Stockton couple gets wedding ring back they thought was gone for good
STOCKTON -- A Stockton couple´s wedding ring has been returned, after having thought that it was gone for good.
Blake and Liz Tatum were returning to the dock on their boat last Thursday when she went to reach for the controls.
Liz said, "It´s really really loose and it just slipped off and plopped into the water."
Her diamond wedding ring is worth thousands, and is now one in the murky water below.
She said, "I was, like, you´re never going to believe what just happened. Blake was, like, no way, and I was, like yeah. In the water. We were freaking out for sure."
Blake immediately called some dive companies and that´s when he got a call from Matt Spruitenberg, all the way up in El Dorado Hills, who had heard about it through a friend of a friend.
Spruitenberg is someone who fancies himself as a guy who can find anything, and he was up for the task.
"Nobody wants to dive in the delta because the water is murky and black," he said.
Matt and a buddy worked for three hours with a big large fishing net.
He said, "I went down there with my hands because there are boulders down there as well and I was literally throwing the mud into that thing as fast as I could becaused I knew I was going to have to go through a lot of mud to find that ring."
The couple who had been married for 28 years watched in wonder until they had about given up hope.
It took about 25 nets of mud and searching by mud, but they finally got a hold of it.
Liz was back inside the house and she didn´t know that they had found it, so the three conspired to surprise her.
Matt got down on one knee and proposed again.
Liz said, "Clearly from the video, I was speechless. I was just in shock. I couldn´t believe it because I didn´t think they were going to find it for sure."
The couple is grateful to have the ring back, which could have rung them thousands. Instead, it brought them a priceless memory.