Sheriffs in Florida arrested two purportedly bumbling burglars after one allegedly called 911, intending to ask police for help moving belongings from a house they broke into, authorities said.
The chain of events started to unfold around 1am on Saturday in Kissimmee, about 20 miles from Orlando. A Dollar General discount store was burglarized and “multiple items stolen” the Polk county sheriff’s office said, documenting the alleged incident in an arrest affidavit and a Facebook post.
As deputies reviewed security footage from the store, one recognized a suspect, identified as Martin Gonzalez-Garcia, but authorities could not immediately locate him.
Later that day, however, there was an emergency call to 911 on which “nobody spoke”.
When deputies arrived at the house from which the call came, it was apparent that nobody lived there. Officers nonetheless found “an unsecured door” and entered the house “to make sure everything was alright”.
There they found Gonzalez-Garcia and a woman, Ashializ Roldan-Oscacio, described as Gonzalez-Garcia’s girlfriend. Neither had “ties to the house”, authorities said.
Gonzalez-Garcia was arrested for allegedly burgling the Dollar General and the unoccupied house. Roldan-Oscacio was charged with burglary of the empty house.
“And then came Liz’s surprising admission …” the sheriff’s office said in its Facebook post.
“She said she called 911 for the purpose of having law enforcement assist her and Martin with moving their belongings from the house (the one they were burglarizing), and they were trying to get a ride to the airport, because they wanted to go to New York for the weekend.
“Deputies DID help them with their belongings, and DID give them a ride, but it wasn’t to the airport,” the sheriff’s office said. “It was to the Polk Pokey. And they are welcome to stay there all weekend long. The Polk Pokey is much better than New York anyway.”
Pokey is an American slang term for “jail”.
According to the arrest affidavit, Gonzalez-Garcia said “he did commit the burglary at the Dollar General because he needed to get items to sell it to make money”.
The affidavit also says Gonzalez-Garcia “stated he knew what he did was wrong, but needed the money [and] stated he knew the residence was not his and did not have permission to be in, but had to get inside to get out of the cold”.
The names of attorneys for Gonzalez-Garcia and Roldan-Oscasio were not immediately available.
