Stories of Impact - Dave Jordan and the Case of The Missing Police Medal

Nicholas Hill  0:00  
You're listening to acts of impact the show where we discuss those making a positive difference in the world around us. I'm your host, Nicholas Hill. And on today's episode, I'd like to do something a little different. On today's show, I'd like to tell you a story. This story starts with a man named Geoffrey Baron.

Geoffrey Baron  0:22  
My name is Geoffrey. I'm 82 years old. I joined Northampton borough police in 1962. amalgamated with the county police, and I've lived in this house for many years. But I've spent most of my time in Northampton itself and are retired the day before me 50s fourth birthday, having spent 32 and a half years in the police force

Maureen Baron  0:55  
when you joined in January 62, to the birthplace where he amalgamated in in 60s to the county police. He joined in 62. And he retired in September 94. So it's good while ago

Nicholas Hill  1:13  
that's Geoffrey wife Maureen who lives with and cares for him as Geoffrey suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Now a man who dedicates 32 years to protecting his community, Geoffrey is a hero in his own right. And to honor that dedicated service, the police awarded Geoffrey upon his retirement in 1994. an exemplary service medal. You can imagine the pride Jeffery must have felt to be awarded such an important symbol of contribution. And from then on, Jeffery cherished his prized metal and enjoyed retirement with marine, his children and six grandchildren. But that is not where our story ends. Because just last year, in December of 2021 Geoffrey house was ransacked by thieves. 

Maureen Baron  2:03  
We were we we stayed out over night, we went to a wedding, and when we came back, dreadful three of the doors were smashed in, and they'd gone upstairs and ransacked and taken jewelry, passport, driving license, you name it.

Nicholas Hill  2:21  
But jewelry, passports and driver's licenses weren't the only thing that thieves stole that day. They also stole Geoffrey's exemplary service metal. Now, you might be wondering like I was, who would be dumb enough to go into a police officer's home. See a metal with his name engraved on it, and steel that police officers metal. But despite losing several other items of value, Geoffrey was most upset about losing this metal have such deep, sentimental worth.

Maureen Baron  2:57  
You did keep saying that, you know, I've lost my medal. I've lost my middle. In the end. I told a little fib. I said no, no, no, you haven't. It's upstairs, thinking I hope he doesn't want to ask where it is. He was absolutely distraught when it was stolen.

Nicholas Hill  3:11  
Now for 1000s of burglary victims. This would sadly be where the story ends. But when we return we'll meet environmentalist and magnate fisherman Dave Sonik Jordan, who gives this story of rather attractive turn of events. Let's get started.

Have you ever dropped something into dark water? I have way too many times. You'd think I would have learned my lesson the first time definitely not. I've dropped my first GoPro in the lake never to be seen again. My second GoPro into a river. Luckily we found that one. And just three weeks ago, I dropped my iPhone 12 Pro into the lake while trying to clean up the river. So it was extremely surprising to find out that there's an entire group of people who use magnets to pull metal objects from the bottoms of these waterways. They're called magnet fishermen. And I was honored to meet one such person Dave Sonic Jordan. Dave has a YouTube channel called adventures with Sonic and friends where he posts his Magnet Fishing adventures every week. But on top of being an active part of that community, Dave is also an environmentalist who cleans up the waterways in which he's fishing. Dave has been cleaning up these waterways for over nine years and actively inspires other magnate fishermen to do the same.

Dave Jordan  4:50  
He's all started because when I put my magnet in, I can't. I'm not comfortable enough if this can floating past and stuff, but I have to pick that up. Just so that's what it is started, the whole journey started from that. But not many other making issues, especially people with channels and stuff was doing this. So when I come along and started filming it, it put like a bomb underneath the community and everybody started picking up bags of rubbish, and that was the day. And they say you need now leave the place better than what you found it. So is there is a lot of this inner community doing the magnetic fishing and stuff like that. But it's really a new thing to want to rejuvenate the whole area and pick up all the rubbish while you're at it.

Nicholas Hill  5:40  
Now, the enormous benefits of picking up these waterways can't be overstated. And in fact, Dave has personally seen that cleaning up these areas can lead to wildlife and environmental rejuvenation, 

Dave Jordan  5:53  
in many cases, you can pull out a pile of rubbish, and you could go back there a month or two later, and it'd be exactly the same and you just weren't there losing battle. But then there are other places that you clean it out. And people get the message and they managed to keep on top of it. And then suddenly you started seeing more schools and wash runs. And then you see the fish come back. And it's just generally more more wildlife comes back to the area.

