The case of the missing gold chain

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The young couple needed a down payment for a new place and found it gathering dust on a shelf - a thick shiny, gold chain. But the dream to turn bling into bucks went bust until 7 On Your Side talked to their tarnished jeweler.

"I feel so awful. I'm sick over this," Wendy Japaz said.

"It's horrible to lose something that meant so much to me," Patrick Japaz said.

Patrick called the big bling his "lucky charm" - a white gold chain holding a diamond encrusted pendant. It was a gift from fellow employees for a job well done.

"They chipped in and got if for me as a Christmas gift," Patrick said.

That was a ten years ago. Curious to see what it's worth now, Pat's wife Wendy brought it to the owner of Georgio's Jewelers in Newport Mall to get it appraised. And that's the last time she saw it.

"Every time we would call, every time we would go there, it was another excuse why he didn't have the necklace," Wendy said.

The couple recorded a sit down with the fast talking jeweler.

"I'll set it up. You can pick it up Monday. (When can I pick it up?) Monday at 1 oclock," Aaron Regev, owner of Georgio's Jewelers, is heard saying on amateur video.

But on Monday? The jeweler admitted he'd lied to them.

"I lost it," he says on the video.

When we asked Wendy the details, she said Regev didn't say when or how he lost it.

"I think he sold it," she said.

The jeweler agreed to reimburse the couple, writing out an IOU for $15,000 for the lost necklace, paid by check.

"We took it to the bank and this account is closed," Patrick said.

That's when we got involved.

NINA: "What did you do with the chain?"
REGEV: "I'm sorry the chain was lost."
NINA: "So it was never in your lockbox?"
REGEV: "The Chain was lost. We stalled for a time to try to locate it and we couldn't find it."
NINA: "So you lied?"
REGEV: "I didn't lie.
NINA: "I have texts from you promising the chain was in the lockbox."

This time, the couple got a check that cleared for $15,000 plus another $1,500 for their trouble.

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