THE LESEDI LA RONA DIAMOND FAILS TO SELL AT SOTHEBY’S DIAMOND AUCTION!

AMBER LOVE 30-JUNE-2016 As you probably know, one of my all-time favorite TV shows is Leverage created by John Rogers and Dean Devlin. The show has so many moments of perfection and very little that I can criticize. If you don’t know it, before there was Green Arrow, there was Robin Hood – the bad guys who are really doing good things. That’s basically what Leverage was too.

Mastermind of the group, Nate Ford (played by actor/director Timothy Hutton), would rally the team of thieves to action with “Let’s go steal a ____” which was anything from an election to a baseball park to a reputation. Even if the “thing” wasn’t a pickpocket item, the team would hack it, break in, do whatever they had to do to infiltrate. Their goal was always the same: steal back the monetary equivalent of the damages their client suffered plus usually some extra and enough for themselves of course.

Yesterday, the news announced that the Lesedi La Rona diamond will be auctioned at Sotheby’s. It’s the largest uncut diamond in the world, over 1,100 carats.

Huge.

Shiny.

Diamond!

Catwoman would be drooling by now. Leverage’s Parker would steal it just to prove she could and then put it back out of boredom. But I often plan my own Leverage teams with my friends. Who would do we have that could hack? Who could grift? Who could pickpocket? Who could hit hard? Who could plan?

According to ABC News, the 1,109 carat diamond failed to sell having not met the minimum reserve price. “The rough stone was expected to fetch at least $70 million, but the bidding stopped at $61 million, Sotheby’s said.”

Anyway, once upon a time, I decided to write an homage (not quite fan fiction since I changed the names and the team) for Leverage. It’s called “Stealing a Hero.” It’s a short story that I’d love to shop around for crime fiction collections. The problem I have is that most crime fiction collections seem to be the same old thing: murder and revenge. If we can get this PatreonBecome a Patron! up, I’ll share it.

Meanwhile, if you love to hear about heists, Wes Locher is a writer friend of mine who has been on Vodka O’Clock a number of times. He’s great at writing heists. (Also see episode 1540 about his Hipsters vs. Rednecks comic).

And new this year is Young Americans by another friend of mine, Josh Stallings. It’s a disco era, Bowie-loving heist filled with action and drama and well-rounded characters including a magnificently developed transwoman of color.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.