Alexi Dohnal arrived at the East Bank Club for a facial, changed into a spa robe and placed $140,000 worth of jewelry in a locker. When she returned, she found the lock cut and her jewelry gone, acoording to the Chicago Tribune.
"My world was spinning, I was so confused," said Dohnal, adding that she initially thought a locker room attendant had mistakenly cut the lock and moved her things. Her clothes, purse, wallet and BlackBerry were still in the locker, Dohnal said, but her diamond ring, wedding band and watch were gone.
The East Bank Club declined comment.
Dohnal said there were about eight carats of diamonds on the platinum rings: a six-carat stone on the engagement ring and about two carats of smaller diamonds around the wedding band. She vestured the rings were worth more than $120,000, adding the watch – a yellow-gold Cartier with diamonds surrounding the face – was worth about another $20,000.
The jewelry, she said, was insured, but the incident has nevertheless left her disheartened: "Obviously, there was no bodily harm but, it still hurts. ... It's the engagement ring (and wedding ring) that my husband gave me."
Dohnal said she wore the jewelry every day and that she never thought it might be stolen in a River North health club that US President Barack Obama and television persona Oprah Winfrey have been known to use.
"It is a high-profile gym," Dohnal said, noting members often leave their belongings unlocked. "Everyone has nice cars and there are a lot of housewives with big rings, so I don't really stand out."
Con artist Schonfeld gets early parole
Meanwhile, it was reported that Norman Schonfeld, the mastermind behind one of the most elaborate scams in the history of the diamond industry, will be up for parole by 2011.
Schonfeld, who swindled more than $6 million in diamonds from a dozen wholesalers in 2001 and tried to frame his son for the crime, was convicted of 40 counts of fraud and sentenced to a 16 to 32-year prison sentence. He was also ordered to pay $6 million in damages.
On Tuesday, the Appellate Court, in a three-to-two panel ruling, decided to reduce Schonfeld's sentence to eight and a half-to- 17 years. He will be eligible for parole may as early as 2011, after serving only five years of his term.
The court called the original sentence "excessive." The two opposing judges, in a harsh dissent, called Schonfeld "a fraud and recidivist with no qualms about casting blame on others, including his own son, to save his own neck."
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