If the metal didn't leave a bad taste in Wilfredo Gonzalez-Cruz's mouth, the sentence might.
The 30-year-old repairman was sentenced to 12 days in jail for swallowing a woman's diamond ring earlier this month.
Gonzalez-Cruz pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of felony theft in a Cook County courtroom. He could have faced three years in prison. Instead, Judge Gilbert Grossi sentenced Gonzalez-Cruz to 12 days in jail and two years probation.
Prosecutors say Gonzalez-Cruz was doing remodeling work in a woman's Cicero home Aug. 5 when he asked to use the restroom. When he returned, the woman found her diamond ring missing. She told her husband, who confronted Gonzalez-Cruz.
After a brief struggle, Gonzalez-Cruz removed the ring from his shoe and swallowed it.
Cicero police took Gonzalez-Cruz to MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn where X-rays revealed the ring in Gonzalez-Cruz's stomach.
He was placed in a rubber-room with bedpans and given medication to "force the expulsion of the ring," Cicero town spokesman Ray Hanania said in an email.
Hanania said the ring was returned to the owner Aug. 8 after being "thoroughly cleaned."
