An Omaha man has been charged with stealing $52,000 worth of rings and diamonds from two Sioux City jewelry stores in 2019. Ryan Johnson was arrested Friday on two counts of first-degree theft and is being held in the Woodbury County Jail on a $15,000 bond.
According to court documents, Johnson entered Kay Jewelers at Southern Hills Mall on February 1, 2019, and asked to see two diamond rings, valued at $14,000 and $8,000, and took them outside to look at them in natural light. Once outside, he fled with the rings.
On March 28, 2019, court documents said, Johnson went to Helzberg Jewelers at the mall and asked to see two diamond rings, valued at $12,000 and $8,000, and a loose diamond valued at $10,000. When the items were removed from the display case, Johnson snatched them and fled the store. The theft was captured on surveillance video.
In September 2019, Johnson was sentenced in Omaha to 366 days in jail on one count of theft by unlawful taking for stealing rings from an Omaha Jewelry store. According to court documents, he was suspected of a similar theft in Madison County, Nebraska, and had pawned at least one of the rings in Denver… Sioux City Journal
