NEW YORK — In the end, Andrew Fox wasn’t charged with an error.
The 29-year-old had everything he needed to make one of life’s biggest decisions on Tuesday night: the engagement ring, the perfect woman and a beautiful night at Yankee Stadium, which focused a camera on the couple and broadcast the big moment on the center field video board.
What the New Castle, Pennsylvania, resident didn’t have was steady hands.
When Fox pulled the precious item from his pocket and dropped to one knee before 29-year-old girlfriend Heather Terwilliger to propose during the fifth inning, the ring dropped to the ground in section 228 of the ballpark’s second deck.
The crowd gasped and then jeered the fumble. Fox and Terwilliger scrambled to find the symbolic jewelry, the search televised between pitches by the Yankees’ YES Network. The hunt went on for approximately five tense minutes as Fox began to cry, fearing the ring was lost. Several other fans joined the search, rooting around on the ground and under the seats.
“I opened the ring box and got on my knee and as soon as I opened it just fell and we couldn’t find it for the longest time,” Fox said.
Finally, Terwilliger looked down and saw something shiny in the cuff of her pants leg.
“Everyone was trying to help us find it and it ended up being in her pants leg, like the bottom of it,” Fox said.
Fox took Terwilliger to the game as a belated present for her Sept. 21 birthday, with Fox wearing a Mariano Rivera jersey and Terwilliger sporting Derek Jeter’s No. 2.
The couple, which had its first date Feb. 1, planned to maybe go to Times Square after the game — Terwilliger has never seen it at night.
Yankee Stadium public address announcer Paul Olden informed the crowd the ring had been found. A still photo of the couple was shown on the video board during the seventh-inning stretch, recognizing them as fans of the game.
“I’m shocked but I’m feeling in love,” an elated Terwilliger said.
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