Two men were arrested by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office after they allegedly broke into a residence in Dunnellon and stole over $200 worth of items.
On Monday, January 2, a male reportee contacted the sheriff’s office to advise that two individuals were loading items onto a trailer at a neighboring property. The reportee stated that the female victim/owner of the neighboring property had been having issues with people breaking into her home.
The reportee informed MCSO that the victim does not live at the incident location. He also advised that the two individuals on the victim’s property were using a lawn mower to pull a trailer.
An MCSO deputy arrived at the victim’s residence and located the two suspicious individuals behind the property, identified as 19-year-old Robert Leon Reyna and 19-year-old William Stuart Miller. According to the MCSO report, Reyna and Miller were loading items onto a flatbed trailer that was hooked up to the back of a riding lawn mower.
The deputy asked Reyna and Miller if they were supposed to be at the property, and Reyna replied by stating, “Not really.” When asked why they were at the property, they both advised that they were picking up items in the yard for scrap, according to the MCSO report.
Reyna and Miller claimed that they had heard that the property was abandoned, and it was “a good place to find scrap metal.” The deputy noted in the MCSO report that Reyna and Miller both claimed that they never went inside the residence, though the back door to the property was “completely open.”
The deputy attempted several times to contact the victim by phone and was unsuccessful. Since the deputy needed to speak with the victim to see how she wanted to proceed, the deputy advised Reyna and Miller that they were free to leave.
After being told to leave any items that they had taken from the victim’s property, Reyna and Miller unloaded the following items from their trailer: a cast iron sewing machine ($100 value), an internal drum from a dryer that had been turned into a fire pit ($20 value), a set of crutches ($3 value), a custom made “chopper” bicycle ($50 value), and three stainless steel insulated cups ($1/each).
The total loss was estimated at $226.
The victim returned the deputy’s call and advised that she was staying at a friend’s house in the neighborhood. The deputy made contact with the victim and brought her back to the incident location.
The victim told the deputy that the stolen items had been taken from a storage room inside her residence. She advised that she had last seen the items inside the home in late November, which was when MCSO had arrested another individual for trespassing inside the victim’s home.
The MCSO report stated that the body camera footage was reviewed from the prior trespassing incident at the victim’s home in November. While reviewing this footage, an MCSO deputy observed the antique sewing machine which was inside the residence. This was the same sewing machine that Reyna and Miller had loaded onto their trailer.
Reyna and Miller were both arrested, transported to Marion County Jail, and were later released on $7,000 bond. They are both facing felony charges for unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and grand theft of a dwelling (over $100 but less than $300).
A court date for Reyna and Miller has been scheduled at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, February 7, according to jail records.