Plumber Retrieves $70K Ring Flushed Down Toilet
POSTED: 5:11 pm MST January 21,
2009
UPDATED: 1:26 pm MST January 22,
2009
PHOENIX -- A plumber came to the rescue after a woman's $70,000 diamond ring was accidentally flushed down the toilet at a Valley restaurant.The ring slipped off the woman's finger Thursday afternoon and wound up flushed down a commode at the Black Bear Diner in Phoenix."Everybody said, 'No, it's gone,'" said Mike Roberts, general manager of Mr. Rooter. "We figured we'd give it a shot. We'd either save the day or be completely disappointed."Roberts got the call from city workers who had already spent hours and hundreds of flushes trying to find the 7-carat diamond ring. It was lodged 300 feet down the sewer line."To my amazement, the husband was cool," Roberts said. "I would have been irate and mad."Cheryl Jones of the Black Bear Diner said she still doesn't know how the ring slipped off the woman's finger."She was probably going to flush and the ring fell off before she could grab it and the ring went down," Jones said.Roberts said he fished a fiber optic camera 125 feet down the line. Three-and-a-half hours later, he found the ring."We dimmed the lights on the camera, and sure enough Allison says,'That's it,'" Roberts said.Then came the jackhammers to start drilling to get the ring out."Eight, nine, 10 hours later, they managed to dig a hole in my floor and get it out of the pipe," Jones said. "(The ring had) a huge solitaire diamond and tons of smaller diamonds encrusted in it. It was very beautiful."Roberts said he has some advice to the happy couple."They should tie a leader from the ring to her belt loop in case it ever falls off again," he said.The couple paid $5,000 for the plumbing and excavating. Then, a down payment to the restaurant to cover the cost of re-tiling the floor. On top of that, the woman gave each of them a $400 tip.
- ELSEWHERE ON KPHO.COM: The ATM stolen from an El Mirage Walgreens was recovered -- empty -- less than a day later, police say. More
- MORE SLIDESHOWS: From the bizarre to the tragic to late-breaking news, visit the KPHO.com slideshow section and click away! More
Copyright 2009 by KPHO.com. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
