Former Timeless Treasures owner avoids jail time in embezzlement case, to victims’ dismay

The former San Luis Obispo consignment store owner who pleaded guilty to embezzlement must pay her victims more than $300,000 in restitution but didn’t get jail time, a decision that angered many of her former customers.

Andrea Ruth Bowen-Gardner, 53, was sentenced to two years of probation and 1,040 hours of community service after pleading guilty to embezzling money from at least 69 customers at her consignment store Timeless Treasures, along with writing multiple bad checks from the date her store opened in 2016 to May 2019, when it abruptly closed.

“It’s heart-wrenching to see all of these people who’ve gone through this,” Betsy Nash told the judge during Bowen-Gardner’s sentencing. “It not just that she stole money. It’s history as well.”

Nash was just one of the dozens of customers who entrusted Bowen-Gardner to sell their family heirlooms and valuables, only to not receive payment for the item or have the items returned.

Bowen-Gardner was ordered to pay at least $338,764 in restitution to her victims — an amount that could be raised in future hearings if more claims come forward.

But Kevin Rock, who helped Bowen-Gardner open the consignment store by lending her $34,000, doubts she’ll pay any of it back. She’s on her third bankruptcy claim — the first two were dismissed because scam victims contested her filings — and he said he believes she deserved jail time.

“I know the felon over there will not follow the rules,” Rock told the Judge Crystal Seiler. “I’ll never get my time back. I’m pissed she won.”

Timeless Treasures victim faces homelessness after valuable items disappear, she says

The worst part for Janine Farr-Edelman and Colleen Craig, victims of the Timeless Treasures embezzlement, was the way Bowen-Gardner defended herself when asked for updates on items.

Craig told the judge that Bowen-Gardner would accuse her of violating their contract and threatened to file a restraining order against her. She also said Bowen-Gardner taped a conversation between the two without Craig’s knowledge and threatened to send it to the Sheriff’s Office and have Craig arrested “simply for asking what had happened to my things.”

“I was so taken aback by her attacks, I began questioning my safety,” Craig said, adding that Bowen-Gardner’s behavior was “unnerving.”

Farr-Edelman said Bowen-Gardner and her husband both said they didn’t want her in the store — despite Farr-Edelman’s valuable items being sold there — and Bowen-Gardner’s husband called her a “bad person.”

That’s when Farr-Edelman asked for her items back, and when Bowen-Gardner’s husband showed up with only half of Farr-Edelman’s belongings — the most expensive piece was gone — he berated her when she asked where the rest of her items were.

Now, Farr-Edelman is facing homelessness. The money she had was tied up in family assets — namely a collection of paintings valued at $500 to $40,000 each — and with several of the paintings sold off without repayment, she is in eviction court Thursday.

“I don’t know where I’m going to be living, and to hear how badly she treated everyone ... it makes my heart sick that this person would be able to walk away with just a slap on the hands,” Farr-Edelman said. “That doesn’t seem fair to the damage.”

Rock told the judge he has lost trust in local businesses and in himself after what he endured because of Bowen-Gardner.

He said he used to refer friends to consign items at Timeless Treasures, and when his friends would report that they weren’t paid for items, Bowen-Gardner would call them crazy.

He paid two of those friends out of his own pocket so that he could keep his own integrity, he said.

“It wasn’t just a bad business,” he told the judge. “It was a bad person running a business.”

Rock said he not only lost money to her, but he also lost a friendship for three years when Bowen-Gardner convinced him to take her side when another investor sued her over how she ran the business.

But now, Rock said, he knows she was a fraud.

“Andrea took my kindness for weakness. She took my money as if it was hers. She took all the energy that I put in the store and used it for her own personal greed,” Rock said. “She’s a thief, liar and con-artist. She has no remorse and no consciousness.”

Bowen-Gardner must complete her community service hours within her two years of probation. She is not allowed to have a checking account and is not allowed to be employed or have a position in an organization where she has financial responsibilities.

If she violates her probation, the judge said, she faces “significant” time in jail or prison depending on the violation.

For Teena Colebrook, who Bowen-Gardner must pay at least $150,500, the conviction and sentencing is bittersweet, “but mostly bitter, because she is not getting the jail time she truly deserves.”

“It is my hope — faint though it is — that she will reflect on the damage, extreme stress, huge financial loss and trauma she has caused me and many others while she completes her community service hours and makes restitution to all the victims.”

But, Colebrook added, she is doubtful the restitution will actually be paid. Her trust in Bowen-Gardner — and the legal system — has been diminished, she said.