- In 2010, a Minnesota woman accidentally flushed her ring down the toilet.
- Her husband removed the toilet, wired a camera down the sewer, and called city workers to find it.
Everyone loses things on a daily basis, but most end up cutting their losses.
When Mary Strand lost a diamond ring that her husband gifted her for their 33rd anniversary, she had no idea she would eventually be reunited with it more than a decade later.
"I never, ever, ever thought I would ever see this again," Strand said after finding her ring.
Last month, the Metropolitan Council in Saint Paul, Minnesota, revealed that they found a ring while repairing equipment at at one of their regional wastewater treatment plant. They took to Facebook to try and reunite the ring with its owner.
"Finding the ring was a rare event, like winning the lottery. We want to return the ring to its owner!" the Council said.
Strand told the Council that at some time in 2010, she was washing her hands and placed her ring on the counter. She then went over to flush the toilet, and accidentally knocked the ring into the toilet.
"I'm watching this ring swirl. I dove for the ring and it went down," Strand said.
She then called her husband David, who owns a sewer and drain cleaning business. He went to great lengths to retrieve the ring. He took the toilet out, took it to the deck, and started shaking it, hoping to get the ring out. That didn't work.
Then he got a sewer camera and brought it down 200 feet in the drain. Still, no ring. Finally, the couple called municipal workers to see if they could check their cities pipes for the ring. They still didn't find it.
Then in March, Strand's daughter came across the Metropolitan Council's Facebook post. Hundreds of local residents had already called in thinking the found ring was theirs, the Council said. Strand also called in and a jewelry inspector confirmed that based on a picture it was most likely her ring.
"Finding a diamond in the rough is a once-in-a-lifetime event. We can't find things that get flushed by accident. Remember to only flush the 3 Ps when flushing: poop, paper, and pee," the Council said in a Facebook post.