Deputies: Don't Be This Guy

Some criminals are so crafty they make detectives work double time to even sniff out the slightest scent of a trail. Then there are those accused criminals who make it so easy for law enforcement to figure out who they are it’s practically comical.

The latter was the case in Citrus County Monday when deputies closed the books on a home burglary investigation. It seems a Homosassa resident returned home on Nov. 13 to discover an estimated $500 in change and the jar it was contained in had been taken.

Naturally upset with the loss, the victim called on deputies to help.

While finding a currency thief can prove to be difficult, tracing missing quarters, dimes and pennies can be especially daunting. The accused thief in this case, however, made it easy on investigators thanks to a rather incriminating piece of evidence.

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It seems the man now accused in the burglary made the “critical error” of wearing a GPS monitoring device to the scene of the crime. When clues in the case led detectives to a suspect that happened to be a local man out of jail on probation, they checked in with the man’s probation officer. As it turned out, the parolee in question had been ordered by the court to wear a tracking device.

Sure enough, a quick check of the tracking device’s history placed the man at the scene of the Nov. 13 crime, an arrest report stated. It also revealed a trip to a Walmart store shortly after the burglary.

The suspect in question was interviewed by detectives on Monday, Nov. 23. At first the man denied any involvement in the crime, but then told investigators he took the change jar and then cashed the coins in for bills at Walmart, the report stated.

“Don’t be this guy,” the sheriff’s office wrote on its Facebook page Monday, announcing the arrest of Redford Mounce, 36, of Homosassa.

Mounce now faces felony residential burglary charges and violation of probation.

He’s being accommodated in the Citrus County Jail without bond courtesy of that violation of probation charge. On the upside, he probably doesn’t need the tracking device at the moment.

Photo courtesy of the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office