She Bit into an Apple and Solved a Diamond Heist

This October, one of France’s rarest gemstones will go on public display at a major exhibition for the first time in 100 years at the Château de Chantilly near Paris. It’s there at all thanks to a hungry chambermaid named Suzanne Schiltz, who swiped an apple from a hotel guest’s suitcase during her rounds in December 1926, bit into it, and nearly shattered her teeth. Lodged inside was a pink gemstone the size of a lima bean: the Grand Condé diamond.

Two months earlier, a pair of amateur thieves had used little more than tall ladders to steal the 9.01-carat diamond and more than 75 pieces of jewelry from the château’s museum. Police assumed the culprits were seasoned professionals. They were former aviators in their twenties who couldn’t sell the loot because the diamond was too famous for anyone to touch. When police confronted one of the thieves, they asked, “Do you like apples?” He answered, “Why?” The officer replied, “You have one with queer seeds in your case.”

A team of gemologists has now created a scientific “identity card” for the stone designed to help identify it if it were stolen. The exhibit runs from Oct. 17 through Jan. 3.

“Diamonds are quite particular,” said Mathieu Deldicque, the museum’s chief curator. “You can’t enjoy them through pictures, videos, photographs and so on. Their color, their light, their presence are actually so strong that you have to see them in real life.“

Three Generations of Nurses, One Hospital

Pat Pendleton was 40 when she enrolled in nursing school. Her husband had been diagnosed with cancer, and she needed a way to support their three children. She earned her degree and spent the next 25 years as a nurse at Antelope Valley Medical Center in Lancaster, California.

Her daughter, Terryl Call, watched her mother’s transformation and followed the same path, enrolling in nursing school at 22 and later joining the hospital staff. “Watching my mom go through all that and then seeing the pride that she was experiencing, I decided I was going to go to nursing school, and I did,” Terryl said. She now serves as a senior operations leader at the center.

Then came the next generation. Terryl’s daughters, Tayler Rodriguez, 31, and Amanda Starler, 25, both work in the hospital’s emergency department. They see their mom at work every day. “We work nights, so we get to see her for maybe an hour. She always comes down and says hi,” Tayler said. “It’s just the best thing.”

Pat, now 72 and retired, says she never pushed anyone into nursing. “I don’t know that I encouraged them,” she said. Terryl’s response: “You never said I had to be a nurse, but I think you led the way.“

Drone Ranger Reunites 122 Lost Pets

Michael Parziale, 64, owns a restaurant on the Jersey Shore. He also flies 18 high-tech drones, including models with thermal imaging cameras, and has used them to locate 122 missing animals across New Jersey. Dogs, cats, and at least one runaway cow.

Michael’s nonprofit, the Unmanned Search and Rescue (U.S.A.R.) Drone Team, started after he used a drone to help find a missing man in a swamp near Toms River. Someone asked if he could find a lost pet next. Then another. “It just developed into animals because I became really good at that,” he said. He works alongside his two sons and a rotating group of volunteers, and finances pet searches for elderly owners through a GoFundMe page.

One rescue shows how effective the technology can be. After a 5-month-old puppy named Shade went missing on a cold February night, her family searched for more than 24 hours. Parziale was called in and located Shade in 41 minutes, curled up in a wooded area, cold but safe.

The following stories are featured exclusively on The Feel Good Flyover Podcast. Clicking the link will take you directly there:

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➤ After 25 years in the ER, one doctor cashed out his retirement to fill holes he sees in American healthcare by opening his own clinic. (Hear Story)

➤ Kansas inmates pooled their own money to help pay off struggling students’ school lunch debt. (Hear Details)

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➤ Students at a Colorado school showered a 101-year-old World War II prisoner of war with about 250 handwritten get-well cards after a serious fall left him with broken ribs and a cracked hip. He beamed as students arrived at his door to deliver them in person. (Watch Video) 

➤ Two moms met at church 25 years ago and became best friends, so close that they eventually set their kids up on a date. The match stuck, and the kids married in 2021 and just welcomed a daughter, giving the lifelong friends a shared grandbaby. (See Photos)

➤ Station Casinos celebrated its 50th anniversary by surprising nearly 10,000 employees with more than $70 million in company stock, awarding $1,000 in shares for every year of service. Seven workers who started in the 1970s each received over $45,000. (Full Story)

➤ After finding a tub of old class photos in her attic, a retired Virginia elementary school teacher is hand-delivering the 30-year-old photos and personal poems to all 400 of her former students. (See Photos)

➤ Christian Bale just opened a first-of-its-kind foster care village in California, built to keep siblings together while in the system. The donor-funded campus features 12 furnished homes, and families begin moving in next month. (See Photos) 

➤ While watering flowers on the job in Somerset, England, one park ranger asked for a sign. Moments later, a famously shy kingfisher darted over and perched on her gloved hand for ten full minutes. (Watch Video)

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A 102-year-old World War II Navy veteran sang God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch at a Milwaukee Brewers game on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

video via @JoeKinseyexp – X

A is the brother of B. B is the brother of C. C is the father of D.
So, how is D related to A?

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“It’s a beautiful reminder of the incredible kindness that exists in the world … In a world that can sometimes feel uncertain, this experience has been a powerful reminder that there is far more good than bad.”

— Gina Manfredi after New Jersey’s “Drone Ranger,” Michael Parziale, helped find her lost puppy, Shade