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Burglary Victims Sift Through Stolen Hoard

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By BART PFANKUCH

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: May 6, 2008

MANATEE COUNTY - Vincent Eurice spent four hours Monday sifting through thousands of items sprawling across the parking lot of the sheriff's office.

Eurice is one of dozens of burglary victims who have the rare opportunity this week to try to recover belongings that police say were stolen by two serial burglars who hit 75 homes in Sarasota, Manatee and Hillsborough counties during the past year.

Since arresting two suspects, officials have been trying to figure out the best way to reunite victims with their goods. On Monday, they gathered up the stolen property, contacted burglary victims and had them come to the parking lot to see whether their stuff was there.

The agency's property claim site in the sheriff's office parking lot looked much like a garage sale, with a tractor trailer-load of items spread out on the pavement or laid out on tables.

Eurice, 59, a retired Verizon employee, had most hoped to find a precision scope worth $1,000, three guns worth hundreds each, or an LCD flat screen TV set valued at $1,700, all stolen during a burglary at his Ellenton home in March.

The items were not there, surely already pawned, fenced or traded for drugs, officials said.

Victims of the burglary ring had to bring identification and a copy of their police report showing what was taken. Some brought photos of property that was stolen to verify ownership. The claim site will stay open through Wednesday.

Officers and victims were shocked at the volume and surprised by the nature of the stolen items. There were watches and cameras, necklaces and rings, drills and grinders, golf clubs and stereo equipment.

Other items seemed odd or unwieldy targets for a burglar: a surfboard, a 5,500-watt generator, large cabinets, a burial urn with a child's ashes and a didgeridoo, a tall Australian woodwind instrument.

Authorities arrested the two suspects in April. The thefts date to March 2007.

According to reports, Roy E. Whittaker III, 36, of Bradenton, was arrested after deputies investigated a report that a man was seen peering into a camper at a south Manatee County residence on April 18.

A warrant for Whittaker's arrest had been issued in an earlier break-in. When authorities searched Whittaker's home in the 2700 block of 26th Avenue West in Bradenton, they found dozens of stolen items, according to reports.

"They just grabbed everything they could," Atkinson said.

After searching Whittaker's home, Atkinson said, it took "two large trucks, two big dump-truck loads," to haul all the property away.

Whittaker's girlfriend, Denice Hendricks, 31, was arrested April 14 at a hotel in Sarasota after, authorities say, she used a stolen credit card to book the room. The room was crammed full of stolen items, according to reports.

A 2001 Lexus taken from Eurice's garage during the burglary in March was in the hotel parking lot with several guns inside, authorities said.

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