A Missouri woman who was arrested after finding a $20,000 diamond ring and holding on to it filed a lawsuit against the ring's owner, seeking more than $66,500 for breach of contract, fraud and damages, Clarion Ledger reported on Jan. 7.

Bonie Land said she intended on returning the two-carat yellow diamond ring she found in a tanning salon on May 9 but forgot to leave it at the front desk. She discovered the ring was still in her jacket pocket a few weeks later. Melisa Boucek, the ring's owner who was at the salon the same day as Land, reported the missing item to the police after workers at the salon said they could not find the ring.

"I felt so guilty about having it that I just rolled it up in some tissue and put it in a back pocket of my purse," Land said about finding the ring in her possession. "I didn't know how to take it back."

Officers interviewed the tanning salon's employees and customers who had used the room where Boucek had tanned and left her ring, but no one contacted Land because she had moved and the business did not have her new address.

Land returned to the tanning salon for a session on June 7 and saw a sign with a picture of the ring offering a $3,000 reward for its return. She arranged to meet up with Boucek the next day at a jewelry store but Boucek, who alerted the authorities, arrived with police and Land was taken in for questioning, Six weeks later she was charged with stealing.

"I'm not a thief; the worst thing I think I've ever done is speeding," Land, 34, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "But this called my whole character into question."

The stealing charge against Land has been deferred by the St. Charles County prosecutor partly because the ring was returned. Boucek declined to comment.