- A Palm Beach couple reported nearly $500,000 worth of items stolen from their condo after returning from a months-long trip.
- A Boca Raton handyman who was hired to work in the couple’s home while they were away faces charges in the incident.
- Stolen items included jewelry, sterling silver sets, and historical heirlooms from the Revolutionary War and Edwardian era.
- Police said the man pawned more than 200 of the stolen items for $11,500, a fraction of their estimated value.
When a Palm Beach couple returned from a months-long trip to the United Kingdom, they hoped to come home to their condo and settle in.
Instead, they called the Palm Beach Police Department after realizing that close to $500,000 worth of items had been taken from their home during their absence.
Palm Beach Police said the culprit was a Boca Raton handyman who was hired to work in the couple’s condo while they were out of the country — and who pawned the items for a small fraction of their value, according to an arrest report.
Officers on Oct. 9 arrested the man on charges of grand theft of $100,000 or more, burglary of a dwelling, dealing in stolen property and false verification of ownership, according to court records.
The couple left Palm Beach in May, returned Oct. 2 and realized on Oct. 3 that many items were missing from their condominium unit on Brazilian Avenue, the arrest report said. Among the items missing: “Numerous” — at least 200 pieces — sterling silver tea sets and silver utensils that had been in a guest room dresser, the report said.
Stolen from a safe inside a their bedroom closet were a Patek Philippe watch worth $20,000; South Sea pearls worth $26,000; a pearl necklace worth $20,000; a ruby necklace worth $20,000; a diamond necklace worth $20,000; and Cartier and Tiffany earrings worth $5,000 each, the arrest report said.
More silver and gold items, including tea sets and silver spoons from the Revolutionary War and Edwardian era, were taken from a trunk and storage box in the closet, the couple told police. Many of the items had been inherited and the couple provided photos to police of relatives wearing the missing jewelry, police said.
The stolen items have an estimated value of between $300,000 and $500,000, police said.
When the couple left town, they left the key to their apartment with their property manager, who hired a construction company to fix water damage on their balcony while they were out of town, the arrest report said. A member of the condominium’s board oversaw the repairs and said the Boca Raton man, whom the board member had used as a handyman since 2019, recommended a construction company for the repairs, the report said.
The property manager did a walk-through of the apartment with the board member and a representative for the construction company in early September, police said in the report. Both the board member and the construction company representative saw where the couple kept their spare key for the apartment, police said.
The Boca man would arrive at the building with different people and start projects that he didn’t finish, and the Boca man would say that the board member had sent him to work at the building, the property manager told police.
When police checked Florida’s database of pawnbroker transactions, they found that the Boca man had pawned more than 200 items at one pawn shop east of Wellington on Sept. 24, 26 and 30 and Oct. 2, the report said.
The pawnshop owner showed Palm Beach detectives the items that were brought to her store by the Boca Raton man — items that matched the photos and descriptions provided by the Palm Beach couple, the report said.
When the Boca man brought the items to the store, she refused to take the Patek Philippe watch, and said she purposefully offered lower prices to get the man to leave, “but he agreed to selling the items at the significantly lower value,” the arrest report said.
The Boca man received $11,500 in payment from the pawnshop over his four visits, the report said.
During his first appearance before a Palm Beach County judge on Oct. 10, the Boca man’s bond was set at $650,000, court records show.
He remained at the Palm Beach County Jail on Oct. 13, according to jail records.
He also faces charges related to a Sept. 19 arrest on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of fentanyl in Boca Raton, court records show. While he was released on a $3,000 bond on Sept. 25 for that case, that bond was revoked on Oct. 10 and a warrant was issued for his arrest after he did not report for his first visit for the county supervised pre-trial release program, according to court records.
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
