'Truly a miracle.' New Hanover County sanitation workers spend hours searching for missing wedding rings

New Hanover County sanitation workers went beyond the call of duty when a woman's wedding rings were accidently thrown away.

"I was just frantic that I couldn't find my rings," Pam Smith told WECT News. "But, I knew in my heart that I had thrown them, accidentally in the trash."

Her husband, Chuck Smith, then flagged down the sanitation workers, who had picked up trash at another 25 houses.

Elliot Holliday, who was driving the sanitation truck, and his partner for the day, Kendrick Grady, called the New Hanover County landfill and told them they had an emergency.

“We called and told them the problem,” said Grady. “We just needed a flat piece of land to be able to unload the truck.”

Holliday, Grady and a team of more than half a dozen men sifted through layers of trash for hours looking for the Smiths' rings.

"It's like we went through every bag," described Grady.

Five minutes before the landfill closed, workers found the missing wedding rings.

"We went through, literally, the last bag before we found it," said Grady. "It was truly a miracle."