What is the cost of friendship? For one Athens woman, it’s apparently $50,000.

An Athens woman is wanted for stealing her friend’s purse containing nearly $50,000 in jewelry. Police were led to the suspect after she pawned some of the victim’s jewelry in a Barrow County shop, authorities told the Athens-Banner Herald.

Athens-Clarke police are holding the suspect’s name until she is in custody, police said.

The victim, a 41-year-old woman from Jackson County, told police she and her husband were out to dinner with friends at a downtown Athens restaurant Oct. 20 the night the theft occured, the Banner-Herald reported.

As the couple were driving back home, the woman realized she was missing her purse. They returned to the restaurant but could not find the purse after searching and questioning employees, police told the Banner-Herald.

The woman had cause for concern. Her designer Louis Vuitton bag contained a jewelry pouch with a wedding ring, a 2-carat diamond engagement ring, two loose diamonds, a pearl necklace, a diamond cocktail ring, and a trove of other baubles, police reported to the Banner-Herald. It also held the woman’s iPhone and debit card, they said.

A tipster directed police to a Winder pawn shop this week, reporting that some of the stolen could be found at the store, police said.

A detective later verified that the jewelry belonged to the Jackson County woman, the Banner-Herald reported. It had been pawned by one of the women present at dinner with the victim the night it went missing, police confirmed.

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