Would You Rummage Through A Rubbish Dump To Find An Oscar de la Renta Wedding Dress?

Some people will do anything to get their hands on a designer gown...

Anybody who's ever put an empty yoghurt pot in the dishwasher and thrown the spoon in the bin will feel this woman's pain.

After heading home from her daughter's wedding, Lucinda Ballard handed a bundle of bags to a building staff member - including one containing the Oscar de la Renta wedding gown, costing over $4,000. But instead of hearing the word 'dress', he heard 'trash' (as you do) - and promptly chucked the designer item in the nearest dumpster.

But while Lucinda admits to being 'horrified' at the realisation that her daughter's dress was gone, she wasn't prepared to give up.

Nope, instead, she decided to do whatever she could to get it back again.

Even if it meant rummaging through a rubbish tip to find it.

Unfortunately, by the time Lucinda realised what had happened, the dumpster had already been emptied. But after obtaining the ID number of the lorry that collected the building's trash, Lucinda headed to a tip in New Jersey to try and find it.

Wading through a 'sea of black garbage bags', she looked for the dress.

'We were ripping through these bags — wearing masks, high boots and gloves. I was moving quickly, going, ‘No dress, keep going’,' Lucinda recalled in an interview with the New York Post, adding that when she eventually found it, she couldn't believe her eyes. Because not only was the dress still in perfect condition, but it didn't even smell.

Leaving us with one clear moral of the story: if you ever manage to own an Oscar dela Renta dress, never, ever, ever take it off.