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Tampa Police Get Hand From Firefighters In Auto Burglary Case

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 17, 2008

TAMPA - A quick-thinking officer and some alert firefighters helped catch two people accused of burglarizing six cars at health clubs in New Tampa.

About 11 a.m. Monday, Tampa police responded to Lifestyle Family Fitness at 15319 Amberly Drive after people reported seeing a man and a woman breaking into cars in the parking lot, a preliminary report states.

While two officers broadcast a description of the people and their vehicle, Master Patrol Officer Michael Kidd headed to the New Tampa YMCA, 16221 Compton Drive, about two miles away. Auto burglaries had been known to occur at the YMCA whenever Lifestyle Family Fitness was hit, police said.

Kidd did not see anyone matching the couple's description but noticed a crew of firefighters from Tampa Fire Rescue practicing a demonstration and told them about the break-ins. After Kidd left, the firefighters saw the couple arrive in a 1997 Buick and called police, who stopped the car on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard at Tampa Palms Boulevard, police said.

Officers brought two witnesses from Lifestyle Family Fitness to the traffic stop. They identified the two people in the car as the people who had been burglarizing cars outside the health club, police said.

Police recovered stolen property valued at $495, the report states.

Officers charged Richard Kannady, 23, of Lake City, and Donna Mengering, 22, of Waxhaw, N.C., with multiple felony counts of auto burglary and grand theft. Mengering also was charged with a misdemeanor for having an invalid driver's license.

Both were being held at Orient Road Jail today. Kannady's bail was set at $14,000 and Mengering's at $13,500, records show.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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