Atkinson teen finds a diamond in her sub

From the Eagle Tribune;

Atkinson teen finds a diamond in her sub

By Bryan Deyermond bdeyermond@eagletribune.com

PLAISTOW — Samantha Arena, 14, of Atkinson took a bite out of her Subway Italian sandwich Sunday and found a little more than cold cuts and bread.

"I was like, 'Ow, that kind of hurt,'" Samantha said.

What she found was a small diamond inside her sandwich, which she bought at Subway at 18 Plaistow Road. She said she initially thought it was a stale piece of bread stuck in her mouth.

"It chipped my tooth a little bit," she said yesterday.

Samantha said she contacted Subway officials after speaking with her teacher, Josh Silveira, who convinced her to go back to the restaurant to try to find the diamond's owner.

"I think it's a nice gesture," Silveira said. "I mean, she's a freshman in high school. I think she's doing the right thing."

Samantha said she called the restaurant earlier in the week to report the incident. A Subway manager, who refused to identify herself, said yesterday that Samantha didn't want anything from the sandwich chain except help in finding the diamond's owner.

"It's something that means something to someone," the teenager said.

Subway officials don't know how the diamond got into Samantha's Italian sub. Les Winograd, a spokesman for Subway, said no employees reported missing a diamond.

"It's definitely an unusual situation," he said.

Samantha said she gave the diamond to her grandfather, who confirmed its legitimacy by cutting glass with it and looking at it through a microscope.

"It's kind of small," she said. "It's not microscopic, but it's not huge either."

Samantha said no one from the branch or corporate offices had gotten back to her yesterday. Winograd said representatives from the regional Subway office in New Hampshire would contact her today to find out the details of what happened.

Winograd said if an investigation is unsuccessful, Subway could investigate the matter on a larger scale. He said Subway would backtrack shipments of condiments, vegetables and other materials to find the source of the lost diamond.

"It might be really hard to identify where it came from," Winograd said.