Rachel Atkinson takes her wedding ring off every night. When she woke up one morning and found the $4,500 ring missing, her and her husband were sure the ring had been stolen.

(Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann)Two St. Bernard puppies play at an enclosure of the St. Bernard Dog Museum.

Dog suspected after woman loses $4,500 wedding ring

What they didn’t expect is that the thief would turn out to be their 10-month-old Basset Hound, who allegedly “looked guilty”. What’s more is that the dog, Coraline, came up with the most difficult hiding spot, leaving the couple searching desperately for the missing ring.

The couple began to suspect the dog when they considered who else might have been in the room.

"She was the only one in our room so we immediately looked at her and she looked guilty," Atkinson said.

Atkinson’s husband, Scott, spent the next 10 days on a more unpleasant search, scooping up all of Coraline’s droppings.

"I had to go through all the 'poos' everyday and squish them up and make sure there were no hard lumps in there so yeah, that wasn't much fun," said Scott Atkinson.

Unfortunately his work was in vein because the ring never showed up. Eventually the couple was forced to take the dog to the veterinarian.

 Basset Hound Swallowed Wedding Ring

"So we took her to the vet and there it was lying in the bottom of her stomach and it was just too heavy to pass so we had to take her in for surgery," Atkinson said.

Thankfully, the dog didn’t feel a thing and is now back to her “old self.”

Atkinson said, "She's a good dog and she's just a wonderful addition to our family but we'll never forget this - the ring and her have gotten more expensive.”

Atkinson has also become much more astute about keeping her ring out of the site of any other unsuspecting thieves.