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Diamond Mysteries - Things Aren’t Always
What They Seem
Story 1 - Mistaken Identity
It was a crisp February morning when Sarah finally
got around to going through Gram's jewelry box. It had been three
weeks since her will had been finalized and nearly two months since
the funeral. Gram was eighty-nine and the last of her grandparents
to find their way home. "She was everyone's bet that death
could be licked," was the popular joke around family get-togethers
but now her favorite lady was gone. Having lost her mother in an
awful car accident when she was three, Gram (Mrs. Beatrice Holmes
to the rest of the world) was more like a mother and confident then
she was a traditional grandmother. She was the one who taught her
how to act like a lady, taught her how to curtsy and follow her
dream and heart whenever doubt creeped into her soul.
So it came as no surprise how difficult it would
be to open a box of memories filled with charm bracelets; add-a-bead
necklaces; sterling silver from her turquoise phase and of course,
"The Ring." As the only granddaughter the ring had been
promised to her when she had barely learned to walk. She could still
hear Gram's words echoing in her head, "Little Sarah, this
ring used to belong to my grandmother. Bought on a rail man's salary
and some day it will belong to you." Sarah had to wipe the
tears from her eyes as she held this sacred piece of family history
in her hands. She knew when her young daughter was old enough she
too would be told the story about, "The Ring."
With all the sparkling baubles and beads, was
a neatly organized stack of papers, aged yellow with time. In that
stack of receipts and appraisals she found the original sales ticket
of $629.00 (a king's ransom in those days) for the ring. It was
over 100 years old. With that were a few appraisals that had been
done on the ring, the last one dated Nov. 14th, 1929. It valued
the ring at over $3,100.00!! The rest of the papers were receipts
for appliances that had long since gone to their reward along with
the original deed on Gram's old house.
As Sarah slipped the ring on to her finger for
the first time it didn't make its way past her knuckle. Gram had
lost a lot of weight over the years and it had been sized down repeatedly
(Gramps always took care of that before he past away almost a decade
ago). The ring would need to be sized again if she was going to
ever do this ring justice and allow the world to view it once more
in all its glory.
Later that afternoon she went by a popular jeweler
she had heard her friends talk about, had her finger sized and left
her heirloom. It would be ready by the end of the week. The next
day during the "Young and the Restless" Sarah received
a phone call that would change her life.
"Mrs. Allen, this is John Stevens I'm the
manager at McKay's jewelry shop. I don't know how to tell you this
but the center stone in your grandmother's ring isn't real. It's
a diamond simulant. Something that looks like a diamond but isn't."
Sarah practically passed out.
What happened? Was the jeweler telling the truth
and if so how could that be since she had the original sales ticket
and appraisals on the diamond? Also, if the jeweler was innocent
why did it take him a day to discover the stone was imitation and
not when she brought it in? Is the jeweler the thief or an accidental
pawn in a game of the vanishing diamond?
(Click here to read the Answer
to Story 1)
Story 2 - Change of
Heart
Michael had been dating Mary Katherine (a born-again
christian) off and on for almost three years. It seemed every time
they would get close to a commitment some monkey wrench would send
them back to square one. After a lot of soul searching it finally
dawned on Mike that even though he had told M.K. (Mary Katherine)
he loved her, he had never, "Put his money where his mouth
was." So when it came time to clock out on Friday, he headed
straight for the mall to buy an engagement ring (his ticket to a
new life). This would finally settle once and for all to Mary Katherine
and the rest of the world that he wanted to spend the rest of his
life with her.
As it turned out Mike did have a nice little nest
egg for emergencies and he could think of nothing better than to
spend the $4,381.00 that it had taken him three years to save for
his beautiful M.K. The sale at the jeweler went well but he did
have to admit he was a little overwhelmed with how expensive diamonds
were. Thank goodness at the last minute the jeweler said that just
for him he would lower his price by 50% or he never would have been
able to afford that sparkling one-carat heart shape diamond.
Michael planned to pop the question on the following
Friday but by Saturday while M.K. and he were snuggling on the sofa
watching Titanic for the thousandth time, it just slipped out, "Mary
ah, M.K., Mary Katherine will you marry me?" Mike stumbled
for the ring that had been in his pocket since yesterday. "Well,
just don't sit there, what da ya say?" "Um, ah, sure,
wow how big is it? You bet ya." And with a somewhat passionate
kiss followed by a phone call to Cynthia, (Mary Katherine's best
friend) the awkwardness was over.
During the next month things seemed to go the
same between Mary Katherine and Michael but there was something
he couldn't quite put his finger on, but something was wrong. And
exactly six weeks to the day Mike had popped the question he found
out what: "Mike look," Mary Katherine started, "I've
had some time to think about it and well, I don't think I'm ready."
