Woman says jailer stole her diamond engagement ring

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — An Atlanta woman says a jail employee stole her two carat engagement ring.
 
Sarah Stanford says she feels lost without her ring. Her then-fiancé gave it to her for Christmas.
 
"It was beautiful. It was a princess-cut diamond ring, a two carat diamond," Stanford said.  "I showed everyone the ring, it was so pretty."
 
About a month later, Stanford found out there was a warrant for her arrest out of Clayton County for shoplifting.
 
A DeKalb County police officer picked her up. Stanford told Channel 2 investigative reporter Erica Byfield, she spent one night in the DeKalb County Jail before going to Clayton.
 
When she got out a few days later, Stanford said she was baffled.
 
"I said, 'Wait a minute. Something is missing.' I said, 'My ring is missing, my ring is not in there,'" Stanford told Byfield.
 
Stanford showed Byfield the receipt a DeKalb jailer gave her when the jailer collected her belongings. It says ring.
 
Stanford told Byfield she spent five months without answers and then two weeks ago she received a letter from the jail saying a jailer stole her ring and there is video to prove it.
 
"I said, 'I knew it, I knew it,'" Stanford said.  
 
In the letter a jail administrator told Stanford that she needs to have something in writing that references the purchase price or appraised value 
 
"How can I provide that to them, when it was a gift to me," Stanford said.  
 
Byfield used sources and searched public records and wound up at the DeKalb County home of Sylvia Bingham, who is charged with stealing Stanford's ring and violating her oath of office.
 
On Monday, we learned the sheriff fired her and she got booked into the DeKalb jail in June. She's since bonded out.
 
"You are supposed to look up to the officers. You are supposed to trust them. They are there to help you, not take from you," Stanford said. "If they can't replace it find it and give it back to me, then I would like to have the money for it."  
 
Byfield put in a request for the video.
 
She also discovered the agency that certifies officers in Georgia suspended Bingham's certification.

WSBTV