Kristin N. Schlueter

     Following an investigation conducted by the Sheriff’s Office, 34 year old KRISTIN N. SCHLUETER of rural Mountain Home has been arrested on felony charges related to the theft of merchandise from her employer, the Fancy Flea consignment store in the Gassville area.

     The employer reported to the Sheriff’s Office on May 8th that he had discovered unusual activity on his video surveillance equipment on the part of one of his employees, identified as KRISTIN SCHLUETER.    She was observed on video from April 30th to be removing small gold colored boxes from the vendors’ area and placing them in a common work area in the store.  She then placed them in a larger box and handed them off to another person who carried them out of the store.

     Sheriff’s Investigators checked area pawn shop records and found that KRISTIN SCHLUETER had pawned jewelry items at two different pawn shops.  One of the vendor-victims kept a detailed catalog of all her jewelry on consignment, which included a photograph and description of each item.  The jewelry pawned by SCHLUETER matched those catalogued by the victim. 

     Sheriff's Investigator Sgt. Brad Hurst interviewed SCHLUETER, but she denied having stolen items from her place of employment.  A search warrant was executed at SCHLUETER’s residence on May 13th.  During the search of the residence, investigators found numerous pieces of jewelry and sale tags from her place of employment.  Those tags are routinely removed from items when they are purchased by customers for accounting purposes.  The vendor-victim later identified many of these items as hers.  A second vendor later came to the Sheriff’s Office and also identified some of the jewelry as hers.

     The value of the stolen items is estimated to be approximately $3,000.

     KRISTIN N. SCHLUETER was arrested and booked into the Detention Center on May 13th at approximately 7:00 PM on charges of:

Breaking or Entering – Felony
Theft of Property – Felony
Theft of Property – Misdemeanor

     She is being held in lieu of $13,000 bond and will appear in Circuit Court on May 28th

/s/ John F. Montgomery,
Baxter County Sheriff