WESTFIELD – A city woman is facing larceny charges after she was arraigned in Westfield District Court Friday as a result of a police investigation into evidence that she stole a handful of gold jewelry from the home of a retired city police officer.
Det. Anthony Tsatsos reports that the young woman, Gina M. Gallo, 24, of 162 Root Road, came to his attention during his regular examination of jewelry sales to area jewelry stores when he noticed that she had made multiple sales of gold jewelry at two area jewelry stores.
Tsatsos was able to place a hold on five gold rings and a gold earring that the young woman had sold to a West Springfield jeweler for $210 and showed pictures of the items to the victim who identified the pieces as among items which had been stolen from her, apparently while her grandson was staying at her house while she and her husband were away.
Tsatsos determined that Gallo had been in dating relationship with the victim’s grandson and that she had visited him there.
Tsatsos pointed out in his report that the young man “was not aware that his girlfriend (Gina Gallo) was stealing his Grandmother’s (sic) jewelry while visiting him at their house.”
Tsatsos reports that he visited Gallo at her workplace and she agreed to come to the station for an interview.
There, Tsatsos reports, she was advised of her Miranda rights and subsequently admitted to stealing the jewelry he had recovered while she was visiting her boyfriend.
The woman told Tsatsos that “she needed the money to pay an old debt” of $350 to a cocaine dealer.
She also surrendered a watch, another gold ring and a gold chain that she said she had also stolen from the home.
That jewelry, in addition to the items Tsatsos had already recovered, were returned to the victim but she subsequently reported that she is also missing two more gold rings, two watches and a pair of matched gold bracelets.
The victim put a value of about $1,675 on the additional items.
Tsatsos reports that, while Gallo was paid only $210 for the first items he recovered, “The actual value of the items sold is some $1800.00 to $2000.00” but points out that she was paid only for the scrap value of the gold and “this amount in no way reflects the true value of the items sold.”
Gallo was charged with larceny of property value more than $250 for the theft of the jewelry and also with larceny of property value less than $250 for the theft from the jeweler who paid her for stolen property he was not able to keep.
When Gallo appeared for arraignment before Judge Philip A. Contant Friday she was released one her personal recognizance pending a March 25 hearing.
