The Daily Sun.2/9/12. Woman arrested for jewelry theft.
 

The Villages
Detectives: Woman arrested for jewelry theft.

A woman was arrested in The Villages after detectives said she stole jewelry from a Villages woman,according to Sumter County Sheriff's Office records.

At approximately 1:50 p.m.,detectives arrested Valerie Sue Kennedy, 48, of Fruitland Park, on the 8000 block of County Road 466, according to the arrest affidavit.

According to the affidavit, detectives said Kennedy stole a bracelet valued at approximately $750 from a woman at a residence on Inner Circle in The Villages while cleaning her home, then sold it to a pawnshop in Leesburg.

Kennedy could face a grand theft charge, the affidavit said.

According to jail records, bond was set at $2000.

Happy to hear the victim will get her jewerly back.

I am sorry that some people think this is way of life that has no ramifications.

Good for the P.D for catching her. :bigbow:

Unfortunately, she probably had to buy it back from the pawn shop. Unlike other states, apparently in Florida, pawn shops own the stolen merchandise as long as they have no apparent reason to believe that it is stolen. A neighbor had his golf clubs stolen. A week later the police found them in an Ocala pawn shop, but he had to buy them back.

You beat me to it
 

This is exactly right. I went through this about 3 years ago when my golf clubs were stolen from Mallory. They were found in Ft Myers and I had to pay to get back the ones recovered. In the end the thief ended up paying me back as part of his plea-sentence.

Thank you for educating me. :)

This begs the question that what do the police use for evidence if they don't recover the stolen items to use in court? How do they prosecute the person without evidence at trial? Then you simply claim the stolen items (at least this is how it works in most of the real world I'm familiar with). :confused:

Stop someone from stealing from you before it happens.
 

This is what I got out of it. Before we start talking guns to protect ourselves, let's use a little common sense about WHO we let into our homes and who is IN our homes unsupervised. It is best to think twice and three times about giving someone a key.

I wish I knew if this woman was part of a Maids Service or an independent contractor. Might be good to check with Seniors against Crime before you hire a cleaner or house watcher.

I am very reticent to give our key to anyone. I trust our neighbors with a key.

This is just my opinion and I could be wrong.
That line is stolen from Russ Boston. WHO needs to come visit us.

I was at arms length for all the details of the prosecution, so I do not know details to your questions. The thief in my case had stolen 18 different times (single clubs and sets) from around TV. When he was caught, he plead out for a reduced sentence. Part of the deal was that he would detail where he had stolen clubs from and where he had sold them. In addition he agreed to pay restitution to the victims. (this is what I was told by sheriff)

I was lucky to find them at all. I was up north filling out forms on the verge of insurance fraud :evil6: when a friend called and told me he saw an article in the paper that they caught a guy who had stolen clubs. I called the sheriff and sure enough some of my stuff was in Ft Myer. the sheriff had no interest in them.

The state attorney's office did the rest. I just answered some questions and filled out some forms.

Great question.

Must be a strong Pawn shop lobby.

Gracie...not all neighbors are as trustworthy as you may think. Hopefully, you did a criminal check on them before handing over your house keys. Just sayin'....

Well Flip.

They have invested their life savings to live here. Plus, don't let this blonde hair fool ya. I am a fair judge of character.

Plus me and my cousin Vinny know where they live. ;) AND have you forgotten the girls posse?? New shipment of squirtguns just came in. We have a place for you Flip and a weapon . But you have to pass the criminal check. ;)

Pawn Shops
 

When I was a child of 10, my Great Aunt's home was robbed (from the people next door), while she was in the hospital. I noticed the pieces stolen, told my parents, and they notified the police.

The police then found the items in a pawn shop, took me to the store, and I identified the pieces. I still remember the man sitting in his chair and saying nothing, and we got all the pieces returned to us.

My point is: The pawn shop people MUST know who is good / who is bad in their dealings, so WHY do we have to pay to get these things back? I was really shocked to read that! That's just baloney. Why aren't the pawn guys responsible for taking stolen property, when they KNOW the people that they are dealing with could never afford to actually buy those pieces??

Pawn shops vs bying to own
 

Here's how it works where I live. First, you can't buy from anyone under the age of 18. ID must be taken from each person they buy from. The pawn shop has a legal obligation to hold all items for 5 days. After that they may do what they want with the item. If an item is stolen and it's within the 5 day hold periods, the pawn shop has to give it back. They may ask to be paid back for the item they bought. If the pawn shop paid 100.00, they get 100.00 back. If it's after 5 days and they come back to recover an item, it's legally too late to get it and the pawn shop does not have to relinquish it.

Now, all of this is contingent upon the pawn shop actually taking ID from everyone. Not all follow the law, so no paperwork, nothing bought. Some of the dealers here are slippery as snakes and take no ID because they buy stolen items from underage people. Also, In NYS pawning an item is illegal. A special license is required because you are charging interest. Most shops here are not pawn shops. They just buy to own. At a pawn shop you buy with the intention of the seller returning to buy it back within a certain amount of time.

Gracie, so true! Be careful who you give your key (or code) to.
I took my cue from the young 'uns. Apparently they don't hand out keys to their girlfriends and boyfriends and cleaning women anymore... They give them the garage door code. If the relationship ends, they simply change the code. Works for me!

The first thing we noticed when we moved down here was the number of pawn shops (that and bail bondsmen). When it was explained to me by a native Floridian how the laws are written to protect pawn shops (and, in my opinion, encourage crime), it became apparent why there were so many pawn shops and as a direct result so many bail bondsmen. Bottom line is this area is ripe for petty crime, so don't presume we are in a crime-free bubble.

On the note of home security, I will give a shameless plug for the company my son works for: Alarm.com. They are a hi-tech alarm company whereby you can control your alarm system over the internet and/or your smart phone. They also have a partnership with Schlage the lock company such that their keyless lock is connected wirelessly to the alarm system. So, if a cleaning person or anyone else wants to get entry to your house, they could call you when they arrive, and you would then tell them what the temporary code for the lock is set for. When they leave, you are notified and the temporary code is disabled and reset by you to something else. They even have motion sensitive cameras which could send photos of what is happening inside your house to your smart phone or computer.

At least that's the way he described it to me ... he has been promising me a free lab version of the system, for several years now, but that's another story. I don't have any other information such as local dealers, so I will be of no help if this sounds interesting to anyone here.

In Hawaii, you must provide a finger print to sell items to a pawn shop. Fake IDs are easy to get.