Man accused of stealing more than $100,000 in jewelry from southwest Columbia home
Ryan Shiner
EDITOR’S NOTE: The state where the suspect was arrested has been corrected.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A man has been charged with five felonies after he allegedly broke into two southwest Columbia homes and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry and cash.
Seweryn Rapacinski, 62, of Poland, was charged on Thursday with two counts of second-degree burglary, two counts of stealing $750 or more and a single count of stealing $25,000 or more. An extradition order was filed for him from Nebraska on Thursday, court filings show.
The Columbia Police Department wrote in a Friday afternoon social media post that officers had detained Rapacinski and that he was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska. His information was not listed on the Boone County Jail roster on Friday afternoon.
Rapacinski is accused of being involved in at least two burglaries on Torrey Pines Drive and several more in Michigan, according to the probable cause statement. Court documents allege that Rapacinski has no ties to Missouri and has overstayed a visa.
The first of the two allegedly occurred on July 10, where he and another person are accused taking $100,000 in jewelry and $5,000 in cash from a home between 2-3 p.m. that day, the statement says.
A 2007 Hyundai was allegedly seen on Flock cameras around that time, and Flock cameras and business cameras determined Rapacinski and another person ate a business on Clark Lane the day before and they checked into a hotel, the statement says. Rapacinski’s cellphone was also pinged around a mile near the burglarized home that same day, the statement says.
On Tuesday, another home in that area was broke into during a similar fashion during the day and a $12,000 dining set was stolen, the statement says. Court documents claim the suspect in that burglary was seen on video and looked similar to Rapacinski.