Inset left: Andrew Sylvester (Polk County Jail). Inset right: A man identified as Sylvester with a shopping cart (Polk County Sheriff’s Office). Background: A Publix store in Lakeland, Fla. (Google Maps).
A Florida man was arrested for two separate thefts that occurred within 15 minutes of one another, Sunshine State authorities say.
Andrew Sylvester, 42, stands accused of two counts of felony retail theft, according to a press release issued by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office earlier this month and a press briefing last week.
In each instance, the defendant allegedly stole several hundred dollars worth of products from the same Publix supermarket in central Florida, according to the law enforcement agency.
“Sylvester tried to steal not one but TWO carts full of groceries from Publix, where shopping is a pleasure,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. “That stunt landed him in the county jail, where arresting criminals is OUR pleasure.”
On Nov. 12, deputies were called to the grocery store on U.S. Route 98 in Lakeland — a large city located some 30 miles east of Tampa.
The Publix supermarket chain is employee-owned and operates throughout the majority of the southeastern United States — the company is headquartered in Lakeland.
“When the deputies arrived, they located Andrew outside of the store with a shopping cart full of groceries that he had not paid for,” the sheriff’s office alleged in the press release.
The value of the items in the shopping cart observed by deputies is said to have been exactly $243.92, according to the sheriff’s office.
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A store employee allegedly said the defendant had pulled off a similar caper less than 15 minutes earlier — and then tried to do it again.
“He had wheeled another cart out of the store about ten minutes prior, and the value of the items in that cart was determined to be worth $206.10,” the press release continues.
In sum, Sylvester is alleged to have attempted to steal a combined total of items valued at two cents over $450.
“We tried to talk to him,” Judd said in the video posted on Facebook. “He wouldn’t talk back.”
The sheriff suggested the case against the defendant was beyond dispute because of store surveillance footage which purports to show Sylvester walking in and out with “two buggies full of stolen property.”
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Under Florida law, retail theft is highly criminalized at the basic level and is considered a felony in the third degree — punishable by a prison term of up to five years. In most states, retail theft is considered a misdemeanor offense with varying degrees.
In the defendant’s case, the two theft offenses appear likely to come with the potential for an extended term of imprisonment — if he is convicted as presently charged.
Florida law provides that anyone convicted of one prior theft offense who is then convicted for another commits a second-degree felony. And, for someone with two prior theft convictions, the potential increases to a first-degree felony offense.
Sylvester was charged with felony theft as a third subsequent offense for each of the two recent charges, Polk County Jail records show. In terms of punishment, he could now face 30 years behind bars.
In the video about the incident, Judd described the defendant as something not entirely unlike incorrigible.
“If he’s around, he’s stealing something,” the sheriff said.
