7 stories of lost wedding rings with happy endings

But for all of the lost bands that are never recovered, there are a few that make their way back to their rightful owners. Here are seven stories of lost wedding rings -- with happy endings.

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In 1995, Lena Paahlsson lost her wedding ring while cooking. Her family searched the house from top to bottom, but eventually, Lena gave up hope.

Sixteen years later, while pulling up veggies from her garden, Lena discovered something shiny growing around a small carrot she was about to throw out.

"The carrot was sprouting in the middle of the ring. It is quite incredible," Lena's husband told a Swedish newspaper.

The couple believes the ring fell into the sink back in '95, getting lost amid the compost and vegetable peelings that were fed to their sheep.

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Earlier this year, Shannon Callahan, a Sacramento, Calif., woman, found a 15-karat gold ring wedged in the backseat of her 2004 Grand Am. After some media attention and her own detective work, Shannon found the ring's rightful owner: a 78-year-old woman from Texas named Darlene King. The 50-year-old wedding band actually belonged to Darlene's late husband, who had died six months earlier.

"I told him it probably went down the drain or something," Darlene told the Sacramento Bee. "We thought it was a lost cause."

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Years ago, Necia Rasmussen lost her diamond engagement ring at Rigby Lake in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

She'd taken the ring off to apply sunblock to her kids, and then she forgot about it in the sand. Upon realizing her gaffe, Necia was devastated. She brought a metal detector to the area to help uncover her lost treasure, but after nothing was found, she gave up hope.

The ring didn't turn up until four years later, when kayaker Emily Geisler spotted the diamond washed up on the shore. It was only about 100 feet away from where Necia had left it years before. Emily contacted Necia, who was skeptical at first but then happy to be reunited with her lost token of love.

You can find the original story in the Standard Journal.

Valerie Lynch lost her diamond engagement ring in her sister's backyard a whopping 17 years ago. Although Valerie and her husband had enlisted the help of a metal detector, the ring was not found.

But earlier this month, Valerie's sister, Vicki, decided to give it another try - nearly two decades later. Vicki hired a metal detecting hobbyist, and after only 40 minutes, the ring was found buried under the dirt.

Find the original story in the Patriot Ledger.

New Yorker Danielle Hatherley Carroll woke up in the middle of the night after realizing she'd tossed her wedding ring into the garbage -- in faraway Battery Park.

Danielle and her husband immediately drove to Battery Park, only to find the garbage container empty. They spotted a Parks Department garbage truck, and in a last-ditch effort to recover the ring, they left a note on the windshield: "Hello, I believe my wedding ring is in this truck."

Gary Gaddist became Danielle's savior. The Parks Department worker, who picks up trash in the city five days a week, decided to sift through all of the trash in his truck just to find Danielle's ring. He succeeded.

"It really was like looking for a needle in a haystack," Gary told the New York Daily News.

Samantha Peckens and her fiancé were playing a game of football in Lake Erie when Samantha's engagement ring slipped from her finger and dropped into the lake.

Thirty do-gooders then scoured the waters for the lost ring. Samantha had given up hope when, after a three-day hunt, her friend Drew uncovered the buried treasure.

Drew used his underwater metal detector to locate the ring from beneath about four feet of water. Samantha told Buffalo's WGRZ: "I keep saying he's my hero."

Forget homework, one New Mexico dog has an appetite for gold.

One morning, Rachelle Atkinson woke to find her diamond engagement ring missing from the nightstand she placed it on before bed. Rachelle and her husband, Scott, scoured the house for the ring, but they suddenly had a realization: Their 10-month old basset hound, Coraline, had scarfed it down.

"...we immediately looked at her and she looked guilty," Rachelle told Albuquerque's KOB News. Then came the fun part.

"I had to go through all the 'poos' every day and squish them up..." said Scott.

Unfortunately -- especially for Scott -- the ring was not coming out the natural way. Using a special instrument, Coraline's vet retrieved the ring from the dog's stomach.

Rachelle no longer places her ring on the nightstand before bed.