PHOENIX (AP) – Just a case of plumb luck.

It took a plumber to retrieve a woman’s 7-carat diamond ring after city workers failed in efforts to flush the gem out of the pipes of a restaurant toilet.

The $78,000 engagement ring fell from Allison Berry’s hand when she flushed the toilet in the restroom of the Black Bear Diner on Jan. 14.

City workers opened a pipe outside the restaurant and continuously flushed the toilet, hoping to push the ring out to the opening.

Mike Roberts, general manager of Mr. Rooter, guided a tiny video camera into the pipe with an infrared light attached. He eventually spotted the ring just 3 feet down and 5 feet over from where it was flushed.

Then it took an hour-and-a-half of jackhammering and pipe removal before Roberts and a technician could recover the ring, eight hours after it fell in the toilet. The Mr. Rooter bill came to $5,200 and the city’s bill was $1,000.

Berry, of Eureka, Calif., and her fiance also tipped Roberts and the technician $400 each and gave $200 to a diner employee for staying late.

AP-ES-01-24-09 1449EST