come with the one thousand mark in his sights, “I suppose the next numerical goal will be six hundred or one thousand so I’ve got no plans of stopping at the moment.”
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