“No! You’re KIDDING ME!” Paulina Morales screamed, as she caught a glimpse of her cherished engagement ring during a Zoom call with Denver-based CBS reporter Spencer Wilson.
The Texas bride-to-be had lost her ring in a Colorado snowbank early in February and feared that it was lost forever. But, thanks to the efforts of the reporter and a Good Samaritan with a metal detector, the ring was saved from an icy doom and shipped back to Texas.
Morales and her fiancé, Deven Maraj, had been vacationing in the historic and scenic ski resort town of Breckenridge when a carefree romp in the snow turned disastrous. Deven playfully tossed Morales into the snow, but when she emerged, the ring was gone. They searched the location for days, but had no luck.
Their story caught the attention of Wilson, who recounted the couple's plight for the viewers of CBS4. The reporter even got into the act by using a blowtorch to try the melt the snow away to find the ring. Still no luck.
"Sadly, we had to go home," Morales told CBS4. The couple offered a $500 reward for the precious jewelry, hoping that there was still a glimmer of hope it would some day be returned.
In stepped Tony Pizzamigalo, a metal detector enthusiast who had seen Wilson's report.
Only a few steps away from where the reporter had used the blowtorch, Pizzamigalo started to get some promising hits on his detector. After one false hit, Pizzamigalo was quickly on the prize.
The hero said that he was going to donate the reward money to the Summit County Rescue Group, which provides search and rescue services to county officials.
With the ring secured, Wilson set up a Zoom call with Morales, who answered while in her car.
At first, Wilson acted as if the ring was still missing, asking Morales if she could describe the engagement ring. When she started to answer, he said, "Does it look like this?" and placed the yellow gold, flower-motif diamond ring squarely in front of the camera.
"I’m crying right now! I've got chills, I've got chills," she exclaimed. "This is such good news."
According to a report on the CBS4 website, Morales and Maraj wanted to extend a huge thank you to all of the people involved in the search, successful or not, and said they can not thank everyone enough for going out of their way to bring back their ring.
Pizzamigalo told the station that he was just happy to be able to find something that would bring them so much joy.
Morales added that Pizzamigalo would be getting an invitation to the wedding.
Credits: Screen captures via denver.cbslocal.com.