INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – Two local men have been arrested, suspected of committing more than 100 residential and vehicle burglaries since Sept. 1.
Andrew Allen Brown CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY INDIAN RIVER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
James Dean Threadgill, 32, and Andrew Allen Brown, 28, both of the 200 block of 27th Avenue Southwest, Vero Beach, are sitting in the county jail.
Arrested on Friday, they currently face only a handful of charges as the Sheriff’s Office continues its investigation.
Threadgill faces felony charges of grand theft and burglary of an occupied dwelling and three felony counts of grand theft auto.
Brown faces a felony charge of burglary of a business and felony grand theft. He was also named a co-defendant in the three felony grand theft auto charges.
James Threadgill PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY INDIAN RIVER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
So far, the Sheriff’s Office has tied Brown to an August burglary of Treasure Coast Marine. According to the arrest affidavits, guns and a motorized scooter were stolen from the business.
Brown’s fingerprint was discovered at the scene, the arrest report states.
Following his arrest on Oct. 20, Brown denied having entered the business and was “not able to provide a reason why his prints were recovered.”
Threadgill’s current charges are tied to a residential burglary on Oct. 12 during which he is accused of swiping three tools new in box and a fourth tool from a resident’s garage.
In this case, the homeowner noticed his motion activated flood light near the garage had turned on. When he went to investigate, he found a man later determined to be Threadgill walking back toward the nearby woods.
The homeowner went back inside without closing the garage door. About 40 minutes later, his wife went out to the garage and was startled to see Threadgill had returned. Again, Threadgill fled into the woods.
Two hours later, the homeowner saw Threadgill walking on the street in the direction of his house. When Threadgill saw the homeowner, he again fled.
The deputy who responded searched the area and found the three brand new tools still in their boxes. The fourth, unboxed tool – a pneumatic brad nailer — was not recovered.
Fast forward about a week, and the deputy was called to assist with a traffic stop. One of the passengers matched the description the homeowner gave. The homeowner positively identified the passenger as the suspect who stole the tools from his garage.
The driver, who authorities referred to as a “cooperating source,” said he had picked up Threadgill in the area of the homeowner’s home on Oct. 12 and that later that night, Threadgill and Brown helped themselves to another resident’s work truck, swiping three laptops and as much as $1,600 cash, as well as tools.
Between Oct. 12 and their arrest on Oct. 20, authorities laid out a timeline of Threadgill and Brown’s activities.
Those activities include stealing a Chevy Traverse, a Nissan Frontier, and a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Both the Traverse and Harley were recovered during the course of the investigation. The Frontier is still missing.
They stayed at the Howard Johnson in Vero Beach, unloading bags full of their stolen items, the cooperating source told investigators.
For his part, he said when he realized the items were stolen, he gathered them up, while Threadgill and Brown were out, put them in his car and drove to the Sheriff’s Office to report it.
On Oct. 19, investigators got security footage from the hotel showing Threadgill driving the stolen Chevy Traverse. That evidence was used to arrest him during the traffic stop the next day.
The source also told investigators that he knew where Threadgill had stashed the motorcycle and that, at the time of the traffic stop, they were on their way to sell it for an “eight ball” of methamphetamine (an eighth of an ounce) and $100.
Brown is in jail without bond while Threadgill is being held at the jail in lieu of $120,000 bond.
More charges are expected to be filed as authorities continue to investigate other burglaries.