MARION COUNTY, Fla. — Marion County deputies say they were able to track down the suspect in a burglary at a local fire station thanks to help from the thief’s own mother.
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Deputies were called to Dunnellon Fire Station 14 on SW Ivy Place just after 7:30 p.m. Saturday for reports of a burglary.
Responding deputies met with the Assistant Chief who said he noticed one of the bay doors had been cracked open. When he went inside, he noticed several pieces of equipment were missing, including six chainsaws and an electric saw valued at a total of approximately $4,000.
According to the sheriff’s office, before they took the call about the burglary, a local woman also called deputies to report her son’s strange behavior.
The woman said her son had been dropped off by someone driving a blue car and was refusing to answer her questions about where he had been and what he as doing.
Deputies say when the woman noticed several chain saws and other equipment at the back of her home on Sea Cliff Ave., she called the sheriff’s office.
Marion County deputies responded to the home and were quickly able to identify the items as the equipment that was missing from the fire station.
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They then made contact with the caller’s son, identified as 26-year-old David Truelove.
Deputies say Truelove was “very cooperative” during the investigation and admitted to walking near the fire station when he decided to try to open a few doors before he found an unlocked bay door and went inside.
Trulove told deputies he “grabbed a water and started looking at items and taking them.”
As he was walking back to his home, Truelove told deputies a random person in a blue car offered to help him with the stolen equipment. Truelove said the driver didn’t know the items were stolen and claimed he didn’t know who the person was.
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Truelove was arrested Saturday and charged with burglary of an unoccupied structure and larceny involving emergency medical equipment.
He’s being held in the Marion County Jail on a total of $10,000 bond.
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