Employee Steals $12 Million in Gold From Queens Jeweler

Stay classy, Scarsdale: In the same week that the Mad Mom roadside abandonment story made headlines, another Scarsdale mom is in the news for stealing an estimated $12 million in gold from the Queens jewelry manufacturer where she worked as a vault manager. And according to her own confession, she did it one piece at a time over the course of six years! 50-year-old Teresa Tambunting's gold-hoarding hobby went unnoticed until January, when auditors at Jacmel Jewelry's Long Island City headquarters reported losses over the normal 3% rate.

The ensuing investigation apparently worried Tambunting, who had been with the company for over a quarter century, and in February she confessed, dragging rolling luggage bags filled with roughly $868,000 in gold. Jacmel president Jack Rahmey tells the Daily News, "The first time, she returned one bag with eighty pounds of fine gold. Then, on another occasion (one week later) she came back with another bag." Investigators say she admitted to slipping the gold inside the lining of her purse and stockpiling it in her Scarsdale home.

In all, she's believed to have hoarded over 500 pounds of gold. In a statement, Queens DA Richard A. Brown said, "With gold trading at nearly $900 an ounce, the defendant is accused of establishing a virtual mining operation in Long Island City which siphoned off millions of dollars’ worth of the precious metal from her employer." Tambunting was released on $100,000 bail Wednesday, and if convicted faces up to 25 years in prison. A source tells the News her lawyer is expected to argue that she has a form of obsessive compulsive disorder.

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By John Del Signore in News on April 30, 2009 5:45 PM

Comments [rss]

abcohen

so she gave it back and still gets arrested? with no plea deal... man see clearly crime paid here (the big question has to be would she have been caught if she didnt turn herself in? and how many other people a stealing from there too?)

jackdonaghy

Soon to be made into a motion picture staring Queen Latifah.

GaryK

Sounds like she worked for the MTA.

NannyState

A Scarsdale housewife with a passion for goldigging? I'm shocked.

Peter

she did it one piece at a time over the course of six years!

"One Piece at a Time" by Johnny Cash, 1976:

Well, I left Kentucky back in '49

An' went to Detroit workin' on a 'sembly line

The first year they had me puttin' wheels on cadillacs

Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by

And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry

'Cause I always wanted me one that was long and black.

One day I devised myself a plan

That should be the envy of most any man

I'd sneak it out of there in a lunchbox in my hand

Now gettin' caught meant gettin' fired

But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired

I'd have me a car worth at least a hundred grand.

[CHORUS]

I'd get it one piece at a time

And it wouldn't cost me a dime

You'll know it's me when I come through your town

I'm gonna ride around in style

I'm gonna drive everybody wild

'Cause I'll have the only one there is a round.

So the very next day when I punched in

With my big lunchbox and with help from my friends

I left that day with a lunch box full of gears

Now, I never considered myself a thief

GM wouldn't miss just one little piece

Especially if I strung it out over several years.

The first day I got me a fuel pump

And the next day I got me an engine and a trunk

Then I got me a transmission and all of the chrome

The little things I could get in my big lunchbox

Like nuts, an' bolts, and all four shocks

But the big stuff we snuck out in my buddy's mobile home.

Now, up to now my plan went all right

'Til we tried to put it all together one night

And that's when we noticed that something was definitely wrong.

The transmission was a '53

And the motor turned out to be a '73

And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone.

So we drilled it out so that it would fit

And with a little bit of help with an A-daptor kit

We had that engine runnin' just like a song

Now the headlight' was another sight

We had two on the left and one on the right

But when we pulled out the switch all three of 'em come on.

The back end looked kinda funny too

But we put it together and when we got thru

Well, that's when we noticed that we only had one tail-fin

About that time my wife walked out

And I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts

But she opened the door and said "Honey, take me for a spin."

So we drove up town just to get the tags

And I headed her right on down main drag

I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around

But up there at the court house they didn't laugh

'Cause to type it up it took the whole staff

And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds.

[CHORUS]

I got it one piece at a time

And it didn't cost me a dime

You'll know it's me when I come through your town

I'm gonna ride around in style

I'm gonna drive everybody wild

'Cause I'll have the only one there is around.

[Spoken] Ugh! Yow, RED RYDER

This is the COTTON MOUTH

In the PSYCHO-BILLY CADILLAC Come on

Huh, This is the COTTON MOUTH

And negatory on the cost of this mow-chine there RED RYDER

You might say I went right up to the factory

And picked it up, it's cheaper that way

Ugh!, what model is it?