Man Accidentally Donates Engagement Ring

April 19, 2012 4:00 PM

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$3500, Engagement Ring, Georgia, Goodwill, Lost

Donating to the needy is a great thing. But as a man in Georgia found out, you better check your pockets first.

Josh Miller took some clothes down to Goodwill. One of the items was a black and gray ski jacket he barely wore anymore. Hidden inside one of the pockets was a $3,500 engagement ring for his girlfriend Cara Epstein.

Miller donated the clothes on Monday, he didn’t realize the mistake until Wednesday.

“I was just shaking,” he told WSB-TV. “I didn’t know what to do, or what to say, or how to feel. I called Cara immediately, but she thought I was joking.”

Store staff said the coat probably hit the racks at the store Monday or Tuesday.

“The coat just happened to be one of the things that I picked out of the closet and set in the pile to go to Goodwill,” Miller, 31, told WSB-TV.

The square princess cut center diamond is set in white gold and surrounded by other smaller diamonds.

The couple is hoping a good Samaritan will identify the ring and return it.

“We just finally, for once, found the perfect engagement ring, and we were very excited,” he said.

Miller had hidden the ring for two months and was waiting to ask Epstien’s dad for permission.

“It’s a setback, but we’ll move forward. I’m trying to be positive,” Epstein said.

“She’s a school teacher and I’m a landscaper,” Miller said. “We obviously don’t make enough money to afford something like that on a regular basis. It was a very large purchase for us, and I just made a very bad mistake.”