Victoria’s Secret Surprises Fans by Unveiling a Pair of $2M Fantasy Bras Radiating With a Combined 16,505 Precious Gems

Victoria's Secret models Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio will be wearing a combined $4 million worth of scintillating gem-embellished lingerie when they headline the company’s televised fashion show in London on December 9 — an event that will be seen in 200 countries.

For the first time ever, Victoria’s Secret revealed two bejeweled Dream Angels Fantasy Bras, effectively doubling the “wow” factor of their annual super-high-profile extravaganza. The bras were seen for the first time on Monday’s edition of ABC’s Good Morning America.

Dripping with an amazing array of 16,505 precious gemstones set in 18-karat gold, the Fantasy Bras — one red and one blue — feature a combined total weight of 9,322 carats (4.1 lbs).

The blingy bras and accompanying body adornments for the arms, legs, stomach and neck were designed by Mouwaud and took a combined 1,380 hours to fabricate by hand. Victoria’s Secret says that the designer was inspired by “the magic of faraway lands.”

The blue bra and body chains feature 10,672 precious gems weighing a staggering 6,634 carats. Incorporated into the design are 3,103 blue sapphires, 2,948 blue agates, 2,885 blue topazes, 943 diamonds, 455 amethysts and 338 London blue topazes.

The red version radiates with 5,833 precious gems, including 2,756 blue sapphires, 1,187 blue topazes, 882 red garnets, 672 red agates, 299 diamonds and 37 yellow quartzes. The gemstone total weight is 2,688 carats.

Both bras are priced at $2 million and are for sale on the Victoria’s Secret website.

Those looking to see these bras in person will get a chance from November 13-16 at the Victoria’s Secret store in Las Vegas’ Fashion Show Mall. On November 13, both Lima and Ambrosio will be on hand to take photos with fans.

Screen captures via vsallaccess.victoriassecret.com.

Story of the Wedding Ring Accidentally Given Away With Halloween Treats Travels Around the World and Back Again

Brooklin Yazzie’s desperate plea to get her beloved wedding ring back after she accidentally gave it away with Halloween candy Friday night has been heard around the world.

What started out as a local story covered by Phoenix ABC-TV affiliate KNXV, has been picked up by numerous other TV stations, news sites and bloggers worldwide.

Yazzie, a resident of Mesa, Ariz., had taken off her gold wedding ring and placed it in a candy jar so it wouldn’t get slimy while she carved pumpkins with her young daughters. But as Friday evening wore on and the onslaught of trick-or-treaters became more intense, she unwittingly emptied the contents of the jar into a larger bag that she used to distribute candy and goodies to the neighborhood kids.

“When I first realized what had happened, I just lost my speech. I froze,” Yazzie told KNXV. “I actually had plastic rings in [the bag] too, so it wouldn’t have felt much different.”

Yazzie normally would have been out trick-or-treating with her kids, but this year she was relegated to door-bell duty due to a foot injury and a baby on the way.

The reason why Yazzie’s story has struck a cord with viewers and readers around the world is not because of the value of the ring. She said, frankly, that it would fetch maybe $50 at a pawn shop.

Far more important is the ring’s sentimental value. To Yazzie, it’s priceless. It’s the ring her husband placed on her finger on their wedding day 10 years ago, when she was barely 20 years old. They were just starting out and had settled on a basic ring because they couldn’t afford a fancier ring at the time.

“It’s my wedding ring, you know? I mean you could replace it, but it’s not the same,” Yazzie told KNXV. “I'm just really hoping that somebody has it and just doesn’t know what to do with it. They don’t know whose it is or how to find out. You know, through the hundreds of houses they went to they don’t know which house it came from.”

Yazzie and her family have been busy posting fliers throughout their neighborhood, hoping that the little kid who has a very real piece of jewelry in his loot bag will do the right thing and return it to its rightful owner.

And with the viral nature of her story, it’s unlikely the lucky kid with the gold ring will have any doubt that the ring belongs to Yazzie.

Spurs’ Championship Rings Keep Getting Bigger and Better; Opening Night Fans Take Home Replicas

The San Antonio Spurs marked their fifth NBA title by raising a new banner and showing off their massive diamond-encrusted championship rings prior to their 2014-2015 season home opener against the Dallas Mavericks last Tuesday.

Each 14-karat gold ring weighs more than three ounces and features diamonds with a total weight of 5.09 carats.

The Spurs’ big three — Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker — were excited to show off their rings during the pre-game ceremonies.

Every fan attending the opener took home a blingy one-size-fits-all commemorative ring — designed in base metal and glittering with what we assume are cubic zirconia or crystals.

Spurs fan Daniel Ortiz shared a photo on the Spurs’ Facebook page that demonstrates how the rings have gotten progressively larger with each championship. The team’s previous titles were in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007.

In a neat design twist by manufacturer Herff Jones, the right side of the ring has a custom feature that showcases the Spurs’ “Pounding the Rock” symbol with five sparks shooting out from the rock. Each player's ring has from one to five extra diamonds coming off the sparks, depending how many times that player has been on a Spurs championship team.

