WEST LIBERTY — While out of jail and awaiting trial on charges she stole thousands of dollars from a store where she used to work, a Slippery Rock woman last month allegedly broke into a home here and stole $20,000 worth of jewelry.

But the June 16 burglary was no random crime, investigators said. State police suspect 41-year-old Sherrie L. Stiefel broke into the West Liberty Road house when homeowner Dorothy Gerber was at church.

Stiefel possibly knew Gerber would be away and the house unoccupied. Her parents, with whom she lives, attend Mass at Gerber’s church, according to court documents.

What she didn’t know, however, was that the home was equipped with a video surveillance system, which helped solve the crime, police said.

Police last week charged Stiefel with burglary, trespass theft and receiving stolen property, all felonies.

The case is the defendant’s second brush with the law since March 24, when she allegedly stole $5,391 from the Honey Bear convenience store in Butler.

Employed there at the time, Stiefel was entrusted to deposit the store’s receipts that night.

But instead, police said, she kept the money and later concocted a lie, claiming it was stolen from her car after she stopped to shop in Butler Township before she could deposit the receipts at the bank.

Butler Township police arrested her for felony theft and filing a false report.

She was arraigned on the charges and released on her own recognizance. Stiefel subsequently waived her preliminary hearing, and the case is pending in Butler County Court.

But she landed in trouble again, state police said, when she broke into Gerber’s house.

And, it turned out, notoriety from that earlier crime was key in identifying her as a suspect in last month’s burglary, documents said.

While investigating the break-in, police learned a neighbor of Gerber’s had encountered Stiefel at his home June 16 between 10 and 11 a.m. He recognized her because he had attended high school with her older sister.

The neighbor told police she was wearing a backpack. Later that day, “he recalled reading in the newspaper that Stiefel may have been involved with a theft at the local Honey Bear convenience store,” a police affidavit said.

The alert neighbor, now suspicious, began calling his neighbors — including Gerber — to inquire if they had seen Stiefel that day.

That night, Gerber discovered numerous rings missing from her jewelry box and notified police.

Investigators soon had a clue after examining Gerber’s surveillance video, which showed a woman peering into the home through the windows at 10:35 a.m.

Gerber and her family were at church at that time, police said.

On June 18, while the same neighbor and Gerber spoke again, they realized that the defendant’s parents attend Mass at Gerber’s church.

The victim drove to the suspects’ parents’ house, police said, and confronted Stiefel there.

“Gerber informed (Stiefel) that she had video surveillance of her at (Gerber’s) residence and that she wanted her rings back.”

The victim told police that Stiefel admitted stealing the rings and returned 25 of them to her. Ten of the stolen rings, however, were unaccounted for, documents said.

Police on Wednesday charged Stiefel. A preliminary hearing was not immediately scheduled.

Stiefel’s attorney, J. Stevenson Suess of Butler, could not be reached for comment.