Dumpster Diver and Diligent Police Department Help Reunite Calif. Woman With Her Lost Diamond Ring

A California woman is singing the praises of an extraordinarily honest dumpster diver and the Porterville Police Department after she was miraculously reunited with the custom-made diamond ring she accidentally threw away four months ago when cleaning out her car at a gas station.

Porterville, Calif., resident Treesha Flores could barely believe her eyes when local police officers returned her lost ring last Wednesday.

"I am speechless, definitely speechless, but excited,” Flores told Fox-TV affiliate KMPH. “It's nice. It feels normal again, like a piece of me was missing." The elaborate diamond ring, featuring an unusual bezel-set pear-shaped center diamond, had been a gift from her husband.

Flores first realized her diamond ring was missing after taking a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area with her 12-year-old daughter, Selicia. Flores’ daughter remembered seeing the ring in a small makeup case when they were in the hotel, but couldn’t pinpoint where or when it became misplaced.

After arriving home and realizing the ring was gone, they called the hotel multiple times, but the ring didn’t turn up.

“We figured whoever found it in the hotel room, kept it,” Treesha told the Porterville Recorder.

Added Selicia, “I just really thought it was my fault and I felt so bad."

Actually, Treesha and Selicia had accidentally dropped the makeup case in a Chevron station trash bin on the way home from their trip. They were cleaning out their car during a fuel stop and the case got mixed in with the refuse.

From the trash bin, the case ended up in a much larger dumpster, and this is where one of our heroes enters the story. A dumpster diver, who was looking for cans, bottles and other useable items, found the case and its very valuable contents, and “did the right thing” by turning it in to the gas station’s proprietor.

The proprietor called the local police authorities, who not only contacted the local media to publicize the fact that they possessed a missing ring, but also put a notice on the department’s Facebook page and researched the ring’s trademark.

The JAVDA trademark led the police to the designer, who was able to match the ring with the owner because it was a one-of-a-kind piece. Treesha also possessed a sales slip and appraisal document that confirmed her ownership.

Treesha told KMPH, “The police went above and beyond in order to get this back to me. They contacted the manufacturer. They really did more than they had to and I'm grateful for that."

She had also planned to thank the man who found the ring in the dumpster and the proprietor who turned the ring in to the police.

California law requires police departments to hold lost valuables for 90 days in order to give rightful owners sufficient time to claim them. After the 90-day period, the item becomes the property of the person who found it. Treesha was reunited with her ring eight days before the 90-day period was set to expire.

Images: Video captures via KMPH-KFRE.com; Ring closeup via Porterville Police Department.