New York police locate pair after tweeting film of their battle to retrieve ring from grate

A British couple who suffered the nightmare of losing their engagement ring after their proposal in New York are to be reunited with it after police retrieved it and located them through an online appeal.

A CCTV video captured the aftermath when John Drennan and Daniella Anthony failed to retrieve the ring from inside a subway grate, despite dozens of passersby helping them search for two hours. The clip was shared by the New York City police department on Saturday, going viral and amassing more than 20,000 retweets.

NYPD officers later managed to recover and clean the piece of jewellery, but could not find the couple so put out an appeal on Twitter.

NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) WANTED for dropping his fiancée’s ring in @TimesSquareNYC!

She said Yes - but he was so excited that he dropped the ring in a grate. Our @NYPDSpecialops officers rescued it & would like to return it to the happy couple. Help us find them? 💍 call 800-577-TIPS @NYPDTIPS @NYPDMTN pic.twitter.com/tPWg8OE0MQ

The tale quickly made headlines and the news soon reached the newly engaged pair, who had by then returned to the UK.

“The (now) happy couple is back in their home country, but thanks to your retweets they heard we were looking for them!” the NYPD wrote on Sunday. “We’re making arrangements to get them their ring back. Congratulations!”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest After finding the ring, New York City police are returning it to the couple in England. Photograph: AP

Arrangements have been made to return the rescued ring to the pair in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, and the NYPD tweeted a photo of the smiling couple holding a celebratory drink to toast the unlikely outcome.

NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) Thank you, Twitter. Case closed!



Love,

John, Daniella, and the NYPD. pic.twitter.com/G7eB1Ds7vP

In the photo, Anthony was seen wearing a ring on the traditional finger, although the couple said they abandoned plans to visit a jewellery store to replace the ring on discovering it had been found.

“We are so happy, we can’t believe it,” they told the BBC on Sunday evening. Drennan explained that he had put a lot of thought into the proposal and had carried the ring in his pocket for two days.

“I want to clarify that I did not propose over a grate in Times Square – that’s where we lost it,” he said, making clear that he actually asked the question in Central Park two hours earlier. “The time was right. There were autumn leaves everywhere and not many people.”

Anthony said yes, but the ring was too big for her finger. “I tried to tell John it was too big, but he insisted I wear it,” she said.

“I told her it was fine. I was just so happy to finally call her my fiancée after all this time,” Drennan added.

“We were walking back to the hotel. I can still visualise the ring. Bouncing once… bouncing twice and then it was gone,” Drennan said. “We just presumed it was gone. In the end, we had no choice but to walk away and try to enjoy the rest of our weekend.”

However, shortly after they touched down in the UK, a friend contacted them to ask whether they were indeed the couple the NYPD were searching for.

“We could not believe it, we really thought it was gone,” Anthony said. “We don’t use Twitter – we had absolutely no idea this was going on. But we are so happy.”

The couple added: “We are so thankful to everyone – especially the New York Police Department and everyone who shared our story.”