NYPD Saves Failed Brooklyn Bridge Marriage Proposal
Two New York police officers helped a Canadian couple after a horrible slip.
— -- A romantic proposal had its own happy ending thanks to the New York Police Department when the engagement ring fell through the wooden planks of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Olivia Fader and girlfriend Mal Harris of Halifax, Nova Scotia, had planned a vacation to New York City with two friends last month.
Unbeknownst to Fader, Harris planned to propose while they attached a lock with their initials to a bridge railing. On another lock, with the engraved words, "Don't Freak Out," Harris attached a gold cut emerald diamond ring. But as Harris used a key to pop the lock open, the ring fell between two planks of the boardwalk.
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Fader wrote in her blog this weekend, "While the duration of time the ring sat there for is wholly unknown to us -- time having been so distorted that afternoon -- it was long enough for Mal to think, 'Huh. That will be tricky to pick up.' No sooner had this thought occurred, the ring slipped through the space and fell into oblivion."
As they watched in horror when the ring landed about 40 feet below on a platform that is inaccessible to the public, their friend fetched two NYPD officers, Matthew Manley and William DeFazio.
"After much deliberation about their method, they walked back to Brooklyn, drove across the bridge, and stopped Saturday afternoon New York traffic so they could park and make their descent," Fader wrote in her blog. "A few anxiety ridden minutes passed, and finally Officer Manley emerged with the ring in hand. Giving us the thumbs up, they then drove back to Brooklyn, and we met them to make the exchange."
When the officers met the couple, Manley asked Harris, "So, did she say yes?"
"Mal replied, 'I think so?' Manley promptly high fived her."
Fader told ABC News that the couple posted their story on her blog, "because there is constantly negative attention towards the LGBTQ community."
"We want to share our story to set the precedent for successful, happy couples everywhere," Fader said.
The couple hope to get married August 2016.
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