By W.A. Demers
SCARBOROUGH, MAINE – The Scarborough Police Department is investigating an early morning burglary at Gurley’s Antiques Shop, a multi-dealer business, on December 18 in which a large collection of jewelry was reported stolen by the owner Rachel Gurley.
Speaking to Antiques and The Arts Weekly while she was at the local hardware store getting new locks and keys made, Gurley said, “It happened around 1 am on Friday, and he took a large volume of vintage sterling jewelry with lots of Native American with turquoise and mixed stones, Taxco sterling vintage jewelry, Victorian gold jewelry, some flatware, some 14K sewing smalls. It was a pretty big heist and he kind of knew what he was doing.”
Gurley said the suspect is male as there is CCTV imagery of a masked male captured during the break-in. She values the stolen jewelry at between $25,000 and $30,000. Fortunately, some of her dealers were able to furnish pictures of some of the items that were stolen, and they are shown on this page. “The pieces are very identifiable,” said Gurley.
Although the dealer and antiques show promoter could not be faulted for wanting to give 2020 a drop-kick at this point, she seemed equanimous in speaking about the incident. “It’s unbelievable. I canceled 22 shows this year and now I just got ripped off for 25 grand. Here’s my view, my family is still going to have Christmas. This is a small bump. I’m very solution-based. It was a shock when it first happened but we immediately went into solution mode, and I have a ton of support. Within a day the shop was back up and operational. And on Saturday, instead of dwelling on it, I decorated cookies with my daughter.”
Gurley said the business is insured, “so it’s more of an inconvenience. I’ll have to recreate my own personal collection of jewelry. My vendors are much better at keeping books than I am, because I buy at walk-ins and flea markets and shows on the fly. My big front case is 10 feet long and 3 feet tall – it was cleaned out. My side cases were cleaned out.”
Asked about what economic hard times brought on by the Covid pandemic may be contributing to thefts, Gurley said, “In truth, if he has a family and this helps make their Christmas okay, I’m okay with that. My husband and I wrapped Christmas presents for two hours last night. Christmas will be okay at our house.”
Anyone having information regarding the whereabouts of any of the items shown on this page is asked to contact Officer Hon at the Scarborough Police Department at 207-883-6361 referencing case number 20SCA-1325-OF.
Editor’s Note: “The merchandise stolen from Gurley Antiques Gallery in mid-December has been recovered!” reported a clearly relieved Rachel P. Gurley, manager of the multi-dealer business. “The suspect is in custody and hadn’t had a chance to get rid of our items! It is a big relief, and we are grateful to the multiple local law enforcement agencies that were involved. This just never happens!”
Days before Christmas, the Scarborough Police Department was investigating an early morning burglary at Gurley’s multi-dealer shop on December 18 in which a large collection of jewelry was reported stolen. [See Antiques and The Arts Weekly, January 8, 2021].
Reported stolen was a large volume of vintage sterling jewelry with lots of Native American with turquoise and mixed stones, Taxco sterling vintage jewelry, Victorian gold jewelry, some flatware, some 14K sewing smalls. “It was a pretty big heist and he kind of knew what he was doing,” Gurley told Antiques and The Arts Weekly at the time, valuing the loss at between $25,000-$30,000.
