One Couple's Missing Diamond Engagement Ring Was Found in a Toilet After 21 Years

Engagement rings aren't just sparkly pieces of jewelry: They're meaningful objects with a long-standing history, and the sentimental items symbolize the promise of marriage. What's more, they represent a lifetime of devotion and commitment to your partner. Nick and Shaina Day, a Florida couple, have been married for decades, but for all the years of their happy union, they haven’t had an engagement ring to serve as a reminder of that bond. 

When Nick first proposed to his now-wife 21 years ago, he popped the question with a diamond ring, MSN reports. After a resounding “yes,” Shaina started planning their big day. Right before they said “I do” at the altar, the bride realized the engagement ring was nowhere to be found. While retracing her steps, Shaina had an inkling she misplaced the rock when she was at her mother-in-law’s house. “I’d taken my ring off,” she tells Fox 13 Tampa Bay. “It was sitting on the counter, so when I sopped up the water, I guess I didn’t pay attention very well, snagged my ring in the process, and tossed it in the toilet and flushed it.” According to Nick, she was devastated. “She came to me one day and said, ‘I think I lost my ring,’” Nick recounts. “She said, ‘It was on the counter. Now, it’s gone, and I think I may have flushed it down the toilet on accident.’”

The couple immediately started looking everywhere for the missing rock. Shaina even went to extreme measures. “I climbed down into the septic tank, so we could pump every bit of it through a strainer to try to find it,” Shaina recalls. She used a hose over a window screen to pump out the water into a 55-gallon drum in hopes of finding the piece of jewelry, Fox News reports. Unfortunately, the ring never materialized. Eventually, the couple stopped their incessant search and accepted their fate and decided to buy a replacement ring.

The duo went on to trade vows, but their engagement ring never resurfaced. That is until December of 2022. Nick’s mother, Renee, enlisted a local plumber to replace her toilet, the family tells WFLA-TV in Tampa. After unlatching the toilet from the ground, the plumber dumped the extra water into the tub to avoid leaving a puddle in the house. In the process, he came across a shiny object. “He said, ‘Do you think it’s Shaina’s ring?’” Renee remembers. “I looked at it again, and I went, ‘Oh my God, yes!’” Although the ring was broken, the diamond was still in perfect condition. So, Renee and her husband cleaned the jewel and decided to wrap it up for Nick and Shaina as a Christmas gift. “They brought this out,” Nick says, referring to the gift. “It was wrapped in a little Christmas bag, so we opened it up, and both of us knew exactly what it was.”

After recognizing the long-lost ring, Shaina says she was filled with disbelief and moved to tears. “It was kind of an ugly cry,” Shaina reflects. “I sat there, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is my ring. This is my ring.’ I’m wiping my eyes, and mascara is going everywhere.” Shaina knew it was a miracle. “That just is absolutely amazing that it’s just been sitting there because we had just thought it was gone," she shares. "It was never coming back. It’s hard to believe.”

For anyone else who has lost a sentimental object, Nick’s advice is straightforward. “Check your toilets when you lose things,” he recommends.