French Canadian Émilie Roy became a TikTok celebrity last week after posting a 12-second video of her fruitless efforts to find a cherished ring that was lost under a blanket of fallen leaves. The tragically comic video, which featured a bathtub, fall foliage and a spaghetti strainer, was viewed more than 4.2 million times.
"I lost my engagement ring throwing leaves in the air," Roy wrote in her caption. "We've been looking for it for 3 hours and now I'm sorting the leaves in the bathtub. Pray for me."
As her fiancé continued to look for the ring outside, Roy started sorting shopping bags full of fall foliage in the bathtub.
"I thought I would've heard the ring fall and that the white background would give me a better view," she told Newsweek.
Tiktok users were quick to point out that a better strategy may have been to use a metal detector.
In a follow-up post the next morning, Roy cheerfully reported the she and her fiancé found the ring after six hours of searching.
"First of all, we got the ring back. Yay," she said. "Long story short, I was taking silly little pictures, throwing leaves in the air, and my ring just flew up."
At nightfall, the couple returned to the scene of the informal photo shoot and tried a new strategy.
"It was pitch black. We used our cellphones' flashlights so the sapphire on my ring could reflect, and amazingly, it worked," she told Newsweek. "We found it a few minutes later way further [from the shoot] than expected."
The 27-year-old from Quebec explained in the followup video that the couple had no access to a metal detector because all the shops in the area were closed late on Saturday.
"That was like the first thing we thought of," she said, "but it wasn't possible."
Roy told Newsweek that she and her fiancé, Thomas, were on a getaway weekend in the woods.
"Tom was taking pictures of me throwing leaves in the air and after a few takes, my ring just slid and flew off my finger," Roy told Newsweek. "It's totally my fault as I didn't get it adjusted yet."
In her TikTok followup, Roy superimposed her image over a background of the partly cleared search area.
"When we were taking pictures, we were right there," she said, pointing to the far left of the photo.
She continued, "And when we found the ring 6 hours later, it was right there, so close to the water."
Roy thanked the TikTok community for their concerns, suggestions and help. She even gave a shoutout to St. Anthony, the Patron Saint for lost articles.
One practical commenter wrote, "Tip: Get [the ring] sized as soon as possible," to which Roy responded, "I'm a very good procrastinator as you can see."
Credits: Screen captures via TikTok / itsemilieroy.