Eric Culbertson and Krista Saputo were nice enough to tell me the story of how they went to Chicago for a romantic weekend, during which Culbertson was to pop the question to Krista. Trouble was, he accidentally lost the engagement ring — the $10,000 engagement ring — in a taxi.

Word of the fumbled proposal spread around the Windy City and eventually got back to Springfield. The Chicago Tribune and the Sharon Osbourne Show also found out about it. My editor asked me to find the couple and see if they would tell me their story.

‘I fumbled’ – fiance / $10,000 engagement ring is left in cab
Sept. 16, 2003

Suite at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, complete with a view of Lake Michigan: $300.

Romantic dinner for two at the Bandera Restaurant, perfect for popping the question: $150.

Losing the $10,000 engagement ring in a taxi on the way: priceless.

Chicago seemed like the ideal backdrop for Eric Culbertson to ask Krista Saputo to marry him this past weekend.

Instead, their unforgettable evening turned into a nightmare when Culbertson discovered the engagement ring he’d purchased two weeks earlier apparently had fallen out of his wallet when he paid the cabbie who drove the couple to a restaurant 10 minutes from their hotel.

“I fumbled. I was on the one-yard line, and I fumbled,” Culbertson said Monday. “I couldn’t begin to explain all the emotions I had.”

Culbertson, 28, and Saputo, 29, ran into each other about a year and a half ago at a party when they lived in Chicago. Though they had lived two doors down from each other at Eastern Illinois University, they didn’t become romantically involved until they were reunited in Chicago.

The couple moved to Springfield, Saputo’s hometown, in May 2002. Culbertson, who works for Vancil Contracting, started doing side jobs to earn money to buy the perfect diamond engagement ring for Saputo.

The two did their research and finally found the ring they wanted in Indianapolis. They paid $7,000 for the platinum ring mounted with a 1.01-carat round-cut diamond. It appraised for more than $10,000.

The ring was shipped to their home two weeks ago, and Culbertson tucked it away until he could pop the question properly. The perfect time, he decided, would be during a side trip to Chicago Friday on their way to his grandmother’s 87th birthday party in Wisconsin.

He planned every detail of the evening, including a special hotel room and dinner at a restaurant about 12 blocks away on South Michigan Avenue.

As they got ready for their night out, Culbertson decided to tuck the ring into the center compartment of his black tri-fold wallet so it wouldn’t get lost.

“I’m thinking to myself if I put the ring in my pocket loose, there’s more of a chance of it falling out than if I put it in my wallet,” he recalled. “I could feel it in my wallet.”

The couple caught a cab to the restaurant. The fare was $5.36. Culbertson pulled out $7 to give the driver, but Saputo persuaded him to give the driver $10 instead. He put the five and two ones back in the wallet, pulled out a ten and handed it to the driver.

The taxi pulled away and disappeared into a sea of other cabs on Michigan Avenue.

That, Culbertson said, is when he realized the ring was no longer in his wallet.

“He told me he didn’t have it. I said, ‘Yes you do,’ thinking he was trying to play a trick on me,” Saputo said. “Then I saw his hand was shaking, and I realized he was serious.”

The couple didn’t know the company of the cab they’d been in. They didn’t know the driver’s name or what the cab looked like. They called the hotel to see if someone could check the building’s security video, hoping it might show them getting into the cab. They called the Chicago Police Department. They started calling cab companies. They called the Chicago Tribune, hoping a story might prompt someone to return the ring.

It never turned up.

Culbertson and Saputo went to Wisconsin anyway. Culbertson had his uncle drive him to a nearby Target store so he could buy some kind of ring for Saputo. He wound up paying $40 for a cubic Zirconia ring and presented it to Saputo.

“The rings in there were basically costume jewelry. I said give me the biggest, gaudiest ring you have because I just lost the real one,” he said.

The real ring had been insured a week earlier and will be replaced within the next few weeks.

The faux pas, which was reported in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, has gained national attention. Culbertson and Saputo spent much of Monday doing telephone interviews with a variety of media outlets, including WLS radio, WGN, a radio syndicate out of Dallas and ABC radio in New York.

They also have accepted an offer from a producer for “The Sharon Osbourne Show” to fly to Los Angeles Monday night for an interview today.

Saputo, who works for the Illinois Department of Human Services, is taking the situation in stride.

Oh, and she said yes to Culbertson’s proposal. They’re planning an autumn 2004 wedding.

“It’s a ring. It can be replaced. Our love is forever,” she said.