71-Year-Old Woman Finds Diamonds Worth $400,000 in Her Plaster Cast – Story of the Day

Angelina returns from holiday with a broken arm and discovers $400,000 worth of illicit diamonds hidden in her plaster cast. The law enforcement officers want to use Angelina as bait to draw out the criminals, but the feisty elderly woman takes matters into her own hands.

Angelina walked a little faster when she saw her daughter, Nina, waiting for her in the airport with a worried expression. Angelina's visit to Zimbabwe had been far more eventful than either of them had expected, and it was a relief to be back home.

"Mom!" Nina rushed forward to greet Angelina as she passed through security. "Oh my God, are you okay? Do you need help with anything? Let me take your suitcase..."

"I'm fine, Nina, really. I'm a little embarrassed about breaking my arm, but the injury is fine. See?" Angelina raised her left arm, which was encased in a plaster cast from hand to elbow.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help you, but I told you it wasn't a good idea to go horseback riding, Mom.” Nina frowned at Angelina. “I know you won't want to hear it, but you're too old for such things. You're in your seventies now...don't you think it's time to slow down?"

"Are you kidding?" Angelina chuckled. "I'm physically and financially sound, and I intend to have as many adventures as I can before my time runs out. I can't wait to show you the pictures I took of the Victoria Falls."

"Excuse me, ma'am." A severe man in a security uniform stepped up to speak to Angelina. "I need you to come with me."

"Is something the matter?" Angelina asked. The man had such a grim expression that she couldn't help but think she was in trouble. A wave of anxiety set her hands shaking.

"Please follow me, ma'am," the man replied, ignoring Angelina's question. He held out an arm to guide her toward a different part of the airport.

Angelina exchanged a worried glance with her daughter. She agreed to follow the man but insisted that Nina accompany her. Together, they marched through the crowd of travelers in the busy airport to a secluded security room.

"Will somebody please tell me what this is all about?" Angelina asked as a group of stern security officers confronted her.

"Let me show you, ma'am." One of the officers pointed to an image taken by one of the airport scanners. "See this string of anomalies inside your cast?"

Angelina raised her broken arm and then stared back at the image, comparing the two. "I see it, but I don't understand it. Are those see-through spots inside my arm? Surely airport security doesn't call people aside to inform them of health concerns?"

The officer's eyebrow twitched as though the question annoyed him. "No, ma'am, but we do stop people who are smuggling valuables."

Angelina couldn't believe what she'd just heard. She adjusted the volume on her hearing aid and asked the man to repeat himself, but she had heard him correctly.

"I didn't steal anything!" Angelina insisted. "And I'm by no means a smuggler! By God, I’m seventy-one years old. You can’t truly think an old lady like me has been stealing diamonds abroad! It takes me five minutes just to sit up with this old hip of mine."

"This has to be some kind of mistake," Nina added. "Give my mom a polygraph test or something and you'll realize she's telling the truth."

"That won't be necessary," the security officer said. "But we do need to ask for your cooperation. We need to scan your cast with a different machine to verify our suspicions."

Angelina agreed. She followed the security officer into a separate room, where she was scanned again. She and the officer both stared at the image of her arm that popped up on a screen mounted on the wall.

"This is definitely the batch of diamonds we’ve been expecting, ma'am,” he said earnestly. “It’s around $400,000 worth of cut diamonds."

Angelina just about fainted. She was so shocked and confused about how the diamonds got into her cast that it took her a moment to realize the security officer was speaking to her.

"...or, you can help us. We've been trying to catch the people involved in this smuggling ring for a while, and this mixup provides us with a golden opportunity. We've checked you out, ma'am, and we believe this cast, with the diamonds hidden inside it, was placed on you by mistake."

"By now, the smugglers know their designated mule didn't receive the cast," he continued, "so they'll be hunting for you so they can get their diamonds back. When they find you, we'll catch them."

"You can't mean to use a little old lady as bait for some diamond smugglers!" Angelina retorted.

The man frowned. "It's not as dangerous as you seem to think, ma'am. The smugglers will contact you to arrange for the cast to be returned to them. All you need to do is report to us when that happens."

The man held out a business card. Angelina put her glasses on to read the small print, including the man's name.

"Okay, Agent Finley, I can do that," she replied.

Angelina and Nina were allowed to leave shortly afterward and returned home. Although Angelina had decided to spend her retirement exploring the world and having adventures, this incident had been a little too exciting.

Angelina struggled to fall asleep that night. Every blow of the wind or mysterious thump sounded like an army was creeping up to her doorstep.

