NYC garbage man sifts through tons of trash to find woman’s wedding ring

The saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure," took on a near literal meaning after a New York City garbage man sifted through tons of trash to find one woman's missing wedding ring.

But how did an expensive wedding ring end up in a trash pile? The New York Daily News reports that Danielle Carroll lost her ring, which was already a replacement for an earlier misplaced wedding ring, while at work. The 45-year-old teacher says she and her young students were using a "slippery hand cleaner" which must have caused her ring to slide off into a trash bag.

"I was so busy that day and cleaning my hands constantly that I didn't notice I had lost the ring," she told the paper.

Carroll tells the paper she awoke at 3:30 a.m., suddenly realizing the ring was missing. She and her husband raced outside to retrieve it from the trash but the NYC Parks Department had already picked up the garbage.

Carroll left a note on a nearby Parks Department garbage truck, which read, 'Hello, I believe my wedding ring is in this truck. It is in a bag that was put in a trash bag in the park at the end of the day, Sunday. It is 5AM and I came down to the park to look for it and then saw this truck with trash in it. Please call me to tell me where this truck is going and I will come ASAP."

NYC Parks Department employee Gary Gaddist read the note and decided to intervene. He called Carroll and told her he would look for the ring, though he noted, "It really was like looking for a needle in a haystack."

But somehow the 42-year-old Gaddist located the trash bag amid several tons of garbage at Randalls Island.

"This guy did something he didn't have to do, and I find that amazing,' Carroll told the paper after Gaddist called with the surprising good news.

For his part, Gaddist said he decided to help because he could tell the couple were in love.

"It was a love thing," he said.