INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Indian River County Sheriff’s offices has charged a pair Vero Beach men with 2 counts of grand theft and 2 counts of dealing in stolen property for stealing air conditioner parts and re-selling them.Sheriff’s Detective Tim Crooker tied Jonathan Edward Harris, 37, of 613 4th Place Southwest and Rusty James Miner, 30, of 2320 86th Avenue, with separate incidents of using a red pickup truck with distinctive yellow flames, to allegedly steal the air conditioner parts. Crooker’s investigation showed on April 23 Harris and Miner entered the fenced in backyard of an unoccupied home on 15th Street Southwest and removed the coils and other valuable metal from an exterior air conditioner unit. Detective Crooker also linked Harris and Miner to the April 24 theft of air conditioner parts at the Stone Brothers Funeral Home on Old Dixie Highway in Vero Beach. Security video footage showed a truck entering the funeral home’s parking lot with an empty bed and a short time later it is seen with what appear to be air conditioner parts in the back.The truck is later observed on surveillance footage from Indian River Scrap where Detective Crooker uncovered a receipt showing Miner sold air conditioner parts for $153.15. The parts from the funeral home alone have a projected replacement value of over $2,300. The red truck with yellow flames was also tied to a similar theft of air conditioner parts investigated by the Vero Beach Police Department. Harris and Miner were arrested on those charges as well. Miner is being held on a combined bond of $52,000. Harris’ total bond is $45,000.
