Woman gulps Champagne, swallows diamond

A woman in Florida suffered an embarrassment after she accidentally swallowed a one-carat diamond, which had been placed in a flute of Champagne.

The charity event was held by the Tampa Women’s Club, where customers were offered a US$20 glass of Champagne, with a chance of winning the $5,000 diamond. A stone was put into each of the 400 glasses on offer at the event, but only one was real.

The problems started when Miriam Tucker, 80, accidentally swallowed her stone, which happened to be the real diamond.

Tucker said that she did not want to put her fingers into the drink to fish out the stone, and so planned to drink just a small amount, but even that proved to be too much.

She told Associated Press: “With the first sip I had taken, I swallowed it. What are the odds of this happening?”

Tucker already had a colonoscopy appointment booked a few days after the charity event, so she told her doctor to be “on the look out for it”.

After the diamond was found Tucker took it to Andrew Meyer, a partner at Continental Wholesale Diamond. He said: “She came back with the diamond in this bag, a medical bag. Touchdown.”