DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A homeowner says she trusted a dog sitter to take care of her pets and take care of her home. Instead, she says the sitter stole thousands of dollars worth of high-end merchandise.
This isn’t the first time Channel 2’s Tom Jones has reported on theft allegations surrounding pet sitter Sandy Stroup. He reported on her arrest in 2011 when a couple said she stole from them.
Now, 11 years later, another couple says she did the same thing to them. This time Stroup was arrested using a different name.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“I just didn’t feel like she was really here for pet sitting,” said a Buckhead homeowner who hired Stroup.
She said something felt strange about the pet sitter she hired to take care of her beloved dogs while she and her husband traveled out of town.
“She did ask me if her boyfriend could come too,” she said.
The homeowner decided to check in on the pet sitter while she was away using her in-home security cameras.
“I kept watching very bizarre things on my Ring camera,” she said.
The homeowner says the Stoup kept taking bags and clothes out of the home to her car.
“I noticed she was leaving my house wearing one of my clothing items,” the woman described.
When she got back home, she says she noticed the expensive sweatshirt Stroup was wearing was gone. “And also about 7 other items that I know were in that bucket were gone.”
The items missing were high-end items that the homeowner sells on Poshmark.
The homeowner says Stroup returned the sweatshirt, but denied taking anything else.
That’s when the homeowner Googled the sitter, and saw Jones’ story from 11 years ago, where a Sandy Stroup was arrested and charged for stealing from another couple she pet sat for in DeKalb County.
“She will not be coming back,” the homeowner said she thought.
TRENDING STORIES:
- USPS says it may not deliver mail in a year
- ABC cancels ‘The Bachelorette’ season after new video of star surfaces
- Victim in Georgia VA shooting dies; suspect identified
She contacted the police, who arrested Sandra Gaston, a name connected to Stroup in court documents.
Gaston now faces felony theft by taking. Officers say she stole more than $5,300 worth of items. Brands like Kate Spade, Lily Pulitzer and Magnolia Pearl.
The homeowner wants to make sure Gaston, or Stroup, doesn’t get a slap on the wrist. And she also wants to warn others.
“I just want to make sure that people who hire pet sitters vet them thoroughly,” she said.
Gaston is out on a $2,500 bond. The homeowner wasn’t happy she got such a low bond with her history of theft.
She was given first offender probation in that 2011 case. Records show she violated the probation after she was accused of stealing while on another pet-sitting job in Cobb County. A judge sentenced her to serve four months in jail.
Jones called Gaston and left a message. He also went to her home in Sandy Springs to get her side of the story but it is a gated community and he couldn’t get in.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]