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Bride-to-be accidentally flushes $20K ring down toilet

CALGARY- A bride-to-be is counting her blessings, after making a costly blunder.

Arlene Chamulak has been busy planning her upcoming nuptials, and was preoccupied the other night when she went to brush her teeth.

“I chucked my gum in the toilet, and I thought, ‘that sounded unusually loud,’” she recalls.  However, she thought nothing of it, and went to bed. The next morning, she got a rude awakening.

“I don’t see my engagement ring…and I’m like ‘oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…I flushed my ring, not the gum.”

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After the shock of losing her gem wore off, Chamulak raced to call a plumber to try and retrieve it.

James Monaghan showed up, but said he wasn’t encouraged by what he found.

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“Most times I’ll find a ring in the bowl, but I’ve never had it drop down the sewer line.”

The ring was about 12 metres down the drain, and the nervous bride thought they might have to dig up the whole front yard.

Finally, after five days of trying, Monahan managed to maneuver his equipment into just the right spot.

“Once we hooked the ring, the scary part was pulling it 30 feet out of the pipe.”

The operation was a success, and Chamulak now has her $20,000 bauble back where it belongs—on her hand. She says she’ll always listen to her mom’s advice from now on.

“[She] said to me, ‘you’re not supposed to take your engagement ring off, ever.’

-With files from Gil Tucker

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