JENNIFER CHASE
WESTFIELD – A city woman who sold stolen property to a uniformed police officer was tracked down and arrested Friday.
Officer Michael Bradley had been in a local convenience store in full uniform when he heard the distinctive sound of a silver coin hitting the counter and, as a coin collector, recognized the sound for what it was.
Bradley found that a woman was making a purchase with Walking Liberty half dollars, minted in 90 percent silver from 1916 to 1947, and was willing to sell him some at face value. Bradley also learned that the woman had spent others and was able to buy them from the clerk.
When he left the store, Bradley found the woman trying to borrow a car from a person he knew who asked him to check to make sure the woman was properly licensed before he allowed her to use the vehicle.
Bradley complied and learned the woman’s name which he recognized as that of a woman his wife, Det. Roxanne Bradley, had mentioned.
When Bradley returned home and showed his wife the 11 silver half dollars he had bought she told him about the most recent case that the woman, Jenifer Chase, 30,, formerly of 3 Bates Road,, had been involved in.
Chase had been arraigned on charges of larceny of property valued more than $250 by a single scheme, larceny of property valued more than $250 and larceny of property valued less than $250 after she allegedly stole jewelry from her brother.
Det. Bradley asked her colleague, Det. Brian Freeman, who had been investigating that case, if any coins had been stolen then and when Freeman checked with the family Chase’s mother looked and found her coin collection was missing.
By then, Chase had been released from court after her arraignment on the larceny charges and was no longer living with her family. Freeman reports that since she had no address and was apparently avoiding him he applied for a warrant relative to the theft of her mother’s coins.
On Friday afternoon, detectives learned that Chase was at a Russell Road gas station and she was taken into custody there.
She was arraigned Monday before Judge Philip A. Contant in Westfield District Court and released on $2,500 personal surety pending an Aug. 26 hearing..
