A Lopez Island, Washington woman that kept a set of keys after losing a job at the post office, and later used them in the theft of several pieces of jewelry – including a diamond ring – will spend four months in jail or on work crew for felony theft.
According to court documents, the U.S. Postal Service terminated Susan Marie Klein’s employment in February 2012; the keys issued to her were never returned. Three months later, a package containing a diamond ring vanished from a post office box and was later identified as the same ring sold by Klein for $950 as part of a transaction on eBay. Another piece of jewelry shipped later to the same post office box turned up missing as well.
Prosecutors filed felony theft charges against Klein earlier this year on the heels of Postal Service investigation into the missing jewelry. Klein, who claimed initially to have stumbled upon the ring in a parking lot, reportedly admitted to the theft as the postal investigation proceeded, according to court documents.