3 Jewelry Horror Stories (And How to Avoid the Same Fate)

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It was a dark and stormy night …

Okay, not really.

But we are going to share with you some slightly, shall we say, unnerving stories.

So curl up hold on to those blankets, readers.

These terrifying tales involve real people who lost irreplaceable pieces of jewelry.

We’re talkin’ diamond-encrusted jewelry, we’re talkin’ seven-decades-old jewelry, we’re talkin’ …

Well, you’ll just have to read on.

Once upon a time …

1. Embezzlement in the emergency room

In South Florida, an elderly woman of 91 was admitted to the hospital. She had dementia but was taken to the emergency room on account of a fractured hip.

She came into the hospital wearing earrings, a necklace, a watch, and her wedding ring. All of her jewelry was necessarily removed in preparation for surgery.

Source: Italo Melo via Pexels

Due to certain restrictions at the medical facility, she was not able to receive any visitors during the surgery or rehabilitation process.

Two weeks later, the woman had fully recovered, and her son came to take her home. When the woman’s personal effects were returned, none of the accessories were to be found!

One nurse remembered putting all of the jewelry in a closet in the patient’s room, but the pieces never showed up. To this day, the family believes they were stolen.

While the hospital did reimburse the family for the estimated value of the precious accessories, the money offered little consolation to the woman and her son.

“No one should have to go through what we went through,” said the son. “The memory evoked by [my mother’s] stolen jewelry, her wedding ring from her husband of 68 years, is irreplaceable.”

Whether you have a wedding ring that was placed on your hand 68 years ago by the love of your life, or you bought a new bracelet for yourself yesterday, jewelry often is—or seems—irreplaceable.

So what is a person to do?

Simple. We recommend owning backup pieces.

While you can’t always plan for trips to the hospital, you can plan on having affordable, everyday pieces at your disposal.

You’ll be glad you did!

2. Regalia in the reservoir

Alright, here’s one for all of you guys out there.

Julio Jones is employed as a professional football player, courtesy of the Atlanta Falcons.

Julio Jones also loves his flashy pair of earrings, courtesy of the $150,000 he paid for them.

Source: The Lazy Artist Gallery via Pexels

According to a story shared by The Washington Post, Julio took a day off to go jet skiing a few years ago. At one point, the waves tossed him from the watercraft, and when he surfaced, he noticed one of his earrings was not on his earlobe.

He didn’t mope and he didn’t frown.

No, sir! Julio took action!

He whipped out his phone and called up a team of professional divers. Julio paid them to scour the lake for his missing earring. They looked as deep as 65 feet below the water’s surface.

Alas, the searchers came up empty. And Julio lived to play another day of football, one earring short.

So what is a person to do?

Again, we recommend owning backup pieces.

While you might not own a single thing valued at $150,000, perhaps something you do have in common with Julio is a love of outdoor activities.

If you know you’ll be out and about, do yourself a favor and skip the accessories. Or wear substitute jewelry.

You’ll be glad you did!

3. Karats in the kernels

Have you ever misplaced your pencil? Ah, there it is in the kitchen.

How about your reading glasses? Oh look, there they are on top of your head.

What about your wedding ring? Try looking in the popcorn bucket.

That’s right. This story involves a wedding ring that got lost among some stray popcorn kernels.

At least this one is more of a fairytale than a nightmare—because it has a happy ending!

In South Dakota, there lives a husband and wife—Curt and Sherry—who own a popcorn factory.

One day, Sherry made a large batch of caramel popcorn to sell at an upcoming event in Iowa. When she got home, she looked down at her hand and realized her wedding ring was not on her finger.

Source: Blush and Bar via Instagram

She and Curt looked everywhere, but the ring was nowhere to be found.

When Sherry went to the event in Iowa, she told all of her customers about the ring in case they came across it in their bags of caramel corn. She even promised a year’s worth of free popcorn to any customer who found it.

Sherry did not sell all of the popcorn that day, so she donated the leftovers to her church. The pastor gifted most of the popcorn to people in need and saved the rest for the annual children’s holiday party.

That party took place weeks later. After the kiddos had all headed home, the church secretary began to clean up. Minutes later, something shiny in one of the bowls caught her eye.

It was Sherry’s wedding ring!

Sherry told Insider she was so glad “the ring ended up so close to home because it could've been sold in Iowa, given away when [the pastor] donated the popcorn, or even damaged in the caramelizer.”

Don’t you just love happy endings?

But what does this mean for you and me? What is a person to do?

Once again, we recommend owning backup pieces.

While you might not make popcorn for a living, chances are you love wearing your ring to work.

When you know your day will involve active use of your hands, swap out the real thing for a temporary replacement.

You’ll be glad you did!

Conclusion

Sadly, stories like these are not all that uncommon.

They could happen to anyone. At any time.

In fact, they could happen to you. Today!

But we don’t want them to happen to you. Not today—not ever!

Consider investing in reasonably priced jewelry that is still sophisticated and makes you feel just as classy.

If it keeps you from making headline news, buying backup jewelry will be worth it.

You’ll be glad you did!

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