A Queens woman thought all hope was lost when her 1.3-carat engagement ring worth $13,600 went missing in the sands of Robert Moses State Park — and joked on Facebook that “some broke metal-detector dude” might pocket it.
She was half-right.
There was a guy with a metal detector, but it was a retired city firefighter who did the right thing.
Erin Carrozzo, of Flushing, told The Post she was devastated when her “pride and joy” went missing along with her diamond-encrusted wedding band on Aug. 4, shortly after removing them to apply sunscreen at the beach.
“I never took those rings off except to take a shower on vacation or at the beach,” the 41-year-old mom said. “The funny thing is, I wondered if I should leave them at home that morning.”
Carrozzo frantically searched the sand, but her bling was nowhere to be found. Heartbroken, she reported the rings missing and left the beach empty-handed.
“I waited until I was in the car to break down,” she said. “I kept saying to my husband [Peter], I felt bereft.”
But retired FDNY firefighter Mike Cogan, 66, detected the ring two days after it was lost.
“It was absolutely spectacular,” he said. “Happy as I was, I realized the poor woman who lost this had to be devastated.”
He wrote about his “find of a lifetime” on Craigslist, but no one responded. That’s when he posted a picture of the wedding band in a Facebook post Aug. 21 that was shared a few hundred times.
Eventually, a couple of Carrozzo’s Facebook friends tagged her in the post — and she instantly recognized the ring.
Carrozzo phoned Cogan and explained that she had lost both rings, but was happy to get the band back. Only then did Cogan reveal he had found the engagement ring, too.
“I don’t have a lot of stuff of value,” she said. “I couldn’t believe how amazing it was.”
Thursday night, the pair finally got together to exchange the rings at the spot in the sand where Cogan found them. The retiree instructed her to close her eyes as he laid both bands in her hands.
“I asked, ‘Doesn’t that feel good?’ ” he said. “She opened her eyes and got all teary.”
Carrozzo, who celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary this year, still can’t believe her rings are back in their rightful place on her finger.
“It’s so encouraging knowing there’s good people out there in the world,” she said. “Someone could have easily done the wrong thing.”