Diamonds Update

If you have travel plans in your future, think carefully if you really need to take all your expensive jewelry.  The risk of theft, loss and damage increases as soon as you start your trip because you are in new surroundings, doing new activities and often in tourist areas that are the target of pickpockets, thieves and con artists.

If you are traveling out of the country, check to be sure your jewelry insurance covers your property when you are traveling outside the United States.  Because the risk of theft is so much higher in foreign countries, some insurance companies only provide domestic coverage.

It is never wise to put jewelry items in luggage, especially with security personnel going through your belongings.  The percentage of bags lost by airlines continues to increase and their liability for your lost luggage is very limited.  Hotel rooms are open to cleaning personnel several times a day and safes in hotel rooms are not particularly secure.

If you do not put your jewelry in your luggage or leave it in your hotel room, that means you are carrying it with you but that can be a problem at the security checks at airports or when carrying something all day as you travel or are sightseeing.

This situation occurred several days ago when a man found a Louis Vuitton bag on a park bench while he was hiking in a Sausalito, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Inside the bag was a 12-carat diamond ring, pearl and emerald jewelry, a Cartier watch and roughly $500 in cash.  The contents were worth about $1 million.

While many would have been tempted to head for a pawnshop and cash in their discovery, John Suhrhoff returned the bag to Sausalito police who found the owners, the Ghannadian family of Toronto, who were in Northern California for a daughter’s wedding.  The Ghannadian family had an extra day before their flight back to Toronto so had decided to visit Sausalito, a popular tourist are with waterfront views of San Francisco.  They had left the bag on a park bench near a tour bus depot and did not realize it until they returned to their San Francisco hotel.

Not all lost bag stories have this type of happy ending, so think twice before loading your purse with all your jewels and heading on vacation.