Citrus: Thief leaves string of clues

Thief leaves string of clues

Stolen items, which include shoes, a pickup, and footprints, lead police to a suspect.

By BILL VARIAN

DUNNELLON -- The thief who struck three homes sometime before the morning of June 24 left behind few clues -- just enough to let deputies know the same person had entered each house.

He had a peculiar appetite, stealing clothes, shoes and dishes. And he discarded part of his early take at each new West Woodlawn Street home he visited.

Less than two weeks after those thefts, five other homes were struck. Again, Citrus County Sheriff's deputies found the same trail of abandoned booty. But this time the thief made off with a Dodge pickup, an all-terrain vehicle and three pet snakes.

And he left behind bootprints.

With little more than the size 12 impressions to go on, deputies nabbed a suspect later that evening as he talked on a pay telephone at the Greyhound bus station in Ocala.

"It's just amazing how they came out and handled all the evidence and were able to apprehend him in one day," said Chris Thompson, one of the hardest hit victims in the second burst of thefts.

Several sheriff's deputies sat down last week to describe how they solved the string of thefts, providing a rare look into their work. They said the arrest was made possible through teamwork and good old-fashioned, shoe-leather police work.

Deputy Donald Miller was the first to respond to a reportedtheft June 24 on West Woodlawn, which is south of County Road 488 and north of Crystal River.

After calling a crime-scene technician to search for evidence such as fingerprints, Miller and other deputies combed the area, hoping to find a witness.

Instead, they turned up two more victims, as well as a car that looked like someone had tried to break into it. Missing from the homes were clothes, some jewelry and a box of dishes. All told, the value of the stolen property was about $2,000.

There were no fingerprints, but one odd twist: "He would take something from one residence and leave something at the next residence," Miller said. "So we now know that the same person did all of them," Sgt. Alan Vick said.

Otherwise, though, deputies had little to run with -- until July 3.

That morning, the Sheriff's Office received another report of a theft, two blocks away from Woodlawn. This time, there were more victims. The thief entered three unlocked buildings and tried to get into a fourth. He also rummaged through three unlocked cars and ultimately stole a pickup.

Deputies say the same pattern of discarded items emerged. The suspect took one all-terrain vehicle but abandoned another across the street. Shoes taken from one house were left near another.

This time, the thief found wallets and cash. He ripped a compact disc player from one car, as well as taking about 30 CDs. And he made off with three red-tailed Colombian boa constrictors.

Thompson, 24, who lives with his wife and 11-month-old daughter on Ryefield Lane, is the owner of the snakes and was one of the most hard hit victims. A registration clerk at Allen Ridge Medical Center in Lecanto and law enforcement academy cadet, he breeds snakes and other reptiles and amphibians.

It was Thompson's pickup that was stolen and his wife's Pontiac Grand Am that had the CD player ripped from the dashboard. While Thompson is a reptile breeder, the snakes -- Houdini, Hercules and Hermes -- were pets valued altogether at $1,000.

"I wish he would have grabbed one of the rattlesnakes because then we would have found him on the ground in the morning," Thompson said.

Deputies noticed something outside at some of the homes, including Thompson's: footprints, estimated size 12s from a work-style boot.

After taking statements from the victims, Deputy Robert Crosnoe, who had also worked the June 24 thefts, called Lt. Mike Richie, one of the Sheriff's Office helicopter pilots. They looked for Thompson's silver Dodge pickup from the air.

Crosnoe spotted the truck after 20 minutes of flying. It was not far from its owner's home, abandoned near railroad tracks that cross through Dunnellon. They landed the helicopter and soon found more bootprints that matched those found near the homes.

Deputy Thomas Beagan was summoned. He is one of three Citrus County deputies with special training in tracking people. Following sometimes subtle bends in the grass and disturbed gravel, and using a stick to help measure the pace at which someone is walking or running, Beagan was soon following a trail visible only to him.

It led to a paved road, across from which stood a small home with a pop-up trailer in the yard. Outside the trailer, "I immediately saw what seemed to be the same shoe impressions," Crosnoe said.

Thompson was summoned to formally identify the truck, and later to look in the screen of the trailer, where he spied his wallet. No one was home, so deputies prepared a request for a search warrant. And they waited.

While there, a white van rolled up with three people inside. The man in back, Robert Tackett, said he lived in the home and that another man lived in the trailer, but wouldn't be home until later.

Tackett said he had to go somewhere, so with little legal probable cause to detain the men, deputies took names and numbers and let them go.

It would take hours before investigators would get their warrant. By that time, the actual owner of the home arrived and told deputies that he rented the pop-up to Tackett. When they got their search warrant, deputies found several items missing from the homes, including Thompson's snakes -- and a set of work boots.

"That's basically when we had a little manhunt," Crosnoe said.

Deputy Bill Wilkinson headed to the home of Tackett's former wife. Investigators had checked with her earlier and Tackett had already called twice. While Wilkinson was there, she received another call from Tackett.

She had caller identification, so Wilkinson jotted down the phone number and relayed it by phoned to a supervisor, who traced it to a pay phone near the Ocala Greyhound station. The supervisor then relayed the information to Ocala police. "I kept her on the phone with notes passed back and forth," Wilkinson said. "She was kind of afraid."

On one of the notes, she wrote that she could hear a train. The bus station also serves as a train station.

Meantime, Richie, the lieutenant, tracked down the driver of the white van from earlier, who eventually confirmed he had dropped Tackett off at the station after switching clothes with him.

Tackett talked with his ex-wife for 40 minutes, until Ocala police walked up to him. He gave another name. But the Ocala officer asked to have the phone. Tackett gave it to him and the officer asked the woman with whom she was speaking. She gave Tackett's name.

Ocala police arrested Tackett, 33, a carpet installer by trade, on a charge of resisting arrest for giving a false name and resisting their efforts to handcuff him, at 10:50 p.m. He was held at the Marion County Jail in lieu of $17,000 bail.

Citrus County is holding arrest papers with Tackett's name on them. The charges include one count of burglary to a structure, two counts of burglary to a conveyance, one count of grand theft auto and one count of grant theft. More charges are pending.

Meanwhile, Thompson, 24, said he still can't belive how much havoc the thief caused in so short of time. He and his wife went to bed around 1 a.m. the morning of the thefts. But he said they've learned a painful lesson.

His truck came back with several dents and scratches, which insurance paid to repair. His wife's car had been unlocked, as was the shed where he keeps his reptiles. He figures his two large dogs likely kept the intruder from trying to get inside their home. Had he gotten inside, they might be considering moving.

Thompson and his wife, Deborah, had spent several years living in the Washington, D.C., area, where they had become more vigilant.

"We were really strict up there," Thompson said. "We just got a little lax, I guess."