It was a case where some hand lotion caused a ring to fall off the finger of its owner and into the hands of a restaurant employee who found it and tried to sell it on an internet app.
The suspect – Wesley Aaron Dicus, 27, of the 3200 block of Tallship Lane, Pensacola – was arrested Tuesday. He was charged with grand theft and dealing in stolen property.
The victim – Patricia Norris, 39, of Pensacola – contacted police on Monday (April 10) and said she had been eating dinner April 2 at a local restaurant and that she had applied some lotion on her hands while there. Norris said she believed the lotion may have caused her $2,939 diamond ring to slip off her finger. Norris told police she realized the ring was missing when she awakened April 3.
She said she searched her residence and vehicle and when she couldn’t find the ring, she contacted the restaurant and asked if someone might have found it and turned it in. Norris also went to the restaurant on April 5 but still was unable to find the ring.
Meanwhile, Dedrick Geter, 39, of Pensacola who had been dining with Norris on April 2, used his cell phone to search an internet app called ”OfferUp” in an effort to find the ring. Geter found a photograph of a ring that looked exactly like the one that Norris was missing and the ad had been posted on or about April 5 by the suspect, who had been their server the night they were eating at the restaurant.
Detectives Joshua Hudson and Shannan Briarton, posing as a couple, arranged to meet Dicus in a parking lot on April 11. The suspect said he would sell them the ring for $2,000. Dicus was taken into custody after various markings mentioned by the victim were found on the ring.