Staff at Guernsey Waste “went above and beyond” to help save a woman’s engagement and wedding rings after they ended up in her black bag last week.
Katie Thomas told Express how the story unfolded with Paul who works at Longue Hougue among the staff who helped her.
She said her rings “accidentally made their way into our black bag on Wednesday and without realising I took the bag to the Longue Hougue site”.
When she realised what had happened on the Thursday morning she called and spoke to Paul who began the process of trying to locate the bag that the rings were in.
That happened quickly with Mrs Thomas receiving a call on the Friday morning confirming that staff had found her on the CCTV disposing of the bag, meaning they could then narrow down the search.
“They quarantined all the black bags in that container before they began search for mine,” she said.
“When they located them out of hundreds of bags, I then collected and searched through and found the rings!”
Mrs Thomas has shared her story on the ‘Good News Guernsey’ Facebook page where she said: “I can’t express enough gratitude to everyone who went above and beyond to help me find my engagement ring and wedding ring, which had somehow ended up in a black waste bag — courtesy of my three-year-old daughter!”
She said the “amazing staff at Guernsey Waste worked tirelessly (and quite literally dug through mountains of rubbish) to reunite me with my rings”.
“It truly was like finding a needle in a haystack, but they did it — and I’m beyond grateful.
“Their kindness, determination, and good humour turned what could’ve been a heartbreaking loss into an unbelievable happy ending.
“Thank you, Guernsey Waste — you’re absolute heroes!”
Operations Manager at Guernsey Waste, Sarah Robinson said staff were pleased to help.
She also said this story isn’t that unusual as lots of things end up in rubbish bags accidentally.
“Every month or so, we receive a call from people who’ve accidentally thrown away something valuable or sentimental, asking if we can help retrieve it,” she said.
“Sadly, not everyone is as lucky as Katie. We always do our best to locate the item, but often the bin has already been emptied and the waste processed.
“On this occasion, working promptly with the States Works waste team we identified which bin the bag had gone into. The bin was emptied, and from the description Katie had given we were able to find the right bag. Katie then went through the bag herself – and thankfully, the rings were still inside.
“We and our contractors always do our utmost to help recover misplaced items where possible, and we were all thrilled to see this story end so happily.”