A 42-year-old Ocklawaha man was arrested after breaking into a home and stealing several credit cards.
On October 30 at around 8:45 p.m., a Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to an Ocklawaha residence on SE 53rd Place in reference to a reported burglary.
The deputy arrived and spoke with a man who had placed the call to law enforcement. The caller stated that he had received a phone call from the female victim who had mentioned suspicious charges on her credit card that were made in the Silver Springs area.
The victim owns the property on SE 53rd Place but currently resides in Ontario, Canada.
The caller checked the victim’s property to see if anything was stolen, and it was discovered that one of the doors was unsecured. When led to the front door, the deputy noticed that it had been pried open, and needle nose pliers were resting on the top step leading to the door.
According to the MCSO report, the interior of the residence had clearly been rummaged through, including all of the cabinets and most drawers. Several of the victim’s credit cards were missing.
The victim provided MCSO with a list of fraudulent credit charges that were made on October 29 and October 30 in Silver Springs, including purchases at Winn Dixie, Subway, Advanced Auto Parts, and Circle K.
An MCSO detective reviewed video surveillance from the locations of those purchases.
Video surveillance from the Circle K located at 15877 E Highway 40 showed a green Honda SUV pull into the parking lot and stop at one of the gas pumps. Three individuals were inside the vehicle, including a man later identified as Byrin Edward Porter.
Porter ordered food inside the gas station and used the victim’s credit card. He also used the credit card to pay for gas at the pump before entering the vehicle’s passenger seat.
Porter was then driven in the vehicle to another Circle K gas station at 16991 E Highway 40. When he went inside to make a purchase, the transaction was declined.
At the Advanced Auto Parts, the detective learned that one of the victim’s credit cards had been used to purchase a vehicle part. When the store employee accessed that purchase in the system, the store’s customer profile showed a phone number associated with that purchase.
The phone number belonged to the estranged husband of one of the women that was identified with Porter in the Circle K (15877 E Highway 40) video surveillance.
The detective discovered through the investigation that Porter lived on SE 62nd Place with the identified woman who had made the Advanced Auto Parts purchase.
On November 9, the detective went to the SE 62nd Place residence and spoke with the identified woman. She confirmed that Porter had been living on a camper located on the property for several months, but she recently “ran him off” when she discovered items missing from her home.
She confirmed that Porter had given her the victim’s credit card to use at the Circle K, and that she was given a credit card to use at the Advanced Auto parts as well. She told the detective that she had no idea the cards were stolen.
The female provided Porter’s new address on SE 52nd Street. The detective went to that residence and located Porter.
Porter stated that he was given the credit cards to use and did not know who the cards belonged to. When informed that the credit cards came from a burglarized residence, Porter admitted to entering the residence and staying there for around a day.
According to Porter, he was drunk at the time that he entered the residence, and the place had already been ransacked.
Porter was arrested and transported to Marion County Jail where he faces multiple felony charges for burglary, fraud, and grand theft.
He is currently being held on $14,000 bond and a court date has not been scheduled yet, according to jail records.