VERO BEACH — A 25-year-old Vero Beach man has been arrested and faces a charge of home burglary after authorities say he broke into a home by going through a bedroom window.
Joseph Paul Skinner is being held on $52,500 bond.
Vero Beach Police responded to a residence on Pine Avenue at approximately 12:40 p.m. on Monday after a woman in the residence reported the intruder.
The woman told authorities she was in another room when she heard a noise coming from the bedroom. Upon opening the door to the room, “she saw a male, whom she did not recognize, standing in front of an open window,” according to a Vero Beach police report.
According to the report, the woman yelled, “What are you doing in my house?”
To which the intruder allegedly replied, “Sorry ma’am,” and “dove head first” out the window behind him, the report states.
The victim did not find any property missing from her home but noticed a closet door open with items displaced on the floor according to the report.
Approximately four hours later, a man reported a suspicious person riding a small bicycle up and down driveways on his block near 1800 35th Ave.
Police made contact with the suspicious person who matched the physical description provided by the woman who reported the original home burglary. The man provided an identification card stating his name was Joseph Paul Skinner.
According to the report, the officer informed Skinner that he was being “temporarily detained.” Skinner immediately took off on foot and attempted to conceal himself from the officer in foliage nearby.
After an interview with a Vero Beach detective, Skinner “confessed to the burglary and wrote an apology letter to the victim,” according to the report put out by the Vero Beach Police Department.
His charges include felony burglary of an occupied dwelling and misdemeanor resist arrest without violence.
