- April 18, 2024
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by: Flagler County Sheriff's Office Public Affairs Office
Flagler deputies have arrested a Miami man suspected of stealing about a dozen catalytic converters across the east coast of Florida.
Deputies conducted a high-risk traffic stop on July 21 to arrest the 33-year-old suspect after the Sheriff's Office's Real Time Crime Center, with its network of traffic cameras and license plate readers, determined that a car linked to the thefts had entered Flagler County, according to an FCSO news release.
“This dirtbag made the mistake of returning to Flagler County to commit more crimes” Sheriff Rick Staly said in the news release. “Our Real Time Crime Center using our technology, deputies using good old fashioned police work and great detective work, we obtained a confession and solved numerous catalytic converter thefts in Flagler and throughout the east coast of Florida.”
One of the thefts in Flagler County had been on July 5, at the Days Inn. The inn's surveillance footage showed the suspect driving a red Chevy Camaro — the vehicle the Real Time Crime Center detected entering the county on July 21.
When deputies searched the car during the July 21 traffic stop, they found two catalytic converters, burglary tools, drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine.
The suspect admitted to detectives that he'd stolen about 13 catalytic converters along the east coast of Florida.
Detectives linked him to catalytic converter thefts in Volusia County and St. Johns County as well as Flagler County, and were able to determine where the catalytic converters in his car had come from.
He's charged with burglary of a conveyance and grand theft from a vehicle ($750 to $5,000), possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Additional charges are pending, according to the news release.
