Do gamma rays bounce back on a rock or do you need line of sight to capture the source? If it is the latter they were very lucky, effectively one small stone away from never being able to find it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137
[2] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7248/4e8995c811d31837199d7c...
Gamma penetrates rocks, these sensors are used to help determine the density of rock by measuring how much was stopped by the material.
This is also why Gamma sources are so dangerous, because things like a coat, a car door are effectively "transparent" to them.
If there was just "one small stone" in front of the source it would almost be like it wasn't present at all.
So probably not the case.