Residents Demand Meeting with city officials

Residents Demand Meeting with city officials

By John L. Guerra

A petition signed by home invasion victims and their neighbors has led to a meeting with Key West Police Chief Donie Lee and city leaders.

 

The meeting to discuss police efforts to arrest the so-called Cemetery Thief will be held Jan. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Key West Ferry Terminal.

 

“We need to address the petition with an official response,” Mayor Craig Cates said Saturday. “That’s why we’re having this meeting.”

 

Well-known artist Judy Bradford, who lives on a street in the serial burglar’s hunting ground, launched the petition calling for a meeting a few weeks ago. One hundred Key Westers, including other victims and neighbors, signed the petition.

 

The burglar has destroyed her sense of security and those of her neighbors, Bradford said.

 

“There are rumors flying around like crazy [about break-ins] that residents come out and see their gate is open and ask themselves, ‘Does that mean someone was trying to get in their house?’ There are also reports of encounters with police that were unsatisfying or less than satisfying,” she said. “I felt it would be good if we all got in the same room at the same time and talked about what is happening.”

 

The petition at www.change.org/petitions/catch-the-cemetery-thief.com, asks city officials and Lee to meet with residents and discuss the investigation.

 

Addressed to Lee, Cates, and city commissioners Jimmy Weekley, Teri Johnston, and Clayton Lopez, the petition gets right to the point.

 

“The resulting victim anger could produce dangerous, Do-It-Yourself cures,’ the petition states. “The thefts of cash and electronics present an economic hardship and a severe risk of identity theft for the city’s law-biding, tax-paying and voting citizens. It seems to be one particular unknown individual committing the crimes.”

 

 

 

In perhaps the most important criminal case facing the Key West Police Department in decades, the same culprit is believed to have entered dozens of homes, some of them repeatedly, for at least a year. He (or she, as some believe) has been caught on home security cameras and exhibits skill when avoiding alarm systems.

 

On one security tape, the burglar can be seen putting on gloves outside a house, using a laser pointer to search the edges of a home, and when going through doors, steps high to avoid motion detectors.

 

Residents have encountered the pre-dawn thief in their homes.

 

One woman told police that she had placed her cell phone on a shelf above her bed. In the morning, it was gone, indicating that the burglar had reached over her head as she slept. In another incident that was recorded on video, a woman emerged from her bedroom and nearly bumped into the burglar in her living room. The burglar fled the house. The woman dashed back into her bedroom and locked the door.

 

According to police reports, the man walks up to front doors after 4 a.m. and tries the knob; if the door is locked, he walks around the back of the house and tries to gain entry. At least one witness, who was watching TV in the middle of the night, watched a man in a white T-shirt use a tool to pry at his door. That homeowner, local store owner “Mikey Mo” Moscher, chased the burglar down the street.

 

Other residents have reported seeing a woman with a bicycle standing between parked cars in the middle of the night. The woman, who residents believe acts as lookout, pedaled away when a resident asked her what she was doing.

 

Nearly all of the homeowners discovered they were missing cash before realizing, sometimes weeks later, that they had been repeatedly burglarized. Moschel, resident John Martini, and others at first noticed that someone had emptied their wallets and purses. The burglar returned on a subsequent night to take Apple IPhones, IPods, laptops, and other electronic devices

 

Moscher’s wife, Melanie, signed Bradford’s online petition.

 

“I reside in this area,” she wrote on the site. “I have had cash and peace of mind taken. [The burglar] is a menace and I am bewildered by the fact that he has not been caught nor does there seem to be increased police presence in the area. It was suggested I buy a spy cam … great … after I was robbed of my cash I should spend money on the thief? Just apprehend him.”

 

The brunt of the frustration falls on Lee’s desk, who in several media interviews has described detective’s efforts to catch the serial burglar. He has posted undercover officers in the neighborhood, increased police cruiser drive-throughs, and even sent a mounted patrol through the neighborhood. Police have questioned homeowners for any detail, and have posted a photograph of the suspect on the police department website. The image was taken at a convenience store where the suspect used a credit card, apparently stolen from one of the houses near the cemetery. The image shows a white man in his 30s, with a light beard, wearing a baseball cap.

 

Cates said police are paying close attention to the neighborhood to halt the break-ins and, ultimately, to catch the burglar.

 

“I spoke to a friend who plays music downtown and walks home after the bars close,” Cates said. “He lives on Francis Street and he has been stopped and questioned several times by undercover police working the area.”

 

Detectives and police carry photographs of the suspect—the convenience store photograph and an image taken from a resident’s security camera–and show them around town. They also have reviewed past burglary cases.

 

“They are definitely working on it,” Cates said, “but if they can do more, they’ll explain it at the meeting. But obviously they can’t tell the public everything they are doing.”

 

Lee, who said viable fingerprints from crime scenes are rare, said the burglar has left few clues. Lee’s detectives have shared data with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and other law enforcement groups.

 

Lee said he wants the burglar caught as much as residents do.

 

“I cannot tell you how extremely serious we take this man’s intruding into people’s homes,” he told KonkLife in December. “I am extremely concerned by the fact that he is in homes where people are encountering him,” Lee said. “Burglars might use violence in an attempt to escape and homeowners could be forced to defend themselves and their homes using force.”

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