Nearly $700K in jewels stolen from Newport home

Newport Beach police are looking for a thief who stole nearly $700,000 in women’s jewelry from a home in a gated community.

On Tuesday, a woman in her 40s noticed that her diamond necklaces, bracelets and earrings had been removed from her closet, according to Sgt. Steve Burdette.

She had left town for the holidays Dec. 22 and returned several weeks ago, but had not looked inside her closet until Tuesday, Burdette said. The woman lives in the 100 block of Old Course Drive, in the One Ford Road neighborhood.

Missing were three diamond-encrusted necklaces, a gold bracelet set with diamonds, platinum drop earrings with diamonds, and a platinum bracelet with diamonds.

Two of the necklaces have emerald-cut diamonds, Burdette said. The police report valued the jewelry at $697,000.

The jewelry is believed to be insured, and detectives are waiting to get images of the jewels and other details, such as descriptions of their diamond laser etchings.

One Ford Road security will also provide detectives with video of vehicles coming and going into the community, Burdette said.

No one else has reported similar thefts recently, Burdette said.

“It could just be a lucky thief,” he said.