Nicholas Hill  6:20  
One thing I loved about talking with Dave is that he is adamant about wildlife restoration. He even went so far as to involve his local counselor, and even the media sometimes to ensure the safety of these waterways.

Dave Jordan  6:36  
And I've also got my local counsel involved cheered well behind what we do. So if I ever get any problems with it, I can call her and she puts the boot in, and then it gets cleared within a day. Okay, one day, we turned out we called radio and the pie was picked up within half an hour.

Nicholas Hill  6:53  
And not only is Dave picking up trash, and helping to rejuvenate the environment in these areas, he's also chasing the thrill of never knowing what he'll find next, I asked Dave about the excitement of Magnet Fishing and about some of his more unique finds.

Dave Jordan  7:10  
I pulled out a Beretta nine millimeter before now. And it was the same day we pulled out an 18 pound bomb as well for the war. So we called the police because the gun is too new. So please turned up the we put the bomb in a bucket of water, got it away, people and a bunch will be turning up. So they've taken away and they called me on the way home. And the nine millimeter was fireable and loaded. They also informed me that the 18 pound bomb was a World War One anti tank, so yeah, and it was live, who was still alive after all his time had been in war. And I imagine, I mean, the bomb wouldn't have been put in there any time since World War One that would have been off the bondage. But the gun was, if that had been in there the same time, I don't know. But I recommend putting in the last year, whatever. So imagine the time difference, and yet I found him in the same spot. You couldn't write, you can't write a book.

Nicholas Hill  8:21  
Now, although you might think it's really exciting to find a gun and a bomb in the same day. England actually has really strict laws about the transportation of weapons. So Dave had to be really careful here and make sure to get the police involved immediately

Dave Jordan  8:38  
the information they gave me which if I'd have, even if God had called the police, and told them I was coming and put it in my car to take it to them, if we got caught on the way to the police station. Even with that call rope, I would still risk five years in prison.

Nicholas Hill  8:57  
Now before you start trolling waterways for long lost world war two weapons, you should know that finds like these are incredibly rare. And a lot of what Dave pulls up is not quite as exciting.

Dave Jordan  9:12  
The way I like to say is, it's 100% getting it out of the environment. It shouldn't be there. It's helping out the wildlife and all that. It's 90%, scrap and rubbish, etc. You just got to get it out. Get rid of it. Call the scrap man put it in the bin, whatever. Each 10% Interesting. I could find a candle. I could find somebody bag of tools blocked in off a boat or something you just never know could find bones and each 1% Really exciting. Guns and bombers call the police

Nicholas Hill  9:49  
please. But for Dave it isn't just about the excitement of finding something interesting. It's also about the community and the friends that Dave has made along the way, 

Dave Jordan  10:01  
my channel is adventure with Sonic and friends. So my friends can be different people who pop in and out, sometimes I put the call out and different people call and come and help. So we do have a community of all different Magnet Fishing groups, each a safety thing, as much as it's a fun thing. It's fun to be around other people. You can hold up a fire extinguisher and go, Oh, wow. But unless there's somebody next year going, Oh, wow, it doesn't really feel. But the safety aspect is if you get stuck on something you've got two people to put on about.

Nicholas Hill  10:36  
One such friend that Dave was recently Magnet Fishing with was a young man named Ryan Davenport, who joined a Dave on a recent adventure to search for treasures in the river Nene. They had been pulling things out of the water in Northampton, for just 30 minutes, when Ryan made an incredible find.

Dave Jordan  10:56  
I was out looking for local fishing, mainly fishing spots around my train station in Northampton. And when I was walking up the river, I'm looking at our faces, but we can stand there and I'm walking up, I see a massive pile of rubbish. This sofa is clearly a massive dumping site. And they're all hidden by the trees. And so I put the call out within two weeks, put the call out on Facebook. And they will have three people said to come and help. Notably one friend of mine, who's also Magnet Fishing, they've got a YouTube channel as well, they don't film quite as much. They're not quite as ADHD as I am. So they wanted to fish with me. So it was him and his boy, a 15 year old boy Ryan, day came down, we cleared all of our beach, we spent about four or five hours clearing all these sofas and everything, get rid of all this stuff. And then when all that was cleared up, the couple of people left. So there was four of us left Magnet Fishing up. And that's when the middle came out. It was in a box. And the boy literally like what I found a box and he came over to me to open it. So we've opened it up. And it's a medal inside a police long service Good Conduct Medal. Though this would have been given out in retirement, we've managed to clean it up enough because it was very muddy might recall inside the casing the bag. And so when you clean it up enough so we could see the name was written around the edge of the medal.

