‘A one in a million shot’: Pittsburgh officers get creative to rescue ring from sewer

PITTSBURGH — A couple of quick-thinking Pittsburgh police officers saved a woman from a sticky situation during a routine patrol along Carson Street.

“We instinctively went to work to help her,” said Sgt. Andrew Robinson with the Pittsburgh Police Department.

Veteran officers, Sgt. Andrew Robinson and Officer Kyle Briggs were patrolling South Side Thursday around midnight when they ran into a woman and overheard her talking about losing her engagement ring down a 15-foot-deep sewer.

“It just slipped off her finger and went directly into the hole of the sewer grate,” Robinson said. “I mean it was a one-in-a-million shot.”

The officers immediately offered to help.

Briggs was able to lift the lid off the manhole and got creative to pull the priceless ring out.

“We found a pole behind Marios,” Briggs said. “We found a paperclip in one of our cars and we just taped the paperclip to the end of the pole and fished it out.”

Cell phone video from one of the officers and surveillance video from Hot Rod Piercing Company shows Officer Briggs lowering the pole underground.

Channel 11 News found the pole they used to get the ring out. It was still behind the restaurant next to the dumpsters with the tape and paperclip still attached.

“Once she got the ring back, she washed it off with water and immediately put it on her finger, and she and her fiance hugged,” said Robinson.

They never even got the woman’s name and believe she was from out of town. After the priceless piece of jewelry was back on the finger of the happy bride-to-be, she certainly thanked them in a big way.

“I think she invited us to her wedding, actually,” Briggs said. “I think she did, yeah.”

“I asked when the wedding was, and I don’t remember exactly when it was, but she said, ‘You guys are more than welcome to come,’” Robinson said.

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