Asking a stranger to clean your home can be a risky business.
Retirees Ray and Gerrie Butler of Evergreen hoped to mitigate that risk by turning to Merry Maids, the nation’s largest chain of housecleaners.
They were comforted knowing that the Memphis, Tenn.-based company sends 8,000 maids into more than 300,000 homes in North America each month. They heard that Merry Maids employees are carefully screened and trained, and Merry Maids is bonded and insured.
Merry Maids sells trust in an industry full of freelancers with uncertain backgrounds. It’s not always easy to keep that trust, though. Given the law of large numbers, there’s a chance some Merry Maids will turn out to be Robin Hoods.
A handful of news reports over the past several years attest to this: About a half- dozen Merry Maids have been arrested for theft in Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Texas.
“When you look at 3 million cleanings in a year’s time, something like this will happen every once in a while,” said Don Slifer, vice president of market development for Merry Maids.
Now, it’s happened in Colorado.
The Butlers’ maid allegedly stole nearly $21,000 worth of jewelry from their home. The Butlers, who paid Merry Maids $150 every two weeks, were among nearly a dozen victims in Conifer, Evergreen and Golden who were cleaned out of thousands’ worth of property last year.
Deborah Ann Diedrich, 38, pleaded guilty to most of these crimes. On Thursday, I watched her sentencing in state district court in Jefferson County.
It started out normally. Victims spoke of losses and traumas. Friends and family members of Diedrich argued she was a good person who made bad choices.
Diedrich tearfully apologized: “I will never live my life this way again.” She told Judge Brooke Jackson she had succumbed to financial pressures and pawned all her loot to support her family.
“I truly believe that Debbie took the job at Merry Maids to gain access to people’s homes,” said Gerrie Butler, 57. “This may be the first time that she got caught, but I don’t believe this is the first time that she has stolen.”
Retired schoolteacher Beth Schroppel, 48, of Evergreen told the judge that Diedrich stole, among other items, more than $100 in cash from the dresser of her son, then 12. “He doesn’t feel safe in his house anymore,” she said.
Karen Jahla, 61, manager of the Merry Maids division in Evergreen, told the judge that Diedrich robbed not only customers’ cash and belongings but the company’s trust and reputation.
“Our customers’ safety and well-being are our highest priorities, and we diligently work to maintain that,” she said.
Like other victims, Jahla asked the judge for the maximum sentence.
“The strictest penalty would be to put her in prison for 7 1/2 years,” the judge countered.
“That’s fine,” Jahla replied.
The judge, however, cut Diedrich some slack. He sentenced her to about eight months. He also gave her a three-year deferred sentence, which she would not have to serve if she pays restitution.
As a deputy handcuffed Diedrich, she asked if she could hand her purse to her mother, since she was headed for jail.
From there, a normal sentencing turned into a TV sitcom.
“That’s my purse!” Schroppel shouted upon seeing Diedrich’s black-leather Libaire handbag. “Excuse me, your honor, that’s my purse! That’s my purse! Out of my closet! God, I can’t believe this!”
Schroppel said she’d been looking all over for it.
“My whole home was gone through, and she took whatever she wanted,” Schroppel cried. “There could still be more things that I don’t know about.”
The judge asked deputies to return Diedrich to the courtroom. Diedrich told the judge she bought the pricey purse at a thrift store and did not have a receipt.
One of her friends claimed he was with her when she bought it. Diedrich’s attorney then asked the judge if it made sense that a convicted woman would bring a stolen purse to a sentencing hearing.
“If that’s the woman’s purse,” the judge said, “there will be a different sentence.”
Her sentence will be revisited Nov. 14.
Al Lewis’ column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. Respond to Lewis at , 303-820-1967, or alewis@denverpost.com.
