Theft ring stole $600K in heavy equipment from Home Depot stores in 16 Florida counties, sheriff say

POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said five people from Orlando are accused of stealing nearly $600,000 worth of heavy equipment.

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Investigators claim the people are part of a theft ring that stole from Home Depot stores in 16 counties, including four in Central Florida.

Watch Sheriff Judd’s full news conference here:

Deputies said Byron Johnson stole the equipment while his girlfriend, Natasha Anderson, looked for potential buyers.

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Judd said Johnson and his associates used stolen IDs to rent the equipment, and then never returned it.

“A lot of their fake identification that they used was from them flipping handles in neighborhoods, or other people flipping handles in neighborhoods and selling them the fake identification,” Judd said.

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Investigators are still searching for Anderson and Dwight Williams.

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