[StBernard] Two booked with pawning stolen items in St. Bernard Parish

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Sun Apr 18 10:16:53 EDT 2010


Two booked with pawning stolen items in St. Bernard Parish
By The Times-Picayune
April 16, 2010, 6:02PM
St. Bernard Parish authorities say an Arabi man and woman pawned as much as
$20,000 in stolen jewelry and other items for burglars.

Norman Bentley, 58, 524 Esteban St., and Cheryl Vicknair, 29, who lived in
Bentley's home, were booked Tuesday with possession of stolen property, the
St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office said.

The Sheriff's Office said checks at a Chalmette pawn shop showed that
Bentley and Vicknair pawned stolen items from last December to March. More
than 20 pawn shop receipts were found involving stolen items, the majority
of them in Bentley's name, the Sheriff's Office said.

Bentley, a nurse working at Touro Hospital in New Orleans, allowed heroin
addicts to live periodically at his home and pawned numerous stolen items
for them that had been taken in break-ins, the Sheriff's Office said. The
addicts supported their habits with the money from the stolen items, the
Sheriff's Office said.

Vicknair was already in jail in St. Bernard Parish Prison on a drug arrest
when she was booked with possession of stolen property. She is being held in
lieu of $19,000 bond, the Sheriff's Office said.

Bentley was released from jail Friday on bond, but the amount wasn't
available, the Sheriff's Office said.

Authorities said descriptions of the items from the pawn shop matched
jewelry stolen in a burglary near Bentley's home. Stolen jewelry was also
recovered at his home. Most of the actual jewelry pawned, for which the shop
had paid about $2,000, couldn't be recovered because shop officials had
melted it down for gold after the expiration of a 60-day waiting period in
which pawn shops are required by law to keep pawned items, the Sheriff's
Office said.

The Sheriff's Office is identifying others who were involved in the
burglaries and gave stolen items to Bentley or Vicknair to pawn. The news
release said authorities are also still working with the pawn shop to
identify other possibly stolen items pawned there.




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