She considered taking one of her sleeping pills, but then she wouldn't notice if those criminals really broke in and came for her during the night. She felt exhausted when she got up the next morning, but she soon discovered something that shocked her awake.

There was a message on Angelina's answering machine. She pressed play, and an ominous voice spoke over the speaker.

"You've accidentally come into possession of something that doesn't belong to you. We don't want any trouble, so I'm offering you a deal. You'll take the diamonds from the cast and place them inside locker 17 at the bus station tomorrow. Do not contact the police. If you disobey these instructions, the consequences will be very unpleasant."

Angelina immediately hurried back to her bedroom and retrieved Agent Finley's card. She called and told him about the message from the smugglers. Shortly afterward, he arrived at her house with his partner, Agent Jones. The two agents listened closely to the message on Angelina's answering machine.

"Thank you for calling us, ma'am," Agent Finley said, "now listen closely, this is what we're going to do..."

Angelina entered the bus station the following day with a package of fake diamonds Agent Finley had given her. An adrenaline rush coursed through her veins as she approached the lockers.

She found locker 17 quickly and placed the package of fake diamonds inside it.

She hesitated a few moments, adjusting the bag so the lens of the hidden camera faced the locker door, exactly as Agent Finley had told her to position it. He'd been particular about not obstructing the camera's view.

Once satisfied, Angelina went to the sectioned-off area where the agents had set up a small command station. Agent Jones let her in.

"Sit right here, and don't say a word," Agent Jones said, gesturing to a chair near the door.

Angelina sat and stared at the agents squashed into the room and the many laptop computers arranged on trestle tables around the room. It felt like she was on the set of a spy movie.

"How long will we have to wait before those criminals send someone to fetch the diamonds?" Angelina asked.

"That's impossible to tell, ma'am," Agent Jones replied. "Sometimes it can take a day and a half."

"So long?" Angelina glanced at the monitors the agents used to monitor the bus station's security cameras.

"Be quiet back there!" An agent snapped.

Angelina sighed and leaned back in her chair. Minutes ticked by, and nothing happened. All the initial excitement Angelina had felt soon transformed into intense boredom.

"I don't need to stay here, right?" Angelina asked.

"You're free to go anytime, ma'am," Agent Jones replied. "We'll get in touch to inform you once we've captured the criminals.

Angelina nodded and rose. She was halfway to the door when she heard something that set her heart racing.

"Target approaching the locker!"

The small room was suddenly a hubbub of activity. Agents called out instructions over their radios while others rushed out the door. Angelina stepped aside to let them pass. She watched intently on the closest laptop as a slight figure approached the locker.

The person on the screen was wearing a hoodie. Angelina craned her neck to view the footage from the camera placed inside the bag. The locker door swung open, there was a sudden glare of light, and then the hooded man’s face appeared on the screen.

"Did you get that?" Agent Finley barked.

"Affirmative, sir! We have his face and I'm going to run it through the database to see if we have this guy in the system."

Suddenly, this was just like being in a movie again. Angelina could barely stand still as she watched the hooded man remove the package from the locker. He stuffed it inside his hoodie and then swiftly walked toward the entrance.

He didn't get far before agents swarmed the man from all directions. He raised his arms, and the agents closed in to arrest him. Angelina smiled. This was far more exciting than her holiday! It was also a great relief to know it was over.

"Sir, we have a problem," a voice crackled over the radio. "This guy is just a decoy."

Angelina slipped from the room and hurried to where the hooded man was kneeling on the floor.

"I swear, some dude gave me $100 to pick up a package from locker 17 while he waited outside in his car," the hooded man said.

"What type of car was it and where was it parked?" An agent barked.

The hooded man told the agents the details, and several ran off to check the parking lot. They returned a few minutes later with bad news.

"The vehicle isn't there, sir."

"They must've been watching us... darn it!" The agent made an angry gesture.

Angelina's heart fluttered in fear. If the criminals had been watching them, they knew she'd deviated from their instructions. Since they'd found her phone number, they could easily find out where she lived. She was now in grave danger.

Agent Finley assured Angelina that they'd provide round-the-clock protection to ensure nothing happened to her. Agent Jones then took her home and walked her to her door.

"Nina, you aren't going to believe what happened," Angelina called out as she locked the front door.

Nina didn't reply. Angelina called to her again as she walked down the hall to Nina's bedroom. The room was empty. It seemed strange that Nina wasn't home when she knew the operation at the bus station was happening that day.

