Florida Jeweler Tracks Down Stolen Rare Diamond Halfway Around the World
The jeweler says he was able to find the 6.04-carat diamond for sale online.
— -- When a rare diamond was stolen from his Florida store, one jeweler decided to take the investigation into his own hands.
The $85,000 diamond was finally returned Wednesday to Old Northeast Jewelers in Tampa, Florida, after it was stolen in the fall of 2013.
Owner Jeffrey Hess said a notably well-groomed group of thieves was able to distract his sales staff and get away with the 6.04-carat diamond.
“We were all really upset,” Hess told ABC News. “My wife said, ‘I think the diamond is going to come back to us.’ I said, ‘No way.’”
Because of their store’s security camera system, Hess said police were able to identify who the thieves were, but tracking down the diamond would be more difficult. Still, Hess said he tried to find the rare gem.
“We kept an eye out on social media and online websites, auction sites, diamond listing sites, looking for a 6.04,” Hess said.
Eight months after the theft, Hess said he found a diamond that he thought might be the same one stolen from his store for sale on a popular diamond-selling website. Hess said he told police, who were able to quickly determine what happened.
“It was sold to someone in Florida, and they sold it to someone on 47th street [in New York]. And then it was send to a lab in Israel,” Hess said.
Before the diamond had been stolen, Hess said the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) had done a plot of the diamond’s internal characteristics. When police recovered the diamond in New York, Hess said it was then sent to the GIA, which confirmed it was, indeed, the same stolen diamond.
“We had been able to discern pretty quickly that it was our diamond, because it had the proper crown angles, proper measurements,” Hess said.
Seven months later, the diamond was finally returned to their store in St. Petersburg, Florida, where it is available for sale. The store has now doubled up its security camera system, and the staff has had intensive training to prevent such a theft from happening again.
Hess said New York police know who the thieves are and have issued a warrant for their arrest.
“It’s a note to jewelers out there that sometimes you have to take the bull by the horns and do your own investigative work,” Hess said.
And when the diamond was finally in his possession, Hess said his wife told him, “’I told you that it would come back.’”
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