Charles Bean was robbed of $56,000 in gems from his business, Sunday River Gems, in Newry. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

NEWRY — In 30 years Charles Bean had never had a break-in at Sunday River Gems on Sunday River Road.

That changed Feb. 2 when $56,000 in gems were stolen. Bean was asleep in his house next door. He thinks the high winds that night kept him from hearing the thieves.

The next morning, he put his key in the door knob and it went, “round and round and round. I looked through the window where I keep my good tourmaline. I saw that it was empty and I said ‘my god I’ve been robbed’.”

“Every once in awhile you’ll be missing a little something you expect that,” said Bean whose wife Elizabeth ran the shop until she passed away. “This is the first time I’ve been broken into.”

Oxford County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Ellwood arrived quickly to take a report. Bean said the police followed up last week saying they have an idea of where to look and have been investigating, but so far they don’t have any suspects in custody.

He said along with the smaller gems, three amethyst cathedrals and large geodes were stolen. “Some of the stuff was big, real big. I could just barely lug the stuff in,” said Bean. “The amethyst geode was two and half feet tall, 10″ on the bottom and weighed about 80 pounds.”

He closed the shop for a week, “I reopened to see if I could get going again. A lot of it is missing.”

His jewelry is made by a woman in Kennebunkport and a man in Norway. “They made sure they took every bit of that. All my Maine jewelry and all my Maine specimens, they took it.”

Rumors were circulating around Bethel about who stole the gems. “I heard the next day that a woman was wearing it,” said Bean. “They [the criminals] knew what they were doing.”

Bean said he has a lot of support in the community.  He grew up in the house where his business is located, before his family moved to a bigger house on Lover’s Lane when he was 13.