Lorraine’s lost ring found in rubble of her kitchen

David and Lorraine Warrens were on holiday when their home in Eaton Road, Leigh, was broken into and set alight.

The scene of devastation

Before going on holiday, Lorraine, 44, had taken her engagement ring off and left it in the kitchen as it needed to be repaired.

Seeing the state of the kitchen when they returned, the family didn’t hold out much hope for finding the ring.

When a Leigh-based demolition company was called in to tear down the home, Mr Warrens, 47, decided to see if the company could locate a “needle in a haystack”.

He said: “One of the stones had come out of the ring and she put it in a box in the kitchen.

“When we came back from holiday and saw the damage,I said the ring has gone, thinking it would never be found. When I spoke to the guys, they said ‘you know the needle in the haystack? We’ve found it’.”

Richard Fox, owner of Fox Demolition, said supervisor Mark Merrell spotted the ring in the rubble and managed to return it to the astounded couple.

Mr Merrell said: “We took our time. The client did tell us roughly where the ring would have been and we saw something silvery, then movedabit of rubble, and it was sitting there.

”It was lucky.I suppose we were meant to find it.”

The couple, who got engaged in 1989 and married in 1992, moved into the house in 1999 and have three children, Nicholas, 15, Daniel, 13, and Holly, 11.

Mr Warrens said he was blown away to get the ring back.

He said: “I said it tongue-in-cheek. I never thought they’d find it. They’ve been brilliant.”

The family are now living in rented accommodation as the semi-detached house won’t be rebuilt for about a year.

Mr Warrens said the most upsetting thing was losing a lifetime of mementos and precious photographs.

He added: “My daughter has just gone up to Year 7 and at the end of term they all had their school shirts signed.

“She was devastated to lose that.”