Door-to-door energy contractor accused of stealing NKY woman’s wedding bands
‘You took a lot of memories and sentiment, and you’re an awful person.’
CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Police are searching for a woman they say stole jewelry from inside an Elsmere home while working as a contractor.
The victim, Denise Rice, says she hired the contractors to make her home more energy efficient, but in the process, she says they robbed her of irreplaceable items.
The two contractors showed up at her Dell Street home in May, Rice says. They gave her a pamphlet saying they worked for Duke Energy and said they were in the area making upgrades that would help lower the energy bill.
Duke Energy verifies the contractors worked for Honeywell, a company Duke contracts with to go into homes and improve energy efficiency.
“He did the doors and stuff, and she did lights in the bedroom,” Rice recalled.
She says the contractors went to work changing light bulbs and adding the latest energy-efficient tools and gadgets to her home. Then they left.
Rice didn’t realize the jewelry was missing until months later.
“I don’t wear jewelry,” she said. “I cook. I don’t wear jewelry. I did not go into my jewelry box until July 4th [...]to get my wedding bands.”
Rice says she knew she hadn’t misplaced them because she keeps them in the same place. But she searched anyway, and they never turned up.
“I got in the jewelry box and started digging and I was like, ’Oh my God, I’m missing five!’”
Rice called Elsmere PD, which launched an investigation that ultimately named 42-year-old Amber Kleiman as the suspect. The second contractor has not been charged.
Police say Kleiman pawned Rice’s rings at a Cheviot pawn shop, which she visited multiple times.
Investigators were unable to recover the missing jewelry because it had been melted down already. They were only able to confirm two of Rice’s rings had been taken to the shop.
By law, the pawn shops only had to keep the rings in their original form for 15 days before melting them down.
Rice has this message for Kleiman: “You an awful person. You took a lot of memories and sentiment, and you’re an awful person.”
Duke Energy is working with Rice to resolve the matter.
The company said in a statement:
“The safety and security of our customers is our primary concern. We take this responsibility very seriously. We appreciate this incident was recently brought to our attention and will be investigating the matter.”
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