Click to watch raw video

From her perch atop the Fort Bend County Courthouse, Lady Justice quietly watches over the town of Richmond.

She has a sword in one hand and scales in the other.

From his courtroom below,  Judge Thomas Culver sees to it that her mission is carried out. 

He’s presided over hundreds of cases in his career, but these days he’s especially concerned with one. “Whoever planned this heist had it blow up in their face.”

It happened over the weekend at his daughter’s wedding in Tulum, Mexico.

KHOU - TV

A wedding south of the border hit a sour note for this couple when thieves decided to attend.

Seventy guests flew in for the event at the Eurostars Blue Resort south of Cancun.

But somewhere between the ‘I do’s’ and the father-daughter dance, 20 of the wedding party’s rooms were hit.

“A card was used to access all of the rooms. Someone with a pass code was able to access all of the locked safety deposit boxes in all of the rooms,” said Judge Culver.

The judge says between $70,000 to $100,000 in jewelry and cash was stolen.

The hotel management’s response was not what the judge expected. “Maybe you just forgot where you put your money. It was incredible. Incredible!” said Culver.

Judge Culver says he and his travel agent confronted the hotel manager who apparently threatened to have them arrested for making false claims.

“In the course of that conversation, he [the manager] asked if I’d ever killed a man,” said Judge Culver.

Raman Mullick, the judge’s travel agent, said something was not right. “It was like the Sopranos.  He was acting he was the boss.”

“If it was an attempt to intimidate me it didn’t work,” said Judge Culver.

“He was telling the guests they were lying. Probably too drunk to remember what happened,” said Mullick.

“My response was not to reach over across the table grab him by the necktie and pull him out the door.  Not to do that,” said Judge Culver.

What he did was leave.

The bride and groom moved to a hotel in Cancun, but cut their honeymoon short because they feared trouble with the Mexican government.

“I would hate for some other bride to experience something like this, because it is definitely not how you want to remember your wedding day,” said Courtney Schaefer. She’s the newlywed.

Jewelry and money, they can replace, but not the stolen memories.