Nicholas Levitt, a contract worked in Philadelphia, and Lakshmi Ramarajam, a Ph.D student at the University of Pennsylvania, chose to have their wedding on the U of T campus because the “setting was really fabulous,” says the bride. They weren’t counting on a theft of over $7,000 worth of irreplaceable jewels to ruin the day.

On Friday, July 4, Levitt and Ramarajam’s friends and family gathered at Hart House to celebrate their union. For the occasion, Ramarajam was wearing precious family heirlooms brought over from India for the wedding. Her mother and grandmother had worn these same jewels for special family occasions. After the Hindu ceremony, the jewels were left in a locked room on the second floor of Hart House.

During the dinner, someone noticed that the jewels were gone. The missing valuables included a necklace made of gold coins inscribed with the name “Luckshmi,” the Indian goddess of wealth and prosperity, a ruby necklace, and two sets of diamond earrings.

A wedding guest’s bag containing an Indian passport was also stolen. As a result, Geethapriya Thamizharasan, a graduate student at SUNY-Buffalo, almost got sent back to India. She had great difficulty obtaining another U.S. visa.

Normally, people are required to sign in at the Hart House Porter’s desk in order to get a key to a room, but there are no sign-ins recorded for that day. No one knows how the thief could have gotten into a locked room or whether the door was accidentally left unlocked.

Three days later, a Caucasian male was reported as having tried to pawn similar jewels at a pawn shop on Church Street. The pawn shop, suspicious as to why a non-Indian person would be in the possession of so many very distinctive jewels, would not take them.

“In retrospect,” said Levitt, “we were glad we didn’t notice until almost the end of the wedding-it was just so devastating.” The idea that someone would steal jewels from a bride on her wedding day “breaks my faith a bit,” added Levitt.

U of T Police Sergeant Sam D’Angelo said they “are hoping the jewels will be recovered,” but was not at liberty to speak further on the case because the investigation is still ongoing. The Toronto police are in the process of appointing a detective to the case, which can take up to two weeks. Ramarajam says she does not “have the feeling that it’s a full-fledged investigation.”

Chris Lea, the Facilities Manager at Hart House, said that Hart House experiences thefts “all the time” and that “things are often left unguarded” at weddings. Since Hart House is an open building, they try to warn people by putting signs up around Hart House and have safe boxes for valuables behind the reception desk.

Levitt still referred to Hart House as a “perfect place to have a wedding.” Ramarajam adds that the staff “did a really excellent job for us.” It was “definitely just an issue of security,” she said, “an unfortunate lapse on everyone’s part.”