An alert store owner and a quick response by police kept a Florida man from boarding a plane with an expensive ring in his pocket. Documents filed by the arresting officer also suggested that being in the right place at the right time also played a role.
Police were summoned to the retail space at the Crown Bay marine terminal by a security guard on Saturday afternoon, court documents said. Once on the scene, they interviewed the owner of JC Jewelers/Creations, who told them that one of his employees had informed him that one of the rings on display was missing. The owner told police he questioned the other workers in the store, then reviewed images from the store’s security camera.
What the owner saw, he shared with officers arriving at the store; images of a male leaning against a glass display case, then leaning over the counter to move a sliding door, reach in, and remove a ring. The owner said he was not sure which ring was taken but that it came from a display with items valued between $5,500 and $7,500. “(The owner) provided the undersigned with a copy of the surveillance footage,” said Officer Travis Wyatt.
After gathering information, Wyatt said he returned to his duty post at the Cyril E. King Airport, “where I observed a (sic) male matching the exact description of the male seen on surveillance removing the ring from the display case.”
The report then gave an account of how the officer engaged another officer from the Port Authority and confronted the suspect. Together, they escorted the man to the VIPA police precinct. Responding to interview questions, the suspect identified himself as Mark Andre Pigeon from Cape Coral, Fla.
When asked about the ring he allegedly took from JC Jewelers, Pigeon told police he sold it for $350 to cover the price of a plane ticket. Investigators visited the store where the suspect said he made the sale, but it was closed at the time.
Pigeon was arrested and charged with grand larceny and buying or receiving stolen property. He appeared in Superior Court Magistrate Division for an advice of rights hearing on Monday before Judge Sigrid Tejo.
An arraignment hearing is set for Jan. 9, 2026.
