Sheriff: SoCal Inmate Eats, Spits Up Stolen Diamond

A $25,000 diamond was found stuck in a shower drain at the Orange County prison where the man accused of stealing it two years ago is serving time.Prisoner Bret Allen Langford was charged with commercial burglary for the theft of a two-carat colorless diamond in April 2005.That diamond hadn't been found -- until this week, when an investigator representing Langford told jail officials to search the jailhouse drains if they wanted to find the stone.

Langford confessed that he swallowed and regurgitated the rock each time he was transferred to a different prison.But 14 months ago, just as he was about to be searched, Langford said he threw the diamond into a shower stall and it fell down the drain.Officials said the diamond will serve as evidence in Langford's upcoming trial before it's cleaned and returned to the store it went missing from.

After 35 years in law enforcement, "just when I though I'd heard everything," said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino, "I didn't."According to Amormino, Bret A. Langford, 39, snatched the diamond from Karim Ayoub at Jewelry Express in the Westminster Mall on April 8, 2005, and made a run for it, but Costa Mesa police caught him and his getaway-driver girlfriend in a car chase shortly afterward.

Langford didn't tell authorities where the diamond was, but investigators found the certificate of authenticity hidden in the cap of the gas tank of his red pickup truck, he said.At some point, Langford swallowed the diamond, then regurgitated it and kept it on his person in Men's Central Jail. He was later moved to Theo Lacy Jail.Investigators tore apart the truck's gas tank, looking for the diamond, Amormino said.

Langford had reportedly planned to use the diamond for a wedding ring.The diamond was caught by a screen in the shower drain where it was tossed. "The diamond stayed there for approximately 14 months," Amormino said, until a private investigator retained by Langford got a court order to search the drain. "And, lo and behold, deputies found the diamond."