Trash Company Saves Woman's $400,000 Wedding Ring After Husband Accidentally Throws It Away

ST. LOUIS (CBSNewYork) -- A husband is lucky to be alive after accidentally throwing out his wife's $400,000 wedding ring.

CBS affiliate KMOV-TV in St. Louis reported a trash company luckily found the 12.5 carat ring.

The tossed ring all started when Carla Squitieri took it off to dry after washing dishes, placing it on a paper towel in the kitchen.

She didn't realize until Monday afternoon she didn't have her ring and started to panic.

"I was like a lunatic, ripping the house up," she told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Bernie Squitieri told the Post-Dispatch he threw the towel away with the rings on it while cleaning the kitchen the night before.

"We both ran out to the trash, only to realize (the garbage truck) and come and gone," Bernie Squitieri told the Post-Dispatch.

The couple told KMOV they called Meridian Waste Services in hopes of rescuing the ring.

"Meridian said it's on its way to Bridgeton – Bridgeton's landfill was radioactive. We couldn't go there, it's against federal law," Bernie Squitieri told KMOV.

However, they were able to convince Meridian to divert the truck to another facility and drove to O'Fallon to help.

"My first thought was we're never going to find it. It was like finding a needle in a haystack, basically," operations manager Joe Evans told KMOV.

After a half-hour, Evans found the pricey ring inside a bag of the couple's trash.

"I was like, 'Yeah, I found it.' And I took it right over to her, and I opened it up, and both pieces were just laying there," Evans told KMOV. "They were so grateful. Who wouldn't be, right?"

Carl Squitieri compared getting her ring back to winning Powerball.

"That's the lotto for me," she told KMOV. "That was my Powerball."

The couple gave Evans a $500 reward for his efforts.

"The fact that he found it and showed it to us and gave it back to us, that gave us hope that there's still good, honest people in St. Louis," Bernie Squitieri told KMOV.