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Couple Finds Missing Wedding Ring Weeks After 4-Year-Old Son Flushes It Down Toilet

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)-- A Washington state couple came dangerously close to having a symbol of their love flushed away forever.

"My husband went into the bathroom and said, 'Anna where's your ring?'" Anna Cornish told CBS2's Cindy Hsu.

Anna and Ryan Cornish immediately asked their 4-year-old son Landon.

"We woke our son up and asked, 'Where did you put mama's ring?' and he said he flushed it down the toilet. We were just in shock," Anna said.

A plumber came to the home that night and put cameras in the the pipe, but there was still no sign of it.

"Sadness and then how do you parent in this situation?" she said.

The ring had been missing for a month when Ryan was on his way to work and saw plumbing workers just down the street. After he explained what happened, Jose Cervantes knew exactly where to look.

"Where he lives there's actually what's called a belly in a pipe-- a settled out piece of pipe. It's a little lower so solids end up getting in there," Cervantes said.

He got permission and on Thursday workers sucked up all of the sewage and debris in the pipe and dumped it out of the truck searching for the ring.

"It's like kind of like gold mining except only we're mining through human sewer," Cervantes said.

They found the still-sparkling ring in the sewage.

"I got a call at work I was very surprised, very elated," Ryan said.

He then surprised Anna by having Landon present it to her.

"He goes, 'Mom, I'm so sorry, will you please forgive me?' and he opened up the box with the ring inside it," Anna said.

The ring is Anna's second one after her first was stolen. The family told CBS2 little Landon will thank the plumbers in person for their efforts later this week.

 

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