An employee of Shane Co.'s Alpharetta store remains in Cobb County Jail after confessing to stealing jewelry valued close to $1 million from the Haynes Bridge Road store in Alpharetta. Most of the gems have been recovered.
Sara Lane Tolar, 30, of Marietta, has been charged with three felonies in Cobb County, faces three charges in Alpharetta and awaits indictment in Fulton County. Tolar confessed to the crimes, said Alpharetta Public Safety Department Public Information Officer George Gordon."She has been identified as the sole person involved in this crime," he said. Gordon said the big break in the case came when Tolar met with a Cobb County jeweler to sell him some of the jewelry. That jeweler contacted Cobb County Police, creating an opportunity for Cobb Detective David Dunkerton to contact Alpharetta's case detective, Cory Miller, to set up an operation to catch her.
After Tolar was caught meeting with the jeweler again, police searched her car after getting her consent and found jewelry reported missing from Shane Co.
"The employee was the prime suspect all along since she received shipment of all the missing jewelry." - George Gordon
"The employee was the prime suspect all along since she received shipment of all the missing jewelry." - George Gordon
Approximately 200 pieces of jewelry have been reported stolen over a five-month period, with most of it already recovered.A report made Feb. 11 listed 16 pieces of jewelry worth more than $130,000 were missing. Gordon said Alpharetta and Cobb County police expect to recover the rest of the jewelry.
Gordon said police suspected Tolar because all the missing jewelry was shipped to the store when she was working. She admitted she would check the jewelry into inventory on the store's computers, and later take the pieces. To cover her tracks she would report the jewelry as sold by changing inventory records. In this way, Tolar could disguise the thefts and were not readily apparent in normal checks. However, Shane Co.'s internal audit procedures caught the thefts, Gordon said. Tolar has no prior criminal record, he said.
Detective Miller spent 30 days working solely on this case due to the convoluted nature of the crime and the value of the stolen merchandise. Gordon said such "inside job" thefts rise as the economy worsens. Also burglaries, entering autos and other crimes of opportunity tend to rise during weaker economic times.
Detective Miller spent 30 days working solely on this case due to the convoluted nature of the crime and the value of the stolen merchandise. Gordon said such "inside job" thefts rise as the economy worsens. Also burglaries, entering autos and other crimes of opportunity tend to rise during weaker economic times.
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