£5m jewels lost at hotel found in maid's drawer six years later

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A Dutch hotel worker left a £5million collection of jewellery forgotten in a drawer for nearly six years before realising its value and returning it to its owner.

The gold and diamond jewellery had been reported missing by the US ambassador's wife after she stayed at the hotel in 2006.

Dawn Arnall did not notice that her jewellery was missing until months after staying in the hotel with her now deceased husband, and assumed it had been stolen.

But hotel workers had found the jewels, which included a five-carot rose diamond worth 4million Euros, in the room she had stayed in. They handed them to management for safekeeping, but as they went unclaimed for six months, the maid who found them was allowed to keep them, in line with hotel policy.

At the time, no one realised the value of the jewellery. According to reports in The Daily Telegraph, the maid assumed it was costume jewellery because the jewels were so large.

She said she put them in a drawer and promptly forgot about them.

The Telegraph says that after she rediscovered them nearly six years later, she decided to have them valued. Once she realised how precious they were, handed them in to police.

Ms Arnall has now been reunited with her jewellery. In the meantime, an insurance company paid out for the missing items.
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