From flush to found: Antique wedding band returned after NJ Transit ride
NEW JERSEY (WABC) -- A woman was reunited Monday with a wedding band she lost nearly a month ago in a bathroom aboard an NJ Transit train. A coordinated effort by transit employees helped recover the treasured ring.
Julie Angelicola visited the NJ Transit Customer Service Center at Penn Station to retrieve the ring, which she believed had been flushed down a train toilet while she was washing her hands.
"So I'm kind of meticulously getting all of this soap off of my hands with toilet paper and literally going finger by finger and crumpling it all up trying to do it quickly threw it in the toilet flush the toilet went back to my seat," Angelicola said.
After returning to her seat, she realized her wedding band was missing and suspected it had been flushed away. She reported the loss to NJ Transit and hoped it would somehow be found.
The ring held special meaning for Angelicola and her husband. The wedding band dates to 1905 and was purchased at an antique shop. Angelicola said the couple was surprised to discover initials engraved inside that matched their nicknames for each other.
Finding the ring required the efforts of multiple NJ Transit teams.
"My superintendent came to me and told me what was going on and I said well we gotta shop the car immediately and get it back to the shop so we can try to see if we can find it," said David DeGennaro, general superintendent of equipment at the Meadows Maintenance Complex.
According to NJ Transit employees, the train was taken out of service so crews could inspect the toilet system and search for the missing band.
"What we do is put it on the jacks, jack it up put the toilet tank out. We sent it right to the treatment plant, open the top of it and that's when we saw the ring," said Eric Sanders, a service and inspection manager.
Employees said that when the tank was opened, the wedding ring was sitting on top.
The ring was ultimately retrieved by employee Sharohn Dixon. On Monday, Angelicola met some of the workers involved in the recovery effort at Penn Station before being reunited with the ring.
"I just could not believe it. I was so excited and felt really lucky that they cared to find it and now even meeting everyone saying 'oh we took the train out of service' that's pretty exceptional," Angelicola said.
After nearly a month apart, Angelicola left Penn Station with her wedding band back in hand.
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