A valuable pink diamond is nestled among stolen cars and baggies of seized drugs in a cavernous Toronto police warehouse, waiting for its rightful owner to take it home. That much, everyone can agree on.

But the family of its now-dead original owner and the pawnshop that later bought it from a convicted jewel thief bitterly disagree on nearly every other detail of the story: how much the gem is worth, who it truly belongs to and even whether it was actually stolen.

Ownership of the diamond is now at the centre of a court battle that’s lasted two years and counting, with both sides viewing the situation as a miscarriage of justice. On one side is a pawnshop owner who says he bought it fair and square; on the other is a family who says it belongs to them. Think of it as a custody dispute, with a tiny pink stone at the centre of it.

“I’ve chosen to pursue it because I don’t think it’s fair,” said Howard Green, owner of the H. Williams and Co. pawnshop, which possessed the jewel before Toronto police seized it in 2012. “This has gone on far too long.”

The saga began in 2011, when Martin Winberg bought the diamond from a Toronto-area gold and gem dealer for $40,000. The jewel is an orange-pink colour — the quality that makes it valuable, according to Green — and weighs in at 0.59 carats.

Winberg suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder and a leg injury that left him essentially homebound, according to his statement to police, taken over the phone. His family declined to speak with the Star or share photos of him, citing a desire for privacy.

Winberg asked the salesman who sold him the diamond to store it on his behalf, along with another gem he’d purchased, according to the statement he gave police. The man agreed to do so as a friend, but later left the jewels with a colleague he thought he could trust, the statement said.

“In or around April 2012, Martin’s acquaintance informed him that it had been stolen by a thief named Brian Colyer,” alleges an argument submitted to the Ontario Court of Appeal by Winberg’s estate.

“Mr. Colyer had stolen several pieces of property in and around the same time, including the diamond and another diamond belonging to Martin. Martin Winberg had never met or heard of Mr. Colyer before, and had never authorized him to have possession of the diamond, much less to steal and convert it.”

The allegations in the filing haven’t been proven in court. When reached by the Star, Colyer didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In 2015, however, he pleaded guilty to the theft of gold bars, coins and gems valued at more than $800,000 from several other of the dealer’s clients — though the pink diamond was not among the items he was convicted of stealing.

Colyer was a regular customer at H. Williams and Co., Green said. The store, a mainstay on Church St. in downtown Toronto, is exactly what you’d imagine a pawnshop to look like — rows of jewels lie in display cases beneath shiny guitars, while a safe with a heavy metal door sits open at the back of the room.

Colyer was a regular customer at the pawnshop and staff had no reason to suspect anything untoward about the diamond, Green said. To illustrate his point, he pulled out a box of receipts he said were Colyer’s, flipping through them as he listed the dollar values of items the man pawned, all in the thousands. The shop gave Colyer $5,000 for the Winberg diamond in April 2012.

Winberg reported the diamond stolen. In his statement to Toronto police, Winberg said he’d never met Colyer, let alone given him permission to pawn the diamond.

Green told the Star he believes the diamond was never stolen, and that Winberg gave Colyer the diamond to sell on his behalf (Green wouldn’t say why he thought so). Green’s lawyers argue that since Colyer wasn’t convincted for this particular theft and Winberg isn’t alive to answer questions, the former owner’s estate can’t prove a claim to the gem.

“This particular diamond, it should be returned to me,” Green said. “They think we’re crooks . . . I’ve done nothing wrong.”

The Winberg estate’s lawyer, Paul Adam of Wise Law Office, strongly disagrees with that version of events.

“We haven’t seen a single scrap of evidence that that is the case,” he said.

In July 2012, police seized the diamond from the pawnshop after several of the dealer’s employees complained about Colyer. Investigators held onto the gem while the case moved through the courts.

But Winberg died in February 2015, two months before Colyer was sentenced to two years less one day in jail. Colyer pleaded guilty to eight charges, but the Crown dropped the counts related to Winberg after his death, saying it wasn’t in the public interest to pursue them.

Though the criminal case was closed, the conflict was far from over.

In June 2015, after the trial, police told Winberg’s estate and the pawnshop that investigators no longer needed the diamond. Green applied to have the diamond returned to H. Williams and Co. An Ontario Superior Court of Justice judge ordered police to return the diamond to Green.

Before Green actually received the diamond, however, Michael Winberg — Martin Winberg’s brother, who had been made a trustee of the estate — asked for an appeal, saying the judge who made the order was mistaken.

The Ontario Court of Appeal set aside the order. No timeline has yet been set for any upcoming proceedings, and Adam declined to comment on what happens next with the case.

And so the diamond remains in the hands of police.

Adam said his client maintains that the Winberg estate is the true owner of the diamond since the pawnbroker has no right to stolen property.

Green strongly disagrees, saying neither Winberg nor his family tried to claim the jewel in the years after it was pawned, and the court gave it to him fair and square.

“There’s nothing to argue about,” Green said. “We’re out the money, we’re out the diamond and at one point a court ordered it be returned to us.”

Green said he’s now spent far more on legal fees than he did on the diamond. Adding to Green’s frustration, he said he believes the diamond isn’t even worth $40,000.

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“I wish it was,” he said with a chuckle, adding that he believes it’s worth closer to $15,000.

Adam said the estate had no comment on the value of the diamond, or how much it has spent in legal fees.

“They could make it go away real quick if they just give me my $5,000 plus costs,” Green said, adding that the Winberg estate declined such a deal.

Adam said it would be inappropriate for him to comment, but said the case presents an interesting dilemma — one for which there is little legal precedent.

“I guess there haven’t been many cases where a judge has had to puzzle over this,” he said.

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TIMELINE:

August 2011 — Martin Winberg buys the diamond from a dealer for roughly $40,000. He leaves it with the employee who sold it to him.

April 2012 — The employee allegedly tells Winberg that his coworker, Brian Colyer, has stolen the diamond. Colyer had pawned the gem at H. Williams and Co.

May 2012 — Colyer is fired from the dealer after several clients complained to management.

June 2012 — Toronto police charge Colyer with a series of thefts, including Winberg’s diamond.

July 5, 2012 — Toronto police seize Winberg’s diamond from H. Williams and Co.

Feb. 19, 2015 — Winberg passes away.

April 7, 2015 — Colyer pleads guilty to eight charges related to thefts of gems, gold and coins and is sentenced to two years less a day in jail. Prosecutors drop the charges related to Winberg’s diamond.

June 2015 — Toronto police inform Winberg’s estate and the pawnshop that investigators no longer need the diamond, as the criminal case against Colyer is over.

September 2015 — H. Williams and Co. applies to a court to get the diamond. A judge awards the diamond to the pawnshop.

June 2, 2017 — Ontario’s top court allows the estate to appeal the lower court order, sending the case back to trial court. The diamond remains in police custody.