Wedding Band Lost Right Before Wedding Found in Hotel Dumpster Next Day in San Pedro, CA… and Joyously Returned.
I was contacted by Alexa this afternoon about her wedding band. She believed it was put into the trash of the hotel room that she and her girlfriends stayed at the night before her wedding. It had been picked out especially by her fiancé Anthony, and wrapped, so she would not see it until he placed it on her finger yesterday at their wedding. The wedding went on even though the ring was gone, She explained that all the trash from yesterday had been put into the dumpster, and would be taken away tomorrow. I knew what this meant, we would have to empty the dumpster to search the trash, which did not excite me, so I really bombarded her with a lot of questions hoping it could have been lost somewhere else. It looked as though it was the trash. I asked her to go out and take a picture of the dumpster, so I could see the amount of trash in it to ascertain the enormity of the job ahead. She sent 2 shots (there were 2 dumpsters) one of an overflowing dumpster, and the other of one 3/4 full. My heart dropped a bit. I told her I was on my way, and that we would do a thorough search.
When I got to the hotel Alexa and her new husband Anthony met me at the dumpsters. I had a little time with the staff before they arrived, and found that the black 33 gallon bags were from the restaurant, and white ones from the rooms. Each dumpster had about an equal amount of black and white bags, so this information halved the process ahead. We talked a bit more about the contents they expected to see, and it seemed that we would be able to narrow down the search more because of specific things they used for their respective parties. Both Alexa and Anthony had parties that Friday night at the hotel on separate floors, but had the same beverages, and other utensils. With this information, I figured we had to find the trash with those items before we searched more intensely. We started pulling bags out and checking contents, nothing. We got down about half way, and couldn’t reach the bags anymore, so I went into the dumpster. The other problem was that the bags were cheap, and the heavy ones from the restaurant were coming apart and dumping the contents back into the dumpster, LOTS of uneaten food that I now had to search through (we were wearing gloves thankfully). We did find the trash that came from Anthony’s room, but the ring was not in that bag.
We finished the overflowing dumpster, so I went to the 3/4 full one and jumped in. I began removing bags and putting them out on the ground with all the rest. Finally, down in the corner, on the bottom of the dumpster, I found the bag that came from Alexa’s room, and handed it to Anthony. He took it over to a large piece of plywood that we were using to dump the bag contents allowing me to pass my detector over, and shook it out. I grabbed my detector, and began searching the trash finding a lot of foil items, but no ring. Alexa did find the paper bag the ring had been in. Her ring was also in a small plastic bag and wrapped in paper so she could not see it before the wedding, but we could not find it amongst the trash. It was looking a bit grim for finding the ring, but Alexa asked if I would check once more with the detector, which I told her I would be happy to do. Anthony and I began moving some of the bags that were crowding the area, when all of a sudden he looked into the slot on the bottom of the dumpster that is used by the trash truck to lift it into the truck, and there sat the little package. How it got there is a complete unknown.
It was just awesome to be there when Alexa saw her ring for the first time, and to be present when Anthony placed it on her finger for the first time as husband and wife, with all the hotel employees surrounding them, standing in the trash we had removed from the dumpsters. A wedding story they will be able to revisit many times throughout their married years to come. What a great storybook ending. What a great day.
If you lose your ring or other metal item of value, call as soon as possible. I will work hard, using the most up to date metal detectors, to help you find what you thought might never be found again. I search, Beverly Hills, Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Northridge, Pasadena, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Seal Beach, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice Beach, and all parks, yards, gardens, and ponds (to 5 foot depths) in all of Orange County, all of Los Angeles County, and Ventura County.
