The wife had hidden her jewellery in a bag in the freezer. A friend down the road (who happened to have a key to the house) tried to be helpful by throwing out bad food, and with it went the jewellery.
I’m informed that this is a true story. But it would seem that the ‘friend’ was being absent-minded – unless the power cut lasted a whole day or more (my source didn’t indicate), if the freezer hadn’t been opened then there should have been no bad food to bin.