Rose DeWitt Bukater is nabbed after claiming she owns the artifacts found on British warship that sank during Revolutionary WarSYRACUSE, N.Y. - Rose DeWitt Bukater, the old woman who claimed she was the passenger on Titanic whose rare blue diamond sank with the ship in 1912, is up to her old tricks, police say. She was arrested last night after making a similar claim about a recently discovered 22-gun British warship that sank in Lake Ontario during the American Revolution.
"Mrs. Bukater claimed she was aboard the HMS Ontario, which sank in 1780, and that she is the owner of all the artifacts that went down with the ship," said Inspector Samuel Blatchford of the International Maritime Police. "Needless the say, the artifacts are valued at millions of dollars."
Inspector Blatchford said that Mrs. Bukater's modus operandi is to "scout out" shipwrecked vessels and claim that she -- and her property -- were on board. "When they recover the artifacts from the shipwreck, she gets all teary-eyed about how they were given to her by a long lost boyfiend, and she has herself a nice little pay day. It's a great racket," he explained.
