Florida men arrested in burglary attempt

0

Two Florida men were arrested early Monday in Scottsburg in connection with a burglary at Radio Shack in Seymour.

Abel Basulto-Lahera, 30, of Tampa, Florida, and Armando Fernandez, 32, of Ocala, Florida, were arrested around 5 a.m. on a charge of burglary, a Level 5 felony. They were taken to the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown, where they were being held without bond pending their initial hearings.

Seymour Police Chief Bill Abbott said investigators believe the burglars disabled the alarm system and then tried to bag and steal hundreds of dollars worth of expensive headphones.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Abbott said the incident began about 3 a.m. Monday when Officer Craig Owens found an unoccupied vehicle idling in front of the electronics store in the Jackson Park Shopping Center in the 1200 block of East Tipton Street.

After calling for other officers, Owens checked the building and found the front door of the store had been forced open, Abbott said.

Inside, police found the alarm system had been disabled and destroyed. They also found two trash bags full of merchandise near the back door. Those bags contained mostly headphones that cost $200 to $300 each, Abbott said.

He said police checked the area around the business for other burglaries and searched for potential suspects but were not able to find anything.

Later, a taxi driver called to report a suspicious conversation that occurred in his cab as he took two men to a Scottsburg motel.

Abbott declined to release details of the conversation.

He said officers linked one of the names of the men who were taken to the motel to the car outside Radio Shack. The car was registered to a rental company in New Orleans.

After talking with the taxi driver, Seymour officers and others from local agencies went to the Scottsburg motel and found the two hiding in an enclosure that contained a dumpster.

The taxi driver identified the men as the ones he took from Seymour to Scottsburg, Abbott said.

Investigators believe Owens interrupted a burglary in progress and that’s why the burglars left the rental car running, Abbott said.

He said the men did not have any stolen items on them when they were arrested.

Police believe there could be a third person who assisted with the burglary, and it remains under investigation, Abbott said.

No posts to display