Kayla Conner, 38, of Bunnell, was on probation for a 2024 conviction for felony theft when she was arrested again last week on accusations that, as a housekeeper, she defrauded her employer of $776 for cash, or to pay her wireless fees, or to pay for pet supplies, and stole a Pandora bracelet worth up to $800, and pawned off numerous jewelry items for cash.
Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a C-Section house in Palm Coast in late August when the homeowner discovered that the bracelet belonging to his wife, who had died two weeks before, had vanished. So had her driver’s license and her bank card.
The 53-year-old homeowner checked financial accounts and discovered nine fraudulent charges on Aug. 25, and two more for the two days prior. He suspected Conner, who works for Alicia’s Cleaning Service, according to the sheriff’s report, and who had been at the house cleaning on Aug. 22, with the company owner.
(Several companies are registered as “Alicia’s Cleaning Service” or Alicia’s Cleaning Services” at the Florida Division of Corporations. Alicia’s Cleaning Service in this case does not appear to be registered with the division. It is owned by Alicia Barreto and serves Palm Coast and Flagler Beach, according to an image posted online. Barreto did not respond to a call before this article published.)
When interviewed in the presence of her probation officer on Sept. 23, Conner denied involvement in the thefts. She turned over her phone to the authorities to be searched and said they’d find nothing there–and suspected her employer. The passcode she provided a deputy, however, did not function, and when the deputy tried to put the phone in airplane mode, to prevent wireless tampering, he could not do so. The deputy rushed to the Sheriff’s Operations Center to put the phone in its Faraday Room, designed to prevent remote tampering with wireless device.
The investigating deputy warned Conner that subpoenas had been submitted to companies used for the fraudulent transactions, such as Chewey, the pet supplies company, and that if deliveries to Conner or her mother were discovered from there, it wouldn’t be good news for her.
On Sept. 25, the Sheriff’s Office got another report of an alleged theft, again in the C-Section, again accusing Conner. The thefts were of jewelry. The 83-year-old woman reporting the thefts was especially upset at the loss of her husband’s wedding band, which had her daughter’s name and 1980 birthday engraved on it.
She told the investigator that Alicia’s Cleaning Service had cleaned her house for 12 years without incidents.
Conner, the investigator discovered, had multiple transactions at pawn shops, including for a 6-gram gold bracelet and several items of jewelry that netted Conner $620 on Aug. 25. The investigator was able to recover some of the items, which the homeowner and the woman who reported the second set of thefts both recognized–including the wedding band.
Conner was arrested at the Flagler County courthouse on Sept. 30 and booked at the county jail on charges of probation violation, grand theft, grand theft from a person 65 or older, and dealing in stolen property.
“When you hire a cleaning company, verify they conduct background checks on their employees and have insurance,” Sheriff Staly was quoted as saying in a release.
Detectives are still working to identify the owners of several pawned items. If you have information related to this investigation or believe you are a victim after your home was cleaned by Kayla Conner, you are encouraged to call FCSO detectives at 386-313-4911.
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