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NYPD saves Nova Scotia couple's Brooklyn Bridge marriage proposal

Last month, Mal Harris proposed to her girlfriend, Olivia Fader, on the Brooklyn Bridge. 

The Halifax couple were walking along the bridge with two other friends when they decided to attach a lock, painted with their initials, to the bridge railing. 

"We’re a cheesy, cheesy couple," Fader admitted the New York Post.

Harris then surprised Fader with another lock, engraved with the words "Don't Freak Out." Attached to it was a white gold emerald-cut diamond ring. 

"I had no idea, I didn’t see it coming at all. So I was very, very overwhelmed, just in complete shock," Fader told CBC News. 

When Harris opened the lock to release the ring, the ring fell between two planks on the boardwalk.

"The ring slid off of the lock, and sat for a moment between two planks of the boardwalk," Fader wrote in a blog post. "While the duration of time the ring sat there for is wholly unknown to us — time having been so distorted that afternoon — it was long enough for Mal to think, 'Huh. That will be tricky to pick up.' No sooner had this thought occurred, the ring slipped through the space and fell into oblivion." 

The ring landed on an industrial platform about 12 metres below.

Mal Harris and her fiancee, Olivia Fader.
Mal Harris and her fiancee, Olivia Fader.

Not sure how to retrieve it — the platform is not open to the public — one of the couple's friends recruited two NYPD police officers, Matthew Manley and William DeFazio, to help them. 

"After much deliberation about their method, they walked back to Brooklyn, drove across the bridge, and stopped Saturday afternoon New York traffic so they could park and make their descent," Fader wrote. "A few anxiety-ridden minutes passed, and finally Officer Manley emerged with the ring in hand. Giving us the thumbs up, they then drove back to Brooklyn, and we met them to make the exchange."

When the officers met the couple after retrieving their ring, Manley asked Harris if Fader said yes. 

"Mal replied, 'I think so?' Manley promptly high fived her," Fader added

"They just really went above and beyond and worked it out for us and completely went over their job description. They had no obligation to help us, whatsoever," Harris said of the NYPD officers who saved the day.

After the women called their parents with the happy news — and they celebrated with champagne at a bar that stayed open just for them — the couple returned to the bridge to finally fasten the locks to it as they had originally planned. This time, the ring remained safely on Fader's finger.

"It’s kind of crazy. Where we decided to put the lock is where this platform began, so we had gone well past where the locks began. If we had done it about [three metres] earlier, we would have been over the East River, instead of the platform," Fader told CBC News. 

Read the full story on their blog here

Fader told ABC News that she and her fiancée posted their engagement story online "because there is constantly negative attention towards the LGBTQ community."

"We want to share our story to set the precedent for successful, happy couples everywhere," Fader said.

The happy couple plans to wed in August, 2016.

(Photos via Business Insider and Facebook)