A woman in Florida was arrested and jailed for allegedly stealing from one of her clients while working as a house cleaner.
According to law enforcement, the case began on August 25 when a man contacted authorities to report missing items from his home in Palm Coast. The homeowner noticed that a bracelet belonging to his late wife had disappeared, along with her identification and debit cards. After checking his accounts, he reportedly discovered more than $650 in unauthorized transactions that appeared to have been made through a mobile payment app.
The man told investigators he suspected the cleaner who recently serviced his home was involved since she had worked in the bedroom where the missing items were taken. The online transactions appeared to be linked to someone with the same first name as the suspect.
When questioned by detectives on September 23, the suspect denied being involved and claimed that her supervisor, who had also worked at the residence, was responsible. She provided her phone and what she said was the passcode, but she allegedly gave the authorities the wrong one. Later that day, her boyfriend called investigators, and after first saying he believed his girlfriend was guilty, he later said he thought her boss was to blame. The authorities still believed the woman was involved, partially based on her lack of cooperation and the false passcode.
Two days later, another customer of the cleaning company reported that they believed someone identified as the suspect from the prior incident had stolen gold and jewelry from their home. Investigators used an online database and allegedly found that the suspect made several pawn shop transactions in late August and got around $620 from jewelry sales. When shown photos of the pawned items, the first victim immediately recognized his late wife’s bracelet.
The suspect was taken into custody on September 30 and booked into the county jail. She is facing preliminary charges of one count each of pocket picking between $300 and less than $10,000 from a person 65 years of age or older, dealing or trafficking stolen property, grand theft from a building, false verification of ownership, and grand theft of property from a dwelling or its curtilage, in addition to a probation violation. At the time this was written, she was being held in lieu of a $5,000 bond.
If you or someone you love is suspected of a theft offense, contact Orange County criminal defense lawyer Staycie R. Sena at (949) 477-8088 for a consultation now.