But Angelina assured herself there must've been a good reason for Nina to go out. She called her daughter's phone, but it went straight to voicemail. Angelina was starting to worry.

Then her phone started to ring. Angelina quickly answered. It felt like the whole world disappeared around her when a familiar voice started speaking.

"I warned you not to call the police, but since you chose to be uncooperative, things are going to get ugly now."

"You have three hours to remove the cast and place it in the blue trash can at the intersection of 13th and 18th streets," the criminal continued. "If anything happens to the courier this time, or you involve the police in any way, I'll send you your daughter's head by mail. Don't forget to lose your tail."

The call ended before Angelina could say anything. Her phone shook in her hands. She couldn't believe this was happening. Those criminals had taken her daughter!

She rushed back to the front of the house. Agent Jones was parked just across the street in the shade of an old oak tree. It would take less than five minutes to go across and tell the agent about the phone call, but Angelina couldn't risk it. Nina's life was at stake.

Her only option was to do what the criminal wanted her to do. She looked down at her broken arm. She'd need to visit a doctor to get the cast replaced, but first, she needed to deal with Agent Jones.

Only one solution popped into Angelina's mind. She went to the little basket beside her bed where she kept her medicines and removed a few of her sleeping tablets.

"May God forgive me for what I'm about to do," she muttered as she went to the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Angelina crossed the road with a plate bearing a slice of apple pie in one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in the other. She put on her best 'sweet, old lady smile' as she approached Agent Jones.

"I couldn't bear the thought of you hanging around out here all day without anything to eat or drink," Angelina said, "so I brought you something to help you get through the day, and to thank you for taking such good care of me."

"Stop right there, ma'am!" Agent Jones glanced nervously about. "You're going to blow my cover. I need you to keep on walking like you don't know me."

"Are you refusing my gift?" Angelina stopped dead and stared reproachfully at Agent Jones.

"Uh...no, ma'am. But I need you to set those things down on the bench over there. I'm not supposed to accept things like that while I'm on duty." Agent Jones looked longingly at the pie. "But I guess it can't hurt. I am hungry..."

"Well, you make sure to finish your plate then. And enjoy the coffee, it's an expensive brand imported from Ethiopia, said to be the best coffee in the world!"

When Angelina peeped through her front windows fifteen minutes later, Agent Jones was fast asleep in the car. This was the moment she'd been waiting for!

Angelina quickly went out to her Cadillac. The first thing she did was to remove the mini GPS tracking device she'd placed inside her car the previous year in case someone stole the classic 50s car. Then she drove straight to the hospital.

Angelina lost precious time convincing the doctor to replace her cast, but he eventually agreed. She tried to be patient as the doctor sawed through her old cast, removed it, and applied a new one.

"All done!" he said eventually. He lifted the old cast off the table. "I'll just throw this away for you..."

"No! Give it to me," Angelina cried. "Actually, there's something I need you to do first. I want you to put this inside my old cast."

Angelina held up the mini GPS unit from her car. The doctor stared at her as though she was crazy.

"You won't deny an old lady her quirks and curiosities, will you, Doctor?" Angelina smiled sweetly at him. "I want to use the old cast for an experiment, you see, but I can't possibly attach the GPS myself because I don’t have the right equipment."

The doctor sighed. "Alright. It's a very strange request, ma'am, but I'll do it for you."

Angelina slipped out a side exit to the hospital and kept her eyes peeled for any sign of the police or the FBI as she returned to her car. She didn't like deceiving the law enforcement officers, but she had no other option.

She hoped and prayed that Nina was all right as she drove to the drop-off point. Her imagination kept returning to worst-case scenarios in which Nina had been badly hurt or killed by the smugglers. Anxious sweat slicked her palms, and her breath came in rapid gasps.

But she had to believe that the smugglers wouldn't hurt her daughter. They wanted their diamonds, and Angelina had to believe they'd deal fairly with her to get them.

Besides, she had her own plan to ensure she got Nina back safe and sound.

Angelina parked close to the intersection of 13th and 18th Streets and exited the car with her old cast. She dumped it in the blue trash can, exactly as the ominous man had instructed her to, and drove away.

She pulled into a parking lot and removed her phone from her pocketbook. Angelina opened the app for the GPS tracker the doctor placed inside her old cast and stared at the screen. At first, the dot just stayed in one spot, blinking at her, but then it started to move.

"Now I've got you!" Angelina crowed.

She started her car and drove off, following the dot. She scanned the sidewalks as she drove, hoping to catch a glimpse of the courier who'd retrieved the cast. Eventually, she spotted him approaching a car idling in the drive outside a co-op parking garage.

