NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — A Brooklyn resident nearly lost a pair of irreplaceable family heirloom rings after they were accidentally thrown out with the trash, but New York City sanitation workers helped track them down.<\/p>\n
The rings had been tossed into a compacting system at a large residential building before the resident realized what had happened.<\/p>\n
The resident met sanitation workers at the curb on Tuesday, July 28, and the workers called their supervisor to arrange a search. The truck was isolated and its contents were dumped out so the missing rings could be found.<\/p>\n
Finding something that small among a truckload of garbage was no easy task. A sanitation truck can hold up to 20,000 pounds of trash, according to the Department of Sanitation.<\/p>\n
But this search had a happy ending: the rings were recovered.<\/p>\n
“It isn’t exactly a needle in a haystack, but some accidentally discarded rings were dug up!” NYC Sanitation wrote on social media. “We love a success story!”<\/p>\n
The department says anyone who realizes they accidentally threw away something valuable should call 311 as soon as possible. Once a truck has dumped its load at a transfer station, the trash is quickly mixed with garbage from other trucks, making the lost item impossible to recover.<\/p>\n
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