Search for $2 Million Ruby

The FBI has been searching since November for a Liberty Bell carved out of ruby, swiped from Wilmington jewelry store

It's been more than two months and authorities are no closer to finding a $2 million dollar Liberty Bell Ruby. It was stolen from Stuart Kingston Jewelers on Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington.

On November 1, 2011, four men walked into the store in the middle of the afternoon, armed with hammers and handguns.

The suspects tied up employees and then started smashing display cases, according to a report on the FBI's website.

The suspects then forced one employee to open up the jewelry store vault. Inside the vault was the rare sculpture, carved from the largest mined ruby in the world, the FBI said.

The four suspects left the scene in a U-Haul cargo van, with the ruby and other valuable items.

Jim Stein, owner of Stuart Kingston Jewelers, told the Delaware News Journal that the Liberty Bell Ruby had been inside the vault for close to two years.

Its owners, from California, hoped to sell it to a philanthropist who would donate it to Philadelphia's National Liberty Museum.

The ruby, sculpted in 1976 for the U.S. bicentennial, weighs four pounds and is five inches high. It is adorned with 50 diamonds, to represent each state.

Employees told the Delaware News Journal that the heist will be featured on a February episode of "America's Most Wanted."


 

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