While most people consider Friday the 13th to be an unlucky date, that’s not the case for April Schmitt.

The day, however, started with some bad luck.

Returning from a business trip from Los Angeles on Friday, June 13, the Sewickley resident grabbed her luggage off the baggage carousel at the Pittsburgh International Airport. Her left hand got caught between the bag and the edge of the carousel — which dislodged the diamond engagement ring.

“I felt a pinch and jumped back and grabbed my bag. It wasn’t until I was in the Starbucks drive-thru (in Moon), when I felt something sharp on my hand,” Schmitt said. “I looked and there were just the four prongs and no diamond. I couldn’t believe it. I have been wearing that ring for over 30 years.”

Schmitt rushed back to the airport. She was crawling on the floor near the carousel with her cellphone flashlight, trying to reach down between the steel plates on the carousel when an airport employee noticed and alerted maintenance.

Tom Riordan, a stationary engineer with 20 years of experience at the airport, helps maintain the carousels and baggage system. He and electrician Steve Turkaly, also a 20-year airport veteran, were among the first staff members involved in the search. A team searched inside the carousel, crawling on their hands and knees inside and under the track.

Riordan said his immediate thought was empathy for Schmitt. He said it is not unusual for passengers to leave or lose items and the airport employees do everything they can to reunite the items with their owners.

“We were willing to do whatever we could to help her,” Riordan said. “I could tell by her face she was stressed. And she was persistent that she was going to find her diamond.”

Between 600 and 1,000 bags travel on Carousel B daily.

“It is part of our job every day to take care of customers and help passengers,” Turkaly said. “My first thought was, let’s help this lady. We are going to help her find her diamond.”

Schmitt showed the employees where she retrieved her luggage. She continued using her cellphone flashlight to search for the diamond and became frantic when another flight’s bags started to come through the carousel.

Later that day, stationary engineer Sean Dempsey climbed inside the carousel with a flashlight — and spotted a sparkle from the diamond.

“It was like finding a needle in the haystack for Sean,” Riordan said.

Schmitt was supposed to fly in the day before, but her flight was delayed from Los Angeles and she had to stay overnight at a hotel in Philadelphia.

“When we couldn’t originally find the diamond, I felt deflated. I didn’t cry because I think I was in shock. I think they felt so bad for me,” she said. “I called my husband and said, I still feel good that they will find it because it was Friday the 13th.”

Eric Schmitt proposed on Friday, March 13, 1992.

“After he proposed, we called both sets of parents. His parents told us they were married on a Friday the 13th, which my husband never knew,” April Schmitt said.

They married on Friday, Nov. 13, 1992.

“Maybe people will look at Friday the 13th differently now,” she said. “Friday the 13th has always been a good day for us. And it was again.”

Schmitt plans to have the diamond reset this week.

She made another trip to the airport, but not for traveling this time. She dropped off thank-you gifts for the employees who helped her.

“They said they don’t want anything, but they are true heroes,” Schmitt said. “The world is such a tumultuous, dark place at times, so to have some good news means so much.”

According to the airport, this is the second time in less than two years that its staff successfully reunited a passenger with a missing diamond. In October 2023, customer care agent April Laukaitis scoured the airport for passenger Kristen Tunno’s missing diamond from a ring her grandmother had given her. Laukaitis found it lodged between cracks in the tiles on a restroom floor.

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