Disney works its magic in case of missing rings

Workers dig through trash to find valuable jewelry thrown away by accident

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updated 3:45 p.m. ET April 23, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. - Walt Disney World seems to have worked its magic on a Massachusetts couple who accidentally threw away three platinum and diamond wedding rings.

While tidying up their villa as they prepared to leave the park late last week, Paul Campanale dumped a cardboard bowl, not knowing the container inside it held his wife Karen's engagement, wedding and five-year-anniversary rings.

Park employees warned the couple from Worcester, Mass., that recovering the jewelry was all but impossible. So on Friday, the Campanales and their two children loaded onto a Magical Express bus and headed to the airport.

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Back at the Wilderness Lodge resort, executive housekeeper Drew Weaver realized that trash from the Campanales' villa had not reached the industrial-size compactor yet. He and seven other volunteers donned protective clothing, emptied a parking lot bin and waded through bag after bag of rubbish to find the rings. And they did.

Paul Campanale, 37, a chemist, received the good news on his cell phone and Weaver met the family to deliver the rings. Karen Campanale, 35, a teacher, said she was shocked by the find.

"That's not the first time we've gone through trash — oh, no," Weaver said. "We don't always find things. Many times we come up empty. But we didn't this time."