Finder Proved to Be a Jewel, Too : Lost Bag of Gems Returned to Owner

Margaret Stanton was still laughing Friday.

The 27-year-old artist from San Diego drove around for hours Thursday with a briefcase she found sitting on a sidewalk in the 1900 block of 30th Street. She never looked beyond the checkbooks and the hard-boiled eggs in the attractive leather bag.

After unsuccessfully canvassing the area, knocking on doors in search of the owner, Stanton took the bag to the Great American First Savings Bank branch listed on the checks.

‘Wouldn’t That Be Something’

While watching a TV newscast Thursday with her boyfriend, she learned that a local jeweler was missing a leather bag containing $44,000 worth of diamonds and semiprecious stones.

“I thought, wouldn’t that be something if they were the same bags,” the freckled-faced blonde said. “We just laughed so hard.”

It was the same bag.

Stanton was handed a citation from San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender Friday for her “honesty and persistence in attempting to locate the owner” and for exemplifying “a good citizen and concern for others.”

Kelly Burch, the brother of the jeweler who lost the gems and does not want to make his name public, was thankful Friday.

“This has literally kept him in business,” Burch said of his brother, an independent jeweler.

Burch’s brother was loading several gem-filled bags into his car near 30th and Grape streets about 10 a.m. Thursday when he inadvertently drove off and left the leather briefcase on the ground. He traveled four blocks before realizing the diamonds were gone, Burch said.

“They were his absolute profits and earnings,” he said.

Burch said his brother will offer Stanton some type of reward in appreciation for returning the diamonds, but he would not elaborate.

Meanwhile, Stanton said she finds it “hard to believe” that others would not have returned the briefcase.

“We’ve all lost something and wanted it returned,” she said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to know that anyone else did the same thing.”

The turn of events surprised even veteran policemen.

“I just felt that the person would open up the bag, find out what was in there, hit the streets and disappear,” said Detective Ron King, an investigator on the case. “I’m glad I’m wrong.”