The ring was flushed down the toilet: train workers did everything to get it back

Almost a month after losing her wedding ring in a train toilet, Julie Angelicola got it back on Monday during an emotional meeting at Penn Station in New York. Angelicola was sure the ring had been accidentally flushed down the toilet while she was washing her hands, but a number of NJ Transit employees mobilized for the unusual search. The carriage was taken out of service, the toilet system was checked and the tank was dismantled — and inside it waited the antique ring from 1905.

The incident began when Angelicola used the restroom during a train ride. After washing her hands, she tried to thoroughly remove the remaining soap with toilet paper. "I tried very thoroughly to get all the soap off my hands with toilet paper, literally finger by finger," she said. According to her, she crumpled the paper, threw it into the toilet, flushed, and returned to her seat on the train.

Only after sitting down did she realize something was missing: her wedding ring was no longer on her finger. Her suspicion was immediate — the ring had likely gone down with the toilet paper and been flushed into the train's toilet system. Angelicola reported the loss to NJ Transit, but the possibility of finding a small ring flushed down a train toilet seemed slim. However, for the transport company's employees, the search had only just begun.

The ring also had extraordinary meaning for the couple. It is an antique ring from 1905 that they purchased at an antique shop. After the purchase, they discovered an engraving of initials inside that coincidentally matched the nicknames they use for each other — a coincidence that made it an item of special emotional value for them.

Finding the ring required a joint effort by several teams at NJ Transit. David DeGennaro, the general inspector of equipment at the Meadows maintenance complex, said that as soon as he learned about the case, it was decided to return the carriage to the garage and try to locate the ring. "My supervisor came to me and told me what was happening, and I said: okay, we have to get the carriage into the garage immediately and bring it to the workshop so we can try and see if we can find it," he said.

The train was taken out of service so that maintenance workers could reach the toilet system and check if the ring was still inside. The workers lifted the carriage using a jack, removed the toilet tank, and transferred it to the treatment facility. There, they opened it and began the search. Eric Sanders, manager of service and inspections, described the process: "We put it on the jack, lift it up, take out the toilet tank. We sent it straight to the treatment facility, opened the top of it — and then we saw the ring."

Surprisingly, after everything it had been through since being flushed down the toilet, the ring was not buried deep inside the tank's contents. According to the workers, when they opened it, it was simply lying in the top part. Employee Sharon Dixon was the one who finally retrieved the ring and returned it to the path that led to its owner.

On Monday, Angelicola arrived at the NJ Transit customer service center at Penn Station, where she met some of the employees who participated in the search operation and received back the ring she had already thought she had lost. "I just couldn't believe it," she said. "I was so excited and felt so lucky that they cared enough to find it. And now, when I'm even meeting everyone and hearing 'we took the train out of service' — it's truly extraordinary."

After almost a month where the antique ring was missing, Angelicola left Penn Station with it back in her hands. What started with a small moment of inattention in the train restroom ended in an operation that included several teams, a carriage taken out of service, and a dismantled toilet tank — all to return one ring to its owner.