71-Year-Old Lady 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 smuggled diamonds in her plaster cast. The FBI wants to use Angelina as bait to draw out the criminals, but the feisty elderly lady takes matters into her own hands.

"Mom!" Nina rushed to greet Angelina as she passed through airport security. "Oh my God, are you okay? Let me take your suitcase..."

"I'm embarrassed about breaking my arm, but the injury is fine. See?" Angelina raised her left arm to show her daughter the plaster cast encasing it from hand to elbow.

Nina frowned. “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. I intend to have as many adventures as possible before my time runs out."

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

The man was so grim that Angelina couldn't help but think she was in trouble. A wave of anxiety set her hands shaking. She and Nina followed the man to a secluded security room, where she was shown a scanner image of her arm.

"I don't understand,” Angelina said. “Are those see-through spots inside my arm? Surely airport security doesn't call people aside to inform them of health concerns?"

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

"I’m not a smuggler!” Angelina insisted. “By God, I’m seventy-one years old. You can’t truly think I’ve been stealing valuables abroad! It takes me five minutes just to sit up with this old hip of mine."

"At this point, all we’re asking for is your cooperation, ma’am," the security officer said. "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.

"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 that it took her a moment to realize the security officer was speaking to her.

"...or, you can help us. We believe this cast, with the diamonds hidden inside it, was placed on you by mistake. The smugglers will come after you to 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 diamond smugglers!" Angelina retorted.

The man frowned. "All you need to do is alert us when the smugglers contact you to arrange for the cast to be returned to them."

He 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 returned home. Although Angelina had decided to spend her retirement exploring the world and having adventures, this incident had been a little too exciting.

The next morning, 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. 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 called Agent Finley. He soon arrived at her house with his partner, Agent Jones. The pair listened closely to the threatening message. Then they told her their plan to catch the smugglers.

Angelina entered the bus station the following day with a package of fake diamonds provided by Agent Finley. An adrenaline rush coursed through her veins as she placed the bag inside locker 17 so the hidden camera faced the locker door.

Angelina went to the sectioned-off area where the agents had set up a small command station. She sat near the door and stared at the agents squashed into the room, working on laptop computers. It felt like she was on the set of a spy movie.

After a while, one of the agents called out: "Target approaching the locker!"

Agents called out instructions over their radios while others rushed out the door. Angelina watched intently on the closest laptop as a slight figure wearing a hoodie approached the locker. The footage from the hidden camera popped up as the locker door swung open, revealing the hooded man’s face.

"Did you get that?" Agent Finley barked.

"Affirmative, sir! I'll run his face through the database to see if we have this guy in the system."

The hooded man removed the package, stuffed it inside his jacket, and strode toward the exit. Angelina grinned as the agents closed in to arrest him. 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 fetch a package from locker 17 while he waited in his car," the hooded man said.

Several agents ran off to check the parking lot for the car the man described. They returned a few minutes later with bad news. The vehicle wasn’t there.

"They must've been watching us... darn it!" The agent gestured angrily.

Angelina's heart fluttered in fear. The criminals must know by now that she'd deviated from their instructions. They'd found her phone number so they could easily discover her address. She was now in grave danger.

Agent Finley promised Angelina round-the-clock protection to ensure her safety. Agent Jones then took her home. Angelina called for Nina to tell her what happened, but she didn’t reply. Her daughter wasn’t at home and didn’t answer Angelina’s calls.

Then Angelina’s phone rang. It felt like the whole world disappeared around her when a familiar voice started speaking.

"I warned you not to call the police, but you didn’t listen so things 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. If anything goes wrong this time, I'll send you your daughter's head by mail. Don't forget to lose your tail."

The call ended before Angelina could reply. Her phone shook in her hands. She couldn't believe those criminals had taken her daughter!

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

Angelina went to the little basket beside her bed where she kept her medicines and removed a few sleeping tablets.

Minutes later, she put on her best 'sweet, old lady smile' as she approached Agent Jones with a plate of apple pie in one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in the other.

"Stop right there, ma'am!" Agent Jones glanced nervously about. "You're going to blow my cover."

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

"Uh...no, ma'am." Agent Jones looked longingly at the pie.

"Well, you’d best finish your plate then. And enjoy the coffee, it's imported from Ethiopia!"

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

Angelina quickly went out to her classic 50s Cadillac. She removed the mini GPS tracking device from her car and then drove to the hospital. Angelina lost precious time convincing the doctor to replace her cast, but he eventually agreed.

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

"No! I want it," Angelina cried. "But first, please put this inside it."

Angelina held up the mini GPS 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."

The doctor agreed with a sigh. Soon, Angelina slipped out a side exit, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of the police or FBI as she returned to her car. She didn't like deceiving the law enforcement officers, but she believed her plan to rescue Nina was her best option.

Angelina dumped her cast in the blue trash can and drove away. She parked a few blocks away, opened the app for the GPS tracker inside her old cast, and stared at the screen. She drove off when the dot started moving.

She spotted the courier when he handed the cast to the driver of an SUV idling outside a co-op parking garage. The car then entered the garage, and an attendant secured the double gates with a sliding lock. The courier was long gone, and this place had only one way in or out: the gate. It was time to call Agent Finley.

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

"Yes, dear, but I know where the smuggler is and you need to get here immediately to arrest him."

Agent Finley urged Angelina to stay put until the cops arrived. Angelina agreed but had to break her promise when she spotted someone trying to open the gate from the inside. Angelina couldn't let anyone leave that parking garage.

She parked in front of the gates. The Cadillac jerked violently as the SUV driver tried to shove the gates open from the other side. The bigger car reversed and smashed into the gates, shoving Angelina's Cadillac back a foot.

Angelina pushed the gates closed once more. The SUV was powerful, but Angelina had faith in her Caddy. After a few minutes, the other car pulled back and drove away. Angelina barely had a moment to savor her win when the bigger car rammed the gate.

Angelina’s head banged against the steering wheel. Her head was ringing...no, those were sirens! The cops had arrived!

A police officer escorted Angelina to safety. She watched from a distance as law enforcement officers rushed into the parking garage. Soon, Nina appeared with Agent Finley. Angelina rushed to meet them.

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

"I'm afraid your daughter is the criminal, ma'am,” Agent Finley said. “She faked her kidnapping so she could ransom the diamonds to the smugglers."

Angelina shook her head. "You're mistaken, Agent Finley. She wouldn't do that, would you, Nina?"

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

Angelina watched, numb with shock, as Agent Finley led Nina away.

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