On his honeymoon in Las Vegas, Scott Oliver got lucky in an unexpected way.
While washing his hands after lunch at Planet Hollywood, the 47-year-old Monessen resident accidentally left his wedding ring on a sink in the restroom.
"I always take my watch off when I wash my hands and, being I just got married and it was a new ring, I took it off, too," he said.
Oliver didn't realize he was without the ring until he and his new bride, Laurel Senitta-Oliver, returned to their Treasure Island hotel room.
He called the hotel and was relieved when he was told someone had found the ring and turned it in to the hotel staff.
A short cab ride later, Oliver was reunited with his ring.
And he said he will never part with it again.
"That's definitely a lesson learned," Oliver said. "In Vegas, somebody could have cashed that in."
Oliver said his bride was lenient.
"She's like Mother Teresa," he said. "She'll never let her feelings on. Deep down, I'm sure she wanted to choke me."
The couple went on enjoying their week-long getaway.
They hit the zoo, spent time at Sea World and took in a Cirque du Soleil show at their hotel.
"We pretty much hit every casino, sightseeing and picture taking," Oliver said. "We spent one night gambling and lost very little, like 100 bucks."
Neither Oliver nor his wife had ever been to California.
So, after Vegas, they spent a few days in San Diego and became infatuated with the West Coast lifestyle.
"I was so in love with San Diego," Oliver said. "That's so nice and laid back down there. Everybody's so friendly. I would love to go back down there. It was so nice."
But on the last day of their stay, the Olivers ran into another obstacle.
"The last day, we were in San Diego and Mexico was 18 miles away," Oliver said. "We don't do a lot of traveling, so we said, 'Let's go down to Mexico just to say we were in Mexico.'"
Oliver said he and his wife had no problem getting into Mexico.
But when they tried to come back to the States after two hours of shopping, they found out they might not be returning home anytime soon.
"We see this long line of cars. It took us about two hours to go about a half a mile," Oliver said of the border patrol station.
Oliver said he was dumbfounded when an American border patrol officer would not grant him passage.
"We finally get up there and he says, 'Let me see your papers.' I said, 'I don't have any papers,'" Oliver said.
The officer asked him to produce either a passport or a birth certificate.
"I said, 'I don't have anything. I'm just a tourist,'" Oliver recalled.
The tension subsided after officers searched and cleared Oliver's truck and sent him on his way.
Oliver said his daughters - Lauren, of Mt. Pleasant, and Alicia, of Monessen - were amazed by the story.
"I was down there sitting, talking to them on my phone," he said of waiting at the border. "They thought it was wild."
Despite the few uncertain moments, Oliver said his honeymoon was a priceless experience.
"Don't get me wrong, this wasn't like a Chevy Chase honeymoon or anything," he said.
"It worked out well. Those were just the two little things. The rest was just great."
Oliver is manager for Goodyear in West Mifflin.
He and his wife met shopping at Family Dollar in Monessen.
