Worker sentenced for stealing jewelry

Published 1:27 pm Sunday, July 24, 2016

A 40-year-old Rochester man was sentenced to probation in Mower County District Court Friday for stealing jewelry from a Racine home last July.

Chad Lee Hatton was sentenced to 10 years of supervised probation for one count of felony theft, and he was sentenced to a 90-day jail term, but he already fulfilled that after serving 108 days.

He’ll also serve 50 hours of community service, along with several other conditions, and pay $3,885 in restitution and fees.

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According to court complaints, Hatton stole several pieces of jewelry, including a gold Concord watch worth $3,500 and a gold necklace with diamonds worth $2,799 from a Racine couple on May 15, 2015, after a floor tiling installation job he took part in.

The couple reported the jewels, along with $250 missing from a drawer, to the police the next day.

Mower County Sheriff deputies investigated the floor tiling company, along with the subcontractors that hired Hatton, after they heard the contractors were involved in another floor installation job where the homeowners reported missing jewelry.

Deputies found Hatton had pawned 83 items, mostly jewelry, since April 2013. They reviewed security footage at Pawn America and found Hatton had pawned several of the Racine couple’s jewelry on May 16 and 17, 2015.

Hatton was arrested in Olmsted County while on another installation job. Officers found jewelry in his pocket at the time of arrest.