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It’s every jeweler’s worst nightmare – and it happens all too often.
Janine DeCresenzo and Megan Clark had their inventory stolen from a rental car while working a jewelry show in Portland, Oregon, last September. Thieves made off with about $300,000 worth of handmade jewelry, mostly of it one-of-a-kind. Marne Ryan had her handmade jewelry inventory stolen while breaking down her booth at the Pasadena Craft Show the year before.
Bring this subject up among jewelers and all kinds of harrowing stories come out. Theft happens quickly. Recovering from it takes longer.
“I’m just starting to figure out how to replace my inventory. I don’t want to make the exact same pieces I lost,” Janine told me six weeks after her theft.
Here’s how it went down. She and Megan stopped at a store after a day at the Art in the Pearl show, not knowing they had been followed. It took the thieves less than seven minutes to clone the car’s electronic lock, clear the trunk of both artists’ inventory, and make their getaway. Since there was no visible damage to the car, the women got in and drove away, unaware their jewelry was gone.
Janine’s signature pieces are designed around shards of coral from a collection her late grandmother gathered along the shore. The quirky shapes and textures of the coral dictate the designs, and while the coral wasn’t worth much in itself, the gems and metal Janine uses – not to mention the hours spent in the studio – represented a lot of income.
