BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2026 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — A resident of the Oaks At Boca Raton is facing a grand theft charge after the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office says he swiped a gold-plated bracelet, a rare antique coin and a binder full of collectible pennies from a vendor’s booth at a South Florida Fairgrounds antique show.
BocaNewsNow.com obtained the arrest report which alleges the vendor noticed the bracelet and coin missing on July 31, then discovered a brown three-ring “penny book” holding roughly 400 more coins gone the next day, putting the total loss at about $4,600. Deputies say surveillance video showed a man in a black “Harley Davidson” shirt lingering at the booth for about 90 minutes, slipping items into a black rolling bag while the vendor was distracted, even as he paid roughly $10,000 in cash for other pieces and traded in a handgun during the visit.
Investigators say a license plate reader helped tie the theft to a 2023 dark blue Mercedes sedan registered to 56-year-old Gregory Calabrese, who lives on Lake Azure Way in the gated Oaks neighborhood of Boca Raton. The vendor who could not immediately identify him by name, allegedly picked Calabrese out of a photo lineup. A judge signed off on a search warrant, and deputies searched Calabrese’s home on Lake Azure Way on August 11, recovering the black shoes and bag seen in the video, the brown binder, the gold bracelet and dozens of the missing coins.
Deputies say Calabrese initially offered to show investigators where the items were in his home but, after being read his Miranda rights, insisted the property wasn’t stolen but had been traded, then invoked his right to an attorney. He was arrested and booked on a charge of grand theft of property valued between $750 and $5,000, a felony.
Calabrese is the second arrest of a resident of The Oaks in just days. Another man was arrested after he allegedly pushed an elderly veteran at the nearby Publix at Clint Moore and 441. That elderly man, according to police, suffers from Parkinson’s disease and fell to the ground after being pushed.
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