A young bride-to-be is beaming today after police on Long Island found her $15,000 engagement ring, which she dropped into a pond while feeding ducks.
“This is all I wanted for Christmas,” laughed Meg Hogerty, 24, of Chicago,
Hogerty was visiting on Nov. 28 with her fiancé John Fitzpatrick, 26, a former Long Islander, when he took her to Heckscher Pond in his hometown of Huntington.
She was wearing a platinum engagement band with a square 1.6 carat Princess cut stone, surrounded by 5 smaller diamonds.
The custom-designed ring was precious to Hogerty because it was a symbol of their courtship, which centered around a baseball diamond.
Fitzpatrick, a Yankee fan, jumped into her car after a Chicago Cub game, introduced himself, confessed his infatuation and asked her out. Later, he proposed to her and gave her the ring on the same spot.
Hogerty a technical consultant, shivered when she recalled losing her ring.
“It was so cold that my finger shrunk and when I launched a piece of bread, my ring went right in,” said Hogerty.
“I went right in the water. I was crying hysterically,” said Hogerty. “John told me to get out of the pond, he kept telling me the ring was insured.”
Fitzpatrick, a sales rep, went out and bought a metal detector, and they returned and resumed the search, without success.
Members of the Suffolk police Marine Bureau tried, but they, too, were unsuccessful. The heartbroken Hogerty and her fiancé returned to Chicago.
Fitzpatrick put in a claim to the insurance company. When he got a check, he ordered a duplicate from the same jeweler.
On Saturday, Fitzpatrick picked up the new ring. An hour later, Hogerty learned cops had found the original after workers moved up a maintenance schedule and drained the pond.
Fitzpatrick returned the second ring to the insurance company. When they get married on Sept. 16, she will be wearing the original.
“John told me that, from now on, when I feed the ducks, I should keep my hand in my pocket,” she giggled.