Greenville Recycling Workers Defy Odds, Rescue Diamond Wedding Band

Greenville, SC, resident Melanie Harper is singing the praises of local Public Works employees who went above and beyond the call of duty to rescue her diamond wedding band from a huge pile of recycled trash.

A routine Sunday visit to her town's recycling plant turned into a nightmare for Harper, whose cherished band slipped off as she tossed her recyclables into the container at the Rutherford Road recycling center.

"I know the likelihood of finding this is slim to none," she wrote in an email to the City of Greenville’s Public Works department. "But, if the ring is found during the course of processing the recycling, I would be most appreciative if someone could contact me."

On its official Facebook page, the Public Works department wrote, "Finding a needle in a haystack = hard. Finding a ring in a recycling bin = nearly impossible. Unless you're the City of Greenville Public Works, where employees truly dive into their work!"

On Monday morning, instead of processing what was in the bin, Public Works supervisors and litter crew members agreed to dump the recycling materials on the ground and sort through each item, piece by piece.

After hours of searching, "Travis Golden struck gold. White gold," reported the Public Works department on its Facebook page.

The department contacted Harper and invited her to the plant to be reunited with her ring.

Besides Travis, the Facebook post gave a shout-out to the other team members involved in the search efforts: Jeff Hammond, James Burnside, Frank Daigneault and Manny Cruz.

Credits: Images courtesy of City of Greenville.