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Woman blames termite company for stolen jewelry

Posted at 10:09 PM, Feb 15, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-16 01:09:18-05

A North County woman says tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry was stolen from her home and she says the termite company who treated her home is responsible.

The former jeweler kept the jewelry in her Encinitas home.      

"I'm not a wealthy person, but these are things that over an adult lifetime I accumulated and treasured," said homeowner Donna Wolf. 

In 2015, she was getting ready to move. Wolf said she hired Major League Pest Control to treat termites. She said the owner first told her she did not have to leave during the heat treatment process.

"The main reason I chose heat treatment was to not inconvenience my animals," Wolf said.

But she said that story changed when the workers got to her home. The owner then told her that they couldn't stay at the property.

"The house gets up to 135, 140 degrees," Wolf said the owner told her. "Other than that too, you'll also be kind of in the way."

Wolf left for several hours. A couple days later, she noticed her jewelry boxes were misplaced.

"The box was in the linen cupboard between two towels which is not where it belongs," Wolf said.

Wolf said the jewelry was worth more than $100,000. 

"These were things I wanted to see my daughters-in-law get, my grandchildren even get, and they're all gone," Wolf said.

She blames the burglary on the termite company.

The lawsuit states Major League Pest Control employees were the only people in her home "unsupervised."

Wolf said she later learned through investigators one employee had a fake social security number and driver's license. She is suing for negligent supervising and hiring.

"They have no idea what his real name is, what his background is, has he done this before, has he done worse before? Has he kidnapped, murdered, raped? We have no idea who this guy is," said Wolf's attorney, Michael Jacobs.

On its website, the company states it does "mandatory background checks" of its employees, something Wolf and Jacobs do not believe. 

Team 10 contacted Major League Pest Control and the company's lawyer. Calls and emails have not yet been returned.