 Mom drops ring in toilet, 9 years later stranger knocks on her door with a special offer. She suddenly felt strangely naked which was silly but she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. She ran the faucet and splashed cool water over her face. She was cupping her hands to catch the liquid when she looked at her hand and screamed. For many couples all around the world, a ring as a symbol of undying love and diamonds are of course a girl's best friend. So what happens when something terrible happens to your partner's token of never ending love? What do you do if you somehow misplace the expensive and often carefully thought out piece of jewelry? It had been 9 years ago since the accident had happened. Paula Stanton of New Jersey had been doing her usual deep clean around the house and had polished her way to the bathroom. Now everything gleamed back at her after a good scrubbing. She stood and surveyed her work when the nagging feeling that something wasn't right began to creep up on her. Her diamond-incrusted wedding ring was not on her finger and she never took it off for anything. That only left one horrible conclusion for the 60-year-old woman to reach. She looked around and slowly her eyes came to rest on the toilet. She stared at it in absolute stillness. She knew what she'd done. She'd flushed it. Still, when she realized that she'd lost her ring, she retraced her steps, just in case. Paula tried to recall when and where she last saw it but she couldn't put her finger on any particular time, day or anything. She looked at the toilet once more, cursing her luck. If it was truly down there, the chances of getting it back were a big fat zero. It appeared that the ring was truly gone and Paula needed to dredge up the courage to tell her husband. She went to the internet for help, maybe someone else had a good way to break the bad news. She found good advice but it really didn't make actually telling her husband, Michael Stanton any easier. The website said, it's important to tell him or her immediately, the stress of keeping a secret is wearing and a delay may erode trust between the two of you. Be direct, apologize, and be understanding if your spouse becomes angry. Luckily her husband was not an angry kind of guy, even though it made him sad to know the ring was gone forever he knew that it had not happened intentionally, in fact, when he saw his wife was so sad over the loss of her wedding ring he actually got another just like a commission for her. Still, the loss of the original weighed heavily on her mind. It was heartbreaking, Stanton said, I was embarrassed to tell my husband because it was meaningful. She still thought about the ring nearly every day, and whenever she caught a glimpse of her hand she thought, that's not the original, just a replacement. The constant thoughts led her to ask a friend, Ted Gogol, who worked at the public works department, for help. She had only one question for him and she held her thumbs and crossed all her fingers when she asked, have you or any of your team ever come across her ring after all these years? It was an insanely long shot and the answer was an obvious no. But in an odd turn of events that same man was about to witness a real miracle. Just a few months after the conversation with Paula, that same sanitation worker spotted something shiny almost buried in the muck while working on a sewer line about 400 feet from the Stanton home. He could barely believe his eyes but he knew exactly what it was before he even picked it up. That's right, it was Paula's wedding ring. Lost for nearly a decade, the ring had lain barely out of the Stanton's neighborhood block. He couldn't contain his joy at finding the beautiful old ring. Ted immediately began thinking of how he could return the ring to Paula. He remembered her address and left a note on the couple's door telling them to give him a call, he had good news. When Paula returned home to that note she could barely control her racing mind. Her hands began to shake and she felt on the verge of tears. Surely if he had left his number that meant that he had found the ring. Or parts of it, perhaps a diamond. Whatever it was she needed to know. She punched the numbers into her cell phone and waited for an answer. Being reunited with her ring, which was given to her by her husband in celebration of their 20th wedding anniversary, was a wonderful experience. Paula remembers telling everybody close to her about the amazing find, nobody could believe it. Everyone was in a state of shock, said Paula. I was calling my kids and telling people about it. My family had a difficult year, and for this to happen, she posted on Twitter. And Paula is calling Ted and the whole surreal situation a Christmas miracle since the find was barely weeks away from the festive season. She positively gushed about what a wonderful person Ted is for being so honest and returning the ring to her. After all, he could have kept it and got a good sum of money for such a lovely diamond ring. Of course, Ted was going to return the ring, how could he not? It was just too much of a coincidence that this lady had approached him about whether they'd seen the ring or not and then a few months later he is the very man to find the said ring. It was obviously meant to be returned to Paula, and he was clearly meant to find it or her. That ring didn't want to leave her family, Google said. There are so many things that could have happened. It could have been washed away, it could have been crushed. But it was just meant to be. I mean what are the chances? Finding a single ring covered in years of muck and sand in one of 1,000 manholes beneath Summers Point where Paula lives. Incredible. I was thrilled, Stanton told interviewers. Stunned. I could not believe it. She also promised Ted and her husband, that she would never let her ring out of her sight, ever again. But it does make you wonder, just how many people experience the heart-wrenching scenario of losing a ring, be it a wedding, engagement or anniversary. Apparently a huge amount of people, that's how many. A whopping 1 in 10 clumsy couples lost an engagement or wedding ring within 5 years of receiving it and not surprisingly the number one cause listed for the loss. Exactly what Paula did. More than a third go straight down the drain. So what are the other causes of missing rings? The top reason expressed was kitchen or bathroom related mishaps, 34%, while 29% said they took it off and misplaced it, while more than a quarter, 27%, said that their ring fell off their finger and they couldn't find it later. While 29% said they took it off and misplaced it, while more than a quarter, 27%, said that their ring fell off their finger and they couldn't find it later. Only 1 in 5, 18%, explained that their ring fell off when they were swimming. And just guess whether men or women are more largely at fault? Of course, the answer is. Men. Men are almost twice as likely to lose their rings than women are. In the last 5 years alone, 14% of men lost an engagement or wedding ring, while just 8% of women misplaced their rings in the same time frame. Have you lost your ring in an unusual way or are you part of the statistics? We'd also love to know if you got it back somehow.