Lisa Darlene Glaze, 50, a paramedic in Arkansas has been arrested for allegedly cutting a 1.7-carat diamond ring from a deceased woman’s finger at a hospital. She is accused of selling the ring (valued at roughly $8,000) at a pawnshop for $45.
Gloria Robinson was wearing a single marquis cut diamond ring with a gold band when she was transported to St. Vincent Hot Springs Hospital. According to the Sentinel-Record, when her personal effects were handed over to the family, her sister asked Glaze about three missing rings but she says they “did not answer her and walked away.”
While two rings were discovered, the sister and Robinson’s husband found the ring at the Hot Springs Classic Guns and Pawn.
Robinson was charged with a felony count of theft by receiving over $5,000 and a misdemeanor count of unlawful transfer of stolen property to a pawnshop.
I am curious about the single felony count for theft. The violation of a position of trust or authority is often considered in sentencing. However, this would seem a more serious case than theft when someone used police or emergency care authority to victimize helpless or deceased victims. This was a crime that victimized an entire family. Obviously, that could be raised at sentencing but it will be interesting to see what enhancement is applied, particularly if there is a plea.
Ordinarily, I don’t mention mere typos in one of these articles, considering they’re often composed on portable Internet devices like smartphones.
However, the sentence “Robinson was charged with a felony count of theft by receiving over $5,000 and a misdemeanor count of unlawful transfer of stolen property to a pawnshop.” refers to the victim, not the perpetrator Glaze, according to the article cited as the source of the facts in this story, which says “Lisa Darlene Glaze, 50, who lists a Silla Lane address in Hot Springs Village, was taken into custody shortly after noon Monday and charged with a felony count of theft by receiving over $5,000, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and a misdemeanor count of unlawful transfer of stolen property to a pawnshop, punishable by up to one year in jail.”
I suspect the prosecution aggregated the thefts under the concept of they’re being of the same scheme, plan or design. The theft aspect would be a cleaner prosecution than introducing other, rather esoteric and seldom used charges. I haven’t found many prosecuting attorneys who are willing to exercise the full range of the law, whereas they are more apt to stick with what is conventionally used.
A first responder ransacking a dead woman’s body for valuables is an egregious betrayal of trust.
If she only got $45 for a diamond ring, I suspect the pawnshop knew it was hot.
I suspect offers from pawn brokers always incorporate actuarial calculations about the probability that the person offering the item is not licensed and privileged to do so.
It’s microcredit, and administrative costs in re microcredit are high without regard to what sort of provider is offering the credit. In the case of a pawnbroker, the lender’s administrative costs are further enhanced by the costs of inventory management (something payday lenders, loan sharks, and the Grameen Bank do not face). If I’ve understood correctly, you can typically borrow about 1/2 the market value of the collateral when you contract with a pawn broker.
I agree with Karen here. The much more than 100:1 disparity between the market value of the ring and the loan or sale, taken with the characteristic cut in the ring itself shows the accused didn’t come by that ring by a regular transaction.
A pawn broker might have demanded a jeweler’s receipt when shown a ring with a 1.7 carat diamond set on it – or sent Glaze away. Or, it’s possible that the pawn broker purchased that stolen ring for a token fee, then called police with details of the transaction, including a record of the accused thief’s identity.
He could either absorb the loss of $45 to buy good will with the local authorities or hope that the ring’s grateful rightful owner would make his loss good..
The accused may have accepted that small sum because she may have been aware that pawn brokers share notes on items like that with each other and the police, and didn’t wish to be too conspicuous.
one of my guys at a reputable brick and mortar coin shop buys jewelry but will not pay a nickel for style, nor stones. his policy is pay for the platinum gold or silver and nothing extra for the stones. if he can’t make a timely resale it goes into the melt box.
the plus side of this, is that he is sometimes selling a nice little ring with a diamond, mostly just the price of the metal plus his markup.
another point worth mentioning about this is that a lot of jewelry will only resellable at wholesale for about 80% of the retail. or less. while in theory the original pricing and retail markup matters. many times, who knows what anybody bought it for in the first place. Certainly secondhand buyers aim to offer only a secondhand price bid will be comfortably less than the wholesale price for a similar sort of new jewelry.
for someone not in the retail or wholesale business, it’s hard to know what the wholesale and resale prices would be anyhow, for particular items. when it comes to coins the shops have a thing they call the grey sheet. I don’t know what jewelers use. And which of course would vary over time anyways, and so, this takes us back to the WHY of a secondhand buyer like a pawnbroker or coin shop making a bid based on precious metal content only.
in terms of hot merchandise, this is a modest concern. second hand buyers like pawnbrokers or coin shops
usually require seller IDs and will not buy from someone who acts or says stupid things. the reasons for this are simple. they may lose the item and their payment for it, if victim reclaims the items, and secondly, most of all, as they do with other legit businesses, POLICE SEND IN PROVOCATEURS AND UNDERCOVERS TO TRY AND ENTRAP THEM.
Did you mean to say Glaze was charged? I believe Robinson is the last name of the deceased.
Recalling Mark Steyn’s remark that Bill Clinton grew up in Hot Springs, “A town where there’s no right side of the tracks”.
If you can’t pry something from a cold dead hand, you gotta cut it off.
There are two lows here, cutting off the ring and only getting $45 for an $8000 ring.
Classy.