CHINO HILLS, Calif. — The engagement ring on Yana Glass’ finger is back in its place thanks to a sharp-eyed Southern California public works crew.
In March 2022, Glass’ 5-year-old son flushed his engagement ring down the toilet.
“That morning we’re lying in our bed, I hear her getting up,” Yana’s husband John Glass said.
He remembers his future son-in-law doing something unusual soon after.
“I heard him flush the toilet and I turned to her and said, ‘Well, that’s strange. He never flushes the toilet, you know, he’s 5,” John said. “I thought that was so weird.”
Hours later, the “crime” was uncovered after the boy confessed to his wrongdoing.
“He was in the bathroom, he was brilliant, he wanted to look at it, dropped it and wouldn’t tell us and thought the best thing to do was throw it away and hide the crime,” Yana said.
The couple immediately attempted to retrieve the engagement ring.
“My first reaction was I went to the toilet, turned the water off, basically pulled the toilet off the flange and started looking, hoping it might have gotten stuck somewhere,” John said.
Unable to spot the ring in the pipe, the couple hired a plumber’s camera in hopes of locating it.
“After a few hours we saw the ring in the pipe. It was shining there, lying there, then we started calling the plumbers,” Yana said.
Unfortunately, two plumbers told the couple they couldn’t get the ring without causing major damage to the house.
That’s when the couple called the Chino Hills City Public Works Department for help.
However, after flushing their sewer lines, they were also unable to dislodge the ring.
The couple eventually moved on. They bought a new ring and got married two months later.
Then they got the ultimate surprise.
Fourteen months after being drained, the ring reappeared more than 400 feet from the Glasses’ home by a public works crew performing routine maintenance on the sewer line.
“He’s hydrojetting and I’m with a screen watching the debris come in and I’m like, ‘Chris! Chris! Stop! Stop the water because I think the ring is there,'” Tony said. Ochoa, employee of Chino Hills Public Works.
Ochoa remembered the couple and their lost ring from last year when he and his team tried to retrieve it.
“I was like, ‘No way, we found it! We’re going to give it back to them,'” said Christopher Sambrano, another public works worker.
Before returning the ring to the Glass family, the Public Works Department had the ring thoroughly disinfected.
“I’m so, so grateful to the guys for remembering us for their dedication, hard work and kindness because without them we wouldn’t have it,” Yana said.
As for the couple’s son – who is now 6 – he is also happy that the ring has been found, but he will probably never live the story of when he flushed his mother’s engagement ring down the toilet.
“I plan to tell this story at her wedding one day,” her stepfather said.
ABC7