Nicholas Hill  12:33  
Now, if you're following along, you probably already know the name written on the metal that Dave and Ryan found that day. It was that of our retired police officer Geoffrey Baron. And luckily, once you have someone's name, they're pretty easy to find.

Dave Jordan  12:50  
I found the owner that night. They were still around he had out on the so speaking to park morning, and it turned out metal had been stolen over a year ago. They know how burglary and their shape was taken a load of other stuff to take and put your one thing that they were upset. Routine was this metal. Because it was the only thing that could not be replaced.

Nicholas Hill  13:19  
Dave was able to make that once in a lifetime phone call to let marine know her husband's metal had been found and would be returned to him again.

Dave Jordan  13:31  
They were over the moon to get a phone call from me to say that we found it.

Maureen Baron  13:35  
It was quite funny really. Because when he phoned up he said it was David Jordan, and it's littered picked and magnificient. I'm thinking is this leading is going to sell me something I'm not I'm going to always merely going to put the phone down. And then he said no, no, I'm not. I'm not telling you anything. I just want to tell you that on found this, this metal and on the side of the metal. It's got Geoffrey Baron. And I said this my husband really? So he said yes. Oh my goodness. I could not believe it. I think we had a burglary last December, I said is watch and the metal apart from other things are stolen. And we never thought that he would actually get it again.

Nicholas Hill  14:21  
That following weekend. Dave and Ryan were able to meet with marine and Geoffrey and the two men were personally able to hand Geoffrey back his metal.

Dave Jordan  14:31  
I really am shaking. Hopefully you can get a professionally clean and the ribbon and the box. We did. So it is back to normal.

Ryan Davenport  14:40  
Hi, I'm Ryan. And this metal is very special to this person for being in the police service or 35 years. It was not long ago kind of got stolen. It got burgled from the house and didn't see fit for a long time. And it's very Even here right now, I found it. And we managed to find the owner and he would like to be in.

Geoffrey Baron  15:07  
It feel wonderful to get this back. I never thought I'd say it again. It hit me hard at the time. But I'm so pleased to get it back

Dave Jordan  15:18  
to a Patty's medal 35 years, and then to lose it. And it means so much to him. And to to get it back. Put it this way, Maureen said that somebody had offered to replace two women on it. And her response was, Well, I'd love to but you'd have to get it off him first.

Maureen Baron  15:38  
Oh, it's actually by the side of the chair where he sits in a pitiable state. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to get it cleaned and a new ribbon put on. But it's wonderful happening back.

Nicholas Hill  15:49  
So with the metal returned to its rightful owner, and Marina and Geoffrey overjoyed, I asked Dave, what is the lesson in all of this? Was it just random chance? What can we take away from this find

Dave Jordan  16:03  
the work that went into find it, which can meant that we weren't just walking along doing a bit of live picking insurer may do. This was hours and hours of work? The way we found it was a needle in a haystack. It was a million to one shot.

Nicholas Hill  16:21  
And where's Dave now? Well, you can follow him on his YouTube channel adventures with Sonic and friends. And by the way, his channel is getting quite popular. 

Dave Jordan  16:32  
Now, this and third, well listen, 20 now away from 1000 subs. And I've only been doing it a little over a year on YouTube. So I never expected it would get this fast. These quickly. Took me a long time to actually start my YouTube. Fame and acclamation isn't what I'm doing it for. But if I've inspired a few other people, and there's a lot of kids that are hanging on to the channel, there'll be words and I'm getting sent little snippets of videos or little five year olds going indie walking down a road with a little picker. And it brings my heart. Oh, I'm just I'm just so overjoyed that that is my message getting out there. And that's what I enjoy talking to people about what I do.

Nicholas Hill  17:19  
Dave, we have greatly enjoyed talking to you as well. And we had acts of impact wish you Geoffrey Maureen and Ryan, the best of luck and a wonderful holiday season.

Today's show was directed and produced by me with music from Alex girl. Special thanks to our guests for their time and insight. If you like today's episode, please follow us wherever you listen to podcasts, and consider leaving a review is it will help us to spread the word about the show. You can view more information about today's episode online at acts of impact.com Thanks for listening