Diamond Switch

A New Brunswick jeweller says he’s “ecstatic” that an Ontario couple suspected in a string of jewelry heists has pleaded guilty to stealing a 10-thousand-dollar diamond from his store. Seventy-year-old Grigori Zaharov and 44-year-old Natalia Feldman both pleaded guilty to theft over five-thousand dollars in Saint John provincial court yesterday and are to appear for sentencing on December 1st. Wayne Smith — owner of the Saint John store where the pair stole the diamond last month after switching it with a fake — says he understands he’ll soon be getting the diamond back. Police say the couple are suspects in similar incidents in Atlantic Canada and elsewhere, including one where it’s alleged they swapped out two diamonds worth an estimated 20-thousand dollars at a store in Charlottetown.