Serial Toilet Thief Flushed Out by Police

A serial toilet plumbing thief’s career is washed up courtesy of the St. Petersburg Police Department, good record keeping and surveillance video.

Police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez explained in an email to media that the department has received a number of reports recently about someone going into public restrooms and stealing flushing handles and pipes from toilets.

The thief struck local Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Bob Evans, Subway and Burger King restaurants. He also swiped some plumbing from a Publix. Even the city’s Albert Whitted Park wasn’t safe.

When those reports started flowing in, detectives checked with local recycling centers and were able to match records to surveillance videos of a man leaving some of the theft locations.

As it turned out, the thief was helping himself to the plumbing fixtures and then taking them to the Pinellas County Recycling Center, 5601 Haines Road. There he’d trade in brass valves and piping for about $36 to $40.

Damage to the public restrooms, however, was estimated at roughly $1,000 a pop.

Brian Rinda, 28, was charged Oct. 11 in connection with the spree. He faces eight counts of grand theft and one count of petty theft.

Detectives are also looking into more possible cases throughout Pinellas County, Fernandez said.

Rinda was being held at the Pinellas County Jail as of Friday morning. He was also arrested back in June on a single count of retail theft, jail records indicate.

Photo Credit: Brian Rinda/Pinellas County Jail

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