Regina couple’s disastrous proposal has happy ending

Many people want to make the night they get engaged as perfect and romantic as possible, but it went wrong in a crazy way for one Regina couple.

Austin McKee had been planning to propose to his then-girlfriend, Erin Franks.

He had an elaborate plan that would have seen them get engaged in a romantic spot on her birthday.

“I had it all planned out. I was keeping it a secret for a few weeks leading up to it: A nice, big hike down an old abandoned railroad track to a ghost town. I was sneakily going to start pulling birthday presents out of my backpack, then pull the ring out and surprise her,” he explained on Monday’s Greg Morgan Morning Show.

But just before they left, disaster struck.

“I had just loaded the last bag (in their vehicle), we had everything all ready to go and I was feeling pretty happy about everything … So I walked over to the door and opened it up to yell at Erin to hurry up and grab the dog, and her car door closed behind me,” McKee recalled.

“I was confused, because Erin was obviously in the house. So I turned around and watched the car back out of the driveway and speed off down the road.”

Not only was the car stolen, but the ring was inside McKee’s hiking backpack. He rushed into the house to let Franks know, and she reacted quickly.

“She ran out of the house barefoot and threw my truck keys at me and said, ‘We’re going after them,’ ” he said.

They called the police as well while on the way, but they lost track of their vehicle.

The plans were beyond ruined, and McKee was devastated. However, things quickly took a turn for the better.

“And so Austin put his head down on the steering wheel, and I was like, ‘You know, it’s OK, it’s just a car,’ and he’s like, ‘No, I was going to ask you to marry me. There was a ring in there,’ and I was like, ‘You (were) going to ask me, or you (are) going to ask me? Please still ask,’ ” Franks said.

He did ask and she said yes right then and there.

“The cat was out of the bag at that point, so I guess our story shifted from the picture-perfect hike in the wilderness to something just completely off the wall,” McKee said.

They were engaged, but still without a ring. Thankfully, that changed as well.

“It’s Halloween night at about 2:30 a.m. We had a pounding at the door, and we’re already a little bit on edge given that we had our car stolen from us,” he said.

It turned out to be a police officer, who asked McKee to follow him out to her car.

“So as I get close to the car, the stern look on the constable’s face turns into a really big smile and she says, ‘Are you looking for a ring?’ and (I said) ‘Yeah, actually, I am.’ And she pulled it out of the cruiser,” he continued.

Apparently, it’s a stroke of luck they managed to find the ring. One of the suspects supposedly wore it after being arrested.

“They had a good idea of who was doing the car-stealing that night. She glanced down at the finger of one of the people on scene, and there was a big, shiny rock that looked kind of familiar,” McKee explained.

While it didn’t work out at all like he had planned, the couple is beyond happy to be engaged and planning their future together.