Flashy MySpace Photos Lead To Theft Arrests
By MIKE WELLS The Tampa Tribune
Nov 22, 2006
APOLLO BEACH - Showing a bit of bling-bling on their MySpace pages got two Hillsborough County brothers pegged as burglary suspects after an Internet surfer spotted them showing off what looked like his mother's jewelry, investigators said.
Detectives said another suspect was connected to a related burglary by a court-ordered satellite tracker he had been wearing since his last trip to jail.
On Monday, Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives charged Tevin and Hariel Anderson, ages 14 and 16, of Apollo Beach, with third-degree felony grand theft.
In photos posted on MySpace, the brothers posed wearing distinctive gold chains that detectives think were stolen recently from a home in Apollo Beach.
It's not the first time sites such as MySpace have proved useful to crime investigators.
"With Web pages having become so popular, it really is becoming a common investigative tool for law enforcement," sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.
While searching the brothers' Clair Shore Drive home Monday, deputies arrested themand found stolen jewelry and evidence that identified five other suspects, Carter said.
Using that information, undercover detectives arranged to buy stolen items from the other suspects in the Summerfield subdivision in Riverview, Carter said.
Deputies recovered about $4,800 worth of goods, including three guns, laptops, jewelry and televisions, Carter said.
Deputies charged four people with weapons and burglary felonies: Ryan Taylor, 18, Jeremy Russell, 19, and Jamar Sampson, 23, all of Riverview; and Donnie Brinson, 15, of Apollo Beach.
In addition, Toya Wingfield, 19, of Riverview, was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest without violence. She was released from Orient Road Jail on Tuesday after posting $500 bail.
Sampson was released after posting $2,000 bail, and Russell was released on $4,000 bail Tuesday, records show.
The Andersons and Brinson were released to juvenile authorities.
During the investigation, detectives learned Taylor recently had been released from jail on an unrelated charge and was wearing an electronic monitor on his ankle as a condition of his release, Carter said. He remained in jail Tuesday with no bail set.
Taylor denied involvement in a burglary Monday at a home on Sandy Court Drive, but the monitor recorded where he was at the time of the break-in - directly in front of the home, Carter said.
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