An engagement ring spent 21 years inside a toilet until one Florida plumber brought it back from the depths of porcelain obscurity.
Nick Day proposed to his wife Shaina with a diamond ring that was soon lost within the plumbing.
“She came to me one day and said ‘I think I lost my ring.’ She said ‘it was on the counter now it’s gone and I think I may have flushed it down the toilet on accident,'" Nick Day recalled to NBC affiliate WFLA.
At first, the couple didn't give up their search, which sounds like a less-than-pleasant quest.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
“I climbed down into the septic tank so we could pump every bit of it through a strainer to try to find it. No luck,” Shaina Day told WFLA.
Last month — about 21 years later — Nick Day's mother hired a local plumber to replace the toilet. That's when the long-lost ring was freed from the watery abyss.
“He said ‘do you think it’s Shaina’s ring?’ and I looked at it again and I went ‘oh my God yes!'” Nick Day's mom, Renee, said.
U.S. & World
After a good cleaning, Nick Day's parents wrapped up the ring and gave it to the couple as a Christmas gift.
“It was kind of an ugly cry. I sat there and I was like ‘oh my gosh, this is my ring. This is my ring.’ I’m wiping my eyes and mascara is going everywhere,” Shaina Day said.
The couple said they may incorporate the diamond into a new piece of jewelry or pass it on to a future generation.
One word of advice from Nick Day, however: “Check your toilets when you lose things."
