Thirteen years after it was flushed down a toilet, an anniversary gift was returned.
At a Minnesota regional water treatment plant this past March, employees were shoveling through detritus when they came across the long-lost diamond ring of Mary Strand. According to NBC affiliate KARE 11, 13 years before the ring was found in the roughs of a waste plant, it was a 33rd wedding anniversary present given to Strand by her husband, Dave.
Strand lost the ring one day when she was in the bathroom of her home. The ring slipped off her finger and into the toilet.
“It was swirling around. I truly dove for it, and it went down the drain,” she explained. “I was thinking, ‘He’ll never buy me another ring’ ... I felt really bad because it was a gift.”
Down the toilet the ring went, and despite the spectacular coincidence of her husband being the owner of a drain and sewer company, it was cast adrift. Over a decade went by with it being lost.
Then came that fateful day that the employees at the Rogers, Minnesota, plant — John Tierney, a mechanical maintenance manager, amongst them — spotted a “sparkle of light” in the debris.
Noting the ring’s unique design, Tierney felt that attempting to return the ring wouldn't be a complete and utter wild goose chase. So the Metropolitan Council raised the flag on social media describing their discovery as a needle in a haystack.
Read more here:
How an owner got her diamond ring back 13 years after flushing it down the toilet
At a Minnesota regional water treatment plant this past March, employees were shoveling through detritus when they came across the long-lost diamond ring of Mary Strand. According to NBC affiliate KARE 11, 13 years before the ring was found in the roughs of a waste plant, it was a 33rd wedding anniversary present given to Strand by her husband, Dave.
Strand lost the ring one day when she was in the bathroom of her home. The ring slipped off her finger and into the toilet.
“It was swirling around. I truly dove for it, and it went down the drain,” she explained. “I was thinking, ‘He’ll never buy me another ring’ ... I felt really bad because it was a gift.”
Down the toilet the ring went, and despite the spectacular coincidence of her husband being the owner of a drain and sewer company, it was cast adrift. Over a decade went by with it being lost.
Then came that fateful day that the employees at the Rogers, Minnesota, plant — John Tierney, a mechanical maintenance manager, amongst them — spotted a “sparkle of light” in the debris.
Noting the ring’s unique design, Tierney felt that attempting to return the ring wouldn't be a complete and utter wild goose chase. So the Metropolitan Council raised the flag on social media describing their discovery as a needle in a haystack.
Read more here:
How an owner got her diamond ring back 13 years after flushing it down the toilet