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Retiring Windsor jeweller stuck with a 4-ton problem

On April 30, when Harry Dokmecian locks up Weeks Jewellers one last time, after more than 45 years of fixing and selling jewellery in downtown Windsor, he could be leaving more than his life's work behind. He could be abandoning a four-ton safe.

"I believe it's a hundred years old," he said.

Dokmecian said Weeks Jewellery inherited the safe in 1971 from Vezina Jewellery.

"We got it from the Ouellette Avenue store, down the hallway. But, at that time the hallway was open. They closed it with the stairway for the bar upstairs."

The safe stands about 1.8 metres or nearly six feet. It's just about one metre, or three feet, wide.

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Dokmecian has no idea how he will get the safe out of the store, but he's hoping that won't be his concern.

"I try and sell it, but anything goes for me, it's OK," he said of an asking price. "If they don't, I will leave it here."

Over the years, many people in Windsor-Essex have entrusted Dokmecian and the safe with their valuables.
Today, the most expensive item in the safe is a $45,000 bracelet with 392 stones.

"It's for sale too, if you want to buy it," he said, pulling the bracelet from the safe.

Dokmecian is closing in less than three weeks.

He said he is shutting down because of his age and his health. He has always worked with watches, clocks and jewellery.

"I think I left all the customers happy," he said.