A Florida woman was arrested after she was caught trying to sell stolen jewelry back to the store it was taken from. Alice Lavern Henry, 47 and from Winter Haven, brought a $1,000 ring back to Griner’s Jewelry on September 28 and asked if they’d be interested in buying it from her. Instead, she was eventually put in cuffs after a member of staff called the police to report the theft.
- Henry claimed she found the ring on the beach. Winter Haven Police Department spokesperson Jamie Brown said that when talking to police, Henry said that she was using a metal detector on a beach in the Florida Panhandle when she happened upon the ring. What a coincidence that she tried to sell it back to the exact store it came from!
- Her story was too inconsistent for police. For instance, there were no sand scratches or other damage you would expect to find on a ring that had been buried on a beach, for one. She also claimed that she was only in the Panhandle to answer an emergency involving her daughter but she just happened to run into a friend with a metal detector while there, according to The Ledger. While there, she decided to borrow the metal detector and do some sight-seeing.
- Initially, Henry was allowed to leave the store without charges. While she was allowed to leave the jewelry store without the ring or any charges, as police investigated the case, they found out that she’d tried to sell three other pieces of stolen jewelry from Griner’s to a different shop in Lake Wales.
- She was arrested not long after. Asked how she got a hold of the other jewelry she’d tried selling, she told police she simply found it on the ground by a dumpster at her apartment complex. Nice try, girl.
