INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – A homeowner was awake in the early morning hours of Wednesday when he noticed headlights pulling into his driveway. What happened next prompted him to call the Sheriff’s Office.
The homeowner watched through his living room windows as three men got out of the vehicle. One of the men he recognized. That man, identified as Timothy Yates, proceeded to stab the tires on the homeowner’s vehicle and a 16-foot trailer.
The homeowner told investigators that he could hear the air leaving his tires as Yates punctured them, the arrest report states.
The men, later identified as driver Brad Courson, Shea Griggs, and Timothy Yates, have since been arrested. They each face a felony charge of burglary of an occupied dwelling and a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.
Courson, of Barefoot Bay, is being held at the county jail in lieu of $5,500 bail while Griggs, of Barefoot Bay, and Yates, of Micco, have been released on $5,000 bond.
According to the arrest report, the homeowner, who lives in Vero Lake Estates, identified Yates on sight because Yates is his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. He told investigators he believed the men damaged his property in retaliation for a domestic violence battery arrest he was suspected of two weeks prior against Yates’s girlfriend, who is also Griggs’s sister.
After the tires were punctured, Yates and Griggs approached the home, according to the arrest report, and the men tore down the light fixture in the front entryway. They then walked the perimeter of the home, the homeowner told authorities, shaking the doors and windows in an apparent attempt to get inside. Failing to do so, Yates and Griggs got back into Courson’s truck and left the scene.
The responding deputy was in the Vero Lake Estates area on patrol when the call came in. The deputy drove to the area in an attempt to locate and intersect the men, who the caller said drove off after having caused the damage to property.
According to the arrest report, the deputy located a truck matching the caller’s description traveling at a high rate of speed. The deputy caught up to the vehicle on County Road 510 only after having to speed – going 70 mph. The deputy caught the truck at the red light at CR510 and CR512 and conducted a traffic stop.
The deputy had each man get out of the truck individually and attempted to question them about the incident, according to the report. All three denied both the allegations and having had any knowledge of the incident.
