Woman Loses $70K Wedding Ring Down Toilet

How much would you pay to get your wedding ring back? For one woman in Phoenix, AZ, the sum total came to $7,200 after she accidentally dropped her seven carat wedding ring down a restaurant toilet. Allison Berry was so frantic to get her ring back city employees were called in to flush the ring out of the pipe.

When that didn’t work, the city was forced to call Mr. Rooter, a professional plumbing company based in Waco, Texas. The plumber fed an infrared video camera into the toilet until he spotted the ring. He then spent an hour and a half removing the pipe and cutting away from the area with a jack hammer.

The ring was eventually returned to Berry, but at a steep cost: The plumber charged $5,200, the city charged $1,000, and Berry and her husband felt obligated to tip the plumber and the city worker $400 each and a restaurant employee $200 for volunteering to stay late to assist them with the recovery.

“They always say diamonds are a girl's best friend. In this case, a plumber is a girl's best friend," says the heroic plumber, Mike Roberts. "She was just so excited, she had tears in her eyes. She gave us a hug and said 'Thank you so much.'"