Diamond Ring Thief Flushed Out

A woman pleaded guilty to swallowing a 1.5-carat diamond ring at a mall jewelry store and will serve one year of probation.

Mary Denise Flowers, 38, swallowed the ring at Littman Jewelers in December. A surveillance camera caught the act.

The ring, valued at $20,000, was later recovered in a jailhouse commode, and will be sent to Littman Jewelers' corporate headquarters in Oregon to be melted down. The diamond itself will be "returned to the vendor," said a Littman spokesman. "We will not resell it."

Flowers, who did not have a previous criminal record, was also ordered Monday to pay fines and court costs totaling $1,090, court records state.

The judge withheld a formal finding of adjudication, meaning Flowers will have a clean record if she completes probation without violation.