$70K in family heirlooms missing from SE Portland home
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Peyton Marshall’s great-aunt “allegedly had a secret life as an opera singer in New York City in the late ’20s.” One of the family heirlooms passed down over the past century was a ring her great-aunt probably got in Europe in the 1930s.
“That was an art deco ring that was very precious in the family and I hoped to pass it on to my daughter some day,” Marshall said.
But recently, her family heirlooms were apparently stolen from their house in Southeast Portland. She said she doesn’t want to press charges. “I would just really like to recapture these things that have been taken,” a sentiment her husband echoed.
Marshall’s husband, Pauls Toutonghi, said they had contractors at their house working to fix their furnace. At the end of the work day, four technicians left without getting the furnace re-started. But about an hour later, he said, one came back and went in their back door unannounced.
The tech told his wife he wanted to see if he could get the furnace working and about an hour later, he did. Then he left.
“About a week-and-a-half later we’re moving things around and we’re realizing that the jewelry we had moved to the basement to keep in a safe place was gone,” Toutonghi told KOIN 6 News. “It was in a case and we then thought, well, maybe it’s somewhere else here in the house. So we looked everywhere throughout the whole house. We took everything apart.”
He said the heirlooms — “these were all great-grandmothers’ jewels, great-aunts, a ring, things we hoped to give to our kids” — were valued around $70,000.
One ring is very distinctive: a hexagonal cut diamond worth $33,000.
“There was a necklace that belonged to my great-grandmother,” Marshall said. “She called it the Goddess Necklace and she bought it for herself in the 1950s and she left me a note saying it was the first piece of jewelry she bought for herself. And I remember her wearing it constantly. So it hurts to lose that.”
They filed a police report about the missing jewels. A spokesperson for PPB told KOIN 6 News, “The police report indicates that multiple construction contractors were working in the home during the time that the jewelry was stolen, but we do not know if any of them were responsible.”
“Jewelry is so emotional and it kind of carries so many emotions that people put on it and you want to pass down in the family with stories about who people were and how you came to own it,” Marshall said.
She and Toutonghi are offering a no-questions-asked reward of $750.
“If you see any of these items we’d love to get them back. We’re not interested in pressing charges,” Marshall said.
“So if anybody finds them, we’d be happy to even give them a reward and no questions asked. Just give them back to us somehow,” he said.
Police continue to investigate. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Portland Police Bureau.
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