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Sunday, May 12, 2019
Man charged in theft of $40K in gold from jewelry store in The Village - KOCO Oklahoma City
A former employee at a jewelry store in The Village has been charged after he confessed to stealing gold from the shop and selling it to another store.The man allegedly stole from Naifeh Fine Jewelry, located near Britton Road and Pennsylvania Avenue, and sold it to another shop for more than six months before anyone became suspicious, according to police. He took scrap gold, had it melted down and sod it for cash, making about $40,000, police said.After about six months, the people in charge of the jewelry store started to notice that some gold was missing."They discovered they had ordered twice the amount of gold that they had in previous years," said Deputy Chief Russ Landon, with The Village Police Department. "When they checked, they discovered they weren't producing twice the amount of jewelry."One of the employees told managers that John David Coker had him run scrap gold to another jewelry store once a week for five to six months in exchange for lunch or money for gas. They would try to keep the amount of gold he was selling under $1,000 so the other store would just give them cash."We did see countless entries of $700, $800, $900 in cash he was being paid out," Landon said. "We think the amount could be over $40,000 in cash as what he received over several months."According to court documents, the employee asked Coker where he was getting all the gold from. Coker told him "it belonged to family members.""He did finally confess to the theft, stated he was using all of his money toward his gambling addiction," Landon said.Coker has been charged with felony embezzlement and could face up to 10 years in prison.
THE VILLAGE, Okla. —
A former employee at a jewelry store in The Village has been charged after he confessed to stealing gold from the shop and selling it to another store.
The man allegedly stole from Naifeh Fine Jewelry, located near Britton Road and Pennsylvania Avenue, and sold it to another shop for more than six months before anyone became suspicious, according to police. He took scrap gold, had it melted down and sod it for cash, making about $40,000, police said.
After about six months, the people in charge of the jewelry store started to notice that some gold was missing.
"They discovered they had ordered twice the amount of gold that they had in previous years," said Deputy Chief Russ Landon, with The Village Police Department. "When they checked, they discovered they weren't producing twice the amount of jewelry."
One of the employees told managers that John David Coker had him run scrap gold to another jewelry store once a week for five to six months in exchange for lunch or money for gas. They would try to keep the amount of gold he was selling under $1,000 so the other store would just give them cash.
"We did see countless entries of $700, $800, $900 in cash he was being paid out," Landon said. "We think the amount could be over $40,000 in cash as what he received over several months."
According to court documents, the employee asked Coker where he was getting all the gold from. Coker told him "it belonged to family members."
"He did finally confess to the theft, stated he was using all of his money toward his gambling addiction," Landon said.
Coker has been charged with felony embezzlement and could face up to 10 years in prison.
