Sarasota County Sheriff Warns Residents about Jewelry Thefts

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s office has warned residents to be on guard after a rash of jewelry thefts. The thieves are targeting people at stores, then following them home and impersonating workmen and spraying them with an unknown liquid.

One of the incidents that occurred was an elderly couple shopping at a Publix grocery store in Nokomis did not realize they were being watched. Arriving home to their Sorrento East subdivision home they were approached by two men that said they were county workers and needed to check the water pressure inside the home. While one man talked to the husband the other talked to the wife and sprayed a colored liquid on her. He said it was an accident, and she needed to clean it off immediately, as it was dangerous. While the woman cleaned up the man also did, taking jewelry valued at approximately $8,000 dollars.

This is the third of these types of incidents in the area, another couple shopping at a Wal-Mart in Sarasota were followed home in February the men said they were from the park where the couple lived sprayed the liquid on, stating it was acid and needed to be taken off immediately. The thieves made off with $30,000 in jewelry from this home. That is an awful lot of bling bling.

Earlier there was an 84-year-old woman targeted with the liquid sprayed on her after a shopping trip and another woman in a separate incident being sprayed after shopping, both women were relieved of jewelry. Curiously, jewelry thefts appear to be up around the country as a whole, if you read the headlines.

Some of these thefts appear to be directly motivated by the current economic downturn. For example, a New York city woman by the name of Teresa Tambunting is suspected of ripping off some $12 million dollars worth of 14k gold chain and other items from her authoritative position at the Queens jewelry store. She was reportedly worried about the worsening state of the economy.

Meanwhile, in a case of serial theft, another woman was recently charged in Okaloosa County with numerous counts of grand theft after apparently stealing 14K gold rings, diamond earrings, gold chains and similar jewelry while she cleaned the homes of the victims.