Man who carried out $400,000 heist at east Wichita home gets prison
A Wichita man has been sentenced to about 3 1/2 years in prison for stealing nearly $400,000 worth of antique jewelry, a Civil War-era revolver and other property from an east-side home in April 2017.
Authorities say Samuel Haley, 37, pulled off the lucrative heist in a high-end neighborhood near 13th and Greenwich but got caught when he contacted a man about selling some jewelry he found hidden in the home’s wall safe. The man — who court records say resented Haley because Haley spent less time in prison than him in a previous case — contacted Wichita police and told a detective that he had seen the jewelry in photographs and thought it was stolen because of its quality.
Wichita police set up a sting operation where the detective posed as a potential buyer and arrested Haley at a downtown Wichita hotel when he showed up to make the deal. Officers found some of the jewelry in Haley’s backpack and more at a storage facility, according to court records.
Police returned most of the stolen items to their owners, authorities have previously said. The jewelry alone was worth about $355,000.
Haley pleaded no contest in April to one count of burglary and one count of felony theft. On Monday, Sedgwick County District Court Judge Stephen Ternes ordered him to serve 41 months in prison.
Haley will also have to pay $70,822 in restitution, the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office said.
This story was originally published July 30, 2019 at 12:04 PM.
