A DIAMOND DOWN THE DRAIN

This is a true story, so bear with me…

I’m waiting on a couple who are shopping for certified diamonds. Big diamonds. Like 1.50 carat.

I ask them questions about clarity and color and certification. Seems like we have a diamond they’re interested in. A VS2 clarity, G color, GIA certified diamond.

I tell them I’ll go get the stone, steam it off, so we can have a closer look at it under the microscope (my favorite part).

It’s a great day…

The customers are excited. I’m feeling good. It seemed like it was going great… until I steamed the diamond.

You have to steam diamonds to remove oils, dust, dirt and debris off the stone. You’d be surprised how big dust or a strand of hair looks under 10x magnification. You don’t want to confuse dirt with inclusions. So steam cleaning is a must.

UH-OH!

But then the diamond went flying… The stone was ripped loose from the locking tweezers by the blast of the steam and went flying through the air. Just like a bullseye the diamond shot right into the sink. And wouldn’t you know it, that day someone had removed the drain cover (that was sitting on the side of the sink). Nice spot for it.

I stood there frozen for a second…

Oh #!@?#!

I started searching for the diamond. I didn’t know if it went in the sink, or down the drain… I moved everything. Searched. I even got out the flashlight to see if I could pick up reflections off the stone… nothing. The customers were still out front waiting for me… I started to sweat.

Finally the jewelers stopped laughing at me long enough to help me look for the diamond. No go. They couldn’t find it either. Things were not going well… And then the owner walked in. He starts yelling because the drain cover wasn’t on. I’m trying to quiet him because the customers could hear, and now it’s been like 15 minutes… :(

I’m so embarrassed.

Finally, I make my way back out to the very patient customers (how embarrassing). I tell them what happened and tell them the jewelers are taking the drain apart as we speak. What a horrible, horrible conversation that was. They say they’ll wait a little bit longer. No problem (uneasy smiles).

But there was a problem… that diamond was a $17,000 diamond (and actually only $12,000 at James Allen).

I was a little nervous to say the least. If I hadn’t worked for the owner for over ten years, I think he would have fired me.

I go back into the shop and the sink is now torn apart. The pipe is laying on its side and there’s water all over the floor. The jewelers are snaking the open drain with some long cable that they pushed deep into the pipe to dig things out.

After 10 minutes more…

They find a diamond.

OH JOY! Can you believe it?

But here’s the funny part… It was a different diamond (seems like I’m not the only one to lose a diamond down the drain). The jeweler lost a diamond years ago which they never found… until now.

And the great thing about all of this? It was a bigger diamond. They fished out a 3.10 carat diamond.

The owner was happy (the 3.10 carat diamond was worth well over $30,000). We never did find the original 1.50 diamond though… That was a goner. Maybe a gator ate it?

We ended up filing an insurance claim for the lost diamond. Life goes on.

The moral of the story?

Don’t feed the gators.

Get your diamonds insured.

Cover your drain hole.

A little protection goes a long, long way.

Cheers! :)