It's a pretty classic story - a precious ring gets flushed down the toilet or washed down a drain. After a heart-stopping moment, frantic amateur plumbing ensues, only to find the ring has went on it's way. What then?
We know what goes into pipes, and most of the time the ending of the story isn't good. Every now and then, though, we get a story that is awesome. Last year I posted about the woman who regained her ring years after it was lost, which is still one of my favorite stories. Just today I came across another one from Lancaster, PA. On LancasterOnline, P.J. Reilly gives a great description of what happened after a woman's child accidentally flushed her wedding ring down the toilet. My favorite part is when the sewer authority gets involved. I can just imagine so many of the operators we work with doing the exact same thing. Here's the excerpt from their involvement - click here to read the whole story and see the pictures of the ring.
We know what goes into pipes, and most of the time the ending of the story isn't good. Every now and then, though, we get a story that is awesome. Last year I posted about the woman who regained her ring years after it was lost, which is still one of my favorite stories. Just today I came across another one from Lancaster, PA. On LancasterOnline, P.J. Reilly gives a great description of what happened after a woman's child accidentally flushed her wedding ring down the toilet. My favorite part is when the sewer authority gets involved. I can just imagine so many of the operators we work with doing the exact same thing. Here's the excerpt from their involvement - click here to read the whole story and see the pictures of the ring.
Sept. 5 was a Friday. Over the weekend, Vriens was spending time with some family and friends, and one of them suggested she try calling the local sewer authority.
On Monday, Sept. 8, she called East Petersburg Borough and got the number for LASA.
"When I called them, they couldn't have been any nicer," she said.
Vriens spoke to LASA executive director Michael Kyle and maintenance director Albert Knepp.
"One of them said to me, 'I gotta be honest with you. Your ring is probably at the bottom of the Susquehanna River by now,'" Vriens said. "But they said they'd take a look anyway."
According to Knepp, LASA gets two or three similar calls a year. Usually, searches come up empty.
Often times, crews aren't even sent to look because LASA knows the search will be futile.
"If we get a call like this and the line we'd have to look into is pretty busy, we know we're not going to find anything," Knepp said.
But the sewer line Vriens' ring went into is not heavily used - and it probably wasn't used at all over the weekend.
"I figured it was a least worth a shot," Knepp said.
LASA workers Rik Pabon, Tim Millhouse and Brian Kendig were dispatched to the business to take a look.
According to Knepp, there's a manhole about 75 feet away from the building where the ring was flushed.
The men opened it and began sifting through the material inside the 8-inch sewer line.
"Material" is a kind word. The men were sifting through stuff that gets flushed down the toilet.
Their initial search turned up nothing, Knepp said.
So they decided to put a hose into the line and flush it with water.
There's a U-shaped trap underground, between the building and the manhole, that prevents sewer gas from creeping back into the building.
The men figured the ring might be in that trap.
Apparently it was.
After flushing the line with water, the men went back to the manhole and found the ring amid the debris that came out of the trap.
Their search lasted about 30 minutes.
"They were very, very lucky," Knepp said. "These situations usually don't turn out this way."
A LASA official called Vriens, who said she couldn't believe her ears.
"They asked me to describe my ring, and when I did, they said, 'We found it,'" she said. "It was a miracle."
Vriens quickly baked a tray of chocolate bars, and then drove to LASA's office to retrieve her ring.
"It was all I could think to bring," Vriens said. "They absolutely wouldn't let me pay them, so I figured I'd bake something for them.
"I will never forget what they did for me."
