Sadness Turns to Gladness for Fla. Couple Whose Engagement Ring Was Accidentally Donated to Goodwill

The young Florida couple that made national headlines last month when their $6,000 engagement ring was accidentally donated to Goodwill was back in the news on Friday when a local jeweler came to the rescue with a replacement ring.

Early last month, Corey Todd's marriage proposal plans earned national attention — including a segment on the TODAY show — because the engagement ring he had hidden in the pocket of an old pair of dress pants cluttering a guest room closet was accidentally donated to charity.

Todd had hidden the ring for nearly a month and was planning a July 7 proposal. But, on July 2, girlfriend Jacelyn Penton gave the dress pants and other old clothes to Goodwill.

A day later, Todd noticed the missing clothes and realized the ring was gone with them. “I was at a loss for words,” Todd told the News Herald. “My stomach dropped.”

The couple made an attempt to recover the ring from Goodwill, but it couldn't be located and no one turned it in.

The story of Corey and Jacelyn tugged the heartstrings of people from all over the country. TODAY show hosts Willie Geist and Tamron Hall went to bat for the couple by dedicating a large part of their July 8 opening segment to the couple's plight. Todd had saved up for three years to buy the engagement ring.

Said Hall, "Let's try to help him out. Someone's got the pants. We're rooting for you, Corey."

“I feel for [him],” said Geist. “That’s painful.”

Despite the media attention, the ring was never found and Todd was forced to postpone his proposal to Penton, the love of his life since the first day he met her in middle school 20 years earlier.

This past week, the couple's sadness turned to gladness when Panama City's Maharaja's gifted the couple with a brand new engagement ring.

On Friday, Todd and a news crew from a local NBC-TV affiliate surprised Penton at her workplace, HealthSouth Emerald Coast Rehabilitation Hospital. The nervous suitor finally got to propose — with the cameras rolling. "The hard part is getting down on one knee, and not passing out," Todd told WJHG.

During the heart-wrenching previous month, Penton admitted she was saddened by the real possibility that she may never experience the moment of an actual proposal. "I always knew we wanted to marry each other," she said. "It just really hurt me that I probably [would] never feel that way. And I did, today!"

The couple is planning a September 2015 wedding.