She promptly handed the ring back. Before Michael could say another
word his M.K., the woman of his dreams walked out of his life with
a hug, a kiss on the cheek and "Let's still be friends."
It took Michael two weeks before he could bear
to look at the ring he had tossed in his sock drawer since the break
up. But with the 60 day return policy looming, he didn't want to
own the ring and not have the girl. So he headed off to get his
refund. He felt sure the jeweler would understand. After all, this
is the guy who had given him a special deal in the first place.
"Hi Mike, how's that new fiancée of
yours doing? When's the wedding day?" "Well, the thing
is Stan (Stan is the jeweler) it didn't work out, I'm going to need
to get my money back." "Geez, sorry to hear that, can
I see the ring?" With that Michael handed over the little ring
box of broken promises when… "Hey Mikey, I don't know
what you're up to but this ain't no diamond! What are you trying
to pull?" "What am I trying to pull? That's the same stone
you sold me, if something's amiss it's by your doing!" The
battle lines were drawn and out came the sabres! What happened?
(Click here to read the answer
to Story 2)
Story 3 - Double Take
"So how much is the diamond?" asked
Allen to the attractive, apparently new sales girl at Clark's Department
Store. "The tag says it's $850.00."
"Got anything more expensive?" "I
believe so but they're in the vault and only the store manager,
Mr. Peters can handle that." As much as Allen enjoyed talking
and flirting with the curvaceous blonde he relented, "Well
I guess I need to meet with Mr. Peters, but you have a fine day
with your fine self!" The clerk excused herself.
Within a few minutes Mr. Peters (a tall gentleman)
stepped out of one of the corporate offices. "May I help you?"
"Yes," replied Allen, "I'm looking for an expensive
diamond, preferably loose." "So," Mr. Peters said
with a smile, "Someone getting engaged?" "Something
like that," Allen replied. "You said expensive but how
big do you think your future fiancée would like?" "Let's
not worry about her, what do you have in a loose diamond must be
round, 2.11ct?" "Hmm, let's see, around 2ct, here's a
lovely 2.02 VS-1, E in a four prong platinum tiffany setting."
"No, no thank you," replied Allen. "Loose, I want
to buy it loose." "Okay that's fine but what kind of setting
are you eventually going to put it in?" "I'll worry about
that later," snapped Allen back. "Can I please see some
stones now I'm kinda in a hurry?" "No problem, let's see
what I got… how about a 2.05 its clarity is…" "No,
no bigger!" "Alright how about a 2.20?" "Okay."
This picqued
Allen's interest, "How much?" "$19,000
flat" replied Mr. Peters. "It's an SI-1 with an H color,
ideal cut." "Wow, that looks pretty good, I'll take it."
"Well, okay sir". Mr. Peters was surprised; he'd thought
this guy was wasting his time, "How would you like to pay for
it?" "Charge it, the American way."
Within 15 minutes Allen was on his way with his
new diamond. When he got home it only took Allen a few minutes to
retrieve the yellow pages he had perused earlier. "Here we
go," Allen thought to himself. "While You Wait Appraisals"
off of Eldridge. He called and made an appointment.
"Mr. Richmond will see you now," said
the small, quiet-spoken receptionist at the appraiser's office.
"Thank you," replied Allen. Mr. Richmond sat behind a
small metallic desk surrounded by microscopes, scales, monitors
and things with blinking lights. "Mr. Allen Ball?" "Call
me Allen." "Sure you bet, Allen, how can I help you today?"
Well I just bought this diamond a 2.11ct, Round, I mean a 2.20 Round
SI-1, H and I just want to make sure everything is on the up and
up." Allen handed Mr. Richmond the small neatly folded parcel
paper that held the loose stone. Mr. Richmond took it, opened it
and let the rock slide out the paper into an awaiting polishing
cloth, where it was quickly covered up and rubbed. "I'm giving
it a good cleaning before we take a look." Within seconds he
opened up the cloth and gently dropped the stone on to a white pad
that laid in front of him. There he picked it up with a pair of
tweezers and viewed it under a 10X magnifying lens. "Hmm, oh
my, Mr. Ball, Allen I don't know how to tell you this but this isn't
a diamond it's a cubic zirconia." "What! That's impossible!!
I know it's a diamond. All I need for you to tell me is that's not
the quality I paid for!!" What happened?
(Click here to read the answer
to Story 3)
Story 4 - Now You See
it, Now You Don't
Everyday Margaret started her day with the same
ritual: shower, breakfast and a dip. Not a dip in the pool but a
dip in the ultrasonic cleaner for her beautiful 2ctw VS-2, G round
diamond anniversary ring. The ring was comprised of three stones,
a 1ct in the center and a 1/2ct to either side. The salesman told
her that one diamond represented the past, one represented the present
and the other represented the glorious future that she and her husband
would spend together. The ring was mounted in 18K yellow gold and
meant the world to her. Four children, 25 years of love and devotion,
six relocations and one grandchild later this ring was her gold
medal.
