ATTENTION, pawnshoppers and bling buffs! If you come across an 8,500-carat ruby shaped like the Liberty Bell, find a phone and call the cops — and you'll be rewarded with riches you can put in the bank.
Thieves stole the 4-pound, $2 million sparkler in November from the Stuart Kingston Galleries in Wilmington, according to the FBI. Galleries owner Jim Stein is offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the capture and conviction of the robbers.
Four robbers, armed with handguns and hammers, burst into the jewelry shop about 1:30 p.m. Nov. 1, tied up employees, smashed display cases and escaped with the ruby and "a large volume of high-end jewelry and diamonds," the FBI said. They fled in a U-Haul. Investigators believe that the robbers have ties to the Philadelphia area. Stein's employees told the Wilmington News-Journal that a witness jumped into his Mercedes sedan and followed the robbers' van up I-95 at about 100 mph, narrating the pursuit to a 9-1-1 operator, but stopped north of Chester when the robbers opened the rear door and leveled a gun at his car.
