(Based on a story from CNN.com)

Seventy-eight-year-old Bridget Pericolo might have called it a loss when she learned her husband mistakenly disposed of a cup containing her engagement and wedding rings with the day’s garbage. The trash bag had already been collected by the sanitation crew in Morris Plains, New Jersey.

Nobody spends much time thinking about where their refuse goes once it’s out of the kitchen, but Mrs. Pericolo and her husband immediately called the sanitation company to find out.

The man on the phone empathized and was helpful. He took the time to pinpoint the location of the Pericolo’s trash in transit, noted the estimated time of arrival the transfer station and invited the Pericolos to come down and dig through the truck’s ten-ton payload of landfill contributions.

Photo courtesy Coolcaesar.

According to CNN.com the two truck drivers joined the chivalrous groom in the unsavory excavation, while his bride of 55 years waited in their car. It took nearly an hour for Mr. Pericolo and compassionate sanitation workers to emerge from the heap of New Jersey waste with two invaluably precious rings.

CNN.com reported station supervisor Micheal Brotons as saying, “You had to see the expression on their faces when we found it. They couldn’t believe that we found it, and they didn’t know what to say, really. They didn’t have to say anything.”

Bridget Pericolo proclaimed the find a miracle.

Sometimes the rubble isn’t just heavy. It’s smelly. But some things are always worth digging for. And if you share your problem, a few otherwise busy strangers might just give you hand.