Today, like all other Thursdays, she met with
her gal pals for a roaring game of cutthroat bridge. It was a quarter
to eleven, game started at noon; she was on schedule. True to her
schedule, right after breakfast she had pulled down the ultrasonic
cleaner from the bay window above her sink in her gourmet kitchen.
Upon looking inside she realized that she had allowed her ammonia
and water solution to evaporate by not keeping the lid closed, so
she would need to mix up a fresh batch for her ring to bathe in.
"Hmm, let's see, where's that Parsons sudsy ammonia?"
she said to herself as she looked under the cabinet. "Ah, here
it is! Darn! Empty!" She glanced down at her ring to break
the bad news that it might have to skip today's bath when it hit
her. "Clorox! I bet Clorox will work, I got plenty of that!"
She ran to her laundry room, grabbed the Clorox, poured it in the
ultrasonic cleaner, dropped in her ring, placed the ultrasonic cleaner
back onto the beautiful bay window and ran up stairs to get ready.
"Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Williams," called
out Maria (the housekeeper) to Margaret. "Mrs. Lawrence is
here to take you to bridge." Margaret ran down the stairs to
an already opened front door. "Now Maria, lock up and set the
alarm, after a string of robberies that have happened in the neighborhood
I want you to be safe." Maria locked the front door behind
Margaret and pressed the four-digit code to the perimeter alarm
of the house. Maria went to the kitchen to clean up and start her
housework.
"All right ladies, the gloves are coming
off. I'm taking no prisoners," commented Margaret when she
got to the country club and saw her comrades. "Ann and I are
going to redefine the art of bridge play. Where are the cards?"
As Margaret sat down to shuffle and the other ladies in her foursome
were putting on their game faces, she realized she had forgotten
to retrieve her ring from the ultrasonic cleaner. Her finger felt
naked. "Come on Marg," belted Sue (one of the foursome).
"Deal em." Margaret began to deal and forgot about her
ring for the moment. "A few hours of extra cleaning will do
the ring some good," she thought."Anyway the house is
secure and Maria is there for safe keeping."
Margaret had the banner day she had predicted.
She had played 24 hands, scored over 7,000 points and had doubled
and redoubled her opponents all day.
"Beeeeeep" sounded the 90-second warning
signal that the alarm had been triggered when Margaret opened the
front door to her home. Within seconds the alarm was disabled and
Margaret headed straight to her kitchen. She could still hear the
ultrasonic cleaner running when she pulled it down, only to discover
her ring was gone!! "Maria, Maria has anyone besides yourself
been in this house today?!" "No, Mrs. Williams nobody,
just me." "Then where's my ring?" "I don't know?"
At that moment Margaret's husband Roy was returning from his own
foursome at the golf course and was soaking wet with perspiration;
it had been almost 102° that day. "What's all the commotion
Marg?" What happened?
(Click here to read the answer
to Story 4)
Story
1 Answer
Mistaken Identity
There could be a lot of finger pointing here.
For starters, the jeweler should have looked at the ring under a
microscope and determined its authenticity before Sarah had left
the store. Sarah should have insisted on a plotting (a mapping of
what the interior of the stone looks like under magnification) of
the stone to make sure she would get the same thing back. Both Sarah
and the jeweler did a poor job of protecting themselves. Also, what
about all the ring sizing that Gramps had done? Was it possible
some other jeweler along the way had done the switching? Who knows?
Things aren't always what they seem. But there was a very interesting
clue that was right under Sarah's nose from the beginning. It was
the date on the last appraisal: November 14th, 1929. During the
previous two weeks the stock market had crashed, losing over thirty
billion dollars in its assets. Was it a coincidence that as the
United States entered the Great Depression Gramps suddenly decided
to get the ring appraised? No, it was no coincidence. During the
court case against the jeweler where he was heading down for the
count Sarah found in her grandfather's chest a pawn ticket dated
November 14, 1929! Apparently times had gotten tough and he had
to sell Gram's diamond. I'm sure he always planned to switch it
back before anyone found out but he died before he had a chance.
Jeweler innocent. Things aren't always what they seem. (Click
here to read the next story)
Story
2 Answer
Change of Heart
In this little mystery, you've got three potential
suspects, maybe more. For starters, the jeweler could have certainly
sold a fake versus the real thing but if he were smart he would
have plotted (its fingerprint) the diamond to prove he had sold
the real McCoy. Also if the customer had immediately appraised the
diamond after the purchase, he would have known instantly if the
jeweler were up to no good. Also, what happened to the ring while
his good little girlfriend had it? Could she have been devilish
enough to have made the switch herself? Or is the culprit Mike himself?
