A British woman has got back a diamond ring two years after it was accidentally flushed down a hotel toilet after hiring a waste firm to sift through 54,500 litres of sewage
A British woman has got back a diamond ring two years after it was accidentally flushed down a hotel toilet after hiring a waste firm to sift through 54,500 litres of sewage.
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Joan Spiers, leader of Surrey's Reigate and Banstead Council in England, lost her antique gold ring, set with a certified diamond and a dozen smaller diamonds, while at a hotel.
Joan then hired a waste disposal company, who agreed to help her find the ring.
The company put a camera into the cesspit tank, filtered the waste and even sent a worker into the tank with a metal detector.
"She (Joan Spiers) was understandably distraught. The ring was worth a significant amount of money but it was also of great emotional value because it was given to her by her late husband," the Daily Telegraph quoted Julie French, of Clear Master, as saying.
"We did everything we could. We emptied the sewage tank and put a camera into it to see if the ring had got lodged anywhere. We got permission to empty the tank at a Thames Water site and put it through the sewage works, hoping that would filter it out, but we still didn''t find it," she added.
It was sheer coincidence that an employee from the same firm stumbled upon the ring two-and-a-half years later at a sewage works and it has now been returned to its owner.
"He took it in the shower with him to rinse it off and brought it into the office," said French after worker Lloyd Hampshire saw the gem glinting through the muck.
"My husband was the only person who had seen the original photo of the lost ring and recognised it immediately. Two of the smaller diamonds had fallen out but apart from that, it was just in need of a good clean," she said.
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