Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Three arrested in cable TV box theft ring

Nearly three dozen cable supply boxes have been reported stolen in Pasco and Hernando counties. The cable boxes may eventually wind up in Colombia.

By STEVE THOMPSON
Published October 5, 2005

The last time your cable television or Internet went out, it could have been because somebody stole your street's cable power supply box and shipped it to another guy in Miami, who shipped it to someone else in Colombia.

"There's a lot of money to be made in Third World countries setting up these network systems," Pasco sheriff's Sgt. Kenneth Gregory said.

Authorities have arrested two Pasco men and one Miami man who they say were trying to get their own illegal cut of these profits.

The power supply boxes sit inside green boxes on the side of the road. By the middle of last month, Bright House Networks already had reported many stolen. The Pasco and Hernando county sheriff's offices are investigating about 35 cases, Gregory said.

Then, a few weeks ago, a Bright House employee in Hernando County noticed someone who appeared to be in the act of stealing one of the boxes. The employee tailed the man, who was driving an electrical repair truck with one of those extendable buckets on top. The man figured out he was being tailed and dumped a couple of the boxes out of his truck, Gregory said. He drove into Pasco County, where Pasco sheriff's deputies pulled him over.

That man, Gregory said, was 48-year-old John Putnam. Putnam lives at 8310 Reynolds Drive in Hudson and works as a cable contractor for a company called "RGE Electric," his arrest report says.

Pasco deputies also arrested 21-year-old Kenneth Primrose of 8915 Woodmill Drive in Hudson, who was working for Putman, Gregory said.

Investigators convinced Putnam to cooperate in a sting in Naples, Gregory said, in which a Miami man drove up to buy a batch of the equipment from Putnam.

Officers with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested the man after his return to Miami.

The man, Vidal Portocarrero, was involved in shipping freight loads of cable equipment to Colombia, FDLE special agent Rick Singer said Wednesday. Portocarrero is suspected of being responsible for the shipment of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth. He was getting the stolen goods from other suppliers in addition to Putnam, Singer said.

"These guys that were arrested in Pasco were just one small spoke in the wheel," Singer said.

They might have been mixing the stolen goods with legitimately obtained goods for shipment, Singer said, but the investigation still is under way. Singer declined to say whether investigators think Portocarrero was selling to a Colombian individual or a business.

Singer said such thefts are part of a multimillion-dollar problem for cable companies in Florida.

Putnam and Primrose were being held in the Pasco County jail Wednesday, each on multiple grand theft charges. Florida records show Primrose has a long criminal history, including arrests on charges including burglary, domestic battery and false imprisonment, and armed robbery.

-- Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Steve Thompson covers crime in Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is sthompson@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 5, 2005, 20:59:32]