Man drops engagement ring off a 118-foot bridge, but the day is saved thanks to a stranger’s extraordinary act

Trevor Van Camp was proposing to his girlfriend Danielle Jenkins on a tall bridge in Northern Michigan when something went wrong. He was kneeling down to pop the question under the Christmas lights on the SkyBridge at Boyne Mountain when the engagement ring slipped from his shaking hands. The ring fell 118 feet through the metal grate and landed in the snow far below.

“When I went to go get the ring out of the box, mind you, I’m shaken up, I look down, like not a good idea, and yeah, I dropped the ring,” Van Camp said, according to Fox News. After a moment of panic, the couple decided they had to try and find the ring no matter what.

The resort gave them permission to go down the snowy mountain to search for the ring. Van Camp and Jenkins spent two and a half hours looking for it in the snow with metal detectors. They got help from Pat Harper, who works the night shift as a snowmaking supervisor at the resort.

A last-minute discovery saved the proposal story

The couple was ready to give up around 10 p.m. after searching for hours with no luck. But right at that moment, Harper’s metal detector made a beeping sound. He moved away some snow and dirt with his hand and saw the edge of the ring sticking out of the ground.

Harper said he couldn’t believe what he had just found. He sat there for a minute in shock because finding such a small ring in all that snow seemed impossible. While this proposal had a happy ending, other romantic moments haven’t gone as planned. The couple was extremely happy when Harper showed them the ring.

“I give big props and kudos to Pat for doing that for us, because he saved the day, he really did,” Jenkins said. “It was an experience that we now have, a story to tell of our engagement.” Some couples have faced engagement surprises getting ruined unexpectedly, but this pair got their ring back. Now that Jenkins has the ring safely on her finger, the couple plans to return to the resort.

They want to come back during winter to walk across the entire SkyBridge with the Christmas lights and enjoy the full experience. Their first attempt was cut short because they had to search for the ring, but they’ll finish what they started.