HAVERHILL, MASS. (WHDH) - Members of the Haverhill Department of Public Works were called for help Wednesday after an anniversary band fell off a teacher’s finger and down a storm drain.
Therese Schroeder was taking her lunch break from the new teacher orientation in the parking lot when her $20,000 ring went missing,
I wanted to sit on some steps but people were already there so I figured I would socially distance and sit on the curb,” she explained. “So I sat down I was eating my lunch, and I felt my ring slip right off my finger.”
The ring fell right into the only storm drain in the entire school parking lot.
Her new colleagues immediately tried to help and called on the Haverhill DPW.
“When the technician got there it was too deep there was too much sludge he wasn’t able to do it on his own. So we needed to order a different truck that had a water pump so they could pump the water out of the storm drain and we were going to have to climb down there and search for the ring,” Schroeder said. “We all got our gloves on because we all had gloves in our cars and we started sifting through the sludge.”
Hours later, she had her 20th-anniversary band back in her possession. It was covered in sludge but thankfully intact.
Schroeder said she is thankful for everyone’s help.
“Everyone I ran to at Public Works was so professional and empathetic and it was just a great introduction to the community of Haverhill,” she said. “I just feel very proud that I’m going to be a part of the Haverhill Public School system. ”
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)