EDITORIAL - Retrace the trip of jewels to the dumps

There is one thing that has so far been overlooked and which certainly needs verifying in the case of the missing pieces of jewelry that ended up in the hands of scavengers at a dumpsite after being cleaned out from the room of the owner.

And it is whether or not the inclusion of the jewelry in the trash intended for disposal was really inadvertent and accidental, or whether it was done on purpose and by design, with the ultimate and devious scheme being to actually defraud the old man.

The possible direct participation in the scheme, or even just the mere complicity of the househelp who did the cleaning is indeed truly worth investigating. Who knows, but that it might lead to even bigger revelations.

As it is, it seems that the investigation, if it can even be called that, has focused mainly on recovering all or most of the jewelry from the finders, and whether they have been any truthful at all in giving back all that they said they found.

There is even the suggestion that the police may have to be probed as well, just in case what the finders returned did not match what they police, in turn, turned over. That is going out too far on a limb already.

It is best to stay close to what is plausible — which is that it is simply implausible for anyone, househelp or otherwise, to mistake pieces of jewelry worth several millions as pieces of trash.

If the eyes of drug-crazed snatchers light up at the sight of even a cheap cellphone in the hands of some student in a jeep, how much more for perfectly sober househelp going through the same old jaded routines in a house they probably know like the palms of their hands.

In other words, there is no way jewelry could be mistaken for trash amid such familiar surroundings. It is important to find out if the jewelry did not really intend to take a trip to the dumps, and which travel agent arranged the trip and made provisions for a welcoming party.