Chinese couple steal diamond in Dubai, held in India
Dubai: A Chinese couple who stole a diamond worth 300,000 dirhams (about $81,000) from a shop here and then fled the UAE were arrested within 20 hours from an Indian airport, authorities said.
The 3.27-carat diamond was recovered in India after it was smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) inside the stomach of the woman, an official was cited as saying by the Gulf News on Monday.
The pair, in their 40s, grabbed the gem from a jewellery shop in Dubai’s commercial business district in Deira and immediately fled the country.
They were arrested as they were transiting to Hong Kong via Mumbai. The couple were brought back to the UAE in cooperation with the Interpol and the Indian police, the daily said.
The police released footages of the surveillance cameras in the store, which showed the couple entering the jewellery shop in Deira’s Gold Souk.
The footage showed the man distracting the staff by asking them about stones of certain specifications while the woman was seen going towards the entrance. She was seen opening the glass door of the display and then stealing the white-coloured diamond.
Then she hid the the diamond under her jacket and left the shop with the man.
The couple then went to the Dubai Mall. Footage showed the couple entering restrooms and then coming out wearing a different set of clothes.
They were then seen at the Dubai International Airport, from where they flew out.
Colonel Adel Al Joker, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, said the couple confessed to stealing the diamond. An X-ray scan showed the diamond in the woman’s gut. A specialist doctor was called in to administer a solution to retrieve the diamond, according to the report. (IANS)
First moon walk’s commemorative plaque sold
New York: A commemorative plaque brought to the moon on the Apollo 11 mission went under the hammer for USD 468,500 in Texas, as part of a huge collection that once belonged to late astronaut Neil Armstrong, auctioneers said.
The plaque includes a representation of the lunar module that touched down on the moon on July 20, 1969. Once back on Earth, it was mounted on a wooden base before being offered to Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon. The other two astronauts who took part in the mission, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, also each received one of these plaques.
Armstrong’s two sons, Rick and Mark, decided to part with some of the very large collection of their father, who died in 2012. It includes more than 2,000 objects. Just part of the collection was offered at the sale held Thursday through Saturday in Dallas as well as online. Another two sales are planned in May and November 2019 by Heritage Auction, which organized the first.
The souvenir plaque did better than the lot that was expected as the highlight of the sale, an American flag taken during the trip to the moon, but never deployed on site.
Larger than most flags brought into space (45 by 29 centimetres, or 18 by 11 inches), it was sold for USD 275,000, including fees and commissions. That’s more than triple Heritage’s estimate of $75,000.
Among Armstrong’s collection were two batches of fragments of the Wright brothers’ plane, whose first flight, in December 1903, is considered modern aviation’s maiden voyage. These pieces were taken by Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission and thus have a double historical value.
They each sold for USD 275,000, or nine times the original estimate. In all, the first part of the Armstrong collection sell-off has earned USD 5.2 billion, Heritage Auctions said in a statement. (AFP)