The couple, who have not been publicly identified, were renovating their home in the Melbourne inner suburb of Malvern, according to Stonnington City Council spokesman Jim Carden.
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They dropped off a load of garbage at the Stonnington waste collection center on Saturday, and drove home — before realizing they had accidentally thrown away a small jewelry box containing an “impressive engagement and wedding ring,” Carden said.
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They frantically called the collection center, but it was closing, and they were told to return early the next day.
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They returned at 4 a.m. “after a sleepless night,” Carden said — planning to follow the truck full of trash to a waste dump and rifle through the piles of garbage.
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However, the trash collectors and city council workers opened the truck containing 30 tons (67,200 pounds) of trash — cardboard boxes, broken furniture, grime and debris — and finally located the couple’s pink trash bag, with the jewelry box and rings inside.
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Carden called the recovery “a little bit of Christmas magic,” and praised the workers for going “above and beyond” to help the couple.
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“We are pleased to have saved some memories and what we understand was highly valuable stuff both financially and sentimentally,” he said, calling it a “fairytale outcome.”
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But he cautioned that it was an unusual case, and said the council cannot “readily empty the transfer stations looking for things people think they may have tossed out.”
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“Our guys are trained to work in a tough and risky environment and we don’t allow people to just pick over tons of often dangerous materials with heavy machinery all around,” he added.