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The New Orleans Saints won their first Super Bowl rings in Miami back in 2009, and one member of the team almost lost his here, too.
Saints linebacker Stanley Arnoux left his 2008 championship ring in his vehicle when he valeted his car at the Fontainebleau resort in Miami Beach on Memorial Day Weekend, and now the hotel’s valet manager, Gil Ulloa, stands accused of swiping it and trying to pawn it.
After Ulloa got his sticky fingers on the ring he tried to sell it at Kendale Jewelry, a pawn shop in southwest Miami-Dade. According to WSVN, Alberto Iturrey, an employee at the store, offered $1,200 for the ring. That’s how much the gold is worth, though the ring is valued at $30,000. Iturrey wasn’t convinced it was legit.
“A couple days later, he came back to the store and he asked what we were going to do with the ring,” Iturrey tells WSVN. “I found that odd. I found that very odd.”
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Iturrey called police, and they determined that Ulloa had ransacked Arnoux’s car and stolen $200 and the ring. The valet manager now faces charges of grand theft and dealing in stolen property.
As for Arnoux, the only way Iturrey could think of to contact him was through Twitter. The linebacker traveled down to the jewelry store.
“His eyes watered when I gave him back the ring,” said Iturrey. “He told me, his exact words were, “‘Man, I feel like I am receiving it again for the first time.'”
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