Man accused of stealing nearly $400,000 worth of items from local family

Whitley County Sheriff’s deputies say a Williamsburg man may be responsible for the theft of nearly $400,000 worth of items from his employer.

About 10 p.m. Thursday, Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy David Rowe charged Teddy D. Cureton, 46, of 1776 Little Wolf Creek Road, with theft by unlawful taking over $10,000.

"He had been doing work for a family for quite some time in southern Whitley County in the Kensee Hollow community. He had known them for years. For some reason he decided to start stealing from them a couple of weeks back," said Sgt. Shawn Jackson, who is assisting with the investigation.

"Based on the interview and the confession he gave us, he was doing this to support his drug habit, and to support other things. He just stated ‘times were hard’ and ‘times were rough.’"

Jackson said Cureton claimed he "was not in his right mind," but that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Some of the stolen property has been located at three different pawn shops between Corbin and Williamsburg, but not nearly all of it, Jackson said.

"However, there is an extremely large amount of property still missing," he added. "Based on statements from the family, the merchandise, which was taken, is believed to be worth between $300,000 and $400,000."

This includes several items of expensive jewelry and a large amount of various old silver coins and money.

"We are not able to confirm at this time a total value because there were so many items taken," Jackson said. "Right now, it appears based on his confession that Mr. Cureton acted alone."

Rowe is leading the investigation, and was assisted by Jackson and Cpl. Ken Shepherd.

Jackson said that deputies are attempting to locate more of the stolen property.

He encouraged pawn shop owners to be wary of deals that sound too good to be true.

"If somebody physically brings in a large amount of jewelry that is worth a lot of money and this person normally wouldn’t even have money to eat on, then it should raise a red flag there," Jackson said. "We want to work with these pawn brokers together to try and keep this stolen property from being taken in."

Cureton’s attorney, Jason Price, entered a not guilty plea on his client’s behalf during his arraignment Monday morning in Whitley District Court.

Judge Cathy Prewitt agreed to amend Cureton’s bond Monday from a $15,000 cash bond to a $15,000 fully secured bond. This means Cureton could be released after putting up $15,000 cash, $30,000 worth of property, or a combination of the two.
A May 31 preliminary hearing has been scheduled in the case.