Couple Thankful for Wedding Ring Rescue, Men Behind It

Like most of us when asked what we are most thankful for each Thanksgiving season, things like family, friends and good health top our lists. But this year, Tina and Bernie Fornadley of Niguel Shores in Dana Point have added some interesting acquaintances to their list—a crew from the South Coast Water District.

Just how did SCWD’s collection systems supervisor Ernie Garcia, system operator Justin Davis, senior operations and maintenance technician Artie Garcia and closed circuit TV operator Jimmy Gomez land on the Fornadley’s Thanksgiving list? It all started on an early morning in September when Tina woke to find her precious diamond engagement ring missing from her finger.

After hours of frantic searching, Tina’s husband Bernie asked, “Are you sure you didn’t flush it?”

Tina paused and thought back to the early morning hours and remembered getting up to use the bathroom at about 5 a.m. She recalled that during the night she had moved her ring to her pinky finger because it was bugging her.

“I never take my ring off but it felt itchy that night so I moved it to another finger. I realized that it must have slipped off when I got up to use the restroom.”

So by the process of elimination—and funnily enough, during the process of another kind of elimination—the Fornadleys realized the ring had most likely gone down the toilet.

By the time they came to this conclusion, it was 9 a.m. and in the four hours that had passed, the ring could be long gone.

Bernie tried, to no avail, vacuuming the toilet drain with a shop vac, hoping that by some miracle the ring had not made it to the main drain.

The couple has been married since August of 2000 and that ring—nearly 4 carats in weight—was the ring Bernie presented to Tina when he proposed.

Both were terribly distraught, Tina even more so after calling the water district to inquire whether they would have any recommendations to offer.

“At first they said there was nothing we could do,” said Tina. “I was so upset.”

With panic and the obvious sound of desperation in her voice as Tina tried desperately to hold back tears, the SCWD customer service representative on the other end of the line told Tina she would refer the problem to Ernie.

Ernie promptly called back to tell the Fornadleys he would be sending a crew shortly.

“My first thought when I heard Tina’s story was that their home is in a low flow area so if it did go into the main line there would be a chance to catch it,” said Ernie. “I told them not to use the sinks, showers or toilets and we would do our best.”

Justin installed a debris trap—a screen inside the 8-inch diameter pipe where it flows into at a manhole downstream—to hopefully catch any heavy debris. He also brought a hydraulic line cleaner along to try to flush the ring into the trap.

“I was confident that if it was in there we’d catch it,” said Justin. “I put two traps in just to be sure.”

After that Artie, Jimmy and Ernie put a video camera inside the main line and ran the camera 176 feet down the line but couldn’t see the ring on the video monitor. Justin also cleaned the line from downstream up a couple times that day.

Despite their efforts, the crew had no luck locating the ring and they packed up their truck and left.

“We had the cleanest line in Dana Point,” said Bernie, “but we still had no ring.”

Ernie suggested that Bernie call a plumber to video the line from the house. After about the third call Bernie placed, he got someone to respond. Bernie pulled the toilet off its mount in preparation for the plumber’s arrival.

The plumber told the couple that he checked the private line between the house and the main line and gave them a grave explanation—or according to Bernie, more of a sales pitch—saying the ring was most likely there but their line was clogged and had root blockage.

“The plumber had us thinking that to get the ring back the line would have had to be dug up and completely replaced, to the tune of thousands of dollars,” Bernie said. “He had us thinking that the expense to get the ring may not be worth it and he also put my wife in a panic, fearful that the pipes were busting and full of roots and our house was in jeopardy of a future flood. Incidentally, our private lines turned out to be just fine.”

Still heartbroken, Bernie reached out to Ernie once again.

Ernie was with his boss Joe McDivitt when Bernie’s call came in. Joe encouraged Ernie to go back for another try.

The next day the SCWD crew returned and replaced the debris trap for another go at it and repeated the same procedures—again to no avail.

“Next we brought a portable camera, ran it down the toilet drain and didn’t see the ring after quite a few attempts,” said Ernie. “We were just about to tell Bernie that there was no hope. Then in a last ditch effort we finally spotted it on camera and began trying to flush it down the line with a high pressure, 1000-psi jetter hose. The ring still wouldn’t come out but the sight of it gave us our second wind.”

The crew went in through another sewer line access point with a portable jetter. It didn’t work. They tried flushing all the toilets in the house at the same time and turned on all the faucets at once. The ring still wouldn’t budge.

They kept trying and watched on camera as the ring started to be nudged along slowly by the water pressure and the movement of the camera.

“Once the ring was pushed into the main drain, we thought we stood a good chance of retrieving it,” said Ernie. “When we first videoed the main, once again we couldn’t see the ring but we kept flushing the line.”

