Australian police await evidence of suspected swallowed stolen diamond
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Version 0 of 1. Only time will tell whether the British man in police custody in Australia really is a diamond geezer or not. When he was arrested there was no visible trace of a large pink stone, valued at more than $200,000 (£119,000), missing from a jewellery store in Queensland. Nothing has shown up on x-ray. The police are letting nature take its course, and awaiting developments. "We hope that he'll be with us for some time," a detective, Kevin Goan, said at a press conference in Cairns when asked if they believed the diamond had been swallowed. The gem, from the Argyle mine in Kimberley, Western Australia, which produces most of the world's pink diamonds, was normally kept in a safe at the jeweller's in Cairns, where it had been part of the stock for nine years. The owner, Keith Bird, took it out when a customer asked for a closer look at it. A very close look as it turned out – the man snatched the ring out of his hand, and scarpered, racing out of the shop and then making his getaway on a mountain bike. Bird described the gem as "rare as hen's teeth", and said a genuine prospective customer, who had hoped for years to buy it, was in tears when she heard what had happened. The suspect, Matthew Osborne, 29, said by the police to have been living in Australia for about five years, was arrested on Thursday at Melbourne airport as he was about to board an international flight, and will appear at Cairns magistrates court on Saturday. The owner was not convinced the diamond was actually swallowed: "If he thought he'd got away with it, why would you sit at the Melbourne airport and swallow it, and if you have to go to the loo on a flight to New Zealand? That would be a bit dangerous," Bird said. If the diamond does reappear, police will be handling it very carefully and not just because of its provenance. Last year another Queensland jeweller's was targeted by a thief who swallowed two diamond rings. After some days both did re-emerge, but one somehow ended up in a rubbish bag – and was inadvertently thrown away by the police. Tales of swallowed gems are surprisingly common. One of the saddest came from a charity fundraiser last year in the United States, where guests paid $20 each for a glass of champagne. Most glasses also held near-worthless cubic zirconia sparklers: unfortunately the woman whose glass had the real one-carat diamond accidentally drank it. In Exmouth in December the villain who chewed up an £18,000 ring and swallowed the diamond attached to it was looked down upon – particularly since he was a trainee police dog named Jack. The ring, a family heirloom, had been left on a side table at the home of Angie Collins, who looks after dogs in training. One possible tip for the Queensland police: Collins hosed down and sieved the dog's faeces for three days – and recovered the diamond. |