A woman who lost her 'irreplaceable' engagement ring on a Scottish beach was over the moon when a stranger tracked it down using a metal detector and returned it in a dog poo bag.
Angie Shipp, 38, was heartbroken when her blue sapphire and diamond engagement ring - which belonged to her late mother-in-law - slipped off while she was enjoying a day out at Yellowcraig Beach, East Lothian.
Angie was out with her husband Paul, 37, and their children Evelyn, three, and four-month-old Isobel, on Father's Day in June this year.
The treasured family heirloom had been given by Angie's father-in-law, Des Shipp, 71, to his wife-to-be, Sue, 58, when the pair got engaged in 1973. Des passed on the ring to Paul when Sue died from pancreatic cancer in 2010.
When the ring went missing, Angie discovered the National Ring Recovery Service and posted a message on the charity's Facebook group requesting help in finding it.
After two volunteers leapt into action, the ring was returned to Angie three days later, and she was delighted with the news and overwhelmed by the volunteers' acts of kindness.
Mum-of-two Angie, a marketing manager from Edinburgh, said: "It was a miraculous find and being from Northern Ireland myself, I'm putting it down to the luck of the Irish.
"When I lost my ring, I honestly thought I'd never see it again. My husband and I were both absolutely gutted. I felt completely sick - it was the worst feeling I've felt for a long time, and it just felt like such a poignant piece of jewellery.
"I felt like I had really let Paul down and I could tell from his quietness that he was really upset. When I first posted on the Facebook site, I was so desperate but only a matter of days later, I couldn't believe it when my prayers had been answered."I'll now be forever grateful to the volunteers who gave their time and eventually tracked it down."
When Angie realised that the ring was missing, she desperately searched for the 18-carat piece before turning to Google to find a metal detector to hire nearby.
She was surprised to come across charities who were specifically devoted to finding missing rings and reached out for their help before two separate volunteers - Graeme Cook and Christine Irvine. The pair travelled from Edinburgh and Glasgow to help.
After hours of looking, retired cook Christine came across the treasured ring thanks to her trusty metal detector - which she's nicknamed 'Vera' - before returning it to Angie's home in a dog poo bag to 'keep it safe'.
Angie said: "I was totally astonished that she came across my ring. I was worried about her posting it, so she found an unused dog poo bag and popped it through my letterbox.
"I was playing with the children - who were making sand piles when my daughter came running up to me. I swept the sand off her hand with mine when I felt movement on my wedding finger.
"When I went to push my engagement ring back, it was gone. We initially tried to get the children involved to speed up the process by telling them they were on a treasure hunt and were looking for gold.
"We searched for over an hour, and I stayed for another hour before realising it was no use. I decided I needed a metal detector, so I started Googling to find one for hire."
Graeme, a retired engineering director, spent five hours searching the beach with his metal detector, but unfortunately couldn't locate it
Angie said: "At one point, he rang me a couple of hours in and asked if my ring was a small gold band with sapphires and diamonds. My eyes started to well up and I really thought he'd found it.
"I asked him to send a photo at which point my heart just sank when I realised it wasn't mine. We were both gutted. But, thankfully someone else's ring was found in the process"
Next it was Christine's turn to search the sand for the ring, and this time it was a success story. "She said she was jumping up and down on the beach when she found it - people even ran over to her to find out what was going on," said Angie.
"I picked up the message while arriving at the cafe and ran in and gave my husband the biggest hug. I finally told my father-in-law the whole story and he just laughed saying: 'You always are the person to fall upwards out of the window'.
"I really want people to know that even if they lose a ring, it's certainly not a lost cause because there are people like Graeme and Christine out there to help you. It's all thanks to them that I got my happy ending."
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