Justin, who was waiting down at the manhole cover on the street, saw a pile of foam accumulating in his debris trap, but no ring. Someone on the street was doing laundry and soap suds were coming through the main line, he said.

“As soon as we shut off the water pressure to the basket and the water calmed, I looked in and there it was,” said Justin.

Cheers rang out and high fives were exchanged all around.

Artie said that in his 27 years with SCWD he had taken a couple of similar calls, but this was the first time he’d actually found a ring.

Back to basic court!

The Senta Municipal Assembly last meeting of the members accepted the proposal for a decision under which initiated the Zentai Primary Court to restore order to Zenta and other officers along the towns residents do not have to constantly Subotica travel for legal affairs, because so much time and money. The subject experts say, because of the Tisza is a natural geographical unit, and citizens living in the region need to assert their rights, the court will see restoration feasible, provided there is political will to do so.
The Senta is a court building in Subotica, Senta Court Orders Base Unit works, so the earlier part of the implementation of activities, extra-judicial proceedings, civil lawsuits may continue to remain in Senta. The proportion of criminal justice, however, entirely moved to Subotica. And this is precisely what the main problem is caused by the public, since a procedure several times forced to travel to Subotica. In you want to change the Senta municipality by the Municipal Assembly of the Hungarian Civic Alliance proposal adopted the initiative, under which initiates the primary court to restore the activity of which three officers saved the village, Ada, Magyarkanizsa and Senta municipality hug up.
If the authorities listened to our request with a great assist in Senta and the neighborhood residents to explain our paper Commenting Racz, Laszlo Szabo, the initiative proposer of the Municipal Assembly President, adding the government is the public position of ease, as if the people arrange their affairs with the smallest Subotica always have to go, lots of travel and additional costs. As the representative body operating under the legal issues committee chairman said he had a case, when a total of eighteen people traveled Zenta Subotica, including the judge, assessor, public prosecutor as well. Everyone was Senta, Subotica was the scene of the trial only. However, Senta anyway, it should be maintained in the court building, so the recovery would not have almost no extra cost. I think not only in the three villages will benefit by being re-establish basic courts, but also its Subotica, as well tehermentesíthetnénk with the local court explained László Rácz Szabó.
The initiative Famous Ivan's lawyer, Senta court the former leader is fully in agreement, even as worded, specifically necessary for the court to restore the primary idea in his view already expressed when the reform was announced, but it still did not add the appropriate political power.
Judicial settlements along the Tisza, a forensic level of linking the inevitable step because of current judicial network is not at all rational. A lot of citizens in judicial proceedings must Subotica travel costs and a significant loss of time explaining to them famous Ivan, who said that the initiative is completely unrealistic idea. As we know, the Tisza is a natural geographical unit, which is why there is a need for citizens to assert their rights, so I feel like I restore any case, the court is possible.

Problem is 'more hydraulic than mechanical'

Q: We have a manual transmission 2000 Honda Civic with 36,000 kilometres. The car is well maintained: a complete tune-up twice a year. Recently, we drove on Highway 15 toward Montreal at 90 km/h. To give precedence to a car entering the highway, I lightly applied the brakes. To my astonishment, the brake pedal was all loose and went completely down to the floor. I changed fast into first gear to slow the car down and applied the handbrake. The mechanic at our garage replaced the brakes, but it seems nobody can explain how -without any warning -they could completely fail.

Do you have any explanation?

- Margrit Gluckman

A: Both mechanics we spoke with suggest a problem with the master cylinder could be to blame.

"The problem here seems to be more hydraulic than mechanical," said Marc Lebrun, co-owner of Total Auto Service in Pierrefonds."Afailureinthe brake pads or discs will not cause the pedal to go down completely to the floor. However, a leak in the hose or malfunction of the caliper or wheel cylinder will cause the pedal to go to the floor."

Pierre Brunet, a co-owner of Autotech Performance, also in Pierrefonds, says he has seen this happen before.

"A failure in the master cylinder would cause that type of problem," he said.

He provided the following steps to help determine what the issue could be: "Try,without the car running, applying the brake. Put your foot down and moderate the pressure between firm and loose to see if the brake pedal will not sink. If it does sink, it's time to condemn the master cylinder," Brunet said.

He added that even if the mechanic who repaired your car could not give you a reason for the brake failure, and if the pedal did sink in the test, you would be better off replacing the master cylinder for "your peace of mind."

Lebrun also had another suggestion.

"Given the age of the car,I would recommend a brake flush to clean out the hydraulic system," Lebrun said.

"Lastly, I would like to add that a complete tune-up does not necessarily mean that the brake hydraulics were verified."