Pasco Sheriff On Lookout For Possible Serial Car Burglar

WESLEY CHAPEL – The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office is on the lookout for a car burglar who broke into a car parked at the Seven Oaks Professional Plaza, 2242 Oak Circle, Wesley Chapel, Tuesday, Feb. 27.

According to sheriff’s deputies, the burglar pulled up in a Nissan sports utility vehicle, possibly a 2017 Nissan Murano, just after 6 p.m., broke the driver’s side window and grabbed a purse that was sitting on the front seat.

Less than an hour later, the sheriff’s office received a call from a resident reporting a suspicious person in the parking lot outside his gym about two miles away.

The caller said he saw a man looking inside a parked car when he left the gym but his presence scared the would-be burglar off. The suspicious man got into a red SUV matching the description of the car at the Seven Oaks Professional Park. The resident obtained the SUV's license tag number but it proved to be invalid.

The sheriff’s office was able to obtain a photo of the SUV from a surveillance camera.

Yesterday's parking lot break-in is the latest in a string of car burglaries taking place in business parking lots throughout Wesley Chapel, Lutz and Land O' Lakes. Detectives aren't sure whether they're being perpetrated by a gang of burglars or if Pasco County has several car burglars on the prowl. Either way, the sheriff's office is reminding residents not to leave purses and other personal belongings in their cars.

Anyone with information should call the sheriff’s office at (272) 847-5878.

Image via Pasco Sheriff