$1.5 million in Diamonds stolen | Why You Shouldn’t Leave Valuables in Your Car

Hindsight is everything. In retrospect, North Carolina jeweler Peter Kaplan is likely wishing he hadn’t stopped to pee. Here’s why. Kaplan was in Albuquerque, New Mexico to show his rare jewelry collection to a local retailer. On his way to the meeting, Kaplan and his wife stopped at a Walgreens to use the restroom. They were only gone for 3 minutes, but that’s all the time the criminal needed. While the couple was away the culprit smashed the window of Kaplan’s rental car and grabbed a Samsonite suitcase that was left in the back seat. But the suitcase was not just any suitcase. In it were lots and lots of diamonds. So many precious diamonds, that the worth is estimated to be 1.5 million.

Stolen were 150 stones and 70 rings. The cheapest diamond in the case was worth $2,500, while another was worth more than $100,000. According to the Jewelers Security Alliance, the goods consisted of one-of-a-kind, custom made, platinum and 18 karat jewelry with fancy colored diamonds, and rare and unusual colored loose diamonds. The jewelry was marked with a logo consisting of a diamond shape with the letter “P” on the right side.

Albuquerque police say the smash-and-grab thief or thieves may have tracked their victim through a cell phone planted in 64 year-old Kaplan’s rented car. While searching the car the police found a GPS-enabled cell phone in the center console that did not belong to Kaplan. Those phones, police say, which use the Global Positioning Satellite system, are readily available and have been marketed to parents as a means of tracking their kids. Police are investigating whether the cell phone was in GPS mode during the time of the burglary.

To add to the mystery is a video surveillance camera that blacked out 10 minutes before the theft and did not start back up until an hour later. “For somebody to be able to pick that spot and to have a camera black out for them to commit the crime, is one in a million,” police told KRQE New 13, indicating it could have been a professional hit.

Kaplan told the Associated Press that he rarely leaves his inventory in a car and looked around several times to see whether anyone was watching. “I did what I thought was prudent,” he said. “It was a big spot. A lot of people were walking around, it was wide open, it was 10 in the morning, and I parked right next to the door. Not being from Albuquerque, it looked like a great place to stop…It’s not like I parked in a back alley.” Kaplan has been a diamond broker for 40 years. “This was a three-minute lapse of time that destroyed my life…My business is finished. I have no capital to restart it,” Kaplan says he didn’t carry insurance because it is too expensive for traveling brokers.

Meanwhile, police have contacted local airports asking security to be on the lookout for Kaplan’s case. In addition, they have released a surveillance video photograph taken from inside Walgreens of a person who police say was acting suspiciously.