The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has reunited a British couple with their engagement ring after it fell down a grate and into the New York subway.
A CCTV video captured the aftermath of the incident when John Drennan and Daniella Anthony failed to retrieve the ring from inside a subway grate, despite passersby helping them search for two hours.
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NYPD officers later “managed to recover and clean the piece of jewellery, but could not find the couple so put out an appeal on Twitter”, reports The Guardian.
The tale quickly made headlines and “the news soon reached the newly engaged pair, who had by then returned to the UK”, adds the paper.
The couple had resigned themselves to never retrieving the ring and Drennan even bought “a second ring shortly after arriving at the airport” to go home, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Arrangements have been made to return the rescued ring to the pair in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, and the NYPD tweeted a photo of the smiling couple holding a celebratory drink to toast the unlikely outcome.
The pair said they were incredibly grateful to everyone who had helped reuinite them with the ring but Drennan wanted to clear something up about his proposal techniques.
Drennan told the BBC: “We are so happy, we can’t believe it. I want to clarify that I did not propose over a grate in Times Square – that’s where we lost it.”
The proposal took place in Central Park, Drennan said: “The time was right. There were autumn leaves everywhere and not many people.”
Anthony had said yes, but said the ring was too big for her. She told the broadcaster: “I tried to tell John it was too big, but he insisted I wear it.”
“I told her it was fine, I was just happy to call her my fiancée after all this time,” Drennan added.
He said: “We were walking back to the hotel. I can still visualise the ring. Bouncing once… bouncing twice and then it was gone. We just presumed it was gone. In the end, we had no choice but to walk away and try to enjoy the rest of our weekend.”
"We could not believe it, we really thought it was gone,” Anthony said. “We don’t use Twitter – we had absolutely no idea this was going on. But we are so happy.”