Michele Arias and Doug Cotty were enjoying a wonderful Costa Rican vacation. But Doug made it even more special when he decided to get on one knee and propose to her. But their love story didn’t exactly have the happy start that they expected. The ring had vanished without a trace. Desperate to get the ring back, the couple turned to locals for help. But with each passing day and week, Michele feared that she would never be reunited with her precious ring. Then, a retiree living abroad offered to help, but would he be able to provide the couple with a happy ending?The epic moment in the Charlotte couple’s lives was captured by their tour guide. Michele said yes! But she had no idea that this life-altering moment of joy would turn to one of utter despair when the ring went missing three days later.
The ring came from Doug’s mother’s family side. It had been passed down for generations, but before joining their tour guide, Michele took off her ring to apply some sunscreen. But she placed the ring in Doug’s front tank top pocket.
He took his tank top off and hung it from a tree branch while he put on sunscreen. But he hadn’t realized the ring had slipped out of his pocket. Half an hour later, the couple realized that the ring had fallen out.
An hour after that, they figured that someone had found it and kept it. This caused Michele to cry for an hour. The following day they headed back home to Charlotte. They were happy to be engaged, but the loss of the ring plagued them. The ring wasn’t insured or appraised either.
She went into details of how she lost the ring at Chaman beach and hoped that someone might have seen it. She even offered a reward as an incentive. But time went by and the couple hadn’t heard anything from anyone.
The purchase set them back over $4,400 but it was worth it. But they had no idea that the plea she had sent out on social media would finally get a response when they least expected it. And both Michele and Doug were elated.
The 67-year-old man is an American expat living in Costa Rica. He retired in 2005, and moved there. He had a reputation for finding lost objects. Ironically, he had found a class ring in Myrtle Beach in Asheboro back in the 70s and reunited it with his owner 40 years later. So, this wasn’t exactly new to him.
She never replied. He tried reaching her again, but again, she didn’t reply. He assumed she found the ring so he went back to his life in the Costa Rican village of Uvita. He had forgotten about the ring and then Michele replied to him on New Year’s Eve. She told him she’d be grateful for his help.
His metal detector went off, so he started digging a hole a foot deep. He found the ring sitting in a sandy hole. When Michele got the news, she was shocked. But she didn’t trust the country’s postal service. Fortunately, the Pirkls, a friend’s parents were on vacay in Costa Rica and offered to bring the ring home.
Dennis and Shirley Pirkl received the ring in Guanacaste. Days later, Michele paid the Pirkls a visit in Denver, NC, and put the ring back on her finger. As for David, he refused to accept the $500 reward Michele and Doug offered him for finding the ring. And they lived happily ever after.
