Team effort to retrieve ring from drain

The search for a lost ring brought together an unlikely fellowship for a quest to the depths of a muddy North Dunedin drain.

Cutlers Real Estate property manager Andrew James had a "pretty emotional" afternoon last Friday when he accidentally dropped his friend’s wedding ring into a drain in North Rd, North East Valley.

Lucky for him, community members in the area banded together to help him get in the drain and recover it.

Dunedin man Andrew James stands in a North Dunedin drain holding his friend’s wedding ring. PHOTOS: SUPPLIED

Mr James said his friend had flown over from Perth, Australia to attend his wedding on March 15 and lost the ring on the dance floor.

Mr James found the ring at the venue and was about to post it back to Perth from the Gardens Post Shop when he decided to stop and grab a bagel and coffee for lunch from Beam Me Up Bagels across the road.

"I was fiddling with [the ring] while I was waiting for my bagel, dropped it, heard the clink, heard the splash," he said.

What followed was about a two-hour commotion accessing the drain and getting the ring out of it.

Mr James gets a helping hand searching for the ring.

Mr James said he and a group of passers-by, including Indian Spice North Dunedin owner Sahib Singh and a firefighter, were struggling to get the ring out for about an hour when a worker from Save Money Skips stopped and helped them open the drain.

He said that was when things got messy and he was lowered into the drain by the others.

"They were holding me down while I was head first in the drain trying to shovel out all the water with a bucket."

When the drain water was ankle height he hopped in and grabbed the ring as well as $2.80 for his troubles.