Four Women Face Charges In Burglary Ring

Four area young women are facing multiple charges in a burglary ring to fund their prescription drug addiction, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office

The Sheriff's Office and Sarasota Police Department have connected the four women with committing at least 20 burglaries at Sarasota area homes over the past two weeks.

Deputies say 19-year-olds Samantha Smith and Brandy Kinney, 23-year-old Alyssa Conrad, and 20-year-old Caroline Catarzi, broke into homes in the Southgate area to steal jewelry, coins and cash, and the suspects told investigators that they stole and sold to pawn brokers to fund their Oxycodone addiction.

Smith and Kinney are charged with five counts of burglary, and Conrad and Catarzi are each charged with five counts of burglary, one count of fraud for providing false information to the pawn broker and one count of dealing in stolen property, according to the sheriff's office. Additional charges are pending, according to the sheriff's office.

In one of the cases, Catarzi, of 2052 Prospect St., Sarasota, had stolen her father's TV and pawned it at King's Pawn shop in Venice telling the shop owner she needed the cash to move to Orlando, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Catarzi and Conrad, of 4001 Crockers Lane Blvd., Sarasota, broke into a Siesta Drive home, and stole jewelry on Thursday and were stopped by deputies at Lockwood Ridge Drive and University Parkway were after a search, deputies found "a plethora of jewelry inside the vehicle," according to the affidavit, as well as Smith driving the car. 

Kinney, of 4220 34th St. East, Bradenton, and Smith, whose current address is not available, are also suspects in a Sunnybrook Drive burglary in Sarasota from Nov. 7.

The Sarasota Police Department then searched the suspects' homes and found additional jewelry and an iPad reported stolen, according to the affidavit, connected to both of those cases. 

The women are also suspects in numerous burglaries being investigated by the Sarasota Police Department and charges in those crimes are forthcoming, according to the sheriff's office.

Editor's Note: This version corrects an address provided by the Sheriff's Office for Samantha Smith.