WADSWORTH — The door on a burglary case from 1996 hasn’t quite closed. Stolen jewelry keeps turning up.

Wadsworth police already have auctioned off thousands of lots of unclaimed property seized from a string of burglaries. Today, 244 additional pieces of jewelry will be on the auction block.

The items were obtained after the arrest of Hugo Martinsons on May 9, 1996.

Fifteen years ago, investigators went to Martinsons’ house on Westview Avenue with a search warrant following a drug arrest, Police Chief Randy Reinke said. Inside, he said, police found millions of dollars worth of miscellaneous jewelry from burglaries that encompassed several states — Ohio, North and South Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Reinke said investigators also obtained warrants to search a number of storage units Martinsons obtained and they found another “substantial amount of jewelry.”

Martinsons, now 67, has been serving a 60-year sentence at Marion Correctional Institution since March, 12, 1997. He was convicted on 151 felony counts, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s website, including 67 charges of conspiracy burglary and one charge of conspiracy aggravated burglary.

Martinsons is up for parole in December 2012, according to the website.

Over the years, Reinke said, many items were returned to their owners, but unclaimed property was auctioned off.

Between 1997 and 2000, the Police Department conducted eight auctions to sell off thousands of lots of unclaimed property seized, but in the following years more stolen jewelry was uncovered.

On Jan. 22, 2007, Martinsons’ brother, Alex Martinsons, was killed in a car accident along with their mother.

Reinke said more stolen property was located in the house Alex had shared with Hugo Martinsons.

Hugo Martinsons’ daughter asked for assistance from officers to gain entry to the Westview Avenue house after Alex died to retrieve a cat and some family items, Reinke said. Once inside, officers observed more stolen jewelry and another warrant was obtained to search the property, he said.

Two more auctions were conducted in 2008.

At today’s auction beginning at 10:30 a.m. at the Rodeway Inn, 5 Park Center Drive, the miscellaneous items will be grouped in 83 lots. Pre-inspection begins at 9.

Richard McCready of Mansfield-based McCready Auctioneers and Liquidators will run the auction. Specific information on the jewelry can be found at www.auctionzip.com.

The terms are cash or check with satisfactory photo ID. A 7 percent premium exists on all items.

Contact Dani Orr at (330) 721-4049 or dorr@medina-gazette.com.

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