CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A man and woman who police say are responsible for stealing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from Tiffany & Co. at SouthPark Mall are now in police custody.
Dean Griswold and Melanie Fisher are charged with unlawful concealment and felony larceny. As police put them in a police car to take them to jail in uptown Charlotte, they kissed in front of our cameras.
The two are accused of stealing five rings from the jewelry store at SouthPark Mall on Monday. Three of the rings are valued at $6,300 each. One ring cost $36,100 and another cost $73,500. Police said about $130,000 of stolen jewelry from Tiffany & Co. was recovered when Griswold and Fisher were arrested.
Dean's mother tells Newschannel 36 that the couple had been together for about a year and planned to get married. She said Dean was high on Xanax and alcohol when they went shopping for rings at Tiffany.
Dean's mother said Dean told her he didn't know why he'd reached in and grabbed jewelry from an open drawer. She said he had no idea what he was stealing.
"He wasn't even realizing how expensive that stuff was. He said, 'Mom, I looked at the price tags.' He couldn't believe," she said. "He made a dumb decision because he was drinking and taking some pills."
Griswold has an arrest record in Mecklenburg County that includes charges of resisting arrest, assaulting a government official, marijuana possession and misdemeanor larceny. Fisher has also been arrested four times this year. Her past charges include simple assault, unlawful concealment, and DWI.
Police say a viewer helped them identify the suspects from the surveillance pictures. Highway Patrol arrested them on a traffic stop in Kings Mountain Thursday afternoon.
The head of security for Tiffany & Co. at SouthPark offered his thanks to CMPD for helping facilitate the couple's arrests.
