A slip of the tongue may have cost her $160,000.
A Long Island psychotherapist got stopped at a boarding gate at JFK Airport after being told by an airline employee that there was no room for her carry-on after she ‘fessed up that she had thousands of dollars in exquisite jewelry in the luggage and she didn’t want to let it out of her sight.
“I told the gate attendant, ‘Listen to me, I have more than $100,000 worth of jewelry here,'” said Rita Lamberg, 69.
Lamberg admitted to The Post that it may not have been the smartest thing to say.
She said she was allowed to board US Airways flight 75 with her boyfriend at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday after passing through security.
Her bag had already been examined by a TSA screener — and the couple suspect that someone may have spotted her cache of jewels and tipped off an airline worker, who then targeted them for the resulting rip-off.
Before the plane took off, an airline worker told Lamberg she needed to hand over her bag so it could be stowed with the plane’s cargo.
Lamberg and her boyfriend, Mark Nevils, 66, said they tried telling the gate attendant they were “Zone 2” passengers, as reflected on their boarding passes — a designation that meant that they could board early and store their belongings above their seats before other passengers.
The gate attendant, they claim, ignored them and insisted they were “Zone 5” passengers — those who had to board last and that there was no more room for her carry-on in the jet’s over-head bins.
Ultimately, she was given an ultimatum, Lamberg said.
“[The worker] looked at me and said, ‘You have a choice. You can either get off the plane . . . or [give over the bag] and take your seat. Nobody’s going to touch your luggage,'” said Lamberg, of Wantagh.
Lamberg said she was “nervous,” but there were people waiting behind her to board, so she relucatantly gave up her bag, only to find out there were over-head bins above her and her boyfriend’s seats seats that were vacant.
When the jet landed in Phoenix, where Lamberg and her beau were to change planes for Las Vegas, her bag was not waiting for her as she had been promised, she said.
Instead, the couple found her luggage at the baggage carousel, where it appeared to have been ransacked.
Her cache of jewelry — including a ladies diamond-encrusted Rolex watch worth $40,000, a 6-carat diamond ring set in white gold worth $60,000 and a $25,000 diamond ring with blue sapphires, all stored inside a pink box — was gone, Lamberg said.
She is offering a $10,000 reward to anywone who can help locate her valuables.
A spokesman for US Airways said the matter was being investgated and refused futher comment.