One of the active TAC targets we are working involves vehicle burglaries on the north side of town, particularly apartment complexes. NET officers B. Masters and T. Bailey, two of our undercover surveillance experts, were sitting on a target location late Monday night and observed two subjects acting suspicious around parked vehicles. A traffic stop on the subjects' vehicle as it drove away from the location led to the discovery of property believed to be stolen. Subsequent conversation with the subjects led to an admission they had just recently committed a vehicle burglary at the apartments.
What is interesting to note about this case is the follow up investigation is now leading to the clearance of over 30 additional vehicle burglaries all over Lakeland. Detectives continue to pursue leads and make more clearances from this one arrest. The arrestees are:
Dominic Rashawn Baldwin, B/M, 5-4-89 (left) and Gregory Randoff Smith, Jr., B/M, 1-25-89 (right).
We will continue these surveillance stakeouts when we develop useful information from our TAC meetings. In the mean time, you can help reduce the number of vehicle burglaries by simply locking your car windows and doors, and not keeping valuables in plain view inside your car or truck. Over half of our vehicle burglaries occur to unsecured vehicles with valuables easily seen. Remember - "Lock It or Lose It".
-Asst Chief Bill LePere
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