PORTLAND, Ore. — The general manager of a local pawn shop says a man stole an expensive ring only to try to sell it back 24 hours later.
“I’m happy about it,” said Steve Souza, General Manager of All That Glitters.
The ring, valued at $11,885, was stolen Sunday evening from the All That Glitters location on North Lombard Street. An employee was showing the ring to a potential customer around closing time when the man reached over the counter and took it.
“Unless you’ve been through something like that it’s hard to explain what it does to you,” said employee Toni Castner.
As Castner was finishing her interview with KGW on Monday evening, the phone rang. It was Souza calling from the All That Glitters store in Southeast Portland. He said he had a customer looking for some quick cash in exchange for a ring.
“He said he bought it for his wife in Vegas,” said Souza. “I said, ‘really, we had a similar ring stolen from our Lombard store.’”
Souza quickly realized the man trying to sell the ring was the same man who stole it. He was wearing the same jacket, too. A confrontation ensued. The suspect pushed over a monitor and tore out of the store. He left behind the expensive ring.
“I got my ring back,” said Souza. “This is an instance where crime does not pay.”
Souza is offering a $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest of the suspect.
The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office has added the All That Glitters incident to its investigation of recent ring thefts.