Finally, let's not forget the ring was in an insecure sock drawer
that many people had access to. In the end, the jeweler had made
the mistake of not plotting the stone to prove or disprove the jeweler's
innocence or guilt and the case went off to court.
Jeweler sued by customer, customer counter-sued
by the jeweler. It wasn't until almost a year later and thousands
of dollars in legal fees that old Mary Katherine confessed under
threat of a subpoena she had actually switched out the stone. I
repeat again, things aren't always what they seem and all the litigation
would have been avoided if the jeweler and the client had done a
better job of protecting their own self-interests.
(Click here to read the next
story)
Story
3 Answer
Double Take
Believe it or not this one isn't as easy as it
might seem. Sure the jeweler himself may have switched the stone
when he sold it (not likely if a jeweler gets even a hint of scandal
of selling fakes he's out of business) or we might quickly blame
the appraiser for switching the stone when he had it hidden in his
cleaning cloth or how tough would it be to accuse the customer of
setting the whole thing up himself. These should have been your
clues; for starters the customer purchased the diamond, quickly,
no negotiating and asked for no documentation. Also Allen was obsessed
with talking about a 2.11ct diamond, once when buying the 2.20 and
again a freudian slip with the appraiser. During the sale Allen
didn't want to discuss either the setting or the girlfriend, which
should have made the jeweler nervous rather than anxious to sell.
Everything here, from Allen flirting with the first sales girl to
his reaction at the appraiser points to Allen being up to no good.
How else could his final statement to the appraiser be "I know
it's a diamond, I just want you to prove it's not the right quality?"
Here's what really happened, Allen had bought
(using cash) a 2.11ct from another jeweler, a very poor quality
but real diamond (value $4,000). His plan was to buy a good one
for $19,000, get the poor one appraised representing it as the one
he had just bought, then act surprised when it wasn't the SI-1,
H 2.20 he had paid for. Then call his credit card company, act shocked
that the diamond was misrepresented, stop payment and leave the
poor honest jeweler with a 2.11ct piece of junk. A perfect plan
but with one hitch. When he took the 2.11 to get appraised, he never
thought the appraiser would switch it for a fake!! In this instance
two people had their hand in the cookie jar!!
(Click here to read the next
story)
Story 4 Answer
Now You See it, Now You Don't
Surprisingly or not the maid was arrested for
the theft of Mrs. Williams ring. However in the end she would be
proven innocent. The ring had disappeared of its own accord and
as it turned out Mrs. Williams would be shown to be the unwitting
accomplice. Here's what happened: As we already know Margaret kept
her ultrasonic cleaner in a glass bay window. We also know that
it had been a very hot day combined with a Clorox solution, which
should never be substituted for ammonia. All the elements were there,
the sun through the bay window heating the Clorox, boiling the solution
till the 18K yellow gold setting did the only thing it could do
and that was dissolve. When Margaret looked into the ultrasonic
cleaner, her ring wasn't gone, it had just been destroyed. The only
things that were left were her three diamonds that appeared transparent
in the cleaning solution. Where Margaret became an accomplice to
the disappearance of her own ring is when she poured the solution
with her three diamonds down the drain. As unbelievable as this
all sounds, it's all true because I was the expert that was brought
in at trial to testify to the value of the ring. When I heard about
the Clorox I put two and two together and got the maid off. Oh,
if you're wondering how I proved my theory, it was when the plumber
came in and removed the elbow of the drain under the sink and found
Mrs. Williams' three little sparklers!
In Conclusion
For practically two decades, I've done my utmost
to be the best consumer advocate in the purchase of a diamond. I've
told consumers about the tricks of the trade, fracture filled diamonds,
baking and every dishonest thing a bad jeweler could do to take
your money and leave you holding the bag! But with these handful
of true stories I wanted to show you how easily it is for the shoe
to be on the other foot.
Every time a customer walks into a jewelry store
the jeweler is not only concerned with the hopes of making a sale
but the fears his wish will come true and it winds up being the
first step in a scam against him! Even as we saw in the first story
an honest jeweler got pulled into court because he had his guard
down while trying to do someone a favor by sizing a ring he never
sold in the first place.
The lesson here is, "I do believe that in
the heart of man is goodness," to quote a great man and innovator
in the retail industry L.L. Bean. And we shouldn't be too quick
to judge and cast the first stone. Even on the darkest days, there's
always at least one light that shines in the distance and it's the
light of truth. Sometimes difficult to find, sometimes difficult
to see but it's always there. All we have to do is look for it.
And please remember, things aren't always what they seem…
The Diamond Guy®
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