After dumping diamonds, woman digs through trash to get them back

A Massachusetts woman gives new meaning to finding a diamond in the rough.

Cecelia Callahan took off her diamond jewelry to clean it only to carelessly toss it in the garbage. Her journey to find her jewels literally stunk, but the payoff was well worth it.

Last week, in preparation for an anniversary date, Callahan dropped her six carats worth of diamonds into an ultrasonic cleaner.

Her pieces included some with sentimental value.

"I've had this since I was 10 years old," she said. "This belonged to my grandmother. This is my wedding ring."

After a good cleaning, she left the diamonds out to dry on a paper towel and forgot about them.

"I heard the trash men coming, and I said, 'Oh, I have one more bag to go out.'"

Thanks to some good advice from a neighbor, Callahan was able to find out who picks up her trash and where it was sent.

"I was starting to get unfocused because I was intimidated by the amount of trash," she said. "It was high, taller than me.

"I was so excited I gave my husband a big kiss," she said.

More importantly, she says she learned a valuable lesson about how to treat people, a lesson she calls priceless.

Officials say about a half dozen similar searches have taken place there in the past 20 years.