If only clouds and rain had hung over the beach on Dec. 11 in Costa Rica, like the forecast had predicted, none of this would have happened.
Sure, Doug Cotty and his fiancée, Michele Arias, might still have decided to hang out on Playa Chamán, and might still have spotted the baby olive ridley sea turtles nesting in the sand.
But the Charlotte couple would never have needed to borrow a bottle of sunscreen from the hotel staff. She never would have needed to take off her engagement ring to apply that lotion and never would have tucked the ring into the front pocket on Cotty's tank top for safe keeping.
Yet, within moments, as the couple hurried to join the growing group of tourists marveling at the turtles, Cotty did something he never would have done if it had been cloudy and rainy: he stripped off his tank top, hung it from a tree branch and slathered himself with sunscreen.
And suddenly, the ring he'd put on her finger just three days earlier — a custom-made piece built around a one-carat diamond in his mother's family for generations — was no longer in his pocket.
At least a half hour passed before Arias' stomach tied itself into a knot as she realized they'd lost track of the treasured token. Another hour passed before they gave up digging in the scorching-hot sand, Arias with blisters on her knees and feet. Another hour before both became resigned to the fact that someone had probably spotted it and snatched it. Another before Arias was able to stop crying.
The next day, they flew back to Charlotte in a daze. They were happy to be engaged and trying to look on the bright side, but there's no question the loss stung. So too did the fact that Cotty hadn't had the ring appraised or insured. As did forking over $4,400 for a new stone a few weeks later.
Then on Jan. 9 — nearly a month after it dropped onto the sand in a foreign country — Arias received a Facebook message from a man she'd never met before. Five words and six exclamation points: "I just found your ring!!!!!!"