The courier handed the cast to the driver, who then entered the garage. An attendant shut the wooden double gates and secured them with a sliding lock. He then returned to a small booth close by.

Angelina's heart was in her throat as she studied the parking garage. The courier was long gone, and this place had only one way in or out: the gate. This was her chance to corner the criminals and get her daughter back. Even if Nina weren't here, the person who took the cast would know where to find her.

Angelina took out her phone and called Agent Finley.

"...wild, irresponsible, and gung-ho old lady I've ever met!" Agent Finley admonished Angelina.

"Yes, dear, now kindly shut your pie-hole and listen," she replied. "I have one of the smugglers under observation, sort of. He went into a parking garage and is still in there. I need you to get down here right now so you can arrest and interrogate him."

Agent Finley asked for the address and urged Angelina not to do anything until the cops and FBI arrived on the scene. Angelina swore she'd stay put but soon found she had to break her promise.

A hand emerged through the hole above the sliding lock. Fingers gripped the bolt and started wriggling it open.

Angelina couldn't risk allowing anyone to leave that parking garage. Without hesitation, she sped forward and parked her car right in front of the gates. When the person inside tried to push them open, Angelina edged her car closer and shut them once more.

The garage attendant emerged from his booth and banged on her window. "Hey! You can't park here!"

But Angelina pointed to her hearing aid and shrugged, pretending she couldn't hear. She would do whatever it took to ensure those smugglers didn't get away this time.

The gates rattled. The attendant was now shouting to whoever was on the other side, and he then ran back to his booth to make a phone call. Meanwhile, the person on the other side of the gates seemed to have taken a cue from Angelina.

The Cadillac jerked violently as they tried to shove the gates open from the other side. Through the slit between the two gates, Angelina glimpsed the tall hood of a truck or SUV and the barest shadow of a figure behind the wheel.

The bigger car reversed and smashed into the gates, shoving Angelina's Cadillac back a foot.

"Oh no, you don't!" Angelina stepped on the gas and shoved the gates closed once more.

The car on the other side of the gates was powerful, but Angelina had faith in the solidity and sheer weight of her Caddy. After a few minutes, the car on the other side pulled back and drove away. Angelina barely had a moment to savor her win when the bigger car rammed the gate.

Angelina banged her head against the steering wheel as the impact juddered through her car. Her head was ringing...no, those were sirens! The cops had finally arrived!

A police officer escorted Angelina from her car and took her to safety. She watched from a distance as police officers and FBI agents rushed into the parking garage with their guns drawn.

Paramedics arrived soon and forced Angelina to sit in the back of the ambulance as they tended to the wound on her forehead. The moment they finished applying a dressing, she hustled back to the ring of squad cars and unmarked vehicles surrounding the gate.

Angelina cried out joyfully when she saw Nina exiting the parking garage with one of the FBI agents. She rushed forward to greet her daughter, but a police officer stopped her.

"You can't go running in there, ma'am. These are dangerous criminals—"

"That's my daughter," Angelina responded, "and you won't keep me from her!"

"It's for your own safety, ma'am," the officer insisted.

Angelina frowned. She craned her neck to see the criminals, as she assumed the police had arrested them now and would soon be bringing them out in handcuffs, but there was nobody except Nina.

Agent Finley appeared then and spoke to the agent escorting Nina. He then put a hand on Nina's elbow and started walking toward Angelina.

Angelina couldn't wait anymore. She dodged around the officer blocking her way and hurried to her daughter.

"Nina! Are you okay? Did those criminals hurt you?" Angelina asked as she drew closer.

Nina hung her head and refused to meet Angelina's gaze. Angelina put her hands out to cup her daughter's face, but Agent Finlay made an announcement so shocking that she froze in her spot.

"I'm afraid your daughter is the criminal, ma'am. She faked her own kidnapping to get the diamonds so she could ransom them to the smugglers."

"No...that can't be right," Angelina said. "My Nina would never do something like that! We live comfortable lives, Agent Finley, and she has a great job...why on earth would she do such a thing?"

"Never underestimate the power of greed, ma'am," Agent Finley replied.

Angelina fairly shook her head. "You're mistaken, Agent Finley. Nina wouldn't have put me through such emotional turmoil, would you, Nina?"

"I'm sorry, Mom," Nina muttered. "I never meant to hurt you..."

Angelina's jaw dropped. She stood there, numb with shock, and watched in disbelief as Agent Finley led Nina away.

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