$100,000 Cartier Watch Lost and Found at Airport
For most of us a bejeweled Cartier watch would be a treasure to be prized and guarded at all times but for one world traveler it was just another bauble. That’s the only explanation for how one passenger managed to forget his pricey timepiece at a TSA checkpoint and a diamond-and-gold encrusted Cartier watch somehow found itself in the lost and found department at the Newark, New Jersey airport.
The sparkling watch was spotted by a sharp-eyed TSA officer who recorded and tagged the timepiece before consigning it to the lost and found bin along with the usual assortment of keys, sunglasses and IDs. The watch must have stood out from the rest of flotsam since it was covered with hundreds of tiny diamonds. The owner was not named but is described as “a real estate entrepreneur from Japan who oversees multiple hotels and resorts in his country and other countries.”
It seems that the watch’s owner removed it for a security screening and forgot to retrieve the item. When he reached Japan he finally noticed that the Cartier timepiece was missing and contacted a colleague in New Jersey who then called the TSA in Newark. The owner supplied the colleague with photos of himself wearing the watch so the TSA returned the $100,000 timepiece, which was soon on its way to Japan to be reunited with the happy owner.
According to a press release from the Transportation Security Administration, “The gold diamond watch was picked up at the TSA Newark Lost & Found Office today at about noon. The man who picked it up said he was planning to fly to Japan tonight to personally deliver the watch to its owner. He was extremely grateful that a TSA officer turned it in at the checkpoint and told the TSA officials at the Lost & Found Office that the watch had been custom made and was a one-of-a-kind.”
Considering how careless it was to lose a $100,000 diamond watch in the first place, the owner should be grateful that the piece isn’t sitting in the window of a Newark pawnshop right now.
