Ring found after 4 days in Fiesta park

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Needle in a haystack is one thing, but a diamond ring lost in the middle of Balloon Fiesta park is a whole other story.

That is exactly what one couple was facing after the wife lost her wedding ring during her husband's gas balloon launch.

Philip Bryant took off Saturday night in the America’s Challenge gas balloon race. Shortly after the launch his wife Linda realized something was wrong.

“I took my gloves off driving the car and i went 'where is my ring?’” Linda said.

It was gone, lost somewhere on the launch field, which is the size of 54 football fields.

“I really thought it was gone forever,” Linda said.

Linda, who helps crew for her husband, did not tell him about the loss until Tuesday when he landed in Nebraska.

The next day the couple drove back to balloon fiesta and started looking for the three band sparkler.

Soon workers from parks and recreation got involved searching on their hands and knees.

They had a good idea the ring would be somewhere in their launch space from Saturday night.

The Bryant’s say a group of five or six quickly turned into a dozen then 20 and even more and soon enough somebody found the ring.

Richard Ruble is President of the Albuquerque Metal Detectors Association. The non-profit deployed half a dozen skilled metal detector operators in the search.

After about 15 minutes he heard a different beeping sound and saw a picture of a ring pop up on his screen.

“I got excited I thought well it's worth looking at so I got down in the grass and I saw a ring,” Ruble said.

He picked it up and yelled out “I found it.”

Nobody was more shocked than the Bryant’s.

“We are eternally grateful,” Linda said.

The Houston couple has been married three years. Philip, who's been coming to the fiesta for 20 years and says he couldn't believe the outpouring of help.

”It reaffirms your faith in other people,” Phillip said.

Amazingly the ring spent four days in the grass on the field, thousands of people probably stepped on it and over it.

Linda Bryant plans on getting the ring resized so it fits a little more snug.