Jewelry

Watch shoplifter steal jewelry from Century Girl in New Orleans - NOLA.com

The owner of a Magazine Street boutique is asking for the public's help to identify a man who she says stole thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from her store. 

The unidentified man pocketed rings from Century Girl Vintage, 2023 Magazine St., New Orleans, on Wednesday (Jan. 10), owner Leah Blake said. 

An employee said the man entered the store just before closing. In surveillance video, he can be seen casually walking to the rear of the store and grabbing items that he doesn't put back.

"He was just picking up rings like you would pick eggs on a farm," Blake said.

A relative who was waiting to give the employee a ride home noticed the man enter the store and thought it was suspicious for him to be visiting a women's boutique at closing time, according to Blake. The relative came inside and chatted up the man to make sure the employee was OK, Blake said.

"He was really charming and talkative," she said. 

When asked where he was from, the man hesitated before saying he was visiting from Dallas. However, Blake's employee and the relative noted he had a New Orleans accent and was wearing a New Orleans Saints shirt. 

"He clearly had a New Orleans, kind of y'at accent," Blake said. 

In sharing details about the theft in a Magazine Street business forum, Blake learned that a shoplifter with a similar description had stolen jewelry from Sterling Silvia, 3110 Magazine St.

An employee at Sterling Silvia confirmed Sunday that the business had posted a photograph of the shoplifter on the front door. It's not clear what was stolen from that store.

At Century Girl, the shoplifter took a 14-karat gold lion ring with emerald eyes and two vintage silver rings from the 1920s, one with an aquamarine stone and another with a synthetic sapphire, Blake said. 

"It's just awful when it happens to small businesses," she said. 

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