A gem dealer who exhibited at the recent GJX Show in Tucson is reporting that nearly $1 million of her inventory was stolen following the fair.
 
After completing her first show on Feb. 5, Tammy Moreau of gem dealer Sunstone Butte, a mining company in southeast Oregon, locked up her merchandise in her trailer in the parking lot of a Motel 6 in Tucson, Ariz. When she returned to her trailer on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 7, she found that the locks on the cases had been cut off and all of the merchandise inside was missing.
 
The 2,000 unique sunstone carvings, ranging from 1/2 ct. to 100 ct. pieces, are worth approximately $800,000 to $900,000 in total. Moreau’s company mines sunstones all summer and finally had enough inventory to present in the GJX show this year.
 
“We worked hard all summer mining in order to come to the exhibit,” Moreau says. “It’s a shame. Many of these pieces are one-of-a-kind stones.”
 
Anyone with information is requested to call the Tucson Burglary Division at 520-837-7799.

JCK