Local man can find just about anything metal

Kenny Ray Norris is all about finding lost metal.

“I’m 100 percent,” Norris said. “Everything anyone has ever wanted me to find, I’ve found it.”

Norris, 46, is a New Iberia native and a 1979 graduate of New Iberia Senior High School. Although his main livelihood is from his concrete business, for the past 10 years he’s made quite a hobby out of metal detecting.

With his hand-held Mine Lab Explorer XS metal detector, he has found items ranging from coins and jewelry in New Iberia City Park to assorted Civil War artifacts in open areas of rural Iberia Parish.

Sometimes he will strike out on his own to see what he can find, and other times people ask him to find rings and other metal objects they have lost.

“Whenever I find whatever someone is looking for, if they know the vicinity it takes anywhere from one minute to several hours,” Norris said. “I have found everything I was asked to look for.”

Norris has held onto most of the items he has found on his own, leading to a closet full of such items. One of his favorites is a 1983 graduation ring, which he found in his own front yard, which had the owner’s name inscribed in it.

“I called the guy in October of 2001 to come pick it up, but he never came,” Norris said.

Norris is especially proud to have been able to assist Shabata Matthews of Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Matthews, who evacuated to her fiance’s mother’s house in Franklin before Ike made landfall, was helping her boyfriend clear his yard of storm debris when she lost her engagement ring, a three-carat stone in a platinum setting. Arriving one morning to search, time was running out as Norris knew he would soon have to leave for a dental appointment.

“By 9:30 things weren’t looking too good. She was distraught because she thought it would never be found,” Norris said. “I decided to try one last spot before leaving and, lo and behold, that’s where I found it. That was one excited young lady as she had tears of joy. It sure felt good to return it to her, especially since I had to go. It was good to be part of something so positive after all this destruction we all just went through.”

Matthews said she had been willing to buy a metal detector herself and search for the ring.

“Every hardware store I contacted between Lafayette and Franklin didn’t have one,” Matthews said.

However, her search for a metal detector led to Norris being recommended to her by a hardware store employee.

“She gave me his number and we arranged, over a couple of conversations, to meet up and go out to the address where I’d lost the ring,” Matthews said. ” On the way to Franklin, Mr. Norris told me a story of how he found his niece’s ring in a pond. I felt positive about him finding mine after hearing that.”

Rocky Romero of Hicks was grateful to Norris after finding his wedding ring, lost three days after Romero’s Aug. 1, 2006, wedding.

“I was pretty excited and my wife was too,” Romero said. “We lost it in a pretty big area and he found it under about 6 or 8 inches of dirt.”

Norris, who is single with no children, lives in New Iberia with his dog, P-nut. In his spare time he also enjoys playing the French Accordion.