Yellowknife (Apr 02/03) - Jewelry worth $55,000 and $2,000 in cash was stolen from Le Frolic restaurant early Sunday morning.

RCMP have one of the restaurant's cook and two teenagers in custody. Charges are pending.

Police have recovered $40,000 worth of the jewelry, according to RCMP Sgt. Al McCambridge.

The thieves broke into the restaurant through a window on the second floor. Since the restaurant is closed on Sundays, owners Julia Tate and Pierre LePage didn't realize anything was missing until Monday.

Shortly after Tate notified police, RCMP asked jewelry stores to look out for the stolen goods. Not long after, a young woman walked into a jewelry store, flashed a $12,000 ring and asked the clerk to appraise it.

The clerk told her to come back in 20 minutes and called the police.

The young woman said her boyfriend gave her the ring, said Tate.

Tate said she was impressed by the way RCMP handled the case. Less than an hour after she filed the report, they had the young girl in custody.

"I can't say enough good things about the RCMP right now," said Tate.

Still, the incident has left her and her staff shaken.

"The worst thing about this is that everybody is under this blanket of suspicion all of a sudden," said Tate.

"People you've worked with for two or three years are looking at each other sideways. It's really sad."

Some of the cash was stolen from the staff's tips.

"It was money our staff worked really hard for," she said.

Fearing a break-in at her home, Tate said she kept her valuables at work, believing it was safer. Now, the restaurant owners plan to increase security -- and Tate will move her valuables to the bank, she said.

"Nothing's safe any more," she said.