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Cleaning woman charged with stealing jewelry from Port St. Lucie home

Posted at 11:02 AM, Aug 20, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-20 11:02:54-04

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A woman is accused of stealing jewelry from an elderly couple who hired her to clean their home.

According to police, 33-year-old Christine Baptiste was hired to clean the Port St. Lucie home of a couple in their 80s.

After gaining their trust on her initial visit, she showed up to work a second time on the morning of June 29, 2019.

At around 5pm that day, the victims noticed a few pieces of jewelry were missing.

Police say Baptiste visited a local pawn shop and pawned the victims' items on the same day they were reported missing/stolen.

The victims met with detectives at the pawn shop and positively identified their jewelry, which was worth over $5,000.

Video footage along with fingerprints on all six pawn transactions receipts confirmed Baptiste pawned the jewelry.

She was arrested on Monday, August 19, 2019 and charged with six counts of Dealing in Stolen Property, six counts of Giving False Information to a Pawn Broker, two counts of Grand Theft of a person 65 years of age or older and two counts of Exploitation of elderly victims.