Garbage Men Spend Hours Digging Through 13 Tons of Trash to Find Woman’s $16,000 Diamond Ring

According to Beijing Times, the woman, surnamed Xia, was cleaning her home on Dec. 18 when she accidentally threw her 110,000 yuan ($16,700) diamond ring in the trash, as translated by Shanghaiist via Medium. But it was already too late when she realized her ring was missing.

She tried her best to make her way to the local sanitation department to file a report, but sadly, the director informed her that the trash collected from her area had already been compacted. The director then told Xia to return to the office the following morning, and ensured the trash would not get transferred to the incinerator.

He ordered guards to be stationed near the massive piles of trash to make sure they won’t be put back in line for incineration.

Luckily, the ring was successfully found on Tuesday morning after a couple of hours of searching through 13 tons of trash with the help of eight sanitary workers. Xia, overjoyed by the news, told reporters that the workers’ actions was much more valuable than the expensive diamond ring.

“They said that they found the ring and I thought they were just joking at first. I’m incredibly grateful to them. Although this ring is worth over 100,000 yuan, the sanitation workers’ generous spirit is more valuable,” she said.

A similar incident happened last year when a tourist’s iPhone 6 was accidentally mixed up in the trash. It took Shanghai street cleaners three hours to rummage through five tons of trash just to find the important phone.

Featured Image Shanghaiist via Medium