Waste Management Team Combs Through Five Tons of Stinky Trash to Rescue Newlywed’s Bridal Set

May 28th, 2014

South Florida newlywed Saira Rossy was only three days into her marriage when she accidentally tossed her bridal set into her condominium’s huge trash compactor.

Willing to do some dumpster diving to make up for her goof, Rossy bought a HAZMAT suit, mask and boots. Then she called Collier County Waste Management and asked if she could get into the 20-foot by 8-foot compactor.

“I was frantic,” Rossy told The Daily Mail. “They understandably said it was too much of a liability — that it was too toxic and it could crush me.”

However, the sympathetic team at Waste Management offered to search the five tons of stinky trash on her behalf.

Christi Epperson, route manager for Waste Management, and driver Dennis Sierra, emptied the compactor’s contents at their facility and carefully combed through the giant mound of trash. Specifically, they were searching for a white trash bag with a red tie. The bag contained trash from the newlyweds’ dinner, specifically a Little Caesar’s Pizza box, and a tiny Ziploc bag that held the rings — a diamond engagement ring and diamond wedding band.

Within 15 minutes, the heroes located the bag and its precious contents.

"It [was] like finding a needle in a haystack," Epperson told NBC2 News.

Rossy explained that the mishap occurred in the morning as she was rushing to get to work. She had collected the trash from the night before, stuffed it in a white plastic bag, and slid it down the chute leading to the trash compactor.

Rossy had taken off her bridal jewelry and placed the two rings in a Ziploc bag. She intended to put the bag in her purse, where she would keep them out of harm's way while she was at work. Instead, the tiny bag ended up near the empty pizza box and eventually into the compactor.

When Epperson and Sierra located the rings, the route manager said she couldn’t dial her phone fast enough to tell Rossy the good news.

"I was praying,” said Rossy. “I already had set [Epperson’s] phone number to a specific ring on my phone. And when she said, ‘How much do you love Waste Management,’ I knew right there she found it."

"She won the Lotto," Epperson told NBC2 News. "If she hasn't gone and bought a Lotto ticket, she needs to go buy a Lotto ticket because it's one in a million."

Rossy thanked Epperson and Sierra with $50 gift cards to a local restaurant.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Rossy told The Daily Mail. “It’s just so nice that a company would do this. They were extraordinary to do this.”