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ELKINS - A local woman is behind bars after allegedly stealing thousands of dollars worth of silver and rare coins.
Pamela Joe Taylor, 52, has been charged with grand larceny distinguished, a felony. She is being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $10,000 cash-only bond set by Randolph County Magistrate Mike Dyer. She is also being held on a $1,000 cash-only bond for a misdemeanor in Randolph, and a $2,500 cash-only bond for a misdemeanor in Lewis County.
According to the criminal complaint, prepared by Deputy S.R. Schoonover with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, on Aug. 13, the officer was dispatched to the Highland Park area of Elkins in reference to an alleged theft. Arriving on the scene at about 9 p.m., officers spoke to a man who said his son kept a coin collection in his bedroom that was valued at between $30,000 to $40,000, which was now missing.
Deputies were told by the boy’s grandfather that he had been paying a woman, identified as Taylor, to come in and clean the house, the complaint states. Officers then found and spoke to Taylor, who denied any involvement in stealing the coins, and allegedly "passed the blame onto another individual." Taylor also "allowed a consensual search of her belongings, which did not produce any evidence of the suspected theft."
Deputies later spoke to "numerous informants" who led them to a man who lives in the Gateway Apartments who had allegedly purchased coins from Taylor, according to the complaint. He said Taylor had brought him coins to pawn for her that she allegedly said she "found in an abandoned building."
The man told police that he had pawned several coins to a local pawn shop for Taylor, and that he had heard she gave some others away as a birthday gift, and that she allegedly "traded some of the coins for drugs," the complaint states. He also said he had purchased some of the coins from her himself, which he later turned over to deputies. The alleged victim later identified these coins as having been part of his collection.
Employees at the pawn shop told deputies several silver coins had been pawned by the man, which they said they were not aware of having been allegedly stolen, according to the complaint.
On Saturday, Taylor was taken into custody for a misdemeanor capias out of Lewis County and transferred to Tygart Valley Regional Jail, the complaint states. Officers interviewed her at the jail, with her "providing deputies with a full confession in regard to the theft of the coins from the victim’s residence in Highland Park."
However, Taylor also told police that she sold all of the coins to the man in Gateway Apartments the same day she allegedly stole them, and that she received approximately $1,000 for them. Schoonover writes in the complaint that, after speaking with many people in the course of the investigation, he believes "Taylor has stolen well over $1,000 worth of items from the victim."