Woman Swallows 6 Carat Diamond in Failed Heist
Doctors found a diamond worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the intestines of a woman accused of stealing from a jewelry show.
The $278,000, 6-carat diamond was in the suspect's large intestine, according to The Associated Press. The suspects in the heist are two Chinese nationals, an unidentified man and a 39-year-old woman named Jiang Xulian. They were arrested as they were about to board a flight from Thailand back home to China.
The couple is said to have swapped the real diamond with a fake after distracting a vendor at a Bangkok jewelry fair. The suspects at first said they had nothing to do with the theft, but after an x-ray revealed the diamond in Xulian's stomach, she confessed to the crime.
The police were able to recognize the thieves from security camera footage from the jewelry fair and the vendor who was victimized also identified the two.
The woman had to have surgery after she was unable to pass the stone naturally and with the aid of laxatives.
The AP notes that ingesting diamonds is rare, but not unheard of. In 2012, a 25-year-old South African man was arrested after he swallowed a bag 220 diamonds valued at $2.3 million. He was arrested after passing through an x-ray machine at the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa while trying to board a flight to Dubai.
