A recycling crew's incredible effort to find a woman's wedding ring ends in a surprising discovery

The achievement was praised on social media as no one expected the band to turn up.

PUBLISHED 7 HOURS AGO

Screenshots showing the wedding band and the pile of trash it was buried under. (Cover image source: Facebook | City of Greenville, South Carolina Government)

“Finding a needle in a haystack = hard. Finding a ring in a recycling bin = nearly impossible. Unless you’re City of Greenville Public Works, where employees truly dive into their work!” These were the first lines of a Facebook post appreciating the near-impossible feat achieved by the garbage collectors from the city of Greenville. It was supposed to be just another day of picking up trash from the bins for them but little did they know they would end up doing something heartwarming.

Melanie Harper was at the local recycling center that day, separating paper from plastic, as per Good News Network. But as she was putting her trash in the bins, her wedding band also slipped off. With little hope of retrieving it, she called the city’s public works department and asked them to keep an eye out for the piece of jewelry that meant a lot more than that for her.

She probably did not expect the level of dedication that the litter pickers showed as they upended the bin in the parking lot, dropping everything just to look for the band. It took them quite a while but they kept their eyes peeled and were rewarded for their efforts. The man who ultimately spotted the band was Travis Golden who received widespread appreciation.

Facebook users flooded the comments section of the post, hailing Golden for holding up the values of being a worker for the public. “Every one of them deserves a performance review and salary increase that reflects this above and beyond effort. Outstanding work gentlemen,” a user named Melissa Rosario commented. “That’s pretty cool. Definitely went WAY out of their way,” added another user named Mark Baggio.

Screenshot showing Melanie Harper with the people who helped her find her wedding band. (Image credit: Facebook | City of Greenville, South Carolina Government) — Screenshot showing Melanie Harper with the people who helped her find her wedding band. (Image source: Facebook | City of Greenville, South Carolina Government)

Feel-good instances like these are rare in today’s fast-paced world but when they are reported, everyone takes a moment to show their appreciation. A similar instance took place in San Antonio when 17-year-old Emily Dickerson lost a cremation ring containing her father’s ashes. He had passed away when Emily was quite young and that ring was one of the few things in her possession that made it feel like he was always with her.

Dickerson was performing with her school choir at the time and the organizers decided to take some 200 singers and bandmembers to the beach at Corpus Christi. Emily did not want to lose the ring so she had hoped to keep it safe in a Subway box. However, she forgot about it and the box with the ring inside ended up in a dumpster.

Dickerson’s mom Tina Koch spoke to the Department of Parks and Recreation in Corpus Christi but with little hope. So when the parks operation supervisor Laura Perez called her back with news that they had found the ring, Emily and her mother were overjoyed. “We’re talking about four rings in a hot, nasty dumpster. I’m blown away. I don’t have enough praise for these people,” Koch said as per another Good News Network report.