Police Warn Residents: Guard Your Gold

With the price of gold weighing in at more than $1,700 an ounce, police are warning residents to put their gold in a safe place.

"It doesn't take a lot to make up an ounce, it could be some earrings and a couple pendants and, when it's melted down, it's worth a lot more," said Medfield Police Chief Robert Meaney Jr.

"The earrings that were worth $400 when you got them years ago are now worth $1,800...All of a sudden, it becomes more attractive to break into someone's house," he said of the jewelry thieves.

Meaney said that some communities are experiencing six to eight house breaks a day, and that Medfield break-ins are on the rise.

On Tuesday, a house on Wood End Lane, off Route 109, was broken into. Police think the same person(s) was responsible for similar house breaks off Route 109 that occurred in Westwood and Dover around the same time. 

Two weeks ago, several break-ins occurred in Norfolk including one on Cleveland Street (just over the Medfield line) where a teen was home sick from school when two burglars broke into the house. She called 911 and the burglars were caught. 

In Medfield last week, two men were arrested in the Cumberland Farms parking lot after a customer noticed gold items sprawled out on the hood of the car. Items recovered by Medfield police at that time were then linked to two Sudbury house breaks that had occured earlier that day. Police continue to work with other communities to identify the remaining items.

"This might be the time to consider a safety deposit box," Meaney said. "At a minimum, you want to take your jewelry and put it somewhere not as obvious as a jewelry box sitting on a bureau in a bedroom; you have to get a little more creative about it." 

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Related incidents:

• Oct. 9: Wood End Lane, Medfield
• Oct. 9: Along Route 109 in Westwood and Dover on their way to Medfield's Wood End Lane
• Sept. 27: Two men arrested in Medfield with stolen jewelry
• Sept. 25: Cleveland Drive, Norfolk (near Medfield town line)
• Aug. 28: Grace Drive, Medfield