Your Help is needed, KW Police Make Trespassing Arrest
The Key West Police Department has put a man’s image on its Facebook page and is asking cemetery-area residents who have been burglarized if they recognize him.
James Edward McGruder, who police arrested Thursday on Passover Lane near the cemetery on a misdemeanor trespassing charge, also was charged with a felony at the jail for allegedly falsely claiming to own items he had previously pawned, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Website. The Sheriff arrests/mug shot page shows McGruder’s address as 9104 Aviation Blvd., Marathon, and lists his occupation as “First mate in Key West.”
The 22-year-old has been arrested before. According to the sheriff’s website, he was arrested twice in 2013; once for driving without a valid license and once for petit theft.
The image and police request for information followed by one day a meeting between police and frustrated residents who have been burglarized–some repeatedly–by the same burglar.
At that meeting, police promised to post updates on its Facebook Page and two other online sites where residents exchanged theories as to the burglar’s identification and vented frustration over the thief’s brazen success.
The sites are called, “Key West Lost and Found and Stolen”‘; and www.change.org/petitions/catch-the-cemetery-thief.com.
In fact, an online petition launched by local artist Judy Bradford and signed by more than 100 visitors to the change.org site led to the meeting between Lee and residents Tuesday.
Bradford was at the meeting at the Key West Ferry Terminal.
“The meeting went well,” Bradford said. It was conducted intelligently and it’s a good start to getting [the burglaries solved].”
Then, on Friday, police posted McGruder’s image on the Facebook pages and are waiting to see if anyone can place him in the neighborhood or homes at the time of the burglaries.
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