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- Over a decade ago, Mary Strand flushed her diamond ring down the toilet by accident.
- Earlier this year, the ring was found at a water plant in Minnesota.
- The gold was tattered but the diamonds were still sparkling.
Thirteen years after it was flushed down the toilet, US woman Mary Strand has been reunited with the precious diamond ring her husband David had given her for their wedding anniversary.
The Strands, from Minnesota, have been married for 46 years.
On their 33rd wedding anniversary, David bought his wife the ring.
At the time, it didn't fit properly, and within months of wearing it, it slipped off her finger and fell into the loo.
"I reached over and flushed the toilet, and the ring fell in, and it was swirling around, and I truly dove for it," Mary recalled.
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Ironically, David, who has his own drain and sewer business, has found many things people have lost in drains. But his wife's ring was never among any of the finds.
When the ring was flushed down the drain, he looked for it. "We went from where the toilet is to 200 feet out and didn't see anything," he said.
Eventually, after all those years, the maintenance manager at the Rogers Waste Water Plant, John Tierney, discovered a ring floating in a wastewater system earlier this year.
"The design is very unique. Anyone who lost it would be able to describe it," he told CBS News in Minnesota. A match was made after the story about the discovery aired.
Tierney said: "The gold is beat up and tattered, but we noticed that the diamonds are still sparkling."
However, even though the ring isn't wearable yet, Mary is happy to have found her diamond.
Additional Source: CBS News
