May 17, 2012
OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian man accused of stealing and swallowing a $20,000 diamond is being held in custody until he has a bowel movement and produces the evidence, police said Thursday.
Sergeant Brett Corey told AFP the man is being kept in a cell without a toilet.
"We've given him a container (a bucket) and are monitoring his bowel movements. Our forensic officers are combing through his shit to find the diamond once it passes," Corey said. "But so far they haven't found anything."
The 52-year-old was seen on a store surveillance video swallowing the 1.7-karat gem at a jewelry shop in Windsor, Ontario on May 10 after a clerk accused him of switching the diamond with a sleight of hand, and called police.
Corey said he is cooperating and has taken laxatives, but the loot has remained stuck in his intestines.
Diamonds are radiolucent or almost entirely invisible in x-ray photographs, but two cubic zirconia he swallowed along with the diamond were clearly visible in two x-rays taken of his bowels this week.
"We've been tracking the two cubic zirconia down his lower intestine," Corey said.
When the diamond is found, the man will be charged with theft over $5,000, he said.
