Nov 16, 2009

Jewelry giveaway turns Bergen into Bling CountyBy Joan VerdonNorthJersey.com

A Wyckoff jewelry store owner’s plan to give away more than $27,000 worth of jewelry paid off Monday in a bonanza of free publicity, as at least three television networks and several radio stations aired stories about the promotion.

Store owner Nancy Schuring said the first day of giveaways accomplished her primary goal – to spread goodwill and some pre-holiday cheer in the communities that have supported her store, Devon Fine Jewelry in Wyckoff, for 30 years. Schuring plans to place 30 bags containing pieces of jewelry ranging in value from $100 to $3,000, and letters saying “This is yours to keep” in nine northwest Bergen County towns in a promotion ending Friday.

The jewelry giveaway, first reported Saturday in The Record, triggered enough media attention to draw a number of treasure hunters to the parking lot of Devon Fine Jewelry Monday morning, watching to see if owner Schuring was leaving to start the pursuit.

Schuring used a decoy car and some diversionary tactics to leave the store unnoticed and to head to her first drop-off site — the motor vehicles office in a nearby Wyckoff shopping center.

Several people walked past the first gift bag, which was hidden in plain site on top of a cluster of newspaper vending boxes outside of the DMV office, until motor vehicles employee Carol Weibrecht of West Milford did a double take, stopped, and looked inside the bag.

“And to think I almost didn’t want to come to work today,” said Weibrecht, who found a 14-carat gold bracelet, worth $300, inside the bag. Weibrecht said she had heard about the giveaway and was keeping an eye out for the bags, but didn’t expect to actually find one.

Jackie Norman of Waldwick was stopping to pick up lunch at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Wyckoff when she spotted the white gift bag on a ledge outside the door. She brought it inside to turn it over to the store manager, when Schuring came up behind her and told her about the giveaway.

“I was going to hand it in and say somebody left this outside,” Norman said. “I’ve never won anything like this,” she said of the $1,000 pair of diamond earrings in her gift bag.

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