A Fort Wayne man is charged with stealing $65,000 in jewelry from JCPenney’s at Southlake Mall.
Matthew Popplewell, 50, was charged Tuesday with burglary, theft and auto theft.
Hobart Police responded at 2:35 a.m. Nov. 6 to the mall for a security alarm. The door was shattered.
The store’s security video from 2:22 a.m. showed a man on a bicycle hammering the glass door. He waited five minutes before carrying a white bag upstairs to the jewelry section.
Police responded just after 11 a.m. Nov. 6 to an apartment on the 2000 block of Dogwood Trail in Merrillville. A woman said someone stole her Toyota Rav 4.
Cops later found the vehicle speeding on I-80/94 westbound. After a chase, cops arrested the driver, Popplewell, on the 400 block of S. Clinton Street in Chicago. It had heavy front-end damage and several airbags deployed.
Cops found six gold and one silver necklace inside with tags attached.
They also recovered clothing, a drug pipe, a JCPenney shopping bag and a cellphone. Cops called 911 to figure out the number and matched it in jail call records to Poppelwell.
Store employees later found another necklace on the floor.
Poppelwell told cops he was high on cocaine and Xanax before he appeared to admit having the vehicle. He denied stealing the jewelry. He consented to a DNA swab.
His Uber account showed he booked a ride to the mall at 6:20 p.m. Nov. 5. Undated Google searches from his phone showed “Price of scrap gold” and “Southlake mall hours.”
mcolias@post-trib.com
