Woman gets wedding band back thanks to boy and power of social media

A woman who lost her wedding ring on Saturday went to extreme measures to find it. But it was a sharp-eyed five-year-old, an honest mom and the sharing power of Facebook that saved the day.

Charmaine Woodland was walking her daughter's dog with a friend on a trail in Conception Bay South when she noticed the wedding ring she had been wearing for the past 44 years was missing from her finger.

"It's always there, then I discover that my ring was gone ... I was really upset about it." 

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Woodland retraced her steps but didn't see it, and then went home and called some stores where she had been shopping earlier in the day.

It gets worse

When the ring hadn't turned up by Sunday morning, Woodland knew what she had to do — and it wasn't pretty.

While on the trail, she had used a tissue to collect doggie-doo, then bagged it and threw it in the bin.

My daughter said to me, that's the positive side of social media. And it is.- Charmaine Woodland

"So, I said 'you know I don't care who is around or who sees me, but I am checking in that barrel, I am not leaving the wedding ring if it's in that barrel.'"

Woodland rummaged through the trash and spotted the bag she had tossed the day before.

"And I took it up and I squeezed the bag and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, please don't break!'" she told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show.

"It was kind of funny even at the time, even though I was very desperate obviously." But the ring wasn't there.

'It just caught on fire'

A friend encouraged Woodland to post about it on social media.

"It just caught on fire, it went right through Facebook, then I get a message from a lady in Holyrood."

That message was from Melissa Noftle, whose five-year-old son Cameron had picked up the ring at a store in Mount Pearl.

She filled up and started crying.- Melissa Noftle

"[Cameron] was ecstatic, he was so happy, he said, 'Mommy can I give it to the lady when she comes?'"

Woodland didn't waste anytime driving to Holyrood to collect the ring.

"We opened the door, he had the ring in his hand and he said, 'I think this belongs to you' and he opened his hand," said Noftle.

"She filled up and started crying."​

Woodland had a thank-you card and a reward for Cameron.

"I read the card to him and I said it was 'so kind and so honest' and how I was so sad just a day ago and he made my day, and he's my hero today," said Woodland.

"It was really nice, he's super, a super little boy."

"My daughter said to me, that's the positive side of social media," said Woodland. "And it is."