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By MELODY JAMESON
mj@observernews.net
Sun City Center — Maybe they thought they could pass as the first Walmart shoppers to reach the supercenter via golf cart, but two Wimauma men tooling south on U.S. 301 clutching a big-screen TV didn’t fool a sheriff’s deputy.
And, with arrest of the pair, deputies think the mini crimewave of daring daylight burglaries at the end of last year here has been halted.
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| Foster |
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| Shipe |
James Preston Foster, Jr., and Wayne Brian Shipe, Jr., were arrested Saturday, January 2, charged with multiple counts in connection with several residential burglaries on the retirement community’s north side.
Foster, 30, and Shipe, 27, produced the same home address in the Wimauma area and both described their occupations as flooring installers, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s arrest website. Neither have a prior arrest record in Hillsborough County in recent times.
Jail cells for Foster and Shipe began to materialize on their horizons that Saturday morning when Deputy James Brodie, preparing to cross U.S. 301, spotted the pair in a golf cart southbound on the highway. Resting on the seat between them was an unboxed 42-inch flat screen television set, said Deputy Rob Thornton, also SCC’s community resource officer.
Brodie pursued the golf cart, a vehicle not permitted to travel the federal highway that also is under state jurisdiction, to investigate. Before he was finished, Foster and Shipe accumulated a total of 12 charges between them, all felonies.
Foster has been charged with two counts of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and two counts of third degree grand theft.
In addition to two charges of burglary and of grand theft, Shipe also has been charged with two counts of possession of burglary tools with intent to use plus two counts of obstructing or resisting an officer without violence.
Following their initial court appearances, Foster was released January 9 on a $4,000 bond. Shipe remains incarcerated, without a $15,000 bond.
The collection of allegations leveled at Foster and Shipe spring from a half dozen daylight burglaries late in December and early in January, all in the community’s north side, both near S.R. 674 and deep in the community, Thornton said. When they believed a home to be unoccupied during the day, the pair generally kicked in doors, ransacked the houses and carried away valuables that could be converted to cash, he added.
The alleged thieves made off with such items as pieces of jewelry, electronics that could be carried and currency whenever it could be found.
Thornton said. The goods stolen on January 2, the day of the arrest, was recovered and returned to owners, including the stolen golf cart, the deputy noted.
When Foster and Shipe were spotted with the large screen television, it had just been taken from a Sun City Center home not far from the S.R. 674-U.S. 301 intersection, and a neighbor’s golf cart commandeered to transport it, Thornton said.
There have been no similar home burglaries in the retirement community since the arrests.
Trial dates for Foster and Shipe have not yet been set.
Copyright 2010 Melody Jameson
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