Man Gets Prison After $4M Brookfield Jewelry Heist

BROOKFIELD, WI — Years after an elaborate burglary left Treiber & Straub Jewelers in Brookfield out millions of dollars in jewelry, diamonds, watches and other belongings, a man from Ohio was sentenced to nearly five years in prison on Thursday, according to court documents and prosecutors.

Investigators said burglars cut the phone and cable lines at the store and pried the back door open on the evening of July 11, 2016. They sprayed foam into the external audio systems and disabled the inside alarm system, and into the early morning cut a hole in the vault, investigators said in a federal criminal complaint.

James Patrick Quinn was charged in November of 2020 in federal court in connection with the burglary of that night. By April of 2022, a plea agreement was signed between Quinn and prosecutors.

In the complaint, investigators said they linked Quinn to the heist through cell phone tower location records and various items they seized from him. At least two others were with him during the 2016 burglary, according to prosecutors.

Notably, investigators said Quinn was known to police for other jewelry store burglaries. In fact, a 2006 episode of the television series "Masterminds" recreates one of Quinn's heists, a 1994 burglary of $1.6 million of jewels and artifacts from the Headley-Whitney Museum of Decorative Arts in Kentucky, as The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pointed out in a report on the case.

Quinn's criminal history between 1993 and 2016 included arrests in connection with safecracking, burglary, theft and breaking and entering, according to the complaint.

“His latest offense caused extensive damage and resulted not only in the loss of jewelry owned by the store but also victimized individuals who happened to have items at the store for service or repair," said United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Richard Frohling in a news release announcing the sentence Friday.

Among the evidence linking Quinn to the Brookfield burglary was a plastic baggie full of items that investigators said Quinn apparently tried to get rid of when they were executing a search warrant to get an oral swab from him.

Inside the bag, investigators said they found his cell phone plus his driver's license and three paper envelopes that had writing on them for carat weight, cut, clarity and report numbers. According to the complaint, Treiber & Straub told an agent that the identification numbers on the envelopes matched with items taken in the burglary.

By September of 2019, federal agents had gained and executed search warrants on Quinn's properties in Ohio, the complaint said. At one home they found tools commonly used by jewelers, a book titled "Diamonds" and a book entitled "Superthief," according to investigators.

Beyond the 4-year and 9-month sentence in federal prison handed down to Quinn on Thursday, court records showed he was ordered to pay over $4.7 million in restitution to victims.