By Peter Berton

FORT PIERCE, Fla. – A 23-year-old Florida woman filed grand theft charges against her former girlfriend when a collection of sex toys went missing two weeks after the pair dissolved their relationship.

According to a report filed with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, Ashley Rivera gave her former lover permission to retrieve personal belonging kept in a storage unit rented by Rivera’s family. During her apparently unsupervised visit to the facility, the ex allegedly bypassed furniture, electronics, clothes and photographs and instead appropriated “three strap-on dildos and handcuffs valued at $300” that didn’t belong to her.

Thefts of $300 or more trigger automatic investigation as potential grand theft under local law.

Rivera told sheriff’s investigators she owned the sex toys prior to the relationship and she wants them back. She also said she assumed the alleged sex-toy theft was motivated by the ex-girlfriend’s desire to “try to get back together.”

Evidently, nothing says “I love you” like stealing a former flame’s boudoir accessories. A similar case came to light in Houston in August 2011, when a victim pasted notices offering a $100 reward for the return of missing sex toys all over the city’s Montrose neighborhood. The notices, designed to look much like “lost dog” posters, included a photograph of the missing items.

The status of the Houston case is unknown, but Rivera’s remains under investigation. The sheriff’s office has declined to release the suspects name and no arrests have been made.