Colleen Carroll-Dean, 40, of Pittsburgh, had been employed as an accounting assistant at a Pittsburgh import-export firm since 2011, and had been entrusted with the company owner’s rare stamp and coin collection he kept in the attic of his business.
A detective with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office alleged in a criminal complaint that Carroll-Dean has been selling stamps, some valued as “priceless’ on her personal eBay account and pocketing the money in her PayPal account.
In June, a buyer became suspicious when he placed a $900 order for some of the Bhutan stamps and had been told by Carroll-Dean in an email to deposit the funds into her personal PayPal account, yet never received the stamps.
The $9000 order was unusually large compared to the usual orders that Carroll-Dean filled, which ranged in value from $25-$400, and would have required the personal approval of the owner Todd Stewart, which Carroll-Dean never received.
Stewart was contacted by the buyer after several emails inquiring about the stamps went unanswered by Carroll-Dean.
Stewart and several employees soon discovered that eight boxes of stamps were missing. In all, the complaint alleged,137,000 stamps were missing which have an estimated value of $266,000.
Also discovered missing were family heirlooms, additional rare stamps, coins and other valuables.
After obtaining a search warrant and examining Carroll-Dean’s eBay and PayPal records, investigators allege she deposited over $33,000 into her account since June of 2014 as a result of selling items police say she stole from Stewart.
Items totaling an estimated one million dollars were found at Carroll-Dean’s home when police searched her house after obtaining a search warrant, according to Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, Jr.
Carroll-Dean was arraigned late Thursday and faces charges of theft and receiving stolen property and is currently free on a $10,000 bond.
