In January, more than $25,000 worth of jewelry disappeared from a Glastonbury home during a real estate open house and police have arrested a suspect.
Glastonbury police have arrested Sharon Lynn Nigosanti, 43, of Hartford, and believe she and another woman were targeting high-end houses that were listed for sale across the state.
Nigosanti is not allowed to enter any real estate that is for sale, a judge ordered on Tuesday.
Police began investigating when they learned that $26,249.92 in jewelry was stolen during an open house in Glastonbury on Jan. 20.
The homeowner reported that three bracelets, two pairs of earrings, five necklaces and two rings that had been hidden from plain sight were missing.
The real estate agent told police that five people had attended the open house and she knew who all were except for two women.
The two women in question had split up and looked through the house separately, according to the arrest warrant application.
Local
The real estate told police she thought the same two women might have attended two other open houses in Glastonbury the same day. And that was just the beginning, according to the affidavit.
One agent showing a Glastonbury house said $60 was missing from the master bedroom of her client's house. The other said unidentified items were taken from her client.
The older of the two women suspected in the open house thefts, identified as Nigosanti, had said she was from out of state and had just fired her real estate agent, according to court paperwork.
As the investigation went on, police learned that women matching the same descriptions had stolen from an open house in Clinton and officers were able to obtain surveillance.
From here, the circle widened.
A real estate agent from Southington called police after getting an e-mail from the Association of Realtors about the "open house bandits" and said he thought he'd shown a $700,000 house in Middletown to one of the women.
A few weeks after the showing, his client had reported that $8,000 worth of jewelry was missing.
The real estate agent was able to provide a cell phone number one of the women had called him from several times and that led police to Nigosanti, police said.
A check of the Department of Motor Vehicles records also showed that Nigosanti drives a car matching the description one victim saw during an open house.
When police checked the regional pawnshop database, they found Nigosanti had made 33 transactions between Aug. 7, 2012 and Feb. 3, 2013 and most of them were for jewelry.
Police visited a pawn shop Nigosanti had allegedly used and learned that jewelry matching photos of stolen items had already been melted down and there was nothing to recover, police said.
Nigosanti was charged with first-degree larceny.
She is being held on $50,000 bond.
Police are asking anyone who might have been a victim to contact authorities.
