By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Check your pockets, vacuum cleaner bags and your trash.

The giveaway diamond is still on the loose.

If you attended the Parade of Lights last Friday night in downtown New Ulm, and a blond-haired, blue-eyed woman with a little basket gave you a note with a baggie and a shiny stone inside, you could be the winner.

Carolyn Rewitzer of Hope Diamonds, 13 1/2 N. Minnesota, is still looking for the real diamond she included in 100 baggies handed out at the parade.

As of Tuesday noon, about 36 stones that were not diamonds had been returned to her second-floor downtown business.

The genuine diamond is worth $325, according to Rewitzer.

"I keep thinking somebody put the diamond in a coat or pants pocket," Rewitzer said. "I let people choose a baggie out of the bunch. I told them that one of the diamonds was real, they may have selected it and they should bring it to me the next day so I can test it."

She began testing the returned stones last Saturday with an electronic instrument that distinguishes between genuine and non-genuine diamonds.

If the stone is a real diamond, a green light comes on.

If not, a red one lights and a buzzing sound is heard.

Such testing is the only way to identify a genuine diamond, she said.

Because some recipients of the potentially precious stone told her they were leaving town early in the morning, she told them they could have somebody else bring in the stones for testing.

Rewitzer wants to find the diamond soon.

"I just want the person that has the real diamond to realize it is a quarter-carat," Rewitzer said. "Maybe somebody just tucked it away, thinking they don't have any luck."

The loose diamond is the property of the recipient. It could be mounted in a necklace or some other way.

"The ultimate gem of life comes from giving," Rewitzer said. "It's kinda fun, too. I met lots of people I didn't know that brought stones to me to be tested."

Rewitzer has done this type of giveaway several times before, with a different twist each time.

In the past, the genuine diamond was recovered within the first 30 minutes of testing.

One year, a couple brought in the real diamond on their wedding day. She went to their wedding and photos were taken. The story ran in a national magazine.

"I thought that was really rare that they picked the winning diamond on their wedding day," Rewitzer said.

Searching for

a real gem