This story begins on an absurd level due to the astronomical value of the jewelry involved, but one must acknowledge that some people out there can afford to drop $400,000 on a wedding-engagement ring set. There are probably even fewer folks who would actually pay that much even if they had billions of dollars, for any diamond that big probably has a lot of bad blood on its hands. If one can rationalize away all of that bad juju, then perhaps such a ring appears desirable.
At an undisclosed Missouri location, Bernie and Carla Squitieri became frantic when she placed her rings in a paper towel, and then he inadvertently scooped them into the trash. The sanitation company picked up the bi-weekly haul, and away went the most expensive rings you’ve ever seen. However, Squitieri called the pickup company, which became involved in a high-speed search and rescue for some sparkly rocks. According to ABC News, the daily load of trash was scheduled for drop-off at a radioactive waste site. Once that happened, no hope existed of recovering the rings.
Meridian Waste Services answered the Squitieris’ calls for help in an unheard of way. Along with the couple, several workers dug through an area that was 30 feet wide and 100 feet long. After only 25 minutes, operations manager Joe Evans popped up with the rings. Squitieri was thrilled, possibly because he wanted to avoid a $400,000 divorce?
“It’s not so much that we found the ring, but [Evans] was such an honest guy and I wanted to give him some recognition. He could’ve put the ring in his pocket and nobody would’ve ever noticed. It gave my wife a really good feeling and it’s nice to know that there’s still good people out there.”
Well, there’s a happy ending to this story, but I do hope the Squitieris ponied up a nice reward. If you own a ring as expensive as this one, that’s the least one can do for making people dig through trash for a symbolic chunk of rock.
(Via ABC News)