NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — MTA workers jumped to action on Thursday to help a woman reunite with her precious 25-year-old ring that fell through an East Harlem subway grate.
Myra Lora and her boyfriend were walking on Lexington Avenue near 103rd Street on Thursday evening when she took her glove off. The movement shook her ring off, and it landed miraculously on an elevated shelf between spaces in the grate.
Despite being able to see it, the couple were unable to reach the ring themselves, and they reached out to the MTA.
“This is another example of our employees going above and beyond for New Yorkers,” NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said. “We all see platform controllers, conductors, and bus operators, but there are a lot of people behind the scenes who we don’t always see who keep the city moving and care about New Yorkers.”
NYC Transit Maintenance of Way employees responded to the scene about an hour later, lifted the grate and grabbed the ring.
Lora was tearful when Latasha Goodall, a light maintainer, placed the ring back on her finger. “I’m very happy. [The] names, my children” Lora tells her in a video of the retrieval.
“I’m so happy we were able to reunite Myra with her most precious jewel,” Goodall said. “I feel so lucky to experience these moments when these incidents occur, and Myra’s graciousness and appreciation made reuniting her with that ring so special.”
The 70-year-old Bronx resident has had the 18kt gold ring for a quarter century, and it is engraved with the names of her three children.
“This is such an overwhelming moment for me because this ring has been on my finger for 25 years and has extraordinary emotional value to me. No words can describe my happiness at being reunited with this ring, and I am so grateful to the New York City Transit workers who returned it to me.”