Man wanted in Main Street jewelry theft arrested - Gloucester Daily Times
A Gloucester police detective's dogged persistence has led to the arrest of a man wanted for stealing $20,000 in jewelry, possibly with the intent of heading out of the country with his ill-gotten gains.
Robert Elliot, 55, whose last known address is 15 Maple St., Apt. 2, in Dexter, Maine, had a Canadian visa application in hand when he was arrested by Pennsylvania state police late Thursday afternoon on an outstanding warrant out of Gloucester. Bail was set at $75,000.
Elliot has been on the run since October, when Gloucester police identified him and issued the arrest warrant for the jewelry theft.
Elliot is facing a felony larceny charge, accused of stealing six pieces worth a total of $8,259 from DIVA - an acronym for Donna's Incredible Variety of Adornments, on Main Street in July. He also faces charges in similar thefts of several thousand dollars worth of jewelry from shops in Quincy and South Portland, Maine, as well as a 2008 warrant out of Gardner.
He waas caught after Detective Thomas Quinn, who has been chasing down leads in the search for Elliot, received information that the suspect was in New York or Pennsylvania. He asked that the warrant for Elliot, issued in October, be expanded from New England to those states, and Pennsylvania state police made the arrest.
"Donna's extremely happy," Quinn said of Donna Soodalter-Toman, DIVA's owner. "Her surveillance system — which is very good — was instrumental in identifying him."
The suspect spent some two hours inside the store, Soodalter-Toman and store associate Janice Lesniak said at the time of the theft. Elliot reportedly told the women his name was Bob Coffey, a character in the 1999 film, "The Green Mile," and said he was looking to buy jewelry to replace pieces for his wife that had been stolen from his home.
Elliot was arrested while picking up a package that contained an application for a visa for Canada, Quinn said. "So it was lucky we caught him."
"He's been on the run since the warrant was issued," Quinn said. "I've been collaborating with the Massachusetts State Police Fugitive Unit, the Essex County DA's detective unit, and police from Dexter, Maine, where he used to live. I've been trying to track him since was the warrant was issued."
Quinn said it is unclear when Elliot will be returned to Gloucester, though the Pennsylvania district attorney is working with Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's to have him extradited here to face the Gloucester charges.
"We have first crack at him since he was arrested on my warrant," Quinn said. "We will have him extradited and we do want him."
Andrea Holbrook may be contacted at 978-675-2713 or aholbrook@gloucestertimes.com.
