Alleged Navesink Jewelry Thief Indicted

A Highlands man has been indicted on charges stemming from an alleged Navesink jewel theft during which police said he gained entry to the burglarized home by .

Ryan C. Jones, 36, of 330 Shore Drive, Highlands, was arrested by in January and charged with theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property (jewelry) following a report by the victim that he stole $10,000 worth of jewelry from their Berman Boulevard home on Nov. 24.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office indictment names Jones’ charge as one count of theft of moveable property, or unlawfully taking more than $500 worth of jewelry, a third-degree crime.

When he was arrested in January, Middletown Police Detective Lt. Steve Dollinger had said that Jones, identifying himself as a self-employed exterminator, told the homeowner that he could treat an “undetermined infestation” in their home.

Once he gained entry, said Dollinger, he allegedly stole the jewelry and left.

At the time of his arrest, Jones was held in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution on $20,000 bail with no 10 percent option.

In the past year, there has been a string of alleged jewel thefts in the Navesink section of Middletown, including an .

The arrest of Nicholas Tracy, 22, of Beachwood, was made in connection with that and other alleged jewelry thefts in the area when Middletown police caught Tracy allegedly in the act and hiding in an upstairs bathroom of one of the homes from which he allegedly stole jewelry. Tracy was most recently arrested again in March in Toms River on multiple burglary charges.