SEVENTEEN CHARGES. ALLEGEDLY CLEANED HOUSES, STOLE RINGS, BRACELETS, MORE.
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2026 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — A Palm Springs housekeeper is facing multiple felony charges after Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detectives say she spent roughly two years stealing jewelry from clients and pawning it for cash. Maria Del Carmen Gutierrez Hernandez, 47, was arrested and booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on charges of grand theft, dealing in stolen property and false verification of ownership.
BocaNewsNow.com has learned that detectives opened the investigation in mid-August after Gutierrez was arrested in a separate jewelry theft case. That probe led investigators to a client who told them jewelry was missing from his home, where Gutierrez had worked as his housekeeper for about three years. Pawn shop records, investigators say, connected her to sales of items including a diamond ring, a gold rope necklace, a Renato watch and a white gold wedding band — pieces the client later identified from photographs as his own.
Detectives say Gutierrez confessed during a September interview conducted with the help of a Spanish-language interpreter, admitting she pawned the items at several Palm Beach County pawn shops over roughly two years. Some transactions netted her as little as $30 for pieces reportedly worth thousands of dollars. She told investigators she targeted about five client households, pawning jewelry with the intention of buying it back before its owners noticed it was gone.
Investigators linked the case to at least five separate PBSO case numbers and estimated the value of the stolen jewelry at roughly $12,000. Gutierrez faces one count of grand theft, eight counts of dealing in stolen property and eight counts of false verification of ownership of secondhand goods, all felonies in Florida.
