Sanitation workers help recover diamond ring from the trash

Oct. 13 (UPI) -- New York sanitation workers came to the rescue of a man whose fiancee accidentally threw her diamond engagement ring in the trash.

Ashlee Palacio of Manhattan said she places the 3-karat diamond ring in a special tray on her nightstand almost every night, but Monday she fell asleep with the ring on her finger and in a sleepy haze she took it off and placed it next to some candy wrappers.

Palacio said she realized later that she had accidentally thrown the ring out with the wrappers.

Palacio's fiance, appropriately named Mike Diamond, said he was shocked when she gave him the news.

"My first reaction was, 'Are you kidding?!'" Diamond told WCBS-TV. "I thought she was joking around with me."

The couple called the city Department of Sanitation when they discovered to their horror that the trash had already been picked up by the city.

Diamond and three others, including Palacio's friend Brittany, put on protective gear Wednesday night and went digging through the truck's load.

"The truck came in and just dumped over a hundred bags just on the floor -- and looking at it and throwing up from the smell as well, I thought it was going to be impossible to find," Diamond said.

He said it actually took only about 15 minutes to find the ring.

The Department of Sanitation tweeted a photo of the rescued ring.

"Diamond in the rough," the department tweeted. "DSNY helped Manhattan man recover beautiful diamond ring mistakenly tossed out with household trash. Nice work, team."