N.Y. woman's engagement ring recovered after slipping into the Hudson River

An engagement ring was recovered from the Hudson River after slipping off a bride-to-be's finger. 

The ring slipped off Denise Rivera's finger on the deck of Billy Joe's Ribworks restaurant in Newburgh, New York, on Tuesday. 

"It slipped off. And when it slipped off, onto the table, kept going, hit the floor and I just saw it go overboard," Rivera said. 

It plunged 12 feet down in the Hudson River. 

"It was a horrific feeling. I don't think anybody wants to experience that," she said. 

Her heart sank right along with that ring. But her horrible luck was about to take a happy turn. Students from the Hudson River Commercial Diver Training Center saw what happened, and heard her screaming "my ring, my ring." 

Wednesday, they spent more than two hours searching the river bottom by hand, feeling for the ring. 

"The mud is about six inches deep. As soon as you hit bottom, it stirs it up. You can't see your hand in front of your face," said training center owner Christian Dougherty. "Every couple of minutes, she kept looking at me to see if we got it or not. Had to keep giving her the nod, 'no, not yet, not yet.'" 

They switched to a bucket to bring up big scoops of muck. 

"I was swirling the sand around and there it was. I saw it. It was great," Dougherty said. 

"It just restores your faith in people. Actually good people out there. They had no other intention than finding that ring for me, making me happy. Someone they don't even know, a stranger," Rivera said.

Not all angels have wings. Some have wetsuits.