Sheriff Rick Ramsay wants to remind everyone that during the recovery from Hurricane Irma the Sheriff’s Office will not tolerate those who take advantage of circumstances to commit crimes; nor will he tolerate breaches of curfew or other rules set to keep the community safe.
On September 12th (Tuesday) Sgt. James Hager was on patrol in Marathon at 10:20 p.m. when he spotted 47 year old Thomas Dowdell of Marathon riding a bicycle on the sidewalk with no lights. He was pulling an air conditioner behind him. The air conditioner had the business name “Global Disaster Recovery” on it. Dowdell also had an “EPIRB” unit with him, an Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon.

At first, Dowdell refused to tell the deputies who he was. When they finally identified him, they realized Dowdell had already been warned once for a curfew violation, so he was well aware of curfew rules.

Dowdell was arrested and taken to jail. Detectives will be investigating the origins of the potentially stolen items in his possession. If the items can be traced to their owners, and if they are stolen, warrants will be issued for Dowdell’s future arrest.

On September 14th (Thursday) Detective Rosary Ponce and Deputy Corbin Hradecky responded to the Outpost on Grassy Key to a possible burglary. The owner said he arrived at work that morning to find someone had broken a front window overnight. Bottles of wine and cigarettes were missing. A fingerprint was taken at the scene and the deputies followed footprints leading to a neighboring property.

The caretaker of that property, 26 year old David Vokes, was located. He told the deputies he had been intoxicated, drinking wine the night before. After further questioning, Vokes admitted to breaking the window and taking the wine and cigarettes. Vokes was arrested and booked into jail on charges of burglary, theft and criminal mischief.