The face of the ring features a diamond-studded Spurs logo in 14-karat white gold superimposed over a 14-karat yellow gold representation of the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy. A large bezel-set diamond symbolizes the basketball of the trophy. The face of the ring includes 76 round, 10 princess cut and four baguette diamonds. An additional 42 round diamonds frame the face.

The left side of the ring showcases the player's name and number along with the NBA logo and winning year 2014. The raised lettering is in white gold against a black enamel background.

The inside of the band is inscribed with the team’s motto: “Good to Great.” The Spurs came within one game of winning the championship in 2013, but were knocked out by the Miami Heat in seven games. The motto reflects the team effort to come back from that disappointment to be better than before. In 2014, the Spurs got their revenge by defeating the Heat in five games.

Woman Gets to Keep $10K ‘Engagement’ Ring After Breakup Because Boyfriend Didn't Formally Propose, Judge Rules

We love to write about romantic marriage proposals, but today we take a close look at who gets the engagement ring when a relationship fails and the wedding never takes place. What does the law generally say and what recently happened on Long Island that tossed conventional wisdom to the wind?

Although there is no uniform law in the U.S. or Canada regarding the return of engagement rings after a breakup, the most important factor in a disputed case is who broke off the engagement. In general, an engagement ring is a “conditional gift” until the couple actually gets married. If he breaks off the engagement, she keeps the ring, and if she breaks off the engagement, she must return the ring.

But that logic was turned on its head last week when a Long Island judge said that Debbie Lopez of Valley Stream, N.Y., could keep the $10,200 diamond ring her boyfriend Joseph Robert Torres, of Yonkers, gave her four years ago even though she put the kibosh on the relationship. His proposal wasn't good enough.

Lopez, the mother of Torres’ six-year-old son, argued that Torres never actually proposed and gave her the ring as “a gift for being a great woman, a good mother of his child.”

Torres claimed that he proposed to Lopez at New York’s Rockefeller Center in 2010 and allowed their toddler son to hand her the ring.

Nassau County Judge Scott Fairgrieve sided with Lopez, ruling that Lopez was not bound by the law requiring women to return engagement rings because it was “given as a gift and not in contemplation of marriage.”

So what are the takeaways from this story?

• Who gets to keep the ring is generally decided by who broke off the engagement.
• Delivering a formal marriage proposal is the best way to ensure that the engagement ring is viewed by the courts as a “conditional gift” and not a simple gift.
• Most courts have found that an engagement ring given on a holiday or birthday makes it a simple gift.
• Courts generally say that once a simple gift is given, it cannot be taken back. Exceptions are sometimes considered in the case of family heirlooms.

Six-Pound Gold Nugget Found With Metal Detector In Northern California's Gold Rush Country Sells for $400K

A palm-sized, 6.07-pound gold nugget found at a depth of just 12 inches by a metal detector enthusiast in Northern California’s fabled Gold Rush Country was sold last week to an anonymous buyer for $400,000.

The massive nugget, which was originally thought to be an “old pipe” or a “big piece of trash” because of the unusually high reading and loud sound it generated on the metal detector, was unearthed in July in the foothills of Butte County on public land. The nugget has been dubbed the “Butte Nugget” and the lucky prospector has chosen to remain anonymous.

Interestingly, the well-worn nugget (front and back views seen above and below) was discovered in an area that was worked in the mid-1800s during the original Gold Rush. In fact, the largest gold nugget ever to emerge during the 19th century Gold Rush days was reportedly a 54-pound chunk unearthed in Butte County, Calif., in 1859.

Kagin’s Inc., a numismatic firm based in Tiburon, Calif., was given the exclusive rights to market and sell the Butte Nugget. Only one day after revealing the specimen to the wide-eyed attendees of the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show last Thursday, Kagin’s announced that the nugget had been sold to a “prominent San Francisco Bay Area collector” for approximately $400,000.

Kagin’s had estimated the sale price would be between $350,000 and $450,000. The precious metal value of the nugget is $119,554 at today’s spot gold price.

“Nuggets like this don’t come along every day,” said Kagin’s senior numismatist, David McCarthy. “I really didn’t believe that I would see a California nugget of this size unearthed during my lifetime.”

Despite its enormous size and weight, the Butte Nugget is believed to be the second-largest California nugget in existence today. In fact, it’s only about half the size of the Mojave Nugget, which was found near Randsburg, Calif., by prospector Ty Paulsen in 1977. That nugget, too, was located using a metal detector. The 156-ounce Mojave Nugget was subsequently donated to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The largest gold nugget ever discovered was named “Welcome Stranger” and weighed an astounding 158.78 pounds. It was found at a depth of only one inch by Aussie prospectors in Victoria in 1869.

At 24 inches wide, the nugget was so large and so heavy that the gold scales available at the time couldn’t handle it. The miners decided to smash it into three pieces so the weight could be taken. Eventually, the world-record specimen was melted down into ingots and shipped to England.

Butte Nugget images: YouTube; Mojave Nugget image: Wikicommons.