A good Samaritan with a metal detector helped a couple recover a ring that was accidentally dropped into a Missouri pond earlier this month in a marriage proposal gone awry.
A video of the proposal went viral after Seth Dixon got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend of four years, Ruth Salas, on a wooden bridge over Kansas City's Loose Park Pond, The Kansas City Star reported. In video posted on social media, Dixon can be seen opening the box that held the engagement ring, and then watching in horror as the ring pops out of the box and slides between the slats of the bridge they stood on.
Photographer Staci Dabney said in a Facebook post that the couple's friends grabbed goggles and jumped in the water to help find the ring, without luck.
The video was seen by thousands of people across the internet, including Michael Long, of Springfield.
"I had a metal detector," Long told KMBC. "I just thought it would just be nice to get up there, help a random couple out and find the ring before someone else found it."
Long told the news station that over the course of two days and hours in the water equipped with little more than the metal detector, a pair of goggles and a bucket filled with rocks to weigh him down, he found 25 nails, a toy car and the couple’s engagement ring.
"First thing I did was jump out of the pond and I'm running to the people around me and I was like, 'Do you think this thing is real?'" Long told the Star. "It's a shock, like, 'Did I really just find this thing?'"
Dixon thanked Long on Wednesday in a Facebook post.
“We truly appreciate you going out of your way to find our ring and returning it to us,” Dixon said. “Many people searched for the ring, but you are the one who found it. We appreciate your service!”
The couple was in Los Angeles when the ring was recovered.
Dixon said he and Salas believed they were in town to film a segment for 20/20, but were surprised when they were instead brought on for a redo of their engagement on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“Even with them knowing everything, they still decided to bless us with a new ring,” Dixon said. “After the show, we again mentioned the ring situation. They again said they wanted us to keep the new ring! All of the staff at ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ have been AMAZING and we are so thankful for them!”
Dixon said the couple plans to marry on Oct. 21.
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