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CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WFLA) — A woman in Cape Coral has been reunited with her missing jewelry after stumbling upon it in a local pawn shop, the Cape Coral Police Department said.
Officers responded to the victim’s home on March 30, when she reported that several pieces of her jewelry, including vintage gold diamond rings, were missing.
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A short while later, the woman found some of the stolen jewels at a nearby pawn shop and repurchased them.
During the investigation, detectives were able to connect several transactions at the pawn shop with a man employed by the victim as a house cleaner, CCPD said.
According to court documents, Donald Claybaugh, 59, admitted to stealing the victim’s jewelry during a phone call with her.
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Claybaugh made several trips to the pawn shop between August 2025 and March 2026, a booking report states, pawning 16 pieces of jewelry valued at roughly $2,860.
In an interview with police, Claybaugh admitted to entering the woman’s bedroom and stealing from her jewelry box multiple times while being paid to clean her residence.
He has been charged with grand theft and six counts of dealing in stolen property for each transaction made at the pawn shop.
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