stanleyjewelers
March 10th, 2014
A frazzled bride-to-be is thanking the “Lord of the Rings” for saving the day after she mistakenly flushed her $20,000 1.5-carat diamond engagement ring down the toilet.

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After a stressful day of work and making preparations for her August wedding, Calgary native Arlene Chamulak was going through her normal pre-bedtime bathroom routine… She chucked a wad of gum into the toilet and flushed it down. Then she slipped off her platinum-and-diamond engagement and placed it into a small jewelry bowl. Finally, she brushed her teeth and went to bed.

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The next morning, Chamulak realized something was very wrong. Instead of the engagement ring being in the bowl, the wad of gum was there instead.

“I don’t see my engagement ring,” Chamulak told Global News. “And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God… I flushed my ring, not the gum. I was just so upset.”

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Chamulak quickly called in professional plumber James Monaghan to lend a hand. Although Managhan said he had experience retrieving rings from toilets, none had been flushed. With the toilet removed and by snaking a fiber optic camera deep into the waste pipe, Monaghan was able to get the ring into view. The problem was that the irreplaceable jewelry was 40 feet into the sewer line and almost impossible to capture.

Chamulak worried that the next step would require the excavation of her front yard.

But Monaghan didn’t give up. For five days, the plumber tried various methods to get the ring out. Then, using a contraption that looks like a large spring with a hook on the end, the plumber was able to snag the ring and reverse its trip through 40 feet of pipe.

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When the ring finally emerged, it looked a bit nasty, but it cleaned up nicely. Chamulak now has her cherished back on her finger and vowed to never take it off again.

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“My mom said to me, ‘You’re not supposed to take your engagement ring off, ever,’” Chamulak said. “And I’m going to keep it on all the time."

Meanwhile, plumber Monaghan has earned the new moniker, “Lord of the Rings,” thanks to a bevy of Chamulak’s Facebook friends, who can’t say enough nice things about his stick-to-itiveness in getting the job done.

Chamulak and her fiancé, Les Archibald, will continue to plan their wedding, which will take place in Scotland in August.