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SAN DIEGO — City workers Tuesday helped a couple track down a $30,000 wedding ring that had been accidentally tossed in the trash.

When the couple realized the wife’s ring had been thrown away, they immediately called the City of San Diego. Environmental Services Department workers used GPS tracking to determine that the trash truck that had serviced the couple’s neighborhood was already back at the Miramar Landfill.

Once the couple arrived at the landfill, they were taken to the site where the truck had dropped its load of trash.

“It took all of four minutes to find the ring so that was pretty quick,” city spokesman Jose Ysea said. “The employees who helped them look through the load were just ecstatic that they were able to find it, especially so quickly. They said the couple was just ecstatic.”

Ysea said the process of digging through trash to find a tossed treasure at the landfill is like searching for a needle in a haystack and usually takes people three to four hours — if they’re lucky enough to find it at all.

“For them to find it in four minutes, that’s incredible,” Ysea said.