Ronald Childs

BABBITT- A Virginia man employed at Timber Bay Lodge is facing new felony charges for what may have been an earlier theft from his employers. As the Timberjay recently reported, Ronald Eugene Childs was charged in April after he was observed on security cameras inside his employers’ residence while they were out of town.
But Childs now faces new felony charges, including third degree burglary, for offenses allegedly committed on or before March 23. After being out of town, his employers returned home on that earlier date to find that cash and jewelry valued at $20,000 were missing. They did not find any indication of forced entry into their house.
The couple reported the theft to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office. They also installed security cameras in their home. These were the same cameras that alerted the couple to an intruder inside their residence on the morning of April 19.
After Childs’ first arrest, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office ran his name through the Leads Online program, which traced two sales of jewelry by Childs to The Gold Guys business in Duluth — one on March 7 and one on March 20. The couple have identified the jewelry Childs sold as belonging to them.
In addition to the April 19 offenses, Childs has now been charged with third-degree burglary, felony theft, and felony receiving stolen property for the alleged March thefts from his former employers’ home. His first appearance in court for the new charges is scheduled for May 30.