A pretty penny

A local woman has been arrested for theft from an elder by a caretaker for allegedly stealing a collection of gold and silver coins valued at $170,000.

In June, an 89-year-old Chico man reported the coins missing to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies discovered that caretaker Rebecca Partsch, 56, had suddenly stopped providing care for the man's dying wife, according to a BSCO press release. The man, whose identity has been withheld, discovered the coins missing shortly thereafter.

On Oct. 22, sheriff's deputies served a search warrant at Partsch's house in Red Bluff, where they found 15 1-ounce gold coins and 857 1-ounce silver coins valued at a total of $31,131. She was booked into Butte County Jail with bail set at $50,000.