A Chicago home repairman is facing felony theft charges and up to three years in prison for stealing and swallowing a homeowner's diamond ring while on the job.  30 year old Wilfredo Gonzalez-Cruz allegedly swallowed the ring to hide it from the owners of the house where he was working last Friday.

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Prosecutors say Gonzalez was remodeling a home in the Chicago suburb of Cicero when he asked to use the bathroom.  When the homeowner later noticed that her diamond ring was missing, she told her husband, who confronted Gonzalez, who denied taking the ring.

The two men began to struggle and Gonzalez took the ring he had hidden on himself and swallowed it. Police arrived and took Gonzalez to a hospital, where X-rays showed he had swallowed the ring.

Gonzalez was given laxatives to speed up the natural processes, and then locked up in a rubber room with bedpans.  The ring was finally recovered Monday, and Gonzalez is now in jail facing charges.

This story is about a real "diamond in the roughage."

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