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Pittsburgh airport workers recover missing diamond from traveler’s engagement ring

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Pittsburgh airport workers recover missing diamond from traveler’s engagement ring


Friday the 13th lived up to its reputation for one woman passing through Pittsburgh International Airport. She lost the diamond from her engagement ring, but she wasn’t unlucky for long.   

After a stressful 17 days of work around downtown Los Angeles, April Schmitt was making the flight on June 12 to come back home to Pittsburgh.

Schmitt had to deal with a series of flight delays, missed connections and an overnight stay in an airport hotel, but she finally made it back to Pittsburgh on Friday, June 13.

Woman loses diamond in baggage carousel 

However, that was just the start of some bad luck. While standing at carousel B, Schmitt reached for her suitcase, but her hand got stuck. 

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“As I went to retrieve my bag from the carousel, my hand got stuck between the suitcase and the edge of the carousel. It pinched my hand, so I pulled my hand back really quickly,” she said.

In a state of shock, she walked away with her suitcase, but about 30 minutes later, when she was almost home, her ring finger felt different.

“I looked down and my ring was without a diamond,” she said. 

There were four empty prongs where the center diamond of her engagement ring should be. 

“It was devastating. I mean, I literally felt sick to my stomach as soon as I realized,” she said. 

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She drove back to the airport and began looking. 

“I came in and I immediately started looking all around here, on the floor,” Schmitt said.

Airport workers join the search

Shortly after, four airport authority employees from the maintenance department joined in the search.

Stationary engineer Tom Riordan said the baggage carousel is “a labyrinth of steel.” 

Pittsburgh International Airport workers spent hours trying to find a diamond that had come loose from a woman’s engagement ring. 

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(Photo: KDKA)


They all spent 90 minutes searching and crawling everywhere, even on the baggage carousel. They even pulled up some panels to look inside.

“Yeah, typical day,” said electrician Steve Turkaly with a laugh. 

Despite their best efforts, Schmitt left for home again, still heartbroken.

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Multiple flights arrived that day, and there were lots of suitcases for those passengers, but the airport employees didn’t give up. Four hours later, Schmitt got the call, telling her they found the one-and-a-quarter carat diamond.

“Two paint sticks taped together, scraping dirt from underneath the carousel, that’s how they actually found it,” Riordan said.

“Literally, my jaw dropped. I was ecstatic. I just couldn’t get to the airport quickly enough,” said Schmitt.

“It really felt good, I mean to see the expression on her face n’at, it made it all worth it,” Turkaly said.

“It restored my faith in humanity.” 

It’s a diamond with 34 years of meaning to Schmitt. Her husband proposed to her with it on Friday, March 13, and they got married on Friday, Nov. 13, 1992.  Now, after Friday, June 13, 2025, she’s counting the unluckiest day as her luckiest of all.

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“It restored my faith in humanity, honestly,” she said.

“These men didn’t know me at all. They knew nothing about how long I’ve been married. They knew nothing about my husband or the stone or the sentimental value or the economic value, but that didn’t matter; they were just committed to doing the right thing,” she added. 

If you also lose something at Pittsburgh International Airport, call customer service, which catalogs what’s lost and found, at 412-472-3525.

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Man’s body found underneath trailer behind former Shop ‘n Save in Carrick

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Man’s body found underneath trailer behind former Shop ‘n Save in Carrick



Pittsburgh Police detectives are investigating after a man’s body was found underneath a trailer behind the former Shop ‘n Save store in the city’s Carrick neighborhood.

Pittsburgh Public Safety said late Monday night that detectives from the Violent Crime division responded to the area of Amanda Street and Wynoka Street in Carrick after a man’s body was found around 8:30 p.m.

Public Safety said the man’s body was found underneath a trailer and that he was pronounced dead by medics at the scene.

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Pittsburgh Police detectives are investigating after a man’s body was found underneath a trailer in the city’s Carrick neighborhood on Monday night.

Pittsburgh Public Safety


A photo provided by Pittsburgh Public Safety shows officers surrounding a taped off area and what appears to be a refrigerated trailer parked at the loading dock along Amanda Street behind the former Brownsville Shop n’ Save, which closed its doors last month

No details surrounding the circumstances of the man’s death were provided by Public Safety, who said that the cause and the manner of the man’s death will be determined by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

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The man’s identity has not been released.

Public Safety said the investigation into the man’s death is “ongoing.”



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Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County

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Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County



In the early 1960s, the peregrine falcon population declined so sharply that the raptors weren’t even nesting in Pennsylvania. But now, the National Aviary says a record number have been counted in Allegheny County.

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The National Aviary says six peregrine falcons were recorded in the county during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The nation’s longest-running citizen science project collects data on bird populations for ornithologists, the aviary says. It also plays a role in guiding conservation action, like what was needed to bring peregrine falcons back from the brink of extinction. 

Because of the use of DDT, peregrine falcons were no longer nesting in the state of Pennsylvania by the early 1960s, the aviary said. But after the harmful pesticide, which negatively affects reproduction rates in birds, was banned in 1972, conservation efforts have helped the peregrine falcon rebound. It was removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999 and Pennsylvania’s list in 2021. 

The record number of peregrine falcons in Allegheny County is thanks in part to the nest on top of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. For the past two years, biologists with the Pennsylvania Game Commission have banded chicks born in the nest. Three were banded last year, and two the year before that. 

People can watch Carla and Ecco raise their family in the nest on a livestream camera run by the National Aviary. Carla laid her first egg of the breeding season on March 16 last year, so the aviary says the start of another season isn’t too far away. 

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Police investigating two late-night McKeesport shootings

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Police investigating two late-night McKeesport shootings



Police are investigating two shootings that happened less than 30 minutes apart on Sunday night in McKeesport. 

Two men were injured in the shootings that happened at two different locations. 

Allegheny County Police said that the department’s Homicide Unit was requested and responded to assist in the shooting investigations.

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According to police, officers were first called to the area of Lysle Boulevard and Huey Street, where a man was shot just after 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night.

KDKA’s news crew at the scene saw the outside of the Sunoco gas station along Lysle Boulevard lined with crime tape and what appeared to be blood on the front door of the store. 

Police are investigating two late-night shootings that happened in McKeesport on Sunday. Officers were called to a gas station along Lysle Boulevard and an alleyway near Madison Avenue around 30 minutes apart Sunday night.It’s unclear at this time if the two shootings are related or connected.

KDKA Photojournalist Bryce Lutz

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Police also had an area taped off around the intersection of nearby 5th Avenue and Huey Street.  The man who was shot in the area was taken to the hospital in stable condition.

Police said they are also investigating a shooting that happened in the area of an alleyway behind Madison Avenue, where another man was shot Dispatchers said the second shooting happened around 25 minutes after the first.

The two shooting scenes in McKeesport are located around 1/4 of a mile apart.

At the second shooting scene, KDKA’s news crew at the scene saw police taping off an alleyway between Madison Avenue and Petty Street. 

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Police are investigating two late-night shootings that happened in McKeesport on Sunday. Officers were called to a gas station along Lysle Boulevard and an alleyway near Madison Avenue around 30 minutes apart Sunday night.

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KDKA Photojournalist Bryce Lutz


Officers at the scene were shining flashlights and looking into a black sedan that had its flashers on.  The man who was shot in the area of Madison Avenue was taken to the hospital in stable condition.

Police didn’t specify if the two shootings are believed to be related.



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