Man Loses Wedding Ring In 10-Foot-Deep Garbage, Recycling Center Staff Help Retrieve It

KEY POINTS

James Ross was at a recycling center when he lost his ring
The ring had his wife’s handwriting engraved on it
The couple praised the staff at the center for their help

A man in the U.K. was lucky to be reunited with his wedding ring after it fell beneath a 10 feet pile of garbage on Valentine’s Day.

James Ross was dropping off some cardboard at the Household Waste Recycling Center when his wedding ring slipped off his finger and dropped into a 10ft container. However, the staff working at the center managed to scour down to the bottom of the rubbish pile and rescue the valuable object.

The story of the heroic act came to light when North Tyneside Council shared it on their official Facebook page Thursday. The post also entailed a blog link, which detailed the entire incident.

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"It was a container where you push the rubbish through an opening. It was very cold. My hands were cold and, as I was shaking out the box, suddenly the ring was just gone. I don’t know if it caught the edge of the box, but my heart just sank," Ross, 38, was quoted as saying in the blog.

Ross then sought help from the staff.

“They sent four lads round to search for it and they must have been going at it for 20 minutes," the blog quoted Ross as saying.

Ross was dreading going back home and informing his wife the ring was lost. "It wasn’t what it cost – it was laser engraved with my wife’s handwriting and the date we got married in 2009. It was irreplaceable," Ross said.

"The team had to pull out a huge pile of rubbish and shove it all behind them and check it over and over again," he added. The ring was finally found "caked in rubbish and grime."

"My wife was over the moon, she thought I was making up an elaborate story. We can’t thank them enough," said Ross.

Ross and his wife Lara, who have two daughters aged nine and five, praised the staff for their help.

Plant operator Jorden Cooper likened the search to trying to find a needle in a haystack. "When we realized what had happened, we were all happy to help in the search, especially as it was Valentine’s Day. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack as there was a huge mound of waste to search through and we had the added difficulty of ensuring we kept our distance and followed the COVID guidelines. We were just about to give up when I spotted it, I was over the moon!"