ORANGE CITY, Florida – A Florida man stole an girlfriend’s engagement ring and wedding rings and used them to propose marriage to another girlfriend, according to authorities.
Volusia County sheriff’s deputies said they had issued an arrest warrant for Joseph Davis, 48, who had not been found until Saturday.
Their investigation began earlier this year, when a woman from Orange City, Florida, told detectives that she found out that her boyfriend was actually engaged to someone else. When she looked at the bride’s Facebook page, she noticed a photo of her wearing a wedding ring and an engagement ring that were identical to hers from a previous wedding, the sheriff’s office said in a press release.
When the woman from Orange City checked her jewelry box, she found that her rings were missing, as well as several other pieces of jewelry, including a diamond ring that belonged to her grandmother. The total value of the stolen property was about $ 6,270, according to the sheriff’s office.
Orange City is located halfway between Orlando and Daytona Beach.
The Orange City woman held out her hand to the bride, who returned some of the items, and the two canceled with Davis, who also went by the names “Joe Brown” and “Marcus Brown,” said the sheriff’s office.
The bride, who lives in Orlando, told detectives that she too had been tricked.
Davis once took the bride to a house that actually belonged to the woman in Orange City while she was at work, and claimed it was his. He then asked the bride to move in with him, but he then disappeared. At that time, the bride discovered that her laptop and jewelry were missing, said the sheriff’s office.
Even without knowing his real name, the rejected women recalled that he had a relative in North Carolina and detectives managed to track down the relative who identified Davis, according to the sheriff’s office.
Davis has an active arrest warrant for a hit-and-run accident in Oregon, and has been arrested for possession of a fictitious identity, filing a false police report, domestic assault and possession of cocaine with intent to sell, the sheriff’s office said .
According to the sheriff’s office, the prison where Davis was previously held noted that he had a tattoo on his left arm that said, “Only God can judge me.”