Man arrested for burglary/theft of tools

A 33-year-old Stock Island man was arrested Friday for the theft of more than $3,000 in tools from a construction company on Rockland Key.

Zachary Lee Humphries was charged with burglary, larceny and damage to property.

Deputy Lazaro Valdes was called to Calle Uno road on Aug. 20 where he met with a construction worker. The worker stated someone broke their warehouse lock and stolen $3,300 in heavy tools such as a drill press and planer, among others. Lower Keys Det. David Fernandez was assigned to investigate. Det. Fernandez met with the property manager and obtained several security video images of the incident. Det. Fernandez and other Lower Keys Criminal Investigations Unit detectives developed potential suspects from multiple business security videos. Meanwhile, they also received a call that someone was selling stolen tools from a location on Stock Island. Detectives responded to Stock Island and located several tools with matching serial numbers of those stolen from the Calle Uno warehouse.

A person who was interviewed as part of the investigation was able to give detailed information about the Calle Uno burglary. That led detectives to Humphries, who was interviewed on Friday morning. He initially denied involvement, but changed his story several times regarding where he was at the time of the burglary.

Humphries was taken to jail.

The Sheriff’s Office is investigating multiple other burglaries in the Lower Keys and more charges/arrests may be pending.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]