Salina jewelry store announces closure following questions into missing $20,000 ring

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Update: Following questions from a Salina woman that prompted a FactFinder investigation into the whereabouts of her wedding ring appraised at more than $20,000, the jewelry store the woman entrusted to sell the ring announced its closure.

Jacobsen’s Jewelry Store Owner Keli Jacobsen announced the closure in a note to her customers posted on social media. That note is as follows:

Dear customers,

due to what will be an ugly backlash, on a one sided story, I will be closing the store. This is a sad day for me, and I cannot even defend myself according to my lawyer.

This store was my baby, and I have a family to support. I cannot begin to express the emotional damage someone can carelessly cause another human being, but here we are. And here I go.

To my customers I thank you.

Everything that is non consignment in the store is for sale! Come in, make me an offer, and tell me goodbye!

I appreciate each and every one of you.

Kelli

A $20,000 ring and no one knows where it is. The woman it belongs to contacted FactFinder for help after she said she gave it to a Salina jeweler to sell, but now hasn’t seen it in more than a year.

Cathy Chamberlin got married in 1993 to whom she thought she’d spend her life with. But forever was cut short after her husband died. She continued to wear her wedding ring but family told her it was time to move on.

“My son kept saying ‘Mom, you aren’t married anymore. Why are you wearing that ring?’ So, I just stopped wearing it and put it in my jewelry box and left it there. I figured, sell it,” said Chamberlin.

She took it to a jeweler in Salina who appraised it for more than $20,000.

She said she then took the ring to Jacobsen’s Jewelry in Salina to sell it. The owner, Kelli Jacobsen, told Chamberlin she could do it on consignment.

“That’s when things started happening. I had written, that the ring belongs to me, this ring may not leave the store without my consent and my signature, I will not accept anything less than $14,000 non-negotiable, I signed it, she signed it,” said Chamberlin.

Chamberlin said this was more than a year ago and there’s still no money and still no sight of the ring.

“Every time we went there, she would say ‘No it’s not the right time, Valentine’s Day or Christmas.’ But every time we did get to those holidays, she would say ‘No, no bites,’” said Chamberlin. “All I kept doing was calling her and saying ‘Where’s my ring?’ The button got pushed when I told her a jeweler in Omaha said he would buy it outright, full price. That’s when everything came tumbling down and she said she didn’t have it. She sent it out to GIA.”

GIA is a company jewelers can ship diamonds to to see if it is a diamond or to find out what the cut, clarity, color and carat are.

FactFinder went to Jacobsen’s Jewelry to talk with the owner. She told us her lawyer had advised her not to talk but said the ring is still with GIA.

From text messages between Chamberlin and Jacobsen, on May 5, Jacobsen said the ring is still with GIA. Chamberlin told FactFinder she never signed off on her ring leaving the store as it was a stipulation in their original agreement.

Seventeen days later, the owner said the ring was being shipped back to the store.

But, on May 26, there was still no word and Chamberlin said she wants to know where her ring is.

Jacobsen said it was still being shipped.

More texts and three different times in June, Chamberlin asked where the ring is.

The owner said there’s nothing she can do.

Chamberlin said she filed a police report with the Salina Police Department, she’s hired a lawyer and filled out a formal complaint with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office.

It’s been three months since their last conversation and Chamberlin said she just wants her ring back.

“If I can’t get my ring, I want full price of my ring. But what is strange, when I was asking her who was interested in my ring, she wouldn’t tell me,” said Chamberlin.

After FactFinder went to Jacobsen’s Jewelry in Salina where the owner said the ring was still with GIA, it seemed like it all came down to that company to find out where the ring is.

We called GIA and the company told us if a ring was shipped to them, it would only take one to two weeks for the ring to get shipped back to the jeweler. It’s been more than a year since Chamberlin said she has seen her ring.

So, where is it?

FactFinder asked GIA if the company could track the ring for us and it said it needed the order number to track it.

FactFinder called Jacobsen Jewelry to get the order number, but couldn’t get through. We sent Facebook messages, but still no answers on the order number or where the ring is.

Salina police says the department is investigating and the Kansas AG’s Office is aware of the situation.

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