I can beat that. In the early 1990s I was raising a male Great Dane. I got him as a pup during the first Gulf War and named him Wright’s Nuclear Warhead for the AKC. I called him “Nuke” for short. Nuke was some animal — huge yet well behaved. But for no particular reason that I’ve ever determined he would just swallow something and then lie around sick for a day or two until it worked its way out.

On one occasion, I was looking for a missing athletic sock I thought I had left in the backyard. Nuke seemed a little under the weather, but I drilled him with a cold stare and saw the guilt in his eyes. … NO, it couldn’t be! Think again. This was a serious athletic sock, and I won’t attempt to describe what it looked like when it emerged. Suffice to say it could have passed for modern art.

Other items came up missing from time to time, from plastic toy soldiers to golf balls. But Nuke’s greatest achievement by far was when he swallowed a crescent wrench. He got pretty sick that time and I had to take him to the vet to find out what was wrong. They took X-rays, and sure enough, there was the wrench standing out brightly on the film. OK, it was only a 4-inch crescent, but still. It eventually worked its way out and I was able to retrieve it.

And so I’m sympathetic to what Ms. Hardman went through with the stolen Macy’s diamond ring. I think I’d have just paid the $4,000.