Woman accidentally swallows $5K diamond in champagne at charity event

Published April 26, 2013

Associated Press

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The idea behind the Tampa Women's Club charity event was simple. For $20, you could buy a flute of champagne and a chance to win a one-carat, $5,000 diamond.

Organizers of the Saturday event placed $10 cubic zirconia stones in the bottom of 399 of the 400 champagne glasses. The prized diamond, donated by Continental Wholesale Diamonds, was placed in the last.

The problem? Eighty-year-old Miriam Tucker accidentally swallowed it.

Tucker told local news media that she didn't want to put her finger in the champagne, so she drank a bit. While laughing with women at the table, she realized she swallowed it.

Embarrassed, she had to tell jewelers who were frantically searching for the winner.

Already scheduled for a colonoscopy on Monday, she had a doctor recover the jewel.

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THE $2.2M QUESTION: Did Kardashian, Odom Let Charity $$ Disappear?

By Hollie McKay

Pop Tarts

Published April 02, 2013

FoxNews.com

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  The website for Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom's charity, Cathy's Kids, is shown.FNN

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  The website for Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom's charity, Cathy's Kids, is shown.FNN

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They might be able to “Keep Up” with their reality shows, product endorsements, NBA games and jet-set lifestyle, but it seems Lamar Odom and his wife Khloe Kardashian are doing a not-so-great job at keeping up with their charity.

Investigators for ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” ploughed through eight years of tax records and found that the charity started by the LA Clippers player called Cathy’s Kids – named in honor of his late mother who died of stomach cancer – has raised an estimated $2.2 million but since its inception in 2004, yet has failed to give a single cent to cancer-related causes.

According to ESPN, the charity – which claims to raise funds for cancer research and underprivileged kids – has instead used at least sixty percent of its finances to aid two elite basketball travel teams. Throughout its tenure, the charity allegedly paid Odom’s high school coach Jerry DeGregorio an annual salary, and yet Cathy’s Kids has run into around $256,000 into the red.

So what does Odom think of the controversy? When the reality star basketball player was questioned by an ESPN camera crew outside the locker room with regarding to the charity, Odom responded: “It’s my money.”

Reps for Kardashian, Odom and the charity did not respond to a request for comment in relation to the emerging allegations of charity fraud.

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