Though she’s spent several weeks playing professional basketball in China, WNBA star Maya Moore was a victim of crime in Cobb County, according to police.
That’s because a 19-year-old man claimed a U.S. Olympic gold medalist ring was his when he sold it for $144 to a Gold Rush jeweler at Cumberland Mall, according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Jamaal Dontray Taylor, of a Marietta address, even showed the jeweler his identification when he sold the ring in November, according to police.
Taylor isn’t an Olympian. But Moore was a member of the gold-medal winning Team USA at last summer’s London Olympics. A package that was supposed to contain her ring was reported missing last fall from her Cobb County home, according to police.
Thanks to a mall jeweler, that ring likely will be returned to the basketball star. The jeweler called police, who arrested Taylor on Dec. 14, according to Cobb County jail records.
Taylor was charged with theft by receiving stolen property, a felony, and theft by deception, a misdemeanor, jail records show. Taylor, whose arrest violated probation in a separate case, remained in jail Tuesday night without bond.
After leading Gwinnett County’s Collins Hill High School to three state championships, Moore led the University of Connecticut women’s team to a 150-4 record. She was the first overall pick in the 2011 WNBA draft and plays for the Minnesota Lynx.
An agent for Moore did not respond Tuesday to a request for information about the ring theft.
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