NEW YORK (AP) - Diamonds in the rough? Try a $20,000 pair of the
glinting gems in a reeking truckload of trash.

A Staten Island jeweler has gotten her 3-carat diamond earrings back after she, her husband and city sanitation employees sorted through a smelly heap of garbage. The studs were in a small jar of cleaning solution, which a worker at the couple's jewelry store had accidentally thrown away.

The earrings were recovered Thursday at the site of the former Fresh Kills landfill. The giant dump closed in 2001, and the earrings were in a load of trash destined to be compacted and shipped out of state.

Owner Haya Sharon is calls the find "a miracle." The earrings were an anniversary gift from her husband.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-07-19-08 1948EDT