ST. GEORGE — A woman accused of stealing more than $5,000 in gold coins is in jail facing a felony theft charge.
Police believe the coins were taken from an individual that provided the woman with a safe place to stay following a domestic disturbance.
Cayley Mewett of St. George was arrested on Wednesday and later booked into jail on what was originally filed as a felony mail theft charge.
The arrest stems from an investigation that was opened shortly after noon on July 13, when officers were dispatched to a residence on West 400 South in St. George to follow up on a theft report.
The complainant told police Mewett had been staying at their home following following an abusive altercation between Mewett and a boyfriend.
During her stay, police learned, the complainant showed Mewett a collection of 30 one-ounce gold coins, which the complainant said they purchased for investment purposes following their spouse’s death, as well as a means for them to retire.
The coins had been purchased for $1,100 each, and it was only after Mewett left the home that the homeowner discovered that five were missing from the collection – a loss of more than $5,500.
Through a series of interviews, officers received information indicating that Mewett had told an associate that she had taken the coins from the homeowner and then pawned the items at various pawn shops in St. George and in Mesquite, Nevada.
According to the police report, one of the coins matching the other coins that went missing from the caller’s collection was apparently sold at a pawn shop on St. George Boulevard.
Officers also learned from a witness that Mewett had a number of similar one-ounce coins at the time she sold the single gold coin at the pawn shop.
On Wednesday, the suspect was arrested and booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility facing one second-degree felony count of theft shortly before 10 p.m., and is being held on $